Loved the photochop idea! here's mine.

[Brothermist]

Thanks for the kind words.
The exhaust is not done, nothing on the bike is. I dont yet know what I'll do with it.

I have a welder, yes. Nothing has been welded on the bike yet. Welding will come after I have it how I want it to stay.

I do want to pull the seat back a bit, one of the reasons for needing the swingarm stretch. I wont be able to mount the seat that close to the tire though, as the bike does have rear suspention. Its not ridgid, it has the mono-shock. So putting the seat any closer to the tire than it is now will result in a moving tire implanted in my rear at highway speed... I think that might be bad.

I'm going to have to cut the lower "seat" bars off the frame and replace them. The tubes that come from the tank and go under the seat are round, but the lower bars, under the seat, that angle down twards the trans, are hex shaped. Weird ass late 80's GS. (still wanna know why its called a 550 when its 572cc's)

Got a lot to do, and the whole thing might change a few times before i'm happy with it.

 

[txironhead]

So putting the seat any closer to the tire than it is now will result in a moving tire implanted in my rear at highway speed... I think that might be bad.

Pansy! And I was beginning to think you were a real biker! Take it like a man!\\/

J/K, you're ideas are sounding good. I saw a nice bobber Yamaha the other day, the guy riding it was about my height and he fit it perfectly. I asked him about it and he accomplished it by stretching the frame 4" in the downtube and lower frame, lengthening the tank and slapping a longer chain on it. He said the only drawback is faster chain wear. He also stretched the swingarm 2", but he was running dual Progressives in the rear. I wanted to get a pic to post here but I didn't have the camera with me.

 

[Bopi]

These guys generally will use a chain tensioner to take up the slack when the chain is lengthened although i couldn't tell you why there would be more wear.

If you don't sleeve the frame tube when you lengthen it, you just might find your tire placement and/or travel to be much farther upward than anyone might find comfortable.

Solid rod is the way to go on that one.

As far as matching the hex, Well you could just replace the whole bar.

of course it'll run you a little more than 33 bucks

 

[Bopi]

Here's a few more bobbers w/frame mods , funny but you just don't seem to see too many softtails and that even with the yamahas. These are bikes that get chopped frequently.

 

[txironhead]

The second pic is absolutely wicked. I'd have done the paint a little different, because that bike is just evil.

 

[Brothermist]

... I pick up my new bike this Sunday. Its a 1979 Yamaha XS650 Special II, in perfect running order. But dont worry, I am not giving up on the GS

 

[Bopi]

Yea there's alot of em out there , notice the foward brake lever on bike 2. Seems he had his fins machined with a diamond pattern as well.

Of course bike 1 resembles my 78gs although mines a hellof alot quicker.
My paint shines more too.

By the way, if you weld the frame, how much stuff should you remove from the bike. The tank and carbs might be obvious but what are the chances of burning the wires from current not heat. I guess that depends on where you put the ground.

 

[CA180]

I had to subscribe! I love where this is going!

 

[johnnay]

yup, me too - fresh take on the bobber thingy.

 

[Mike_H]

Wow, that first yammy bob job is killer. Almost makes me wanna do the flat black thing...but no. I like shiny paint. Have you guys seen the new Harley Fat Bob? I know, Harley's seem to be looked down on here, but this bike is too cool not to mention.

Its got drag bars and a very nice dual headlight set-up in the front. Its a cool lookin hot-rod bike, even if it not really a hot rod in the performance sense. I especially like the heatshield cutouts, for some reason. It would look better with some black heat wrap behind 'em though. Let the harley flaming begin.

 

[CA180]

I was wondering what swingarm was used for the mono shock conversion? How much welding was involved?

 

[ron bayless]

Yea there's alot of em out there , notice the foward brake lever on bike 2. Seems he had his fins machined with a diamond pattern as well.

Of course bike 1 resembles my 78gs although mines a hellof alot quicker.
My paint shines more too.

By the way, if you weld the frame, how much stuff should you remove from the bike. The tank and carbs might be obvious but what are the chances of burning the wires from current not heat. I guess that depends on where you put the ground.

The problem you run into when making a forward brake lever is it runs under the cases not over it.You could make one like that guy did, but the problem is making the long vertical piece like he did fit over the splines of the rear brake splines thing.I cant tell how he attached it exactly,but gs suzuki splines have no pattern like any other jap bike of that era or any other for some reason.If you dont want the long piece to slip arond I suppose you could say screw the splines,make the inner diameter hole the diameter of outside the splines and use a setscrew or something.I think,since the travle of the rear brake pedal from one end to the other is probably only an inch or so a setscrew method might work.I tried unsuccessfully to do it the splined way.

 

[ron bayless]

We've discussed this idea before Ron. The problem i have is that the stock exhaust prevents any downward 90 degree rotation of the shift or brake lever.

Down is the way to go on these bikes to clear the housing. I'd have to redo the exhaust with a 4-1 likely for everything to line up.

Now if I can just get access to a welder.

I can even go so far as to machine a new set of trees for a wider front tire.
We've got three cnc milling centers at the shop and my employer has a two bay garage in the back complete with a lift and a tig/mig. Likely a lincoln.

Hmmm, a full blown bobber over the winter would be possible.

Really dangerous to start thinking this way.

By the way, the Bo in Bopi is an acronym for what else, Bob

( among other things)

I almost agree with you.But,I have forward controls on the shifter side of my bike, and you just turn the shifter peg down 90 degrees hook up the linkage, and it works fine .I have the orignal 4 into 2 exhausts on mine.I mocked up the brake side also and had no problem clearing the exhausts.I really didnt.I couldnt make a good splined attachment for the brake side though.That side has to come way out,about 3 inches to clear the exhausts.I made one that will work out of an extra rear brake lever, just doesnt look too good.