1981 GS450E Rebuild

[oldrookie]

Love those pipes! That is going to be a sweet ride!

[Ricko19]

No worries Pete, I'll check out some of those aftermarket ones myself and see if any of them suit

[pete]

Love those pipes! That is going to be a sweet ride!

Cheers mate! I hope so...

No worries Pete, I'll check out some of those aftermarket ones myself and see if any of them suit

Cool, once I decide I'll let you know what I'm doing, but I'm thinking those cheapies off eBay will be the easiest solution.

[pete]

Only got down for about 10 minutes tonight as I finally got to watch the MotoGP from yesterday morning (no spoiler), just long enough to unwrap the mudguard which arrived today and see how it will fit:





I think the front will be ok, but I'm expecting to have to trim the back off a little to clear the frame and pipes, but I'll have to get it mocked up a bit better to be sure.

Right now, the main wiring harness and tacho cable are getting in the way, so I'll have to figure a creative way of routing those safely away from the guard. I'll have to do the same for the front brake line also.

Hopefully I can get some more time this week to hook up the clutch and throttle cables and maybe start looking at getting the P clamps on the electrics tray to neaten the mounting up.

[Flyboy]

Good buy on that mud guard, I think it is going to give you exactly what you are looking for.

[pete]

Good buy on that mud guard, I think it is going to give you exactly what you are looking for.

Yeah I reckon so, and the price is perfect... I didn't think it was possible to buy anything brand new over here for $5.00 any more... postage was three times the price! $20.00 to my post office box for a newey is a bargain in any language

Bugger, just realised I forgot to measure what size alu I'll need for the sump guard again...

[Woodsy]

That guard will suit it for sure. Have you noticed how the item prices are getting cheaper and the postage is getting more expensive? Peoples way of getting around ebay fee's.

[pete]

That guard will suit it for sure. Have you noticed how the item prices are getting cheaper and the postage is getting more expensive? Peoples way of getting around ebay fee's.

I don't buy much off eBay, but I have seen some like that for sure. The $15 was packing and posting fee, but it was also coming from SA.

[pete]

Bit more done tonight, so almost in a position so that if I had time tomorrow I could kick her over. That won't actually happen, but I like to be prepared!

Shiny new OEM throttle cable goodness:



Something I had grief with last time was holding the throttle assembly up while I threaded the cable into the slot, so this time I tried a different tact:



I just gently wedged a long flat blade screwdriver between the head and the throttle assembly to hold it up while I threaded the cable. Made it easy as pie!



Horrid pic, but throttle cable sorted:



Clutch cable is next up, so off with the sprocket cover:



Cable hooked up to the clutch mechanism:



Cover back on, and now covered in greasy finger prints:

[pete]

Cable hooked up to the lever:



Then I did the proper clutch adjustment:



And at the end of all that, the clutch lever free play is good and the clutch should in theory be adjusted correctly.

However, I still haven't got the chain on or torqued up the counter shaft sprocket nut yet, so all that was probably pointless as I'll probably have to take it off again... sheeesh...

And I just realised I forgot again to measure up for the sump guard/bash plate... man I'm glad my head is permanently attached to my neck!

[MotoX]

Haha fun reading Pete! Nice progress on her! I'll keep reading this one.

[pete]

Cheers MotoX, been slow going but definitely getting there now...

[pete]

Well I figured I'd do something about my voltage monitor tonight, so I found an old ice cream container I could sacrifice to use to mount the LED's:



Started with the strip for the top of the gauge cluster and measured out for the LED mounts:



Drilled and got the first one mounted:



It's potentially a little too thin and flexible, but it should do ok for the initial prototype. Big downside is I'll end up with 11 LED's across the top, meaning 4 1/2 LED's need to go on each side... that ain't gonna work but I'm sure I can cope with 4 on one and 5 on the other...

Then it dawned on me that I had a whole half of the garage to myself tonight, so I wheeled the bike over to the other side to do a mock up with the new front mudguard.

I really need some feedback guys!



I suspect I'll end up mounting it a little further forward, which may mean I don't need to trim the rear, but even if I do trim it, it will only need a little off as there looks to be nearly enough clearance the way it is right there.

I can probably hang an L bracket off the fork trim to mount it from as the guard is stupidly light, but I'll probably put some support at the rear to the lower triple also. Alternatively I can fabricate a bracket that will slide down the fork legs underneath or on top of the fork trim to mount the guard to.

Anyway, whaddya think? To me it's just not quite right at the moment... but is that because it's...

a. just plain too big and out there?
b. because it's green?
c. all of the above?
d. just fine, stop complaining?
e. something else I'm missing?

[Woodsy]

I think the guard will need to be cut down it looks to big to me and sits up to high

[Woodsy]

Sorry i mean 'a' lol