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Hey guys, glad to be here. I never pictured myself as a motorcycle person, I grew up on ATVs and while I always liked motorcycles I just never seriously considered buying a road bike. Here's my story of how that changed.
Last year I was cleaning a car for a guy and he asked me if I'd be interested in buying a dismantled bike for $100. He assured me everything was there and from my completely ignorant glances it looked like at least all the major stuff was there and the engine hadn't been cracked open so I wouldn't need to worry about rebuilding that. It was a 1978 GS400 he had torn down to the frame to turn into a cafe racer, a project I have discovered is really popular with this bike for some reason and also comes with a certain amount of hate from large parts of the community. If it makes you feel better, it doesn't have clip-ons!
So the back of the frame has been modified to fit the custom cafe seat he had made, but other than that the bike was stock. I took his number and didn't end up buying it off him for like 6 months, and then it was another 6 months before the bike was running, although most of the progress happened in the last month. I ran into a lot of issues that could have been solved by doing maintenance checks first instead of waiting until I ran into a problem. Something would not work right and I'd be sure the bike was a dud and it would turn out to be something dumb (bad ground, didn't adjust clutch correctly, kinked fuel line, leaky valve cover gasket because of improper torque order, etc) and while I'm certainly very handy this whole project has really been a humbling lesson on how I need to be more patient and how an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That said, I think I did pretty well or at least acceptable for someone with absolutely no experience working on motorcycles, only basic experience working on cars, and armed with nothing but a couple service manuals and a basic set of tools. This has really sparked a flame in me though and I can see myself working on bikes in the future and possibly even doing another full rebuild. The victory of progress makes all the constant frustration and the slow IV drip of money from your wallet so worth it in the end. Riding around on a bike I literally built with my own two hands is easily one of the most satisfying experiences I've had in years.
So here's the pictures. I'm sure there's some stuff in here that's going to make someone mad. Sorry.
Looking for better suggestions for mounting the seat. The clamps work fine but it's nowhere near an ideal solution. Unfortunately the original owner shaved off all the damn seat mounts when he modified the rear end so I'd have to make new ones and have them welded on.
Expect to see more of me as this is an ongoing project and with these bikes being relatively niche there's not a ton of active communities around them. I have fallen in love with this thing and I'm going to do everything I can to get it running like brand new. I'm currently wrestling with removing the cylinder but the absolutely ancient gasket has welded it to the crankcase, check my thread in the engine section if you have any suggestions!
Last year I was cleaning a car for a guy and he asked me if I'd be interested in buying a dismantled bike for $100. He assured me everything was there and from my completely ignorant glances it looked like at least all the major stuff was there and the engine hadn't been cracked open so I wouldn't need to worry about rebuilding that. It was a 1978 GS400 he had torn down to the frame to turn into a cafe racer, a project I have discovered is really popular with this bike for some reason and also comes with a certain amount of hate from large parts of the community. If it makes you feel better, it doesn't have clip-ons!
So the back of the frame has been modified to fit the custom cafe seat he had made, but other than that the bike was stock. I took his number and didn't end up buying it off him for like 6 months, and then it was another 6 months before the bike was running, although most of the progress happened in the last month. I ran into a lot of issues that could have been solved by doing maintenance checks first instead of waiting until I ran into a problem. Something would not work right and I'd be sure the bike was a dud and it would turn out to be something dumb (bad ground, didn't adjust clutch correctly, kinked fuel line, leaky valve cover gasket because of improper torque order, etc) and while I'm certainly very handy this whole project has really been a humbling lesson on how I need to be more patient and how an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That said, I think I did pretty well or at least acceptable for someone with absolutely no experience working on motorcycles, only basic experience working on cars, and armed with nothing but a couple service manuals and a basic set of tools. This has really sparked a flame in me though and I can see myself working on bikes in the future and possibly even doing another full rebuild. The victory of progress makes all the constant frustration and the slow IV drip of money from your wallet so worth it in the end. Riding around on a bike I literally built with my own two hands is easily one of the most satisfying experiences I've had in years.
So here's the pictures. I'm sure there's some stuff in here that's going to make someone mad. Sorry.
Looking for better suggestions for mounting the seat. The clamps work fine but it's nowhere near an ideal solution. Unfortunately the original owner shaved off all the damn seat mounts when he modified the rear end so I'd have to make new ones and have them welded on.
Expect to see more of me as this is an ongoing project and with these bikes being relatively niche there's not a ton of active communities around them. I have fallen in love with this thing and I'm going to do everything I can to get it running like brand new. I'm currently wrestling with removing the cylinder but the absolutely ancient gasket has welded it to the crankcase, check my thread in the engine section if you have any suggestions!
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