Ideas for making a GL good looking

[Doctor Shifty]

I'd get rid of the rack etc, and the king & queen seat.
Fit a metric cruiser style seat, (with the falling off pillion look).
Remove all the Suzuki badging.
Paint it black with orange striping.
Put Harley Davidson badging on tank and sidecovers.
Put Screamin Eagle badging on timing and stator covers.

Prepare some answers to the question, "When did Harley ever make an in-line four?" :-)

Kim

[isaac]

I'd get rid of the rack etc, and the king & queen seat.
Fit a metric cruiser style seat, (with the falling off pillion look).
Remove all the Suzuki badging.
Paint it black with orange striping.
Put Harley Davidson badging on tank and sidecovers.
Put Screamin Eagle badging on timing and stator covers.

Prepare some answers to the question, "When did Harley ever make an in-line four?" :-)

Kim

Well if I yanked the #1 and #2 spark plug wires it'd sound like one too.

[Doctor Shifty]

I'd get rid of the rack etc, and the king & queen seat.
Fit a metric cruiser style seat, (with the falling off pillion look).
Remove all the Suzuki badging.
Paint it black with orange striping.
Put Harley Davidson badging on tank and sidecovers.
Put Screamin Eagle badging on timing and stator covers.

Prepare some answers to the question, "When did Harley ever make an in-line four?" :-)

Kim

Well if I yanked the #1 and #2 spark plug wires it'd sound like one too.

Pull one plug and it will sound like a V-Twin. Pull two plugs and it runs too rough to ride properly. Sounds more Ducati than HD, probably because of the 180degree timing, at least mine did when one plug boot started to collapse. :?

Kim

[chazz]

you could always go this way,not sure about the colour though

[isaac]

For those who doubt the power of self motivation, my bike is now no longer burgundy with chrome fenders. I'm lowering it tomorrow. Pics to follow.

and chazz, no way would I do that.

[RonniDK]

Honestly, I think that most radical changes people make are a bit ridiculous, and can only be loved by their owner.
Many times, the money would be better spent buying something else, instead of trying to improve something you're not happy with. A bit cynical approach, I know.

But damn, that photoshop is cool! You've got a special look going, that I really like, so I definately think you should go for it.

[isaac]

Since Chris suggested it i'm strongly considering modifying the guage cluster. I'd leave it with just the speedo since the tach doesn't work anyway.

Has anybody ever done this to a GS? Where did you put the speedo that didn't look goofy? The entire setup will be lowered a bit, so that's a consideration. Right now it looks like when I flip over the headlight mounts they'll drop the light about 1"-1.5" which may not be enough so I might have to cut all 5 of the spot welds off each ear, which will be a pain to do without ruining the ears themselves.

BTW I've also dropped the bike today.



I cut 1 1/2 coils off the bottoms of the rear shocks and raised the forks up into the trees an inch and a half (found out they're gas forks), thanks to some handlebar clamps I bought from Jack's cycle salvage.


They let me raise the forks up an extra 3/4" beyond the range of adjustment already available. I'm gonna be repainting those to match, and possibly filling in the now exposed half-hole.

It looks a bit nicer, but the feel of the bike is improved 100%. Man this bike is so fun to ride now. It's just got that "connected to the ground" feeling as you're on it since it's significantly lower now. There's just something cool about feeling closer to the road.

I'm redoing that seat too. I'm gonna make it taper in to the rear because that big "fat ass" look doesn't blend well at all with the relatively sknny tail end of the bike. Once I have the seat ironed out I'll chop the subframe and mount of the plate and lights.

[zuty13]

That looks great!!!!!!!

That GS looks great!!!!!!! Isaac.....
I'm thinking about similar mod as soon as I finish low end rebuild... :roll:
I was thinking about raking that extra height in front forks after lowering the back of suzi...
Can you post more side (profile) pics ..whats your ground clearance now...???

Here is my photoshop mod

http://www.pbase.com/image/54508291

[bobo]

isaac, i have 'drag specialties' mini gauges on my bike. they're about 2" round and fit just perfectly under the front bolts of the handlebar risers. i got mine on 'e-bay' quite cheaply so get looking ! i have a speedo and a tac. but you could get away with just the speedo. keep up the good chopping...b.b.

[isaac]

The tail section is inching closer to completion. I'll likely yank the front turn signals in favor of low profile ones.

[Chris Daniel]

Looking good man.

I switched my turn signals to some super low profile ones......I love the way they look.

[ron bayless]

I already pm'd you, but in case you dont get it, i think all your ideas are double cool.some of them i had had too, so we must be on the same creative wavelength. as far as "classic" goes, be boring and stock if you prefer, but the bike's perfomance exceeds most all modern bikes especially cruisers, so why not update the looks too?

[Mike_H]

Issac, like the way your bike is coming along, Your integrated taillights are looking great. Kepp us posted, eh? I got some ideas of my own, the biggest of which is going to be putting dual discs up front, (650L) and chopping the rear pillion, probably most of the frame behind the rear shocks...Similar to what you have done. Good to know there are others out there that share the sickness.

[tracy borchert]

I'll agree with you all with making your GS your own, but a GS is a classic, the original street bike. That performs very nicely, so why would you want to turn them into want to be choppers. You don't want to go to far. then it's not a GS anymore and thats what you don't want. At least thats what I've tried to do with mine, a little custom but you know it's still a GS.

[Cat Man]

I agree with Tracy. Make your bike your own, but don't lose the GS identity.