1981 GS450E Rebuild

[john82q]

well it is green, and out there!

I wonder if you used a heat gun if the guard could be reshaped to a tighter slightly radius, that and trim some from the front as well as the back. just thinking.

[Woodsy]

I would probably leave the back and trim the front

[pete]

So it's not just me who thinks it ain't quite right... cool

I might try moving it back a bit more, and looking at it again now, I can see I actually had it tilted too far back, so the front should be lower.

I definitely will have to trim the rear a littleif I do that or it won't clear the frame when turning.

John, the heat gun idea's a good one too if it's still not right.

[Flyboy]

Agreed, needs to come down and back a bit, it is too far forward, and in the middle of nowhere.
I can see the look, once you have it tweaked, it is going to look wicked.

[pete]

Cheers Flyboy. I'll give it a go like that and see how it goes.

If I need to trim, I need to trim... just leaving that for the last resort as it's really hard adding it back on after you've trimmed it...

[Flyboy]

Pete, I am with you on the trimming, I would be less than keen to take the Stanley knife to something I bought a week ago.
But hey, if needs be, you gotta do what you gotta do, I have no doubt you will get it right.
Just for giggles, have you tried mounting it the other way round and playing with placement, you may be surprised.

[pete]

Hmmmm... no I hadn't even thought of that!

Ok now that's gonna get frustrating... we're off to the pub tonight, and Saturday night's usually a no-bike night, so next time I expect to have half a garage will be next Thursday night... maybe I can squeeze some time in over the weekend. Gonna bug me til I get to try some more stuff now!

[Flyboy]

Hahaha. now you sound like me, the only time I get in the man cave is Sundays, and its a looooong week in between.
Have fun in the pub.

[Johnny Drummond]

Hi Pete,
I'm with flyboy and woodsy, turn the guard around.Did you blank off the original holes in the fork stantions?,if not why not do 2 jobs at once and make up a combination fork brace and fender mount-that way you can make it the height you want and eliminate flexing at the same time.When I put the plastic fender from my parts donor bike onto my GSX11 engined GS1000 I fitted the micron brace that was along with it,feeling like you have 2 play doh sticks attached to the front wheel under braking wasn't something I wanted with that weight of bike!,as for the rest of the bike-it looks good are you and woodsy having a competition as to who takes the longest to finish your builds ha ha ha.Johnny

[pete]

Hi Pete,
I'm with flyboy and woodsy, turn the guard around.Did you blank off the original holes in the fork stantions?,if not why not do 2 jobs at once and make up a combination fork brace and fender mount-that way you can make it the height you want and eliminate flexing at the same time.When I put the plastic fender from my parts donor bike onto my GSX11 engined GS1000 I fitted the micron brace that was along with it,feeling like you have 2 play doh sticks attached to the front wheel under braking wasn't something I wanted with that weight of bike!,as for the rest of the bike-it looks good are you and woodsy having a competition as to who takes the longest to finish your builds ha ha ha.Johnny

Cheers Johnny, the next time I've got time and garage space I'll try a few different mock ups including turning it around. Certainly won't hurt to give these things a try!

As to the fork brace, the plan at the moment is to track down some 3mm aluminium sheet and bend up an old school MX style fork brace. I definitely don't want a front end that flexes all over the shop!

At this point I'm definitely winning the slow build thread! Technically it started something like six years ago...

[Woodsy]

Yours is a build, mines a wreck lol

[pete]

Haha now don't be like that Josh, you'll have her purring again in no time!

[Flyboy]

Yeah Josh, you burning the candle at both ends there, I just hope you are Keeping your two builds seperate and not getting parts mixed up.
You may just land up with a Kingswood motor in your bike.

[Woodsy]

the old kingswood hasnt been touched for about 6 months, once i get a mig welder i'll get stuck into it!

[pete]

Well... I managed to get in there tonight...









If you look at it the right way around, I can safely trim two to three inches off the front without any dramas. I will still need to trim a little off the rear to clear the frame and left header.

If you look at the reversed one, the front part is too long to get the front bit to sit right, so the front will come down probably two inches or so once the front is trimmed back quite a bit.

Further thoughts?