GS650 Tempter Rebuild

[Brewmaster]

Long story short: I just picked up a 1983 Tempter 650 with 30,000 kilometers on it for $375.00. He purchased it running about 6 months ago for $1200.00. Then the recession hit him and he's looking for cash. The downside (or possibly upside) is that it has been torn down to the frame. The motor is still complete but the PO was going to cafe it. It's in great shape with no rust anywhere and the PO who tore it down cleaned everything as he was going.

My question is, what easy and cheap mods can I do as I reasemble it? For example, what is the rear shock like and is there a replacement that bolts in that is better? What about rear brakes? Any upgrades there? It has no seat so I need to find something to fit. Are there seatpans off other bikes that fit or will fit with minor mods? The exhaust currently is straight pipes. I am not into loud pipes and will be looking for mufflers. Any good after market ones that you can recommend?

Do these engines benefit from Pods in place of the factory airbox or is the airbox preferred? I have no idea if it's been rejetted or if the carbs are factory.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Kelvin Krastel

00 Honda Valkyrie, 79 Honda SuperSport, 85 Maxim 500, 83 Tempter 650.

 

[Nessism]

While those Tempter's are most certainly a very close cousin to a GS they have never received much bandwidth around here so information is thin. It sounds like you have got yourself a fun project on your hands regardless.

As I recall the shock had some sort of remote preload adjuster, presumably because access for adjustment isn't the best. Sorry but I have no clue what other shocks will interchange.

Regarding the mufflers and exhaust in general, there are a few guys around that have installed the commonly available Dunstall replica mufflers and reported good results. The stock carb jetting should work okay with these mufflers as long as you keep the stock airbox. If you go pods all bets are off.

Good luck and please post up some photos when you get the chance. Using photobucket or similar and linking the

 

[Brewmaster]

My mistake. It is a GR650 not a GS. I'm assuming they are VERY close cousins. Any idea what the differences are?

Kelvin

 

[hillsy]

The GR650, GS500 and GS450 share the same bottom end (cases) so they are interchangeable within the three chassis with only minor mods.

The engines can be made to accept cylinders / top ends between them. There are many threads on here of people using combinations of 500 and 650 top ends on 450's to increase performance.

Chassis wise, the Tempter was a monoshock with a steel cradle frame. The 450's were twin shock cradle, whilst the 500 has a monoshock spar frame.