GS550L to Cafe Build

[Toasty]

I'm pretty behind on making a build thread but here goes, I'm just gonna post some pics (from the past couple months) to catch up to where I'm at now. Excuse the messy backyard

The day I brought her home, she was filthy. Everything was covered in dirt, grease and oil. The first weekend I had the bike I spent it cleaning off everything.

Got sick of looking at the peeling old tank so I painted it

The old seat was in terrible shape, the foam was rotted out, the metal pan was rusted to hell and it was all covered in duct tape. I made a new seat pan out of an old sign and some leftover foam from work. I paid my sister $20 to run some stitches over some leather-look vinyl I bought.

Ride at night with the new seat (after getting stranded once from a dead stator), it had to be quick since the battery wasn't charging.

 

[Toasty]

I replaced the bad stator with a Caltric unit and left the Shindingen r/r in place. I put in S/S lines front and back and cleaned out the nasty old brake fluid. Then rode it a lot for a while

My friend routing brake line

New parts!

First time taking it to work

Got rear ended on the second day riding the bike to work in San Francisco...

Taking her home

Prettied up for the insurance guy, I ended up getting more money then I expected.

The bike checked out okay, the only damage the tail light, fender and rear frame rail. After this I had another stator failure which stranded me at work. I replaced it all with a Compufire and Ricks stator, I haven't had an issue since.

 

[Toasty]

I was going to leave the bike the way it was but I ended up buying a cafe seat (and Hagons) with the insurance money. The seat is really nice from Roc City their Interceptor model. The Hagons made a HUGE difference in comfort and handling, and I added in some Sonic straight rate fork springs.

I got around to finally cleaning the carbs

The seat finally came in and I test fit it with the new signals.

btw I really recommend the signals I got, they sell them on DCC and Airtech Streamlining's sites. Aluminum body with amber lenses for around ~$25, extremely bright and well built especially compared to the plastic ones.


Test fitting Virago XV920 tank and seat

I ended up finally mounting the seat. I didn't want to be shooting screws through the frame and I don't have a welder so I used a different method. I don't have pics of the mounts but I saw this on another forum. Get a hose clamp, a rubber stopper/foot thing from the hardware store, a carriage bolt and some shrink wrap. Drill the rubber foot top to bottom, drill a hole in the clamp, stick the carriage bolt through both and clamp to the frame. You can use the shrink wrap to blend in with the frame and keep from scratching it. The bolts stick up and have a thick rubber base and it worked pretty well. I used a thick plastic I got from TAP to mount the seat to so it wouldn't crack.

I sprayed it to match the old tank for now

 

[Toasty]

Now I'm pretty much caught up. Other stuff that has been replaced on the bike...

- Valve cover gasket (when I did the valves)
- New sprockets
- New X-Ring chain
- fork gaiters
- tach cable
- new rear disc
- replaced bent rear brake lever
- temporary tail light from Pep Boys (its a trailer light but works pretty well)
- output shaft seals (both)
- superbike bars and grips
- bar end mirrors (one fell off on the freeway and they've been replaced with long stem mirrors)
- cam end covers




Last weekend I got sick of the bad oil leak from the output shaft. I fixed it once already but the shaft is damage from someone in the past gouging the hell out of it.

I needed to remove the engine to split the cases so I went for it. I have a replacement set of gears which I may use, or just the actual output shaft.

Engine out!

 

[tkent02]

I ended up finally mounting the seat. I didn't want to be shooting screws through the frame and I don't have a welder so I used a different method. I don't have pics of the mounts but I saw this on another forum. Get a hose clamp, a rubber stopper/foot thing from the hardware store, a carriage bolt and some shrink wrap. Drill the rubber foot top to bottom, drill a hole in the clamp, stick the carriage bolt through both and clamp to the frame. You can use the shrink wrap to blend in with the frame and keep from scratching it. The bolts stick up and have a thick rubber base and it worked pretty well. I used a thick plastic I got from TAP to mount the seat to so it wouldn't crack.

Got pictures of this?
Great bike.

 

[Toasty]

Parts that came in today

From Z1
- Stainless bolt kit
- clutch springs (I didn't know they were gonna be the EBC kind...)
- exhaust gaskets
- swingarm bearing

Boulevard Suzuki
- stator cover (my crappy homemade one is leaking)
- output shaft seals


Z1 was fast as always, B. Suzuki takes FOREVER to get stuff to me but the prices are good.


I got a tail light too to replace the trailer light . From Lossa Engineering, the price was right, it's DOT legal and (from what I hear) really bright. It's got a nice rubber mount too and they were nice enough to pre-wire in the resistors.

I want to start working on the engine this weekend, get the cases split and check things out. I just want to replace the output shaft, look for any damage, check the clutch plates and replace the springs. I don't wanna tear it down more then that.

I found a local shop that does powdercoating too and the prices are reasonable for CA. I'm gonna bring the outer covers to get PC'd wrinkle black, and the block and head I'm going to paint gloss (maybe matte) black. I was gonna leave the frame and just paint it myself but the guy will blast and powdercoat the frame for $250. It would cost me at least a $100 to do a decent job on painting it myself and would take forever...

The frame I'm thinking I'll get done in silver like a Katana. Everything else is going to be blacked out, engine, triples, forks, wheels, etc. I want some contrast... Color for the tank I'm thinking either Battleship grey or a seafoam green (like the vintage vespa color). Im gonna be getting some Tomaselli replica brown grips and eventually a brown leather seat.

or

 

[Toasty]

Got pictures of this?
Great bike.

I'll snap a few pictures for you when I get home from work tomorrow.

 

[hjacobmiller]

I'm doing mine in a "sea form"/telecaster green as well. I went with gunmetal on the frame, not silver. silver takes away from the chrome... but you may not have that much chrome.

UPDATE: Its an L - of course theres chrome!

 

[Toasty]

I'm doing mine in a "sea form"/telecaster green as well. I went with gunmetal on the frame, not silver. silver takes away from the chrome... but you may not have that much chrome.

UPDATE: Its an L - of course theres chrome!

Haha well I'm trying to get rid of all the chrome, I only want it polished in a few areas . BTW do you have any pics of your bike? I'd really like to see the seafoam/gunmetal combo.


Tkent, here's a pic of the mount. You can get different size rubber feet and they're really solid and are reversible.

 

[JEEPRUSTY]

We need more pictures


Having suffered one cagers lack of eyesight I would advise you to rethink your turn signal indicators.

The lights you have are so close that they may not be understood.

 

[Toasty]

More pictures?? I can do that lol.

I got all the bolts out to split the cases but the damn thing won't come apart. I was going at it with a rubber mallet and it didn't budge. I got all the numbered bolts, the smaller 10mm's around the bottom and the ones inside the oil pan.

Tomorrow I'm going to strip the frame down to just the swingarm and forks and do a few things before I send it to the powdercoaters. I'm still not sure what color to do though. Silver, Black or maybe dark gold/bronze...

 

[Toasty]

I spent most of the day at the range but I got some work done on the bike. Pretty much the whole bike is labeled in boxes and on a rack outside. I'm picking up a clean complete set of R6 rear sets and when I bring the frame to get a hoop welded I may have some mounts put in for those. I want to get the frame off for powder coating in the next week or two.

Boxes of parts

 

[Toasty]

I got a really good deal on some almost new R6 rear sets, all complete with the MC and rear caliper from a guy on my local board.

 

[MisterCinders]

Holy crap, that is awesome. I have always used the frame hinges to mount my seat, but these hose-clamp hacks are a great idea for mounting things to the frame.

Tkent, here's a pic of the mount. You can get different size rubber feet and they're really solid and are reversible.

 

[Toasty]

I didn't do much to the bike today, I drained the vinegar from the tank, cleaned with water/baking soda and shook out the rust. I put the new eBay petcocks on it and some gas to keep it from rusting.

Until the seals and gaskets come from Boulevard Suzuki (probably not for another week and a half at least) I don't wanna disassemble the engine more then it is now. With the frame I have a few things to figure out. I decided to hide the electrics under the seat so I need to source some relatively thick steel to use as a pan to hold everything including the battery. Then I'll either have to cut it myself or have someone do it for me, and thn have it welded. The triangle will be empty except for the air box, kinda weird but I dunno if I want to go to pods.

I ate some leftovers and looked at the bike with the tank on it for inspiration.

I got a few other things for the bike that are gonna be coming in next week. I bought an Acewell gauge to get rid of the giant stock ones and broke down and bought a pair of nice clip ons from Woodcraft.

Except with black bars to go better with the brown gum grips I got from Guzzino.

 

[Toasty]

Woot!! This thing is awesome.

I want to fab up a bracket to hold it centered and modify the gear indicator to sit near it.

Box of fun

 

[D-Mac]

Great thread! I love the Acewell on this type of bike. It really fits the streetfighter style you're going with.

 

[Toasty]

Thanks man . There's a LOT more to come I'm just waiting on parts.

 

[Toasty]

The Woodcraft clip ons came in today

I need to grind down the handlebar mounts so I get the clearance to rotate them around. I would put them under the triple but I would need new headlight ears. I wanna go with a half fairing later so it doesn't make any sense to buy new ones.

 

[Toasty]

I didn't have anything to do after work so I started on modifying the triple. It is so much harder then I thought it was gonna be...

One side cut

I couldn't get a good angle with my cutoff wheel so I had to do it all with a hacksaw. The aluminum is way tougher then you'd think.

I ground down as much of the metal as I could, used my big wire wheel/grinder and started filing.

Good enough for tonight. I want to do some more finishing and then prep both parts of the triple tree for paint. The weather is supposed to be good this weekend so I want to at least get those painted.