Ratbike to puty sport-cruiser: The saga of a Jedi's bike...

[Dark Jedi]

Howdy, folks. Been away for a while looking for a new job. With all this unexpected free time on my hands, I finished(nearly, anyway) the GS restore.

I bought a GS650GZ a few months back, and while it ran well, it was a total Ratbike. Flat black rattlecan over mismatched side panels, caked grease, bent bar, scraped up side. Ya know, butt-ugly.

I ripped it apart and have been locating parts while restoring the restorable. It is actually turning out to be a rather nice bike.
I took some before pics, and will finish the roll of film with a set of after pics. Once I am able to digitize them, I will post them up here for a few bragging rights.

I still have to add the crash bars, and do a good engine shinejob (any tips here, I haven't the money for a narrow abrasive flapper wheel like I would normally do it.)

Just in time too, I think I'm moving. I'll probably ride the bike as a summer cross-country ironbutt trip sounds appealing to me, for some odd reason. I'll pop the boy (11) on the back for as long as he can stand it, and the wife and luggage will ride in the truck. (I'll be going out about 6 months ahead of family and household).

[bgmart450]

I used old fashioned elbow grease, and Never-dull, steel-wool, and various abrasives. Topped off with metal polish. One thing you can do, if you think it still has the laquer on the case pieces is remove the pieces and spray them with aircraft stripper, then clean em up and polish. I was amazed at how much better my bike got once the junked out laquer was removed.