1981 GS450E Rebuild

gs450e rebuild

Hi Pete,
Just checked out your rebuild thread, VERY NICE! M8.
You've obviously put a lot of work in.

Thanks for your Photobucket advice.

[pete]

Lotsa love went into that bike Pete. What a great job you've done! Congrats on getting to the point where you think you're finished.

Hahaha thanks GT! The only things I've done since then are a service and replace the R/R... other than that she's still "finished"...

The next set of tyres may not be dual sports though... the rear is quite soft compared to the front and while I get good grip it's not lasting as long as I'd like, especially in the centre with the commuting...

I think I must be up over the 7000km mark since the rebuild now and she's still going strong, lots of nice rides in this spring weather too

Lotsa love went into that bike Pete. What a great job you've done! Congrats on getting to the point where you think you're finished.

[pete]

Pete very nice, trying to pick the reststop you took the pics.

Cheers Greg! Although hopefully you'll get to see her in person on the 12th... photos won't be able to mask the dodgy bits then! Hahaha

That's just the usual rest stop just the other side of the Mt Mee summit before you start heading down. If I'm on a short ride like yesterday that's my usual leg stretch and turn around point.

Hey pete, you ever think about taking a small paint brush and some enamel and hitting the inside of the letters on the tank badges? I t would give them a nice contrast I think. Maybe it's just the pics washing them out, but they could use some more definition I think.
Just food for thought...

Cheers.

Hahahaha nup not at all Tim... I thought about it 'til I took the wire wheel to the badges and now I like how they look. The photos do wash them out a little though which is mainly due to my crappy photography... ahem... skills.

Hey pete, you ever think about taking a small paint brush and some enamel and hitting the inside of the letters on the tank badges? I t would give them a nice contrast I think. Maybe it's just the pics washing them out, but they could use some more definition I think.
Just food for thought...

Cheers.

[ged]

Pete very nice, trying to pick the reststop you took the pics.

[pete]

Ok, as promised, at last here are the final complete pic's as I got some half decent ones today... so that should give you guys some "closure"... right?

You need the outside diameter of your fork stanchions and lowers and whatever your fork travel is.

Fork travel on the 450 is 140mm and I'd expect the 300 to be similar but the manual should list it.

The key is to try to get a close match in gaiter height to fork travel. If it's too short it'll be stretched but if it's too long it will bunch up and could potentially get squashed and damaged at full compression of the fork springs.

Thanks! Back to the manual!

[pete]

Yeah, I saw you had gone to the dealer to get them, but I didn't know if they had given you a brand or not.

What are the dimensions I should take to size them up?

Inner diameter, bottom diameter, etc?

I don't know how to measure the travel. Any suggestions? I think yours was on the order of 250mm or something?

You need the outside diameter of your fork stanchions and lowers and whatever your fork travel is.

Fork travel on the 450 is 140mm and I'd expect the 300 to be similar but the manual should list it.

The key is to try to get a close match in gaiter height to fork travel. If it's too short it'll be stretched but if it's too long it will bunch up and could potentially get squashed and damaged at full compression of the fork springs.

Yeah, I saw you had gone to the dealer to get them, but I didn't know if they had given you a brand or not.

What are the dimensions I should take to size them up?

Inner diameter, bottom diameter, etc?

I don't know how to measure the travel. Any suggestions? I think yours was on the order of 250mm or something?

[pete]

Cheers Jake, it took far too long but I'm really happy with how she turned out

I'm not sure on the gaiters unfortunately, they were just some no-name brand the Suzuki dealer happened to have sitting on the shelf, not bike specific or anything.

I went in the first time looking for them and they had nothing, so I did more research, went back a second time, and they just happened to have had that set arrive in the meantime...

All I can suggest is go to a local dealer (any brand) and see what they have lying around or available.

Sharp looking bike man. I've tried going through the whole thread for quite some time, reading a couple pages every other day or so.

A lot of really good hand-made stuff. Now I see why you're so good with these bikes! No bolt left unturned. Very, very nice stuff.

Who makes those gaiters?

[pete]

Pete,
Great idea on the electrical outlet. Of course, you now force me to re-arrange my system. I dug into my vast assortment of boat perts and found a similar unit except it is a recessed 3 prong male connector normally used to hook up power to an onboard marrine battery charger. I'm mounting my battery and Battery Tender (Deltran) under the cowl on my cafe seat. The inlet is going underneath, out of sight, and hard wired to the charger. It will accept a standard 15amp extension cord connector. So when I return from a ride I will be able to just pop the rubber cap and insert the extension cord. Next time I ride I'll have a hot battery. Now I have to see if I have room for a second socket. It would also be nice to have on in your instrument cluster for a GPS. Damn you and your creative thinking.
Thanks,
Niels

Haha nothing original here Niels, this has all ben done before...

I originally had the pigtail for my trickle charger attached with the plug in a similar spot, but now I can simply find a compatible plug, stick a cigarette lighter style plug on the other end, and use that instead.

I don't plan on needing to charge mine unless there's an issue though, battery was still ready and raring to go after a week's holiday...

Pete,
Great idea on the electrical outlet. Of course, you now force me to re-arrange my system. I dug into my vast assortment of boat perts and found a similar unit except it is a recessed 3 prong male connector normally used to hook up power to an onboard marrine battery charger. I'm mounting my battery and Battery Tender (Deltran) under the cowl on my cafe seat. The inlet is going underneath, out of sight, and hard wired to the charger. It will accept a standard 15amp extension cord connector. So when I return from a ride I will be able to just pop the rubber cap and insert the extension cord. Next time I ride I'll have a hot battery. Now I have to see if I have room for a second socket. It would also be nice to have on in your instrument cluster for a GPS. Damn you and your creative thinking.
Thanks,
Niels

[pete]

Ok so I must confess... I did have one more thing to do

It's always nice to have some way of charging a phone or powering a wideband controller or something right? Yup, I put an auxiliary power socket (or cigarette lighter socket if you prefer) on.

I'm a bit limited on where to put it so I decided at the rear of the electrics tray mounted off one of the R/R bolts was the most suitable and pretty much the only place with enough room.

So I made a bracket for the socket:





Did up the wiring:



This one's wired directly to the battery via a switch and a 10amp fuse so if I need to charge a phone or something while I'm parked I can do it without having to leave the keys in the ignition.

Installed:





It's a bit hard to see but I also added a LED so I could see when it's on or off as well, first photo with the switch off:



Second photo with switch on, and it does appear to be a bit more effective in person: