'82 gs550

[new0688]

Well she is about 95% done; I still have some touch up paint and some odds and ends to finish but its still my daily rider. I didnt take very many pictures along the way because I was fumbling along the whole way through in the dark but thanks to all of the experts here on The GS Resources I was able to come out in one piece; And with a running bike!

I know what I have done isnt everyone on heres thing but I still thought I would post up a few pics anyway.

A few things I wouldve done different:

Listened to everyone and left the stock airbox on!!!

Not made it a hard tail! As fun as it is to ride, I now understand the difference in cushion between Hemi valve springs and giant frame mounted shocks.

If I had more time I wouldve liked to have actually pulled the motor and stripped the frame to repaint everything so that will definately be something to keep in mind for my next build.

Joining this forum has definately given me a new appreciation for these old classic bikes. I notice alot more of these around town now and I would like to restore one of these classics and add it to a collection of bikes I hope to own.

 

[new0688]

No photobucket sorry!!

 

[new0688]

another shot

 

[mike-s]

The pics are looking good, i like the style of hardtail you've put together. And as a suggestion, if photobucket isn't your thing, you could always make a flickr account, they are free if you are a low bandwidth/needs user, that's what i use.

[distracted]Now that being said, you've got me thinking outloud here. I wonder if anyone has diy'ed a Harley style "hardtail" where the shock is hidden underneath, a bit more work than an actual hard tail or a normal swingarm, but would be an interesting engineering project. [/distracted]

 

[Guest]

That's nicely done! Good to see you've taken the time to do a good job on it.

I do have one very minor... well... not criticism really, more just a suggestion...

Put something in front of the seat over the tank mounting bolts... if you stop in a hurry you'll be talking funny for a quite a while I would think!

And as to Mike's thinking... there was someone posted one (think in the custom GS pic's thread) where they'd mounted a mono shock via a link that was located under the seat and rear of the tank, so it looked like a hard tail but had suspension... very well executed too!