1981 GS650G in Calgary

[hecubus]

Hi my Name is Kent and I just picked up a 1981 GS650G. The bike looks to be in pretty good mechanical shape I am planing on giving it a tune up and do some minor cleaning up so she is ready to roll in the spring. I am new to bikes but I have done plenty of mechanical work. I am going to be undoing some of the modifications by the previous owner. He still had the original headlight which I am going to try and put back on. I was able to find a pair of side covers to put back on it and it will be getting new paint over Christmas. It should be a fun project.

 

[Charlie G]

Welcome! The 650g is a great bike. There's a lot of information here and some good people. :cool-new:

cg

 

[steve murdoch]

Welcome to the site.
Dec. in Calgary with no snow? Excellent!

 

[dorkburger]

Welcome. Looks like a good starting point. I absolutely loved the bug eye headlights when they appeared on the Triumph Speed Triple.
On you're 650 they look a little gawky.

Hopefully the wiring wasnt hacked to bits. Good luck and enjoy.

 

[hecubus]

Sadly there is more then 6" of snow in our back ally now the pictures were taken at the beginning of the month.
If they were done nicely I think the double head lights could have looked good but with all the wiring hanging out and some rough scrap metal used to ext it is lot looking so pretty. Thankfully I do not think they hacked up the wiring to badly. they even left the plug for the original bulb in place. I just need to figure out how to bend the headlight mounts back to where they are supposed to be and figure out how the wiring was originally hidden in the housing it's self. It looks like there are to many wires there to fit them all in the back of the head light housing.

Does anyone have any close up photos of how the wiring was all arranged cleanly behind the headlight? Also a close up of the wiring under the seat would be nice.

Thanks
Kent

 

[Redman]

Kent,

Welcome to GSR.

I had 82 650G for 20+ years. Great bike.

........
............... Does anyone have any close up photos of how the wiring was all arranged cleanly behind the headlight?. ......

not so much behind the light, but spread out all around the light.

.

 

[Gorminrider]

Hi,hecubus. Welcome! I have a similar bike but 82, new to me - we can compare experiences I hope.

Does anyone have any close up photos of how the wiring was all arranged cleanly behind the headlight?

I wish I knew too, though redman's post is a useful clue to me! Yours has two lamps, while mine came with a fairing so no clue except I gave up trying to get it all in a headlight bucket .These bikes have a ton up there, compared to my 400's. All that going back n' forth to the fuse-box under the seat, adds mass, I think.

There is some help per routing in the back of the 650G manual available here at Bass Cliffs library but specifically per headlight vicinity-not so good.
http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?196338-New-Members-CLICK-HERE!!

 

[tom203]

Headlight bucket is crowded.
Underseat ain't bad. This pic will probably confuse you but shows general layout. The extra wires floating around are for bypassing a potential ignition system fault, plus I have extra brake lights, etc. the silver gizmo on left is my relocated r/r.

 

[hecubus]

I finally got to go for my first real ride on my GS650G today. I got everything painted over the winter and gave it a full tune up. So far it seems to be running really well.

 

[steve murdoch]

Nice work on the clean-up and paint, Kent.

I don't know much about Bugs but how about a pic of your '57.

 

[BigD_83]

Any chance your bike and bug colour match? Yeah, let's see some pics of the Bug.

Not a standard colour, but it works, and it is far prettier than how it started.

 

[hecubus]

Thanks I am super happy with how the paint turned out. At first I was going to do just the green then we decided to add the cream as well. The colour is Sage Green from the Late 70's VW buses.
Sadly my beetle is not colour matched and it is much to original of a car for me to paint it a different colour.

 

[hecubus]

I ended up cleaning the carb out over the winter and now the bike is starting up really nicely for me. At first when I get going it wants to stall as soon as I put a load on the engine but after about 5 minutes or riding it runs and idles perfectly. I am wondering if I need to replace the rubber intake boots since that rubber has gotten pretty hard and might not be sealing perfectly. Also on the carb there is a nice grove around the intake as well that looks like it should have an O ring in it or something but there was nothing in it. Should there be an O ring there?

Thanks
Kent

 

[steve murdoch]

Robert Barr is the man to contact about carb o-rings.
Sounds like you also need the manifold rings. http://www.cycleorings.com/intake.html
If the rubber boots are no longer sealing it can show up as a slow to return to idle or an erratic idle.

The cream striping on the paint breaks up the solid colouring nicely.

Only thing i had heard about the early Bugs was the oval rear window. I bet it gets lots of attention.

 

[hecubus]

Thank you for that. I just order a set of those O rings to see if it helps the problem.

Yes the beetle is great fun and gets a lot of attention. I was very lucky to find this one in the condition it is in the Oval window was an awesome Bonus.

 

[2BRacing]

Also on the carb there is a nice grove around the intake as well that looks like it should have an O ring in it or something but there was nothing in it. Should there be an O ring there?

No, that groove around the outside of the intake portion of the carbs fits into a ridge inside the rubber intake boots, so there is not an O ring in that groove on the carb itself.