GS anxiety

[jdknicks]

Wow! It sounds like you're busier than I am (which is saying a lot). Be sure to keep us updated and post some more pics when you get the chance. I'm not a huge fan of Ls, but she is a beauty! It's definitely nice to have the stock exhaust as well, sounds like a great buy.

[Roland5color]

That appears to be a beautiful example. It deserves to be preserved, in my opinion. Take good care, and enjoy it!

It really is In excellent shape combat. Not perfect but will be eventually. I was planning on turning it more into a G model but now that I have seen several pics of L's wih just a handle bar change that's all I'm going to do to mine. I also came with a vetter windjammer fairing. So I would like to find some rear luggage for it as well. Would come In handy when I'm riding in the winter months on long trips. Plus I have the vintage bug now and would like to have a few different models of GS bikes eventually. All that damn money that I spent on the latest greatest bikes could have been spent on some rare finds. Oh well you live and you learn right lol.

[Roland5color]

Wow! It sounds like you're busier than I am (which is saying a lot). Be sure to keep us updated and post some more pics when you get the chance. I'm not a huge fan of Ls, but she is a beauty! It's definitely nice to have the stock exhaust as well, sounds like a great buy.

I will post some pictures for sure. I will probably start a thread in the proper section though once I start restoring it. I will keep a photo catalog actually of all the steps like I have seen In some great threads on here already. I really though just want to go through all the major maintanance though and ride it as much as possible. I have two years of riding to make up for lol.

[Roland5color]

Found some medication to help my anxiety a little. I order set of Shinko 230 tires, some Daytona handle bars, all new o-rings for carbs and intake and some oil filters. Previous owner said he had carbs done and all parts replaced but I don't trust those darn PO's lol. It should all be here Tuesday. Which will give me two days to work on the old girl before I leave for work again. So on second thought maybe I just made my anxiety worse at least until Tuesday.

[Super]

Since you'll have the back wheel off to put a new tire on, you might as well do the spline replacement while you're at it. Do a search...there's plenty of threads about it. Original OEM splines wear out.

I have my back tire off my 82 1100G and am waiting for a replacement spline from a fellow GSR member to get here.

Super nice bike you got there though! I'm going through a project/rebuild .. replacing the spline, wiring harness, engine swap...etc. Can't wait to ride her when she's all done!

[Roland5color]

Well today I got all the fluids changed except the brakes and got the front tire mounted. Was the easiest tire that I have ever removed and installed. Tomorrow I will be putting the rear on and I will be checking the spline while its off. Hopefully it still looks good for now it only has 16000 miles on it and its seems the previous owners took good care of it. I will replace it later as money allows.

[Super]

Please be aware that just looking at the spline really isn't good enough. Mine "looked" pretty good. But I decided to be sure so when I took the spline all the way out of the rear wheel, it was the back side of the spline, the side that can't be seen, that was totally trashed. Almost all of the spline was wore down up to the part you can see sitting in the wheel.

I know this may sound like a bit of a hassle but you might want to double check it and pull it all the way out. Nothing's worse than having the bike go down on you because of a bad spline after everything else has been taken care of. Your call though.

[Roland5color]

I looked the spline over thoroughly and it looks excellent. Plus it is silver in color not gold. Which is from what I understand the preferred spline to have. By the way the Shinko 230's are both mounted now and they are an amazing set of tires for the price. So far they handle as good as any michelin, dunlop or Bridgestone i have ever tried at a fraction of the price. Cant wait to try them in the rain. Now lets see how many miles I can get out of them.

[Roland5color]

Anxiety was at a moderate level once I got the tires on but since then it has been rising. I removed the carbs to clean and rebuild and found countless stripped screw heads, jetting issues, loose screws, broken screws, missing bolts, all rubber grommets for mounting gas tank except for one missing (probably the cause of the metal vibrating noise i was hearing on the few short rides i took), my accel supper coils zip tied in place, one of the carb sync screws with the head broken (ordered parts before I noticed this damn anxiety should have been more patient) and that the PO is a liar as usual LOL. Said he replaced all parts in carbs when he tore them down for cleaning. I'll just say i was surprised to see that Suzuki used plastic o-rings to seal the carb joints lol.

I've bought plenty of used bikes in my day so none of this was really a surprise to me. So I order what parts I could at the time from boulevard Suzuki. They will be arriving on Monday just in time for me to return home from work. I was able to spare enough cash to purchase new intake boots for head and air box. All new clamps as well. Plus I got all new fuel and vacuum lines. Last but not least the rubber mounts for the tank and the main jet I needed. I had already purchased all the o-rings for carbs and intakes just in case. For $28 I figured it was a cheap way to prevent further anxiety just incase I took the carbs apart and found a mess. Which I did.

All in all the carbs are clean and will be in excellent condition once I replace all the hardware. This bike has only had two owners. Seems like the original owner took decent care of the bike and that the second owner tried to but lacked the mechanical skills to do so. Thank god the second owner only had the bike for a few years lol. So I should have the carbs back on this week. The next big step is to check valve clearances and sync carbs. Now if I can just find the box that I put the 5mm adapters into for my carb sync when I moved that would be great. Yeah I know why didn't I just put them with the sync tool. Hey don't judge me I was moving in a hurry and didn't plan on owning another bike any time soon so I just threw all of my bike tools into random boxes. Lesson learned believe me.

I thought buying new parts would help my anxiety but I have found it only makes it worse when cash flow is low and you only need a few more parts to get on the road.. Now if I could just talk the wife into diverting house remodeling cash into motorcycle restore cash I would be golden. However that could cost me many sleepless and lonely nights on the couch. Oh well she has allowed me to purchase and spend countless amounts off cash on bikes in our 17 years of marriage and even bought me the 2006 ZX-10 that is listed in my sig. So I guess I can deal with this anxiety just a little bit longer. Stay tuned to see if I finally loose it and have to be committed or if I can handle the wait and enjoy my GS in the winter months.

[Roland5color]

Went through all electrical on the bike and got it all sorted. Was able to get in a nice 70 mile round trip through some back roads of western KY. The grunt that this gs1100 has down low makes it a blast to ride on the curvy and hilly back roads that I love to ride on. You can leave the bike for the most part in one gear and use it's torque to drive out of the curves even at low RPM. Each time I fix a little something and take the old girl for a ride the fun factor increases and the smile on my face gets bigger. It's a good thing I wear a full face helmet or people would be able to see the crazy look on my face and possibly call the police LOL.

The next day after that wonderful ride I reluctantly set out to check valve clearances. I say reluctantly not because of the task at hand but because of the fact that I knew once I pulled that valve cover I wouldn't be able to ride a again for at least a week or maybe two because of the wait on parts and my limited time at home.

Good thing that I put my anxiety a side once again because all of the valves were to tight. I can tell that the valves were done at least once in the bikes life time because some of the shims were installed with the numbers facing up. Which of course wiped out the numbers on them. So I've ordered shims and gaskets and they should be here next week. I also did some plug chops and as I thought the bike is running just enough on the lean side to make the plugs white. So I order some new mains and picked up some washers at radio shack. Once I get the parts and finish up the valves and fueling I will only have the suspension and leaking gas tank as major problems to sort out.

[Chris]

I picked up a classic this time. Only 16000 miles on her and she runs like a top. The bike that is not the wife. However she's 43 and runs like a top herself

Great line! Made me smile and look up from the computer and focus on my wife until she started fidgeting and demanded "What!?"

"Nothing honey, you run like a top!"

That's when she started muttering....

[Roland5color]

Glad you liked it Chris. Since my last post I have set the valves, put the final sync on the carbs and raised the needles in the carbs. Bike is real smooth now. The vibrations I had in the handle bars is gone. The slight stumble that I had in the mid range is now gone as thanks to raising the needles with some washers from radio shack. It's still lean on the top end but I have bigger mains coming. So now that I don't have to worry about burning a valve or the electrical taking a crap on me my anxiety is gone and I can enjoy my rides. Now I just have to find some spare time to do so.