1981 GS1100EX Resurrection

[Tourmaster]

Thought I should include a few photos of this winter's project bike. Purchased this 1981 GS1100EX last fall. Found it sadly neglected in a farm implement shed. The bike was unrideable, leaked oil everywhere, missing many of the original pieces ... and just plain dirty, rusty, dented and abused.

Here's how she looked when I went to pick her up ... or otherwise known as the "before" photo.

And here's the very same bike after a full winter of busted knuckles, drowned sorrows and much head scratching. .... oh yes, and numerous parts salvaged from far and wide, ie: New York, Colorado, Quebec, Alberta, etc., etc.

And now for a bit of detail.

You'll notice in this last (left side) photo that the rear engine case is missing. Well, during my test ride I noticed an oil leak in that area. Turned out to be from the only external engine seal that I didn't replace ... the starter motor "nose" O-ring. Should have that, and a couple of other minor issue sorted in the near future.

Overall the bike's performance and handling is excellent, with many thanks to the help provided by this forum. Simply and awesome resource overall.

 

[JEEPRUSTY]

How did you get the palstic bits looking so new?
beautiful paint work as well the bike is stunning it should be a BOM

 

[Tourmaster]

How did you get the palstic bits looking so new?
beautiful paint work as well the bike is stunning it should be a BOM

Numerous rubdowns with Mother's "Back to Black" .... and thanks. BTW, paint color I chose was GM's Midnight Blue Metallic.

 

[jhillier449]

Excellent work.:clap:

Great restorations are what keeps the rest of us motivated.

 

[Jason the terminator]

Absolutely beautiful bike! I'm jealous.

 

[Guest]

WOW... that came out spectacular!! Nice work .

The bike is so shiny I can see a future BOM in the paint.

mike

 

[81GS750]

Excellent work! I definitely that your GS is BOM material!!

 

[mriddle]

Beautiful bike .. great work !

 

[will61310]

What brand seat is that? I REALLY like it

 

[HaggisHombre]

Very nice you did an incredible job I don't know if I have the patience to make GS1000/750 that nice. Who did your seat? and where did you get the swinging arm? As far as the exhaust did you have to re-jet the carbs? What do you think of the pipes? Anyway great work.

 

[7981GS]

Fantastic work!

Daniel

 

[Tourmaster]

Many thanks guys ... much appreciated coming from fellow GS enthusiasts.

What brand seat is that? I REALLY like it

The seat is actually the OEM unit that came with the bike. Of course it was in nasty shape, just like the rest of the project.

I rebuilt the rusty old seat pan and installed all new rubber components for the seat underside and grab rail. Grab rail, along with most every other chrome component on the bike, was rechromed. Seat cushion was cut back about 1.5 inches to suit my long legs.

Recovering of the seat was carried out by Braithwaites Upholstery here in Saskatoon .... Jeff is the local bike seat master, in my humble opinion. I selected a fairly glossy black vinyl for the sides and rear pillion, whereas, preferred the "basket weave" style vinyl for the rider seat area. I like the appearance, and also the fact that this material reduces a tendancy to slide around while riding.

 

[Tourmaster]

Very nice you did an incredible job I don't know if I have the patience to make GS1000/750 that nice. Who did your seat? and where did you get the swinging arm? As far as the exhaust did you have to re-jet the carbs? What do you think of the pipes? Anyway great work.

Thank Haggis ... note my preceeding comments concerning the seat.

The aluminum swingarm is stock. Had to re-weld a new chain guard bracket on it, as well as, replace the roller bearings, bushings and encap/seals. Then just cleaned and polished the crap out of it.

The Vance & Hines 4 to 1 pipes are great ... with regards to jetting, I simply followed their recommendations. OEM mains went from 107.5 to 122.5, while the OEM pilots went from 45 to 47.5. The airbox has a stock paper filter, but the air filter housing has been opened up a bit to improve air flow. Have all carb idle mixtures set to 3 turns out and balanced with my trusty Twinmax unit. Bike's overall performance from cold starting, to hard acceleration at highway speed is spot on in my opinion ... no hesitation or backfiring throughout.

BTW, I've also added 3 coats of "Blue Shield" to the inside of the new header pipes in order to minimize bluing effects.

Unfortunately, a bit of chrome on the muffler started to peel off after just 20 minutes of tuning. Vance & Hines is sending me a replacement muffler under warranty ... so was pleased with their customer service.

 

[HaggisHombre]

Thank for the reply this is great info because I hear others that have problems with some of these upgrades so it is good to know that if it is done right it can work out.

Check out my post if you get a chance I actualy have two 79 GS750 and 78 GS 1000 that I am starting. Currently I am feeling a little overwhelmed but your post gives me hope and inspiration.

1978 GS1000 Project

 

[Larry D]

Outstanding job !!!!! You saved another one !!!! :clap::clap::clap:

 

[Tourmaster]

Thanks Larry

Haggis ... That GS1000 should be a nice project. When I take on these project bikes (I also have 3 restored CB750's), I just take it one step at a time and keep my work relatively organized. It's easy to get discouraged if you start thinking about all the things that need work.

This is actually the second GS1100E model with V&H pipes that I've tuned up. My friend has exactly the same bike, but it ran very poorly and the header pipes were totally burnt dark blue and brown. I followed the rejettting recommended by V&H in stages ... main jets first, along with the airbox mod. Bike ran much better, but still was a fair bit of backfiring/popping on deceleration. Then I changed the pilots ... and that helped a fair bit more ... but still a bit of popping was evident.

So, I actually upgraded his air jets from (I believe) Canadian model OEM 140's to 160's. The 160's were in the carb rebuild kits we purchased. Following this change, his bike is now running perfect. I think my bike still has the OEM 140's ... but since it's running great now, I'm leaving well enough alone.

Unfortunately, his V&H 4 to 1 single walled header pipes are already badly burnt up cosmetically (the cows are out of the corral). Putting that freer breathing exhaust system on, without rejetting, resulted in a very hot/lean condition. I'm hoping that with the proper jetting and "Blue Shield" internal coating, my new headers may well stay relatively good looking. Blue Shield has certainly saved my CB750 Custom from a similar fate. It has 17,000 kms on the aftermarket single wall headers, and they still look like new.

In case you're interested, here's a couple of photos of my new V&H headers ... after I coated them with the Blue Shield ceramic paste.

The product is very easy to apply, and well worth the extra effort when installing new single walled header ... at least in my humble opinion. Good luck with your projects.

 

[1100E]

Wow, what an absolutely great resto!! :clap:

It's always nice to see another "block head" brought back from the brink! Your 1100E is definitely BOM material if there ever was one, please create an album and stick some more pics in there, just beautiful!