Thanks for allowing me to join. I have been riding dirtbikes since I was a kid, but I have only been riding on the road for the last 3 years.
I am 38 and based in Australia. I bought my first road bike, a 1986 Suzuki Savage about 3 years ago. It wasn't running and needed work, so I decided to dive in and do a full rebuild. It was a great bike to learn on as it only had the big single-cylinder.
From there I purchased a 1990 Honda Shadow 600. That was a big step down in terms of torque and manoeuvrability, but I did a rewire on it and made a pretty sweet bobber out of it.
That brings me to the current period of my bike ownership. I bought 2 non-running Gs850G's with the money from selling the Shadow.
One was a 1980 bobber build that wasn't running and needed new wiring and other maintenance. The other was a 1979 kickstart parts bike. I got it for 500AUD which is cheap here in Australia (the vintage GS bikes are quite expensive here, as are all classic Japanese sports bikes). It was someone's unfinished bobber build that was missing the entire waiting harness and again wasn't running.
I've since got the bobber running well with minimal wiring and will be doing a full harness rebuild. This one is still a few months away from being close to done. The 1980 cafe build, however, is very close to being on the road. Only a matter of weeks if I have any luck. The only issues it has now is some small leaks (final drive output seal, level check bolt, and rear brake booster (which I did a rebuild on already but the internals are too far gone to seal fully) and the sight glass on the clutch cover side.
Other than that it is just a matter of tuning the CV carbs to run with the pods and exhaust mods. Unfortunately, the frame was modified and there are no mounting points for the stock box. All in all, I'm excited about these projects. They'll both need valves adjusted and some love but we are getting there.
Feel free to vent any disgust or disappointment in these bikes. I too would have preferred a lovely stock example but I'm committed to finishing off these rides and giving them a little more time on the road while they can ride.
Thanks guys.
Lucas from Australia.
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