Loved the photochop idea! here's mine.

[Brothermist]

Ok, I finaly got over to the "little" bro's house and got some work done to the bike. I also got a few pics, but forgot to take them till after the work was done.

First thing I want to mention is the bike is FAR from done and still needs a lot of work. I'm still playing with things to see how they work out.

On to the pics.

[Brothermist]

MORE




And the bike looks VERY TINY !



I have to do something about how small the bike looks, it looks silly with me on it, and I'm only 6' tall.

I have a matching 19" front wheel coming that is going on her, and plan to lengthen the swingarm a few inches to drag the rear tire away from the seat. I'll be throwing on a set of drag bars to bring them up higher too.

So far I have $33 into the bike, that was for the 19" front wheel and tire.

I still have a long way to go, but I'm having a blast working on her. I bought a bike last night for a semi-daily rider, a '79 XS650 (I know, not a GS or a Suzi) so I can now take my time and get this one right.

So far I've cut the rear of the frame off, lowered the seat height, lowered the front end 3", removed the fenders, removed gauges, cleaned a lot, cut the rear pegs off, worked the kik stand so it wont fall over now that its lowered, and a few other things.

The seat "pan" and padding is the rear, passenger, part of the stock seat. I cut it off, and flipped it, cut it to shape a little bit and re-used the stock mounting hardware. I still have to fab a bracket to mount the origional keyed seat release.

Front end was lowered like the crotch rocket guys do, by dropping the trees. I went down 3", but after the 19" wheel goes on it will bring the bike back up 1.5" for a total drop, under stock height, of only 1.5" I am not sure yet if the 19" front wheel/tire is going to fit and look right with it dropped, I'll have to wait and see.

I love the look of the stock bars flipped and turned, and it's even comfy. But looking at the bike with myself on it... the stock bars flipped and turned add to making the bike look like a pocket bike. Thats NOT good!

Lastly, for now, I know what a lot of you are thinking... "OMG WTF you used Tire Wet on the tires! Your gonna die!"

The tires are trash. They hold air, and the tread is good, but both have cracks in the sidewalls. Since they are garbage, and I still need to clean the carbs and buy a battery (no kik start) I might as well make 'em purdy.

Let me know what ya think so far.

[txironhead]

You have the lines of the tank flowing into the seat perfect. I would definitely go with drag bars, they'd fit the lines of the bike. Or maybe some short staghorn bars.

The exhaust needs to be straightened out a bit, pointing up like that clashes with the "swoop" of the body now.

Not sure how to make the bike look bigger. Bobbers were small. It's a minimalist thing. It does look weird when your 6'+ though.

Definitely not bad for $33 total mods invested. Are you going with a swingarm taillight/plate bracket?

[Bopi]

Well, one pic is worth a thousand words. You've got about 8k there.I gotta say i really like the agressive chop on this bike and haven't seen one similiar on a gs yet. ( send pics if you got em) My suggestion would be to get some tube and stretch the frame for the seat along with the current plan for the swingarm. This would help the tiny problem and set the seat back a little more. I'm guessing you have a welder but i can't tell if the rails are already set. Sleeve the tube on both ends and run a bead. You've already gone this far.

By the way, I like the pipe angle.

[Bopi]

Here's a photo hack for you with a set back frame.

[Brothermist]

Thanks for the kind words.
The exhaust is not done, nothing on the bike is. I dont yet know what I'll do with it.

I have a welder, yes. Nothing has been welded on the bike yet. Welding will come after I have it how I want it to stay.

I do want to pull the seat back a bit, one of the reasons for needing the swingarm stretch. I wont be able to mount the seat that close to the tire though, as the bike does have rear suspention. Its not ridgid, it has the mono-shock. So putting the seat any closer to the tire than it is now will result in a moving tire implanted in my rear at highway speed... I think that might be bad.

I'm going to have to cut the lower "seat" bars off the frame and replace them. The tubes that come from the tank and go under the seat are round, but the lower bars, under the seat, that angle down twards the trans, are hex shaped. Weird ass late 80's GS. (still wanna know why its called a 550 when its 572cc's)

Got a lot to do, and the whole thing might change a few times before i'm happy with it.

[txironhead]

So putting the seat any closer to the tire than it is now will result in a moving tire implanted in my rear at highway speed... I think that might be bad.

Pansy! And I was beginning to think you were a real biker! Take it like a man!\\/

J/K, you're ideas are sounding good. I saw a nice bobber Yamaha the other day, the guy riding it was about my height and he fit it perfectly. I asked him about it and he accomplished it by stretching the frame 4" in the downtube and lower frame, lengthening the tank and slapping a longer chain on it. He said the only drawback is faster chain wear. He also stretched the swingarm 2", but he was running dual Progressives in the rear. I wanted to get a pic to post here but I didn't have the camera with me.

[Bopi]

These guys generally will use a chain tensioner to take up the slack when the chain is lengthened although i couldn't tell you why there would be more wear.

If you don't sleeve the frame tube when you lengthen it, you just might find your tire placement and/or travel to be much farther upward than anyone might find comfortable.

Solid rod is the way to go on that one.

As far as matching the hex, Well you could just replace the whole bar.

of course it'll run you a little more than 33 bucks

[Bopi]

Here's a few more bobbers w/frame mods , funny but you just don't seem to see too many softtails and that even with the yamahas. These are bikes that get chopped frequently.

[txironhead]

The second pic is absolutely wicked. I'd have done the paint a little different, because that bike is just evil.

[Brothermist]

... I pick up my new bike this Sunday. Its a 1979 Yamaha XS650 Special II, in perfect running order. But dont worry, I am not giving up on the GS

[Bopi]

Yea there's alot of em out there , notice the foward brake lever on bike 2. Seems he had his fins machined with a diamond pattern as well.

Of course bike 1 resembles my 78gs although mines a hellof alot quicker.
My paint shines more too.

By the way, if you weld the frame, how much stuff should you remove from the bike. The tank and carbs might be obvious but what are the chances of burning the wires from current not heat. I guess that depends on where you put the ground.

[CA180]

I had to subscribe! I love where this is going!

[johnnay]

yup, me too - fresh take on the bobber thingy.

[Mike_H]

Wow, that first yammy bob job is killer. Almost makes me wanna do the flat black thing...but no. I like shiny paint. Have you guys seen the new Harley Fat Bob? I know, Harley's seem to be looked down on here, but this bike is too cool not to mention.



Its got drag bars and a very nice dual headlight set-up in the front. Its a cool lookin hot-rod bike, even if it not really a hot rod in the performance sense. I especially like the heatshield cutouts, for some reason. It would look better with some black heat wrap behind 'em though. Let the harley flaming begin.