Going to make my seat

[Qckslvr]

some more pictures, trying to decide if I want to trim it out, or mold in the tail light to the cowl. I am thinking the molding in.

 

[Gumbo76]

I vote for molding it in. It looks great so far! Nice work.

 

[horsepowerfarm]

Looks great! I vote to mold the tail light in. BTW, great choice for a tail light. Here is some more inspiration!

 

[Qckslvr]

So here we are last of the photos for a while. At least until I get the tank prepped for paint, probably in a couple months.

The tail is done, it is filled, sealed, por 15ed, puttied, and reprimed. The left and right tail light work as the turn signals as I have done in the past. My upholstery work leaves a lot to be desires. But for $30 in materials I am happy, and will turn it over to my friend who does this for a living when I put color on it. I took 2" of the original Suzi pad, then tossed a 1/2" piece of memory foam on it. I also relocated the ignition switch since I can no longer mount it in the stock location. If you look close enough it is mounted to the rear motor mount right above the swing arm inside the frame. Now I need to do something about that huge cluster sticking up there.

And I changed the front signals as well

 

[Runningdog]

Nice job integrating the lights.....I see what you mean about the guage cluster...never noticed how big they are......you'll have to go digital for tiny-ness....http://trailtech.net/computers.html

 

[verde]

I've talked to many folks who've used an electric knife for shaping seat foam. Works like a charm. I saw a show on tv where a guy was using some kind of rasp for the edges and to get a nice smooth surface. Not sure what kind of rasp though.

Turkey knife works great for the rough shaping, but got to switch to abrasives to finish. The rasp was probably for drywall. A bondo rasp is the same thing and easier to find. Just be careful to not get too carried away with it and dig the edge of it in(ask me how I know). The roughest grit 3M sanding sponge is a great finisher for the foam and can be worked in tight spots where the rasp won't work right.

Looking good, qckslvr. Definitely gotta do something about that hunk of gauges though

If you don't mind loosing the tac, this i what I'm running. Relatively cheap and works well enough for me. I did a ghetto lacing wire job to hold the magnet, but it could be epoxied into one of the outer recesses in the cast wheels for a more permanent install.

http://www.aerostich.com/sigma-speedometer.html

 

[Qckslvr]

yeah the cluster on a GS is real clunky when it doesn't have handle bars and big lolli pop turn sigs to distract from it.

I am saving some cash up, and will most likely drop $500 on a Koso cluster with some senders for the head, oil pressure, and temp.

 

[kparrott]

I have been looking at different caf? seat pans for a while now. Actually since I bought the bike pretty much. Then I saw some one post that they took an old fuel tank from there bike, and cut it up making it into a seat cowl. This sparked some ideas, and now I am moving forward. So I am taking my old GS550 tank and I am going to cut the back of it off. I will then shorten the stock seat pan on my bike and graft the tank to it. I picked up an Aprilia RSV tail light assembly on e-bay that I will also graft in to the fuel tank/cowl. This tail light will also be my turn signals as well.

I shall post more pictures next week, when I start cutting and grafting. I need to go buy some brazing rod this weekend. I think my mig will be too hot for this project.

Is the tail light designed for that? Or is it going to take some creative wiring?

 

[atb1998]

Have you thought about mounting the guages under the exixting bracket with some longer bolts and some hollow tubing to be able to drop them down? I've done this and seen this done several times.

 

[verde]

[...]will most likely drop $500 on a Koso cluster with some senders for the head, oil pressure, and temp.

Yah what? Just on gauges?! Granted it took some work that put it over that figure, but I spent less than that on my GS!

 

[Gumbo76]

I am saving some cash up, and will most likely drop $500 on a Koso cluster with some senders for the head, oil pressure, and temp.

You could do something like I did on my 550. I made my own indicator panel and attached it to the handlebar bracket. I put LEDs on it for the turn signals (green), High Beam (blue) and Oil (red). I took the old bracket that held the big clunky cluster and cut it into three pieces, essentially removing the inside section and then mounted the left side onto the right bolt and the right side onto the left bolt. I pulled the Speedo out of the cluster and mounted it to the brackets right dead center. Of course this caused me to have to lower the headlight (Made my own brackets for that too, but it makes the front end look a bit different.

If I had taken a bit more time to fine-tune it all, it would look better, but I was on a limited budget and had to make due with the materials I had on hand. It's not perfect, but personally I think it looks pretty good.

 

[Qckslvr]

Is the tail light designed for that? Or is it going to take some creative wiring?

the RSV tail light is pretty much set up for it. The lights all have individual wires that run up to the main plug. At the plug they join together, and make a 3 prong plug that is identical to the OEM Suzuki plug. I chopped the plug off, separating the left wire from the right wire, and soldered up my new 4 wire plug. Really simple, not hard at all.

As for the cluster I have debated taking the speedo off completely and just leaving the tach. My headlight is on after market brackets already and dropped a bit. I have also debated welding two aluminum pipes together and mounting the gauges in them. But no mater how you look at it, the gauges are large and clunky. The Koso is pricey, but only 1" thick, and will tuck nicely behind the headlight.

I have thought about getting a Roc City headlight bucket as well, which is designed to house a speedometer in the top of it.

I have time to think about it

 

[verde]

I have thought about getting a Roc City headlight bucket as well, which is designed to house a speedometer in the top of it.

I got one of those ebay moped headlights on my triumph with the speedo hole. Limited on what speedos will fit it readily and finding 4 1/2 inch 12V bulbs is best left to ordering on the internet.

It was a tight squeeze getting it positioned to look decent with an ok angle on the speedo cable.

 

[kparrott]

Alright, Thanks for the info!

 

[afholderman]

I got one of those ebay moped headlights on my triumph with the speedo hole. Limited on what speedos will fit it readily and finding 4 1/2 inch 12V bulbs is best left to ordering on the internet.

It was a tight squeeze getting it positioned to look decent with an ok angle on the speedo cable.

How wide is that bucket in total? Could you run two side by side as a dual headlight, with a tach in one and a speedo in the other?

 

[Awall]

Been keeping an eye on your build. I have my tank and it's ready to be chopped up.

 

[Qckslvr]

As soon as I can figure out the new tank lettering I am going to start on the tank. I have been busy with the photoshop. I even thought about turning the design over to a friend of mine that has a CNC machine to make new badges.

I have also decided I am going to "releave" the tank for the clip ons. A hand banister rail and my 8 pound mini sledge will make fast work of this.

 

[verde]

How wide is that bucket in total? Could you run two side by side as a dual headlight, with a tach in one and a speedo in the other?

It's a 4 1/2 inch bulb, so ~5 inch total. Too clunky to run side by side and look decent IMO. Also, for mechanically driven gauges, you might run into cable routing troubles since the cable holes would just about line up with the the fork tubes.