1982 GS1100E from the grave to today.

[rphillips]

Well, OK, I'll admit no doubt it's better than letting the whole thing completely rot away in a fence row. Still hard to say "another GS saved", "another GS eng., trans., & wheels saved" would seem a little more accurate. Looks like really good work whether I'm impressed with the final results or not. Also understand not invest more than will return, could go broke doing that. Congrats again & my opinion, color fits bike perfectly.

[winmag4582001]

Well, OK, I'll admit no doubt it's better than letting the whole thing completely rot away in a fence row. Still hard to say "another GS saved", "another GS eng., trans., & wheels saved" would seem a little more accurate. Looks like really good work whether I'm impressed with the final results or not. Also understand not invest more than will return, could go broke doing that. Congrats again & my opinion, color fits bike perfectly.

100% agree with you.
Front forks and rim, swing arm, motor are all that's left. The rear rim is 16", not sure what it was off of, but when I got the bike it had a dunlop tire on it that was stamped 99. So I'm assuming the last time the bike had ran was probably 20yrs ago. When I contacted MTC about piston rings, they said that style hadn't been produced since the 90's.

[rphillips]

Rear wheel 16", Most "L" model GS's had 16" wheels with that same design.

[chrisbnvds4]

A while back I bought a rotting 82 GS from a kid for a couple hundred bucks. He said the motor was locked up, but it wasn't. Just one of the stand offs for the coil pack had fallen into the motor and wedged at the cam chain.
Ended up that at some point in the bikes life it had been bored +2mm and had 36mm carbs put on it. I spent a few months and about a grand getting it thrown back together. Rebuilt the motor, did a simple wire job on it, tuned it and the thing is stupid fast for its age! Overall I got less than $1,500 in it and since august, about 5,000 miles. During nice weather I daily it to work, 50 miles round trip.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]63510[/ATTACH]

You did a great job upgrading it. By the way, what type of motorcycle exhaust do you run on this ride?

[Baatfam]

^^^^THIS right here is the exact reason I didn't waste time or money putting the bike back to original.
As I said in a previous response, there's a guy here in CO that has a cherry 82 that he's been trying to get $3500 out of for over a year. If he can't get $3k out of a mint one, I'm not going to put in the time or $ to bring one back to mint.

Lets be honest. There's only a few of us on this forum that could take a pile of junk that was leaning against a fence for years, with no gas cap, fried electrical system, possibly locked up motor, and get it back on the road in any form.
My bike isn't for everyone, but at least it didn't end up in the land fill.

Don't be too impressed by my $500 special. I only bought it to have a spare motor for my drag bike.
It had been leaning against the wall of a shed for years, with the starter clutch assembly laying on the ground, side cover off.
It was a mix o '82 and '83 parts, with a cut frame, and shortened front springs, (I figured illegal street racing), it really was a mess.

I wasn't planning on getting it running, just take out the motor.
But with this forum, some parts scrounging, another frame, and a lot of work, it turned into a great riding, OK looking bike.
But not worth anything close to $3K. LOL...

Anyway, 15 years later, it still looks OK...Just don't get too close.

[bonanzadave]

Looks like a hoot !!

[850 Combat]

Rear wheel 16", Most "L" model GS's had 16" wheels with that same design.

And a shaft. That would have to be a '79 1000L, 750L, or a tiddler.

I agree with the owner. The bike was not a bike now it is. A running bike has a lot more possibilities than one with a stuck motor. I might fix up a running bike, but not to tear the engine down.

I had an '83 1100E a while back. It was peppy.

[Rob S.]

Why not see how she looks with side covers? The rear of the '82-'83 tank has an odd look naked.

[bonanzadave]

Why not see how she looks with side covers? The rear of the '82-'83 tank has an odd look naked.

I was gonna say the same thing. Maybe cut them down about half the stock height.

[winmag4582001]

You did a great job upgrading it. By the way, what type of motorcycle exhaust do you run on this ride?

Had a V&H 4 to 1 on it that I reduced down to 1 3/4". Give it a little back pressure. It's loud without any muffler, but sounds fantastic at full throttle.

[Bdogginit]

That’s awesome!

[rphillips]

Old memories...Back in "81" I bought a new V&H for my GS1100E. It came from factory with reducers, I don't remember, either 2 or 3, that slid right into the collector. The smaller the restrictor, the more torque & little less top end HP. No restrictor more high rpm HP, but a little less torque, enough you could easily feel the difference.

[winmag4582001]

I'm back! lol
So, I finished this bike over a year ago, got it all tuned/dialed in and it did 146mph per the GPS.
Uncomfortable? Check
Ugly? Check
Fast? Check
Sold? Check

Saturday I'm going to look at what appears to be a mint 83 1100, clean title for $1200. If it starts and idles, I'll offer him $800. It's the typical story: Dude buys old motorcycle thinking he's going to do something and quickly finds out he is low on testosterone and mechanical/electrical knowledge.
I'll post if I buy it and show the process of cutting it down to size.

[wyly]

^^^^THIS right here is the exact reason I didn't waste time or money putting the bike back to original.
As I said in a previous response, there's a guy here in CO that has a cherry 82 that he's been trying to get $3500 out of for over a year. If he can't get $3k out of a mint one, I'm not going to put in the time or $ to bring one back to mint.

Lets be honest. There's only a few of us on this forum that could take a pile of junk that was leaning against a fence for years, with no gas cap, fried electrical system, possibly locked up motor, and get it back on the road in any form.
My bike isn't for everyone, but at least it didn't end up in the land fill.

Same here, I had a '84 GS1150efe complete and restored it to oem. Then I thought why did bother restore it, no one is ever going to pay more than $3-3.5L for it if I could find a buyer.

So i tore it apart and rebuilt it to my own preference, 50lbs lighter, new hand made alloy body panels, bored, Mikuni carbs, headers and moto gadget electronics. I still won't get more than $3-3.5K but I have bike I love and it was fun to build..