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New member - purchasing 1981 Suzuki GS650L

  • Thread starter Thread starter rvaughnp
  • Start date Start date
R

rvaughnp

Guest
Hello everyone...
My name is Robert. Have been an avid rider all my life. Owned and ridden street and dirt. Auto mechanic back in the day and have done a lot of "custom" mods on both car/trucks and bikes. Have owned all brands, Harley, Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha and Suzuki.
Looking to purchase an 81' GS650L and convert into a bobber. I love tinkering and need a break from the day to day "honey do's" around the house. Not to mention that I sold my VTX1300 about 2 years ago when we moved back to DFW from Midland. This bike will be my "around the town" bike and I look to get a KZ1100 for my longer cruising bike.
Any who... My plans are really to try a couple mods that I haven't tried before and some other mods to do what I have done on other bikes e.g. rake and stretch frame.
I have already done a lot of research, on the subjects of mods that I want to do; forward controls, solo spring seat and converting to riding frame. With that, I had a couple questions that I was hoping to get input on from some of you...

I'm having a hard time getting the "true" model. The VIN decoders show it to be a GS650L. Only finding E, GT, GL and G as actual models. The VIN is JS1GP71l6B2100875. And no, the side cover emblems are not able to state model either.

Would like to know if anyone knows of longer forks that will fit. I think the fork diameter is 35mm in diameter; hard to get a true answer with the whole "L" issue. Either direct fork replacement or triple tree down. Wanting to find some a bit longer as I intend on raking it out a bit. Yes, I am familiar with trail and will correct during the rake process.

Look forward to having enjoyable conversations with some of you. And, I will apologize now for future remarks... I have been known to see the mushrooms though the trees, through the forest. lol

Robert
 
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Welcome.

Although the VIN and the side covers only say 650L, the true designation is 650GL. The G indicates it is a shaft driven bike, the L is the chopper-esqe look. If you dig a little farther into the alphabet soup, you will find that there should be an X at the end, making your bike a GS650GLX. You should be able to see that letter on the VIN plate on the steering stem. The X was the designation for the '81 model year, so saying that you have a 1981 GS650GLX would be redundant.

Not sure that very many (if any) here have stretched and raked a frame. Most of us prefer to keep the crisp handling of the stock(ish) bike, rather than go for a "look". Not saying you are wrong to do it, just that there are very few here that have done it. There was a member here some time ago in Virginia that did a few customs much like you are trying to do, but I have not seen him post for a while and don't remember his name.

Yes, you have 35mm forks.. There would be no GSes that have longer forks, you will have to go custom on that. Forking by Frank is one option. Not cheap, but top-quality work.

.
 
Thanks much for the replies.
My apologies... but the guy skated out on me. Apparently didn't really want to sell the bike.
I'll keep the info though as the smaller of the two bikes will be an inline 4 and i am only eyeing GS's and KZ's.

Thanks again.
 
WELL... He called me back and I bought the bike.
Got the engine to start but only the left two cylinders. The right two cylinders had spark, compression, and fuel was getting into and out of the cylinders (fuel leaked out of the tail pipe onto floor) but I think its a carb flooding issue; not metering.
Anyway, have to finish garage to open up an area to start working on her. Making my repair/replace list.

Back to the original question.. if anyone knows of some forks that are longer and can be somewhat easy to install/replace.

Thanks.
 
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