1981 GS450E Rebuild

Pete,
Busy here as well. Car repairs, plumbing repairs etc. By the way, if memory serves me correctly, you said that at 100 posts one became a senior member. If that's correct, start looking for a guest named "vikingrider" when I hit 99.
Niels

[pete]

Pete,
Your thread has slipped almost to the bottom of the page. You been a bit under the weather, mate?
Niels

Haha nah just no real progress to report... got a couple of holes drilled last night to locate the gear position indicator for mounting but that's it.

I'm onto the fiddly bits now which is getting all the mounting posts and holes done and I need to be patient to get them right so I don't have to start all over again.

Still waiting for the voltage monitor to arrive too...

I also caught up with HIGHSIDE yesterday who's up from Melbourne on holidays as he has a use for my old bikini fairing. Managed to strap it to the back of the bike and take it into work for him.

Nice bloke, got some good stuff on the go by the sounds, and he sure got a good score with his GS! Ya lucked out on that one David, well done

Pete,
Your thread has slipped almost to the bottom of the page. You been a bit under the weather, mate?
Niels

[pete]

Got the bottom bracket bent tonight and the top part bent to form the box as well:



So it should end up looking something like this:



Next up will be getting the mounts sorted so I can test fit it all.

No sign of the voltage meter yet but it's a bit early, so will organise that once it gets here. Plenty to do in the meantime...

[pete]

Err no. I have something called HDPE...... Hope to have some pics on my thread over the Easter weekend.

Mark

Google tells me that's High Density Polyethylene... whatever that is when it's at home

Be interesting to see what that is, how you work it, and how well it does the job.

Thanks Mark, so what sort of material did you get? Is it something fancy like carbon fibre?

Err no. I have something called HDPE...... Hope to have some pics on my thread over the Easter weekend.

Mark

[pete]

Ok, first off... brace yourself for a fugly headlight pic:



The very thin chrome plating came off when I bashed the dent in to clear the ignition switch and it has now nicely corroded... I really need to stick some primer on that or something to stop it rusting.

Anyway, that's the test fit of the bottom part of the bracket and as you can see it fits just fine, although I haven't bent it yet so the gauge doesn't sit at 45 degrees like it will.

Then I held the top piece on to get a rough idea of how it will go and it seems like it will be fine once I bend the sides down:



Here's the bottom bracket finished as far as basic shape goes, and all I need to do with it is finish smoothing it off, drill the holes where I'll mount the voltage indicator and gear position indicator and the mounting holes for the top part. Oh, and paint it:



And then I also got the cutout made for the gear position indicator face to slot through:



Not too far off now once I get the sides bent down and mounting holes cut, although I haven't received the voltage monitor as yet.

[pete]

Pete, got mine crossed for you too I have something similar planned but a very different material I purchased recently to use under the seat and if it workout as a gauge bracket too.

Mark

Thanks Mark, so what sort of material did you get? Is it something fancy like carbon fibre?

So far it seems to be coming together like I planned, so fingers crossed it will continue that way and it'll work out very neatly.

Pete, got mine crossed for you too I have something similar planned but a very different material I purchased recently to use under the seat and if it workout as a gauge bracket too.

Mark

[pete]

Had a really smooth run home from work today for a change which gave me some extra time to get some stuff sorted here and even some time with the jigsaw to cut the awkward shapes out of both halves of the bracket.



Then tonight I finished the cutting with the hacksaw:



The gear position indicator fits in its slot neatly:



And I'm not sure if you can see but I put a little chamfer on the rear to try to prevent any vibration causing the wires to rub against the alu.:



Forgot to take more but I now have the slot for the gear position indicator marked out ready to cut out, hopefully tomorrow night although I have to work at 10:30 so that may not happen.

So far it seems to be coming together like I planned, so fingers crossed it will continue that way and it'll work out very neatly.

[pete]

Nothing hugely exciting at the moment except of course the Kat run yesterday which was awesome and I got a little more done tonight on the bracket.

I got 5 minutes this avo to put this magnetic tool holder up so I can put stuff there out of the way while I'm still using them without having to put them in a drawer or whatever:



And then I got the two halves of the bracket fully drawn out (except for the holes on the top part) and cut out of the larger sheets of alu. ready to have a go with the jigsaw. I'm hoping to get 15 minutes after work tomorrow when I can make some noise to cut the curved and awkward parts.



If you look close you'll see I had to make some on-the-fly adjustments where I'd messed up measuring, but I'm glad I messed up measuring *before* I cut rather than after...

And my stainless hardware I got for putting it all together and the aluminium tube to make the standoffs with:



Fingers crossed the next update has the main shapes cut out ready to bend and get the fiddly stuff done.

[pete]

Used Google translate on that article,very weird

Haha I should've tried that... Google translator does do some weird things sometimes... good for a laugh though!

That a pretty sweet gear indicator.

The eBay one or the home made one? The eBay one is definitely more robust and finished...

Pete,
A bit off the subject, but have you ever considered doing your seat in crocodile?
Niels

Hahahahaha you're a classic Niels...

Pete,
A bit off the subject, but have you ever considered doing your seat in crocodile?
Niels

That a pretty sweet gear indicator.

Used Google translate on that article,very weird