1981 GS450E Rebuild

[Agemax]

come on Pete, pull your finger out mate. work through the night if you have to. we wanna hear that thing running

[pete]

Ok, first off, I neglected to mention that there are definitely no oil leaks at this point in time, and all that oil last time was purely due to me leaving those two bolts out of the head. Phew!

Additionally, the new T piece between the carbs stopped the fuel leaking out there as well, so all is well in terms of leak proofing stuff!

So, I needed to modify the ignition circuit and replace the resistors (will update the ignitor thread with details in a minute), so I went ahead and did that, and this quite possibly might fix the 180 degrees out issue.



Popped it back on ready to go for whenever the next time is:



And got the advance plate and signal generator back in:



You can see plain as day now how much extra adjustment John was able to get in there, so definitely room for lots of advancing if it's still too retarded.

And just checked in the work calendar... will try to get this Friday off if I can as the rest of the week has meetings, got some in house training early next week, and the senior engineer is off on leave as of next Wednesday... fingers crossed I can lock it in!

[pete]

come on Pete, pull your finger out mate. work through the night if you have to. we wanna hear that thing running

Hahaha mate you have no idea how keen I'd be to do that! Unfortunately that would have results that I just don't wanna think about... I don't wanna talk in a squeeky voice...

[Woodsy]

Hmm that advance unit looks good, is it just the slots cut in the backing plate?

[pete]

Hmm that advance unit looks good, is it just the slots cut in the backing plate?

Yep, he's extended the slots for the screws to allow it to advance a lot further and the hole for viewing the timing marks had to be extended also of course.

The only issue really is that the right slot now is open ended due to the cut out for the oil pressure switch, so there's a point where I won't be able to advance it any further.

[Woodsy]

Mines setup differently to that, only marks i have are lining the crank marker up to a line, wonder if i could modify mine to something like that with the advance.. dunno if it will do me any good though.

[pete]

Yeah but yours is an '83, you'll have electronic advance so you don't need anything else

[pete]

Right, got Friday off...

[pete]

Took a slight detour tonight and revisited the colour ideas after a bit of a brain wave (if you can call it that) this morning...

Thinking maroon like what's on there now, with the silver that's currently on the rear mudguard for the knee dents and stripes, but I'm thinking reverse it on the guards so they're silver with maroon stripes instead.

Got it into the GIMP tonight, sorry about the crapiness but my wrist was playing up a bit tonight and I couldn't get neat lines going. I have to do fiddly stuff with my right hand coz my left's too useless, but my right wrist is the one that's buggered so I can't use a mouse for more than about 15 minutes before pain and discomfort hits.



I was going to do the front and rear shots to show the stripes on the guards better, but couldn't cope with that tonight so will do them another time.

Would love to get some feedback from the hordes following this thread (hahaha)...

[Tim Tom]

My advice is this.... K.I.S.S.

Keep It Simple Stupid

A solid color looks very good on these bikes. Pinstripes can help to accent that but even that is not necessary. The silver infill on the tank looks sort of odd. You have a lot going already with that gorgeous exhaust I see no reason to further complicate it with a bi-color scheme. It could get too busy I think.

Maroon with rubber tank guards on the other hand would look great. Keep the front mud-fender the same color as the tank and rear cowl. Rear fender satin black.

If I get some time today maybe I can work up my own photo-chop to illustrate.

However ultimately it is your bike and these are just my suggestions. I'm looking forward to seeing what you end up doing though.

[Woodsy]

I think the front guard should be the same colour as the rest of the bike looks abit out of place, i'm not sure about the tank though it could look good like that.

[Tim Tom]

Mock-Ups

Pete

I did some quick photo-shopping of what I was describing earlier.

What do you think?

'

I did another with a black fender just to see. I think I like the red one better though.




Anyway that's just my opinion, as always think what you will.

[Curly]

Personally I'm a fan of the cafe look. I know that's not what you're going for, but less is more. The point is, painting the fender black blends it in with the tire, giving the impression that it's not there, like a "true" cafe racer. So there's my long winded reason for voting for a black fender.

[pete]

Thanks heaps for the replies guys and Tim Tom I wish I had your skills! My artistic ability isn't my strong point in case you couldn't tell...

So, front guard... I tend to agree now that I've seen it in maroon. When I did my first mock ups I put maroon on the stock guard and it basically hid the polished lip on the rims that made it look bad, but with it high now I think it does work better in maroon.

Comparing yours Tim Tom with mine really does show the silver doesn't quite get there on the front.

The rear guard being silver sort of grew on me because that's how it is every time I walk in there, but black works too...

As for tank, I just loved those stripes I put on with masking tape... hahaha

You're right about the knee dents though, they just don't look right with silver.

At the end of the day, I think my paint idea would look awesome, but on a stock bike...

If you've seen oldaddy's new paint I think you'd probably see what I mean...

Curly, this was originally supposed to be a cafe until my wrist buggered up, but yeah on a scrambler that front guard's gotta be seen, as has the pipe... I appreciate the feedback though

Thanks again guys, I shall put it away for later and think on it again...

In the meantime Tim Tom, I hope you don't mind but I'm gonna pop that one with the maroon front guard in my thread on DTT as well because I'm getting feedback there too...

[Agemax]

looking good Pete, one thing i would do if it was my bike. TIDY UP THE REAR LIGHT UNIT. keep the rear fender if you want but set the tail light into the ducktail and try some smaller turn signals.jmo