My 1980 Suzuki GS1000G

[Guest]

Nice build!

 

[rustybronco]

Rob, I think it's one of many things necessary that turn an average restoration into a great one. Although I do have to admit, it looks better now than it did sitting in a box.


Would it be sacrilege to suggest black 1981 'G' turn signals instead of the chrome ones it originally came from the factory with?

 

[Guest]

No that wouldn't be sacrilegious at all...was exactly what I was thinking as well. I did start to accumulate a set of round chrome but once I put them up to the bike I realized the black square ones looked far better. This picture was one of the ones I put in to register for collector plates, since then (today in fact) I've put on the new stainless brake line. Look great, the rear anyways. The front's a bit better but it looks like I'm going to need a new front reservoir as the one that's there has a tiny leak. Also today I fixed the poor install job of the cam chain tensioner I did and syched the carbs again and tuned the mixture screws. The bikes running fantastically!! Even the clutch seems to be working far better, which is really strange. Big smiles so from here it's just 'ride the dang thing'.

 

[Charlie G]

Looks great Rob. Ride the heck out of it and get some bug splatter on it. It's too shiney. Hook up the speedo first.

cg

 

[Guest]

Took apart the cam chain tensioner for the umpteenth time and finally it seems I got things right. Took her out for a 30KM run and everything is working great. Idles nicely and pulls hard. Haven't had a chance to red line it yet but she's doing fine up to 7000. I'm not even sure I need to do the progressive springs up front, that little mod of cutting the spring and putting in PVC seems to have worked out nicely but I'll have to hit some corner hard to really test it out. As soon as the rain stops I'll post up the latest picture with the Samsonite rack on and the speedo cable installed I can't sure tell you though it's nice to have it complete. Now onto the 78 1000 transformation!

 

[Charlie G]

I would be interested to hear the fork mod works in the twisties. I have all the parts to do my forks with emulators and stock springs. Salty Monk has me talked into doing something simular. Well, Salty and my cheap heart that is.

cg

 

[Wallowgreen]

Great work Rob!

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the kind words guys. Here's a nice photo from today's ride with Trevor and Sean.

I've put on about 150KMs so far and she's running pretty darn good at this point. I can still hear a bit of a rattle when it starts up cold though, I know it's from the cam chain but once it's warmed up it goes away until I start her up again after sitting for some time, nothing horrible sounding but annoying enough so I'll have to fix that, once someone tells me what's causing it For a note Charlie, today was the first time I hit a corner fast with those front forks/spring mod......FAIL. A nasty wobble when you don't want one. I'm going to increase the length of the PVC pipe 'just to see what happens', so I can sleep at night knowing I did everything I could do but I'm thinking a new set of Progressive springs is coming soon but I'll post again once I've increased the preload. And I'm probably going to get another set of springs on the rear Progressive 412's, they are 90/130 right now and I 'think' it feels a bit too soft, I'll see. The pipes I picked up from "slowridevw" are working great and really fit so much better than the 79 1000 pipes I 'made fit', and their baffles are all intact to boot. The brakes are a bit spongy, even with the S/S lines so I'll be working on that and I'm thinking I'm going to take the chrome caps off the rear shocks, I think it looks to 'Harley' with them. But the Samsonite rack looks great on there, I just have to throw a bag on the rack to get the rear signals correctly placed.

 

[Charlie G]

I agree with on the rear shocks having a bit of HD look.

 

[Guest]

Well winter is here so I thought I would try out a Vetter

It sure does it's job no doubt about that. A couple of problems though, the headlight will not point high enough and the top of the shield seems to be right at my level of view.

 

[trevor]

Rob was over at my place the other day on his new Winnebago..

 

[Guest]

That bike is more awesome now than it has ever been, Practical with a capital P buddy ha,ha,ha...I laugh even more at that picture because it screams so much about who I am...more so than anyone knows. The boots are second hand, $10. The pants are Costco special $12, the First Gear jacket I just bought 2 weeks ago of a fella for only $70 and you can't even tell it's ever been worn. The helmet was $20 and not even a scratch and you all know about the bike I am the ultimate recycler!! I should be a poster boy for Craigslist.

 

[trevor]

That bike is more awesome now than it has ever been, Practical with a capital P buddy ha,ha,ha...I laugh even more at that picture because it screams so much about who I am...more so than anyone knows. The boots are second hand, $10. The pants are Costco special $12, the First Gear jacket I just bought 2 weeks ago of a fella for only $70 and you can't even tell it's ever been worn. The helmet was $20 and not even a scratch and you all know about the bike I am the ultimate recycler!! I should be a poster boy for Craigslist.

Haha....yes you should be buddy!!! Although when it come to tank and saddle bags I got you there.

 

[Charlie G]

Trevor,

I think you need to be a little less subtle in your intervention in Rob's accessorizing.

cg

 

[eddie21]

That bike is more awesome now than it has ever been, Practical with a capital P buddy ha,ha,ha...I laugh even more at that picture because it screams so much about who I am...more so than anyone knows. The boots are second hand, $10. The pants are Costco special $12, the First Gear jacket I just bought 2 weeks ago of a fella for only $70 and you can't even tell it's ever been worn. The helmet was $20 and not even a scratch and you all know about the bike I am the ultimate recycler!! I should be a poster boy for Craigslist.

Glad to see all that storage for the pop bottles you pick up on the roadside! BTW I picked up your free suitcase today!

See you in a week!

 

[Guest]

You're the best Glenn, almost as good as Paul!! do some good trailerin' down there, have some cheese and beer for me

 

[Guest]

ARRRRRRRRR!!!!!.......the ol' 'G' was making an odd 'tick' up front and I hadn't done a shim job for a bit so in I went. Found a couple of those d@#m cam cover bolts not torqued again and one SNAPPED...AGAIN. That makes 3 different ones on this head, it's going in the dumpster for sure. Lucky thing I've got an extra engine. I'm going to be taking a good look at this head that's for sure and buying new cam cover bolts. While I'm in here I'm also going to sort out why I am using so much oil on a newly refreshed engine. First thing I see on the pistons is a bunch of carbon. The engines only got about 7000kms since the rebuild, I wasn't expecting to see as much as I do. I'll take out the guages tomorrow and see what all the specs are again...uugghhhhh.

At least the head and base came apart easily, guess that's one bonus of doing it twice Real crappy things is the wasted cost of gaskets..

 

[850 Combat]

I recommend that you don't ever peek under those cam covers.

 

[Charlie G]

I can't believe this, again!? It's a haunted, bewitched engine.

cg

 

[Guest]

Well thanks to the generosity of 'storm_64' I was able to properly measure the sleeves. The existing cylinder, starting at #1 70.22, 70.25, 70.04 and 69.97. Well there's my answer on oil usage and low compression. Thank baby Jesus I have that extra motor. Staring at #1 69.99, 69.98, 70.00, 70.00 my likey. I haven't popped the pistons off yet to measure but I think I'll be using the spare engine pistons. Hey ones question. I bought new standard rings for the other engine and put approximately 7000KM's on them. Can I use them again or just bugger it and buy new?