My 1981 GS650G Thread

[Skateguy50]

Looks good, its outside and has nearly everything in place. Keep avoiding helping friends till you get this project on the road.

[Macguyver]

Looks good, its outside and has nearly everything in place. Keep avoiding helping friends till you get this project on the road.

Thanks for the encouragement, and that's the plan, but when I can, I will try and russel up some computer/body work when time permits to help me get the insurance extortion money saved up.

I am still waiting on some misc. stuff to show up in the mail, and I have a few fabricated parts left to put on, and electrical work to finish to fill in the time.

Ideally, I would like to have it plated and insured by the end of this month at the latest, but I will see what side work I can pick up to speed that along.

[Macguyver]

Brake and Turn signal Internal Reflectors

So in an effort to make my bike as visible as possible, I decided to remake the LED brake and turn signals on the rear cowl of my 650.
Don't get me wrong, the custom ones I made were quite bright, but not that "Give the people behind me a sunburn" kind of bright I am looking for. Since my bike is green, and statistically dark green is the most overlooked color on the road, I wanted my lights to be crazy bright!

First thing I did was order some 3W Superbright LEDs and drivers for them, which showed up in the mail on Wednesday. The plan is to have one in each lighting "pod" for running lights, and one in each "pod" for brake lights.

In order to do this and not have the incredible amount of light they produce be wasted, I needed some sort of reflector behind the lenses.

This is what I came up with:



Simply a couple pieces of metal shaped in the same shape as the internal lenses of my setup, with about 20% added to their length to allow for the folding of the metal to create a mounting surface for the LEDs. Hmm, I think I have sufficient penetration on my welds.

I had everything set up to weld and it started raining, not much, just lightly, but enough to make me nervous!

Next, the reflectors had a date with my new bench grinder.



Once smoothed, I cleaned the surface of them with a clean rag and some acetone, then primed them with some self-etch primer.



While the reflectors were curing, I masked off the internal lenses for the reflectors, and gave the outside of them a nice heavy coat of rubberized gravelguard to create a gasket of sorts so they will seal against the reflectors.



After the primer was dry, I coated the inside of the reflectors with Dupli-Color Chrome paint, and the outside with engine enamel clear which I had previously tinted with Delfleet Evolution toners to match the body color of my bike. I think they turned out pretty well indeed.




This is as far as I could go last night, and the next step is to secure the LEDs onto the short side in the reflectors so that their wide dispersal beam will "light up" the long face of the reflector, and in turn, light up the internal lenses.

Since my battery will be mounted directly in front of them, I figured metal was the best choice of material for them from a durability standpoint, and they can also double as heatsinks for the 3W LEDs, and pull triple duty as the back rest for the battery once I adhere some rubber onto the backside of the reflectors.

I know I am doing an insane amount of work on something that no one is likely to ever see, but hey, I will know they are there, and they are well protected, and look snazzy!

I will be finishing them up tonight, and will post completed and installed pics as soon as I am able.

[pete]

That looks like a damn good idea to me Mac!

Making tail/brake lights as visible as possible may just save you from that unexpected rearender...

[AF_Bill]

Mac, WOW!!!! Looking good. Like the new headlight configuration. I've been thinkin about the dual headlight mod for a bit now. Those lights fit the bike so good. Keep up the good work and get that thing on the road!!

[Macguyver]

That looks like a damn good idea to me Mac!

Making tail/brake lights as visible as possible may just save you from that unexpected rearender...

Thanks!
I just need to grab a couple things from work today and then the taillights are done.

Then I need to shift my focus onto making a licence plate bracket with light and/or rear fender, plug all of the electrical back together, and I should be good to get her safety inspected.

Mac, WOW!!!! Looking good. Like the new headlight configuration. I've been thinkin about the dual headlight mod for a bit now. Those lights fit the bike so good. Keep up the good work and get that thing on the road!!

Thanks Bill,
I am getting quite close to being done, well, done enough to be safetied, then look out! I figure once she is on the road I can do up the rest of the small stuff needed to finish her off one weekend at a time.

[Macguyver]

Oil Catch Can

Since I plan to run a custom air box, I decided to go with a custom oil catch can from the breather tube on the valve cover. Not being one to do this the easy way, I of course built one.

Here is the bracket for the new catch can installed on the rear of the transmission case.



With the catch can:







It was quite the endeavor building the can and bracket, I have more pics somewhere, I just can't find them at the moment. I would hate to think I deleted them!

The filter in the top of the can is a standard FRAM 1000 fuel filter I cut one connector off of, and it fits into a machined recess in the grey plastic body of the can assembly. It is held in with a stainless wire retainer I bent up out of some stainless MiG wire.

The plastic body was then threaded by heating a glass mini-jam jar, and threading into the pre-heated plastic piece. Then there is a hose running from a barb coupler threaded into the side of the plastic body up to the breather.

Before anyone asks, yes, it has LED's in it, but it started raining before I could get pics of it lit up.

That's all for the moment, I will update with more soon.

[Tim Tom]

I love this build. Every time I look at it I am astounded by the attention to detail and all the neat gadgets you come up with. Keep up the great work!

[Macguyver]

I love this build. Every time I look at it I am astounded by the attention to detail and all the neat gadgets you come up with. Keep up the great work!

Thanks Tim Tom!
I do the best I can with what I have, nothing more, nothing less.

Just wait until I have her on the road and then the really neat gadgets will start showing up on her!

[pete]

Another nice touch Mac, impressive

[Macguyver]

Another nice touch Mac, impressive

Thanks Pete!

I will hopefully find some time this weekend to get the new electrickery tray in, and get some pics of it all lit up, provided the small body job I have booked after work on Saturday goes quickly.

[Flaming Chainsaws]

WOW! Such attention to detail. I love those little add ons and gadgets. Just like what Macguyver would do... Are you THE Macguyver LOL?

Great job with the build.

[Macguyver]

WOW! Such attention to detail. I love those little add ons and gadgets. Just like what Macguyver would do... Are you THE Macguyver LOL?

Great job with the build.

Sorry, not THE Macguyver...no mullet.

Thanks for the praise, I really do appreciate it. As far as the little add-ons and gadgets go, just wait till she's on the road, then the good stuff goes on.

I just wish the weather would cooperate a little more. I finished a small body job this weekend, and it rained the rest of the weekend. This is 4 or 5 weekends in a row my bike related efforts have been cut short, or rained out. Mother nature needs to cut me some slack here!

I did manage to get the electrical tray bolted in, but could not get the electronics mounted due to the sudden appearance of water in the atmosphere, and in my driveway! I am going to try and get things mounted tonight as long as the weather cooperates.

I will update when I have more to report.

[Skateguy50]

Im not sure what that latest piece does but it looks cool.

[Macguyver]

Im not sure what that latest piece does but it looks cool.

Hehe, Thanks.

It's the new catch can to collect any oil which may come out of the breather tube from the top of the valve cover. From the factory, the breather tube is connected to the airbox, but since mine is no longer there, I need something there. It's not good to run with nothing on the breather tube since the engine will not run 100% correct without a filter on there at the least. It's not likely to ever get any oil in it, but it will let me easily see if there is any oil being pushed out.