My 1981 GS650G Thread

[Macguyver]

Wooo Hooo!!!

Well it's official, my bike is safetied, insured, plated, and on the road!

I even managed to get in my first ride in the rain today on my way to the mechanics' for the safety inspection.

Sorry, no pics, it was raining cats, dogs, and even the occasisional squirrel on my way home. 6 degrees, overcast and rainy don't exactly create an ideal picture taking environment.

I will update with pics as soon as I can.

My bike is still a work in progress, but now I am even more driven to get her finished up!

Thanks go out to everyone who has helped me get her this far, wether by technical assistance, or by a kind word of encouragement, Thank you all!

You are all Aces in my books.

[FreshStart]

Congrats man. Its to bad you ditched the projectors i would have used two round and one oval for low mounted like this 8l (turn your head left)

[AF_Bill]

HELL YEAH MAC!!!!!!!! What else ya got planned for the 650?

[pete]

Wooohooo!!! Onya Mac!!!

[Skateguy50]

Excellent, riding might motivate you to finish or motivate you to wait till winter

[Macguyver]

Pics!

Greetings all!

Been out riding, so not too much going on with the bike right now. I did snap a few pics when I was out though.

Pay no attention to the seat cover, need to tailor it since I reshaped the seat a bit.











I still need to re-tailor the seat cover, make up a luggage rack, tweak a few things here and there, and finish mounting electronics (rear view camera, gps, and power inverter).

I am loving the way things have come together. Going for a ride sure is a great way to get a grin!

[pete]

That looks great Mac, well done!

It's really good to see you out and about for a ride and makin' me all envious of it

I see you're putting your tank bag to good use too, excellent stuff.

[AF_Bill]

Mac that looks great! Glad you are finally riding her.

[Macguyver]

Thanks for the kind words guys, I am loving having her on the road! I am taking the bike everywhere now, main mode of transportation.

Now I just need to give her a name...

[FreshStart]

Swamp thing

[BigD_83]

What a great look for your bike.

Is GI Jane too cliche?

[Macguyver]

Swamp or G.I. Jane would work equally well. I dunno, I was thinking of something simple, like Rabbit.

Any other suggestions? And no, I will not call her Velocitizer 3000 like a buddy of mine suggested.

[davidduarte]

how's that auxiliary tank coming along? I'd love to see the finished product.

[7981GS]

I like what you did with the tail section.
It is kinda odd in a different and interesting kind of way.

Daniel

[Macguyver]

Crap.

Hey guys,

No real progress to report on the bike or the aux tank(but soon there will be), but a fairly major setback to report.

I was crusing down the highway in 5th, coming back from a retail location I have been scouting for the business I am opening, and the bike started surging badly.

I pulled in the clutch, killed the engine, and pulled into a parking lot. Checked things over, and it turns out I had a gasket failure on the transmission case cover. Bad news.

I don't know how much oil was still in the engine, but the engine was blisteringly hot, so not good at all. I managed to get the bike transported home, and pulled the cam cover to check clearances to see if I burned some valve seals. Sure enough, the clearances were down to ~.1mm on the valves.

So now I need to order in a full gasket and seal kit, rip apart the engine, check to make sure the head didn't warp, and replace everything. Luckily, the motor isn't seized, so I am hoping I will be ok by doing a top end rebuild. This is defininately not what I needed right now. I was planning to do a rebuild on the top end this winter, and this has drastically moved up my timetable on this.

I am going to do some searches to see if there is anything else I will have to do as well because of the overheating, make a plan, and get at it as soon as I can afford to. Which may be a while yet since I am launching my new business in the next few of weeks, so the bike may be put on the back burner for a bit.

Thanks for the interest guys, and I will get back to you with details later.