My 1981 GS650G Thread

[Macguyver]

Older video, initial bike start-up.

I ran acrosss an older video from late spring/early summer 2009 of when I had just finished reassembly of my 650G after paint, carb dip, petcock, shock and seat replacement, and a miriad of other things I can't remember. I think the bike had literally 10 minutes of run time on it at that point since I didn't want to over-heat the engine sitting in a garage. I had yet to dial it in as it were. Very pleased with how easily it started, very pleased indeed. After adjustments, it only smoothed out even more.

I was running on no sleep after pulling an all-nighter putting it all back together so I am a little dopey in this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAGRR6glid8

[Turtleface]

I ran acrosss an older video from late spring/early summer 2009 of when I had just finished reassembly of my 650G after paint, carb dip, petcock, shock and seat replacement, and a miriad of other things I can't remember. I think the bike had literally 10 minutes of run time on it at that point since I didn't want to over-heat the engine sitting in a garage. I had yet to dial it in as it were. Very pleased with how easily it started, very pleased indeed. After adjustments, it only smoothed out even more.

I was running on no sleep after pulling an all-nighter putting it all back together so I am a little dopey in this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAGRR6glid8

Nice work! Funny how long you can go without rest while you're turning wrenches, eh? Just.....one....more...bolt....I find myself justifying 3-4 hours a sleep a night when I'm in crank it out mode. Speaking of which, back to work, these forks aren't going to assemble themselves.

The throttle mod is great, you'll love it. It'll make regular riding much more enjoyable as well, not just spirited riding. The extra spring tension you have to overcome (in my case, anyways) makes it easier for me to modulate the throttle in a precise fashion. Riding in less-than-ideal traction situations (rain, wet manhole covers, etc) is a good deal easier for me because of this. Great work on those rings, they look quite professional. I bet you'd sell out fast if you made a batch.

[Macguyver]

Nice work! Funny how long you can go without rest while you're turning wrenches, eh? Just.....one....more...bolt....I find myself justifying 3-4 hours a sleep a night when I'm in crank it out mode. Speaking of which, back to work, these forks aren't going to assemble themselves.

When I had the shop in Brampton I'd be working on a car to finish paint and often find myself getting out of the shop at 3 or 4 in the morning. Just cause it needed to be done if I wanted to bugger off early on saturday night. Or if I was doing mechanical work on one I liked, same deal. That's not including the usual emergency calls. Can be fun at first, can be a nightmare after a week or so steady! The gf hated it.

So how did the forks turn out? Doing seals/paint/both?

The throttle mod is great, you'll love it. It'll make regular riding much more enjoyable as well, not just spirited riding. The extra spring tension you have to overcome (in my case, anyways) makes it easier for me to modulate the throttle in a precise fashion. Riding in less-than-ideal traction situations (rain, wet manhole covers, etc) is a good deal easier for me because of this.

Funny, I was thinking that the throttle could use a bit more tension to increase consistency of control too. I don't think the tesion will change too much at the beginning of the twist since the profile is narrowest there, but I guess I will see. Almost seems "sloppy". I was also planning to sleeve the bar where the grip rides with teflon to make it as smooth as I can as well. Between the two, I think it shoud be much better.

Great work on those rings, they look quite professional. I bet you'd sell out fast if you made a batch.

Aw, now you got me thinking of how to make the jig to get the filing for the profile perfect every time, and how to build a sander table to clean them up easily!

I think I'll leave that to posplayr to make/sell these. It was his idea. That, and it would cost more for postage than what you would be able to charge for them. I may make up a batch if I find myself in a fiddly mood and end up making the jig and sander. Stranger things have happened when I am snowbound and bored!

[Turtleface]

So how did the forks turn out? Doing seals/paint/both?

Seem ok so far, fluid is in and not leaking, front end feels muuuuuch stiffer than the old bits. Right fork had 1/4 to 1/2 the normal amount of oil, left was at about 3/4. Stuff was thick, and the color of charcoal. Very much in need of changing. Smelt vaguely of fish. Pretty sure it was factory stuff. All the mechanical bits looked just fine, but I replaced all the wear items anyways, since I was in there. Actually took them apart, cleaned them, then rebuilt them with the old parts. Then I broke out the camera and did it all again. Too messy the first time to even think about touching sensitive electronics. I'll hopefully have the write-up done tonight or tomorrow night, depends on how much time I spend in the garage. No paint, I'm saving that for later, though the forks did get a good scrubbing. Cleaned up fairly nicely, some bare metal spots where the anti-dives had been leaking brake fluid, but not bad overall.

Funny, I was thinking that the throttle could use a bit more tension to increase consistency of control too. I don't think the tesion will change too much at the beginning of the twist since the profile is narrowest there, but I guess I will see. Almost seems "sloppy". I was also planning to sleeve the bar where the grip rides with teflon to make it as smooth as I can as well. Between the two, I think it shoud be much better.

I've got some of that DuPont Multi-Purpose stuff with Teflon. I have it in a spray and a squeeze bottle. Cleaned and lubed my clutch cable with it, and the action has never been smoother. The trick with this stuff is to make sure it's dry before you start operating whatever it is that's lubed. Used the squeeze bottle stuff on non-cable parts, like the pivot points for levers and shifter/brake, etc. Just get some on the parts you need lubed, and let it all dry before assembly. I've done all my cables with it, except the throttle cable, which I'm probably going to go do after I finish typing here.

[Macguyver]

Sounds like your forks received the same treatment mine did this summer past. I wanted to paint them, but it started raining just as I was trying to decide what paint to use, so I put them back on. I am wishing I would have painted them then.

I have a similar teflon spray, Tef-lube 2000 by kleenflow.
Who names these things? Really, Tef-lube 2000?
Works great though, rated for -34* to 315* C. It's the only thing I have found that really works on keeping my car locks from freezing. I treated the door seals by wiping it on with a cloth, and my car doors don't stick from freezing at all now.

[Macguyver]

Tail light update.

As promised, here are the pics for my progress with the tail lights.

I went over to a friend's place and borrowed his woodshop for a half hour and shaped the delrin molding positive for my tail light shrouds, and cut out the center piece of delrin between the two holes in the ends. This gave me a nice, large open area in the center for the brake light lenses to fill.

I am going to smooth everything tomorrow if I can find the time, using a 1" flat file to level everything in the middle, and to put a finished surface on the outside bevels.

I also deepened the recess in the underside so the shroud will cover the lenses and sit flush with the rear fender lower I had made previously. I highlighted the areas in question in the image. I used a 3/8" 4 flute end mill in my drill press to remove the material very slowly, layer by layer until I had the depth I wanted.

*Great care should be taken if you must use an end mill in a drill press.*

The work piece can kick up if you do not hold the piece down firmly, I would always prefer to use a milling machine for doing stuff like this simply so the piece could be secured.

I think it turned out fairly well, all of the bevelled edge has the same angle now, and 5 minutes on the belt sander saved about 5 hours of hand sanding with a block. This delrin is tough stuff, no wonder they make frame sliders out of it.

[Macguyver]

More tail light pics

Here are a few pics of the tail light shroud positive being held in place on my 650 for those who asked.

My main concern is that the tail lights are visible enough to traffic behind me. I may still play with the angles a bit, I am not sure yet. I will photoshop a few pics and see what looks best before I do any more cutting/sanding.

So far I like the look of it, it just needs that little something extra.

They shrouds will likely be either the same grey color as the lower, or a darker grey, maybe with some airbrushing, maybe flat black.
I will change my mind a dozen times between now and when the final part is ready anyway, so we'll see.

[Macguyver]

Salami cut?

Photoshopped a salami cut in the shroud. This would not block any of the LED's in the tail lights to the traffic behind it, and look not to bad doing it, too.

Hmm, I like it.

[Macguyver]

Salami cut #2

Photochopped another one.

Maybe salami cut with mirrored louvres. Like tons of mini reflectors. I wonder if it would help disperse the light out more? If they were slightly angled to catch some of the light from the LED's and reflect it up and out behind the bike at specific angles, it might make the LED's visible from a wider viewing angle perhaps.

[Macguyver]

Shacking Up.

I spent some time on the weekend clearing out the front entranceway at home so I could squeeze my 650G in there so I can actually work on it during the winter months.

I had to remove a very poorly constructed closet from the end of the entranceway, I didn't even need a hammer, a couple good palm hits took care of the fasteners holding the shelving, AND the supports. The thing fell apart like a deck of cards. It's a good thing I never really used it for anything aside from seasonal storage for snow shovels etc.

So now that I am "shacked up" with my bike, I can make some real progress on the customization. That, and it is much better for the bike going from sitting in the driveway with a cover on it, to inside, semi-heated storage.

It's a bit of a tight fit, but at least it fits. The only hiderance is going from one side of the bike to the other, but hey, I'll manage.

[Skateguy50]

Seeing you did roll it in should be good but reminds me of a friend in Maine that got so bored one winter he decided to try his hand at building wood canoes. He used his living room table and come spring realized it would not fit out the door, luckily for him he had a chain saw handy and literally cut the wall out to remove the canoe. It was just a trailer home so he didnt feel to bad, oh and the canoe floated and he has done pretty good making them on the side and selling for a pretty penny when done. Most are sold before he even finishes for a few thousand dollars.

[Macguyver]

Frame spot painting

Once I had my bike inside (kind of) I wanted to remove some parts so I could deal with some issues, and make room for parts I made for the bike, so the first to go was the tank, seat, airbox, carbs, and the rear fender lower.

I have had a few people want more pics of the fender lower I made, so here you go. The lower matches up to the lines of the "boat tail", and is held on with the bolts securing the trim rail to the boat tail. Once the trim is removed, all that is needed is to disconnect the tail lights, and the whole lower piece is removed.

Once I removed the lower, I decided to clean up the rear frame where some surface rust had made it's home. I would love to powder coat the frame, but unfortunately it's not in the budget, so I sanded all of the rust off, primed the frame with self-etch primer, and top coated it with some rattle can gloss black.

You can't see it in the pics, but I have a small electric heater in the corner to heat up the area so I could work in there comfortably, and it did a really good job of bringing things up to temperature after spraying and opening the door to let the fumes out.

Not that I have most of the parts off I need off, I can get to work on installing new or fabricated parts, so stay tuned for some progress updates soon!

[Macguyver]

Tunable Intake Cover

Here is a pic of the new cover I have made for my tunable pod filter project. There are still some issues I need to work out, but here is the latest version anyway. Let's call it version 2.

[rudy]

Photochopped another one.

Maybe salami cut with mirrored louvres. Like tons of mini reflectors. I wonder if it would help disperse the light out more? If they were slightly angled to catch some of the light from the LED's and reflect it up and out behind the bike at specific angles, it might make the LED's visible from a wider viewing angle perhaps.

Dude! I was thinking louvres from the start! I like we're on the same wavelength. Bike is looking good! I haven't seen any of this stuff yet since I've been busy with everything else. What I want to know is, where do you find the time for all this fabrication? It takes ages. Can't wait to see it finished.

How did those stators work for ya?

[Macguyver]

Rudy!

Hey buddy!
Long time no type. How ya been? Well, I hope.

I have the bad stators stripped of wire and ready for winding. Now that I have a new-to-me R/R, I will be able to redo the electrical on my bike in one fell swoop once I get the stator out to match it up so I know for sure which one I need. Once I know that for sure I am going to wind the one I need first, to get back into practice, then do up the rest and put them up here for grabs.

Time for fabrication, well, you see I have no life, and am single, so there ya go.
I still try to keep busy, but the work I do on the side mainly consists of ATM machine service and mechanical/bodywork, and both are busy during the summer months, not so much in the winter. I am definately not a fan of the cold, and since I don't have a shop to work in, I tend to stay inside and hibernate in the winter months since laying down in a snowbank under a vehicle to change bits and pieces isn't exactly my cup of tea.

I agree with you that louvres are the way to go on the tail light shrouds. I should get back to work on those when I get a chance, I have finished the mold to produce the parts, I just need to pop out the positive plug and I am ready to start pumping out shrouds!

I will update with pics when I get the molding process going for the shrouds, I also have a video of making the mold for the part, so I will get that uploaded to youtube once I do some editing to trim the time of it down a bit.

It's good to hear from you Rudy, how's the new-old house coming along BTW?