what did you wrench on today??

[GSXR7ED]

A few weekends ago I drove to WV to pick up a FREE complete exhaust for my bike. Guy from a Facebook group with cafe racer dreams for his T wanted it gone. Baffles are perfect, but the rest has a lot of rust. My pipes are near perfect but PO took a Playschool drill to the baffles. Research after the fact leaves me with the understanding that swapping baffles from his to mine is highly improbable.

So today I grabbed some Diet Coke and aluminum foil and started rubbing the rusty pipes. A short time working showed that they’ll never look as good as mine but could end up as passable, until I discovered a flange with a broken tab looking like A kid’s tooth that should have fallen out of his mouth on its own about 4 days ago. May try to use it anyway if it’s the biggest problem with the set.

Mine:


Rusty set with perfect baffles after about an hour of work on the right pipe. Left side has much worse rust.


Header pipes are cleaning up nicely.
Before:


After:


Broken tooth:

Hey Rich,

wow...those are seriously rusted. Mine weren't half as bad but I did have a crack in one of the joints. MrBill suggested 4-1 pipes to shed 20-30lbs and they've worked out great!



Here's the entire unit:

t

And of course after install with one last head bolt to go...can you see the "u-joint" that connects the engine guard?



Good luck with your project, Rich.

Ed

****

[Buffalo Bill]

Track Bike Runnin REEL GOOD

Wasted a weekend on a front sprocket change that did not fit.
I should have been road testing this bike. Time ran out.
After putting the bike back TG, I did a warm up video.

[grcamna2]

Wasted a weekend on a front sprocket change that did not fit.
I should have been road testing this bike. Time ran out.
After putting the bike back TG, I did a warm up video.

What type of top-triple is on this bike ?

[oldGSfan]

Yesterday I drove from Grants Pass Oregon to S. Orange County CA - 768 miles. Basically the length of California. I was towing my '69 Airstream with my Grand Cherokee, and it took me from 7 AM to 10PM. Lots of coffee and a couple of 30 minute naps to refresh, as I didn't sleep well given the 550 mile day previously from Northern WA to Grants Pass. That's the longest I've been on the road since I did an 1100 mile run from Daytona Beach to San Antonio as a 20 year old - on a GS1100E (!).

A big motivation was getting back to my bikes. The '79 GS1000E worked on itself in my absence, as the newly rebuilt brakes have firmed up just by sitting in the garage. I think it's too much to ask for it to adjust its own valves, so I will get to it pronto.

[grcamna2]

Yesterday I drove from Grants Pass Oregon to S. Orange County CA - 768 miles. Basically the length of California. I was towing my '69 Airstream with my Grand Cherokee, and it took me from 7 AM to 10PM. Lots of coffee and a couple of 30 minute naps to refresh, as I didn't sleep well given the 550 mile day previously from Northern WA to Grants Pass. That's the longest I've been on the road since I did an 1100 mile run from Daytona Beach to San Antonio as a 20 year old - on a GS1100E (!).

A big motivation was getting back to my bikes. The '79 GS1000E worked on itself in my absence, as the newly rebuilt brakes have firmed up just by sitting in the garage. I think it's too much to ask for it to adjust its own valves, so I will get to it pronto.

That's a tiring day Tom.I like your avatar:love Curly.

[wymple]

Checking the stator today. Bad news, it failed the test.

Looks like it is shopping time for a new one.

Any suggestions as to which brand and where to buy from? Thanks.

I bought an ebay Caltric and have had no problems. I added the SH775 (genuine) at the same time.

[wymple]

"And of course after install with one last head bolt to go...can you see the "u-joint" that connects the engine guard?"

Yup. I also see a missing exhaust bolt.....

[Buffalo Bill]

The basic idea is courtesy of Salty Monk, but the GK has the fatter forks so I doubted that the brackets he sells would work. Calipers and Master cylinder were from Ebay. The CBR600 disks are aftermarket "Metal Gear" (for no reason other than thats what was available at the time.) The PCD of the Honda bolts is the same as Suzuki, but the holes need to be enlarged to Suzi bolt size. Caliper mounts are Concours, with additional piece welded on (professional welder and tested/certified afterwards).Everything aligned nicely afterward with the calipers right in position over the disks with no shimming necessary. The master cylinder is nice with the span adjustable lever.Calipers rebuilt with new seals and pads. All in all, a successful swap

Very interesting, your choice of components came from your parts pile?
I've only had very rare sudden stops on my GS1100G, but the longer stopping distance of the OEM system was obvious.

[Noreg]

I replaced my spark plugs, and changed my choke cable for a new one (the threads of the old one was torn off). I also oiled everything that I could remember needs oiling. I am going to test the spark plugs tomorrow (a neighboer is sleeping in a caravan near so I don't want to noise around midnight).

[Peter#1266]

Very interesting, your choice of components came from your parts pile?
I've only had very rare sudden stops on my GS1100G, but the longer stopping distance of the OEM system was obvious.

Not from a parts pile, Salty Monk has an article on uprating the brakes, but he is dealing with the standard GS range. The GK has fatter forks. However the basic idea of CBR rotors and Concours caiipers is his. I found a complete Concours set on Ebay which included the mounting brackets, so it was just a matter of fabricating the extensions to mate them to the Suzuki forks. The original brakes were ok as far as they go, but after having sampled modern brakes on my sons Street Triple they then felt horribly inadequate.

[Buffalo Bill]

A friend came by Thurs an Friday, did some welding for me on my track bike exhaust.
Cleaned up my sloppy DIY work. Thanks a bunch!
I'll be over at his house next week building a trap door to his basement, that's our deal.
I only known him and his family since 1963. His mom was one of our Cub Scout Den Mothers.

[dorkburger]

Is there a class or noise restriction that restricts you to a stock type of exhaust? Looks like aot of weight there.

[Buffalo Bill]

Is there a class or noise restriction that restricts you to a stock type of exhaust? Looks like aot of weight there.

Nope, but a few fitment issues with what's available. I'm using OEM GSX1100F Katana headers. I like duals because they fit snug up to the oil pan for maximum ground clearance and symmetrical balance.
The GSXR has a different placement for the front lower cross brace, the GSXR headers are obstructed by the lower cross brace on my modified Katana.
There's a Delkevic 4>1 system for the Katana GSX1100F, but less ground clearance, plus I'd need to buy the Bandit oil pan.
A Bandit system may fit but I'd have to buy it plus the Bandit oil pan to find out.
These headers only cost me $40! That was/is the deal maker. The slip-ons were $50 each.
Weight difference; 5 lb at most, plus that's at ground level.
As I become a better rider, the bike is leaving behind everything below 1000cc on the track.

[dorkburger]

Understood. I'm not too familiar with the oil cooled range, but now that you mention it, over at OSS, requests and info for different oil pans come up fairly regularly for the oilcooled engines.

Glad to hear that your track work is improving.

[Baatfam]

Originally posted May 17th, 2019...

Finally made a stab at fixing the broken tabs on my tail piece....
When I first bought this bike, back in '05, all four were broken.
Someone had tried to epoxy them before, but poorly, and the whole thing was held together with zip ties.

After I got the zip ties, old epoxy, peeling paint, dirt, and whatnot off the parts, I "tacked" them in place with a small amount of epoxy.
I carefully measured the location and angles off a good tailpiece I have (in champagne color), as the originals were missing quite a bit of material.

I laced the pieces together with some wire and spent three days building up layers of metal reinforced epoxy.



Not the prettiest thing, but I think it should hold....

Bob, that ain't gonna hold for long. Epoxy has to be reinforced with layers of fiberglass cloth, or for that fitting, some sheet steel.

And yet....Here we are two full years later. All four mounts are as solid as ever, not even a crack.

Pre-Brown County inspection today....