Moving in reverse?

[Oldman99]

Hello everyone. I'm getting a ride with a friend to pick up my first Gs on Saturday. My wife thinks I'm moving backwards, but I feel I'm just getting closer to what I like. I started with a Suzuki GSF1200. Trade plus cash for a Harley dyna superglide. The GSF was ok, but had alot of topend with nowhere to stretch her legs. The Harley was meh. 1584cc v-twin. It was heavy and liked to lug. Plus if anything ever went wrong with it, you would need a small loan to fix it.
I've restored alot of "stuff" over the years. I wanted to get a smaller bike that I might have gotten when I was young and would have tried some over the top build that would have ended with the bike looking sorry and me without a ride.
Now that I have a little bit of experience and a small shop full of equipment, I'd like to try just owning and riding it for a wile. Just enjoy it.
I'm getting an 81 GS450L.

 

[GS1150Pilot]

Welcome. Nothing wrong with finding what you like. Many here have had (and in some cases, still do have) newer bikes, while they continue to enjoy the vintage GS series.

 

[steve murdoch]

Welcome to the site, 99.
Repair manual, carb tutorial, parts vendors and stuff for your bike are here. http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/

"a shop full of equipment"...excellent!

 

[Guest]

Ride on! Your right though, Harley's are meh

 

[tkent02]

And in many ways, so are the rest of the new bikes. Fast, light, nimble, and boring in a lot of ways.

 

[Hinermad]

My first bike was an '82 GS450, gave it away. My second bike was an "upgrade" to a new Triumph, and I gave it away. My "newest" bike is a '78 GS750, and I consider it an upgrade over the Triumph. It just fits me better.

 

[Oldman99]

Just wanted to follow-up on the 81 gs450. Friend drove me to check out the bike today. The owner was a very cool husband and wife couple. They told me the good and bad about the bike. I did a short test ride, Paid them and was on my way. Drove it 144 miles home. About 20 min into the drive, the exhaust started sounding like it was a straight pipe, so I pulled it over and found that the left side header pipe had vibrated the bolts out. Used some radiator hose clamps and some safety wire to pull it back in place and limp it to a auto zone to get new bolts. Made the rest of the trip without issue. Engine turned at about 5k rpm at 55-60mpr. Thats where it seemed to "pur".
Needs a carb tune/sync and I was going to look into the switched relay for the coils. Other than that, I'm very happy!

 

[1948man]

Looks like the "L" handlebars are long gone. The consensus here is that's a good thing. Nice ride. Hope you enjoy it.

 

[Gorminrider]

Hi, '99. welcome to the forum! Nice bike! you know what they say, (or Maria Muldaur did anyways...) "It ain't the meat, it's the motion". I like my 400s for being not too weak and never too heavy. a Pretty good middleweight .

Usually, getting the header bolts out of the head is a real bear involving long agonies with penetrating oil etc so I am almost tempted to say "wow, loose header bolts! Bonus!"

 

[Guest]

Hi, '99. welcome to the forum! Nice bike! you know what they say, (or Maria Muldaur did anyways...) "It ain't the meat, it's the motion". I like my 400s for being not too weak and never too heavy. a Pretty good middleweight .

Usually, getting the header bolts out of the head is a real bear involving long agonies with penetrating oil etc so I am almost tempted to say "wow, loose header bolts! Bonus!"

The last guy who put a rear tire on probably pulled the left exhaust and left the header bolts loose. A better and easier tactic is to undo the rear shocks and swing the axle up over the exhaust with a 2X4 shim under the tire.

Now the question is how long it's been since the right side header bolts were coaxed out. I've always taken mine out once a year and coated them with anti seize and never had a problem; Dunno if that's a good tactic or not but so far I've had no grief.

Maybe a regimen of penetrating oil and riding before attempting to remove the right ones would be a good plan. ?? Other than springs, I've yet to see a really foolproof header attachment system - even on cars. At least they're not [cross]threaded rings on aluminum. I guess the switch to studs and leave them in system is better. I've seen some really nice bronze nuts on cars that never seem to seize up.

 

[Gorminrider]

^^ yes good point per wheel removal. Likely explains what happened exactly.

...studs have to be better than these d***n bolts! Or if only they'd made them larger diameter at least. I have some I am seriously contemplating just knocking the bolt heads off first rather than risking the expected "torque-off" at the engine...I might have a better chance getting them out whole then.