My 78 GS550 Cafe Project!

[Billyboy]

What do you think it'll fetch?

Awesome bike.

[bhppy101]

What do you think it'll fetch?

Awesome bike.

Not sure....lol..

But it was fun building her up!

I bought a cb750 and an old kz1000....I also may pick up a 1976 Goldwing that I might cafenate!

[isaac]

Awesome work on that bike. Do you have any idea what the final weight on that thing was when you finished? I'd love to know.

[froldt]

Awesome bike! I'm looking at getting a bike, and I just hope I can do some quality work to mine as well!

[bhppy101]

Awesome work on that bike. Do you have any idea what the final weight on that thing was when you finished? I'd love to know.

Thanks!.....I'm not sure how much lighter it got.....After getting rid of the rear fender, stock seat/tailight assembly, gauge cluster, and a few other things....maybe its about 20 lbs lighter than stock....just my guess.

[bhppy101]

Awesome bike! I'm looking at getting a bike, and I just hope I can do some quality work to mine as well!

Thank you!....I'm sure you can....just takes a little time and immagination to get it going.

If I work on another GS....which is a likely thing....I will do a start to finish thread...If its a Honda I work on next....it will be on the Honda forum.....Good luck on your project!

[jonesti]

Awesome work on that bike. Do you have any idea what the final weight on that thing was when you finished? I'd love to know.

Older post but I've been using this for some ideas. With similair removals rear fender/cowl, all signals, chain guard, rear pegs, front fender, and seat my scale is showing 35-38lbs lighter! The seat alone weighed 10lbs???? Mine had engine nerf/crash bars and highway pegs also......dead weight and now it looks so much slimmer!
BH your work and this post really got me going! I bought the bike 3 years ago and it sat for a year...3 other bikes we're being attended to. My pops wanted a go at it. The electrical was crapped out so he went to town but after 2 years it's back home. I saw this post after telling dad for 2years that GSRESOURCES is a mecca of info., called him that night and stole it back!!! CAFE HOOLIGAN in the works! I've even got 2 other friends in search.....

[bhppy101]

Older post but I've been using this for some ideas. With similair removals rear fender/cowl, all signals, chain guard, rear pegs, front fender, and seat my scale is showing 35-38lbs lighter! The seat alone weighed 10lbs???? Mine had engine nerf/crash bars and highway pegs also......dead weight and now it looks so much slimmer!
BH your work and this post really got me going! I bought the bike 3 years ago and it sat for a year...3 other bikes we're being attended to. My pops wanted a go at it. The electrical was crapped out so he went to town but after 2 years it's back home. I saw this post after telling dad for 2years that GSRESOURCES is a mecca of info., called him that night and stole it back!!! CAFE HOOLIGAN in the works! I've even got 2 other friends in search.....

Thats awsome! Show us some pics! did you get to see my other GS I built?

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1387&d=1163470303

[jonesti]

Thats awsome! Show us some pics! did you get to see my other GS I built?

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum...7&d=1163470303

Yep!!! Diggin the knee relief's. Once I can swindle the digi from the missus I'll start posting.

[80GS1000]

Nice bike! Great work on your project. Cafe racers = 8)

[ZOMBIEEATER]

i really like this bike it has alot of the syle i'm trying to get out of my 79 gs850, one thing i really envy are those wheel, as far as i know i'm out of luck getting spoked wheels due to the shaftyness of my bike

[byrdman76]

bhppy is the man.

Now im trying to keep up!

I was once the owner of a 79 GS550 s"L"ug . But ever since I saw the first couple of posts from his 550 it was on! I only wish i had the E model tank!

I also wish he had started the step by step fiberglass sessions on his gs1000 a few weeks earlier - the blue tape has its purpose! (i found out that the green foam will become somewhat deformed by the fiber glass resin) I had been watching too many episodes of unique whips when they were fiberglassing speaker panels and using fleece to get the shape they wanted. It worked out ok but I had to fill in some areas with dyna glass to regain my shape.

This was my first attempt with fiberglass, dynaglass, or even bondo for that matter so there was some on the fly learing going on. To anyone that has never tried this, do it - its alot of fun and very rewarding when you stand back and say "yeah Im the man - I just made my own cafe seat"

I still need to take a few shots of where Im at now - im currently in the paint stages. I'll get a few on tonight if i can. The next part will be seat foam and covering it with leather. I plan on covering the seat area and then coming over the top of the cowl and down about three inches. Im sure you guys know what im talking about the style is on a bunch of the cafe sites. The end result looks like the leather is buttoned to the rear hump - does anyone know what they use to attatch the leather to the cowl some sort of decorative rivet?

Anyway here is the before, and the after will follow

[byrdman76]

The begining...

[byrdman76]

the foam...

[byrdman76]

The form...