The Official GS Brat, Tracker, Scrambler thread

[Weapon]

no I think he means the stock metal bracket under the original plastic fender was a fork brace of sorts. not a good fork brace, but better than a simple metal fender. I think those fork tubes move around a lot (independent of each other) without proper bracing.

 

[Gorminrider]

Sebastian',.. wow, I never thought of that! I will add that to my list of possibles if it happens to me! at 70mph it's probably possible for windage to unbalance a bike but I think you'd see or hear it on a fender as a pulse or flapping...so no, I was thinking the steel reinforcement of forks that fits into the fender. The ones in plastic fenders (my 650G anyways) are easily removeable while the metal fenders have theirs tacked in. There's only the axle to stop any twist if there's no brace.
and your forks aren't especially shortened by sliding em up through the tree and so wheelbase is ok...? if a Shorter wheelbase would amplify troubles from somewhere else.
How about tire balance? or wheel balance? You really don't want tank slappers built in and the steering damper is not the way I'd go- but I've never had a use for one. they are sort of old school I think....Old BMWs had them in the 70's

 

[Sebastian24]

Sebastian',.. wow, I never thought of that! I will add that to my list of possibles if it happens to me! at 70mph it's probably possible for windage to unbalance a bike but I think you'd see or hear it on a fender as a pulse or flapping...so no, I was thinking the steel reinforcement of forks that fits into the fender. The ones in plastic fenders (my 650G anyways) are easily removeable while the metal fenders have theirs tacked in. There's only the axle to stop any twist if there's no brace.
and your forks aren't especially shortened by sliding em up through the tree and so wheelbase is ok...? if a Shorter wheelbase would amplify troubles from somewhere else.
How about tire balance? or wheel balance? You really don't want tank slappers built in and the steering damper is not the way I'd go- but I've never had a use for one. they are sort of old school I think....Old BMWs had them in the 70's

Oh ok gotcha. The front forks are pushed through the tree, but only about .5 inches, and the rear shocks were adjusted accordingly. I'm in the middle of a move now, so kind of hard to tinker with it, although the front wheel is balanced. The back one i'm not sure, since I have to take the shaft out and all that fun stuff, and haven't gotten the chance to do so. I did check for straightness though and it seemed to be good there.
The more I try to work on the bike, the more it makes me want to do a frame up rebuild. I'm a bit OCD and the P.O. seems like didn't care much of how the bike ran/looked as long as it ran haha

 

[Gorminrider]

nah, 1/2" is nothing if it's equal. Pretty much = tire wear. but when you get to an inch or more you are definitely pulling the geometry of the bike together.

But I really don't want anybody at 70mph getting wobbles. It sure freaked me right out ("suprise!") at a time wayback when...good news is : know about it but please fix it.

To me, It does point directly to a frame trouble first. You really want to take the wheels seat and tank off and look at linear relations (ie: squinting and using straight sticks and diagonal measuring ) subtleties of bolt-on mods and wheels next.
Get advice at any anomalies that you don't like. ....second hand bikes, well you never really know what cliff the PO fell over.

 

[BADJACKSON]

I had some wobbles this year on my 1000, but I'm pretty sure it was due to the fact that I removed the front fender. When I hit some rutted roads I had to back off the throttle, my front tire was sort of all over the place.
FWIW

 

[Gorminrider]

A rear wheel could get something started too, I think...Give that a wiggle at swing-arm bushings..

.... there is a ton of info on the web
example
http://bmwmotorcycletech.info/instability.htm

all that red ink and highlighting!
but the trouble is there is a ton of info on the web even long ago I had an yamaha 650 ... people swore plastic swingarm bushings were THE issue- I replaced em but it made no diff. Not to say, it wasn't their or an issue but it wasn't mine.

 

[chucksuki]

Figured I'd show y'all my little brat. She kinda has a crazy story how she ended up in my garage. 78 750e. And before anybody gets their panties in a wad, the original condition before the chopping was terrible. It was not in any condition to go original




she has a inner fender now keeping the junk out of the stacks. I was fabbing it when I took these pictures. Predictably though, the one piece I didn't personally weld (the taillight) failed while I was riding and the wires drug on the bike tire causing a short that compounded into a bit of a fire in the headlight bucket. I noticed in time, seems all the important bits are fine, just need to rewire the whole girl and reweld the taillight. Correctly this time. Bummer cuz I just got the jetting right.

 

[chucksuki]

Oh, I will be putting the other front caliper back on, as soon as I can find one that doesn't have one of the bleeder valves seized or broken off in it.

 

[loud et]

Looks good Chuck, I'm halfway through my 850 brat project.
Care to share some info on the headlight?
I'm looking for some of the finishing pieces now and headlight shopping is a miserable experience. So many on e bay, some at great prices but I fear buying one with good looks and crap performance.
So what is that unit?
How's it perform?

 

[chucksuki]

Well, that's one of the pieces I didn't purchase for it but installed it. It's awesome on high beam, terrible on low beam. I'm trying to figure out how to push more power through that bulb. Since I need to rewire the whole thing again, now is as good as time as any. I've just been driving with the high beam on. Here is a link to the same one I have. If you look at the other headlights these guys offer, I'm sure you'll find something.

http://www.speedmotoco.com/CAFE-RACER-STREETFIGHTER-headlight-LED-motorcycle-p/smc.3028.htm

 

[smartin108]

I just finished this GS450T that I brought home in pieces on Easter Sunday. It's my first attempt at a build.

 

[loud et]

I just finished this GS450T that I brought home in pieces on Easter Sunday. It's my first attempt at a build.

Super clean and well done. You should share more pictures of it.
It's sort of classy and aggressive at the same time. Thanks for not being a Craigslist hack!(flat black, flat black, flat black....grinder grinder, bedliner spray, hand sledge to the tank....on and on. Haha
Love the color.
I'd be proud of that bike.

 

[chucksuki]

I just finished this GS450T that I brought home in pieces on Easter Sunday. It's my first attempt at a build.

That is pretty!

 

[BADJACKSON]

I just finished this GS450T that I brought home in pieces on Easter Sunday. It's my first attempt at a build.

Very nice! I hope that MY 1st build turns out that nice!

 

[BADJACKSON]

Chuck, I really like it! You nailed the simplicity look!

 

[chucksuki]

Chuck, I really like it! You nailed the simplicity look!

Thanks, man! That's exactly what I was going for. Now one of these days I'll get around to putting a proper paint job on her.

 

[salty_monk]

no I think he means the stock metal bracket under the original plastic fender was a fork brace of sorts. not a good fork brace, but better than a simple metal fender. I think those fork tubes move around a lot (independent of each other) without proper bracing.

I have one of those from an 1100 somewhere... yours for postage

 

[BADJACKSON]

Hey Dan, can you post a PIC of the 1100 fork "brace" please, I would like to do something different upfront, and I'd like to know what my options are.
Thanks

 

[loud et]

Hey Dan, can you post a PIC of the 1100 fork "brace" please, I would like to do something different upfront, and I'd like to know what my options are.
Thanks

Just search "suzuki gs front fender bracket" on e bay. It's just a bracket that contours the fender and bolts together with the fender to the 4 fork mounts.
It's the sub fender so to speak.

 

[salty_monk]

Ton of the them on Google image search or Ebay such as this. My one is not that shiny... I don't use it even though I currently have the plastic fender mounted but then I have a Tarozzi brace above it.