New member from the cold North

[Occire]

Greetings ladies & gentlemen!
I have just purchased a 1981 GS650GL (shaft-drive cruiser) for quite cheap by Norwegian standards. Its a runner; it starts and goes (I'll be asking more about that later because it has some weird behaviours) but the previous owner modified the bike quite a bit so it is far from stock!
The previous owner installed pod filters, a 4-to-1 exhaust, changed the tank, rebuilt the carbs, relocated the battery and re-did the entire electrics. For me this is a project bike, I'm not sure which direction to take it in yet but the GS650 looks like a fantastic platform, lots of potential and surprisingly nippy!

I've got a bunch of questions but I figured I'd introduce myself while I plough through the sticky posts and some other posts of interest.

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Welcome.

We have another member from Norway with a GS 1000G. Noreg, from Harstad, hasn’t posted in a while. Looks like that’s pretty far north from Oslo. He’s shared a lot of beautiful pictures of your country.

You’re going to want a front fender on that bike.

White-walls - WOW!

[Baatfam]

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[Suzukian]

I like the underpinnings of your bike. I'd recommend putting either a fork brace, or the front fender back on. It will help with the handling, a lot. The whitewall tires really suit the bike!

[Occire]

Thanks for the replies peeps!
It does absolutely need a front fender and I had thought for a fork brace too. There's a lot I think I will end up changing; there's little point trying to get the bike back to stock so I might as well embrace the cafe racer direction the previous owner took!
I've always associated whitewalls with bobbers and frankly that's not my scene but I do quite like them on this bike! I've seen them get very dirty very quick so I think I'll wear them out and then replace them with something else.

[Gorminrider]

Hi, Occire...passing thought; the fender serves as forkbrace on these. There's a metal brace in them so if you can find one, you can hack it it to suit the bobber ... versus a pricey after-market thing. I wonder if an 850 fender would fit? ...always worth looking up this generation of suzukis. They all have their differences, but they share a lot too
parts cross reference parts suzuki motorcycle accessories spares replacement aftermarket

shop manual and more here
BikeCliff's Website

...those pipes look precious..4-1?

[Grimly]

Hi, Occire...passing thought; the fender serves as forkbrace on these. There's a metal brace in them so if you can find one, you can hack it it to suit the bobber ... versus a pricey after-market thing. I wonder if an 850 fender would fit? ...always worth looking up this generation of suzukis. They all have their differences, but they share a lot too

Not an 850, he's got an L front end, and I think the 650 stanchions are thinner than the 850, not sure of the spacing. However, the wheel is the same size and the fender mounting bolts might accomodate another L fender.
Fwiw, I found a marked improvement from stock when I fitted an 1100E fender with its beefy internal brace. There was further improvement when I added an external brace.

[Suzukian]

You can cut the fork brace out, and put a fender of your liking and attach it to the fork brace that remains.