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First proper bike, 1981 GS850G

  • Thread starter Thread starter nico
  • Start date Start date
N

nico

Guest
Hi all,

Just wanted to introduce myself and my bike :)
My name is Nico, live in northern Sweden. Interests are most old things with wheels and engines. If you see me without black fingers I must've been sick.

I just bought my first proper bike a couple of days ago, a 1981 GS850G. I've had a lot of mopeds and also some dirtbikes but this type of bike is something new for me.
It's in good condition, but obviously with a 35 year old bike (or vehicle of any kind) there's usually some work to be done. With the help of info I read on this forum I repaired my tacho today, it reacted very slowly or not at all, but works great now after taking it apart and adding a couple drops of oil.

I was originally planning on a cafe racer build, but I'm starting to have my doubts now, the original looks are starting to grow on me. And I should probably get to know it better before I start modifying it. So far I'm positively surprised by how easy it is to ride.

Here's a picture too :)
attachment.php
 

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Nice bike. :encouragement:

Welcome, and all that good stuff.

Congratulations on your decision to not cut up a fine bike like that. You want to cut and modify? Find something in a barn that will take too much time, money and effort to look as good as the one you have now, then modify to your heart's content.

We did not get the nice graphics that you guys did. I think our choices in '81 were black, (dark) red and (dark) blue, the pin stripes were slightly different than they were for the '80 models.

.
 
Welcome to GSR.

Looks like you have found quite a nice example of a GS850G.
Looks much too nice to be hacked up in my opinion.
I assume that is the stock paint scheme for a European 850G, and looks all stock except the lower / more forward handle bars.

Do learn about the hub/spline in the rear wheel (not the rear drive, the rear wheel). If PO have not lubed it, it can wear out. Not as bad as stock 82-83, but still something that will be worth your inspection sometime.

.
 
Thanks! Yeah for once I seem to have managed to buy something that's not a basket case ;)

I'm not sure about the graphics, but I have seen one other 81 with the same graphics.

Here's a picture of the bike last week when I bought it. Note the decals on the fairing, which I'm pretty sure is not OEM? The windshield made steering too restrictive and I really didn't like the look of it so it had to go. You can see the notches for the mirrors in the windshield, to allow for a little more steering angle - still not enough for my liking. Especially while practicing tight turns. I also felt that the boxes were not doing the bike justice and I won't be using them for a while and they were mainly in the way, so they had to go too.
attachment.php


I wasn't going to cut it up :) The plan was lower it a bit but not much, I'm tall and I don't want to look like a circus bear on a kid bicycle. New seat to get a bit shorter tail. The plan was to make it fully restorable to original. But as I said, starting to have my doubts now so I'll keep it like this for now!

The rear tire needs replacing so that will give me a good chance to inspect the rear wheel!
 

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Most will applaud your idea to ditch the fairing and luggage. I kind of like them, myself. Nice bike and I would love to have that paint job.
 
Very nice indeed! I love the paint scheme on it, very cool. We didn't get ANY of the fancy color combos here in the states...
 
nico said:
I'm not sure about the graphics, but I have seen one other 81 with the same graphics.

Here's a picture of the bike last week when I bought it. Note the decals on the fairing, which I'm pretty sure is not OEM? The windshield made steering too restrictive and I really didn't like the look of it so it had to go. You can see the notches for the mirrors in the windshield, to allow for a little more steering angle - still not enough for my liking. Especially while practicing tight turns. I also felt that the boxes were not doing the bike justice and I won't be using them for a while and they were mainly in the way, so they had to go too.
attachment.php


I wasn't going to cut it up :) The plan was lower it a bit but not much, I'm tall and I don't want to look like a circus bear on a kid bicycle. New seat to get a bit shorter tail. The plan was to make it fully restorable to original. But as I said, starting to have my doubts now so I'll keep it like this for now!

The rear tire needs replacing so that will give me a good chance to inspect the rear wheel!
Click to expand...


Welcome to the forum! You have found a really nice, original bike! The original seat is comfortable for long trips, and does not need to be modified.

The fairing is not OEM, but the colour-matching is well done. I also fitted a non-OEM fairing to my bike, but had difficulty to design the stripes on the fairing to fit in with the rest of the bike.

Here in South Africa we received similar colour schemes to those in Europe. My bike has the same colour stripes, but on a silver background.




 
Interesting fairing. Do you know the brand? The original poster that is. Same question to you 2BRacing.
 
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ddaniels said:
Interesting fairing. Do you know the brand? The original poster that is. Same question to you 2BRacing.
Click to expand...

My fairing was made by a guy who owned a small fibreglass shop in Cape Town, and was based on the early '80's Honda 900 Bol D'Or OEM fairing.
 
ddaniels said:
Interesting fairing. Do you know the brand? The original poster that is. Same question to you 2BRacing.
Click to expand...
The windshield says Powerbronze, no other markings on it.
It's for sale if anyone is interested, because I won't be putting it back on. I'm afraid shipping will be costly to anywhere but Sweden though.

It used what I think is the original headlight, just relocated. But the notches in the windshield (which look like someone filed them afterwards) make me think that maybe it wasn't made for this model. Without those notches the mirrors would hit the windshield almost instantly when steering. It was bad enough as it was with the notches, but the bike would be unrideable without them.
 
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nico said:
But the notches in the windshield (which look like someone filed them afterwards) make me think that maybe it wasn't made for this model. Without those notches the mirrors would hit the windshield almost instantly when steering. It was bad enough as it was with the notches, but the bike would be unrideable without them.
Click to expand...

You can remove the OEM mirrors from the handlebar and mount mirrors of a different design on the fairing itself, to overcome the problem of the OEM mirrors touching the windscreen when turning.
 
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