1981 GS450E Rebuild

[Flyboy]

Nah Pete, she is down South of you in Sydney, she is young and impressionable, too many biker types up Brizzie and surrounds.

[Woodsy]

she is living in sydney.... enough said... unfortunately where i live now is turning into sydney on weekends, pretty sad when it takes you 30minutes on a weekend to drive 7km to the local shopping centre.

[Leigh]

FANBLOODYTASTIC

Seriously, Pete, it looks the goods.

[john82q]

breather

Pete for the breather you just need something like this;

http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online-store/products/Calibre-Mini-Air-Breather-12mm-CALMAB12.aspx?pid=155192#Description

when the paper gets too wet with oil and drips you need a new one, or wash it out with kero if your as cheap as me. helps if its mounted vertical.

Your carby overflows can just be routed down with the battery one.
Thats perfectly fine for rego purposes, as it it was the done thing when your bike was built.

Having seen your bike before you painted it I know your photos don't always do it justice. So if it looks that beaut in yer pics, Then cant wait to see it finished!


John

[Collo]

That's the same breather I bought, it looks quite good too, well worth the price.

[pete]

Nah Pete, she is down South of you in Sydney, she is young and impressionable, too many biker types up Brizzie and surrounds.

Hahahahaha I'm past my young and impressionable days... just ask my wife! Hahaha

But you know young Woodsy ain't far from Sydney...

she is living in sydney.... enough said... unfortunately where i live now is turning into sydney on weekends, pretty sad when it takes you 30minutes on a weekend to drive 7km to the local shopping centre.

Yeah you can keep Sydney all to yourself, I'll stick to up here in Brissie or down Melbourne way thanks

FANBLOODYTASTIC

Seriously, Pete, it looks the goods.

Cheers Leigh! Very happy with it... be happier when I can get a seat on it and some rubber... and a rego' plate on the back...

Pete for the breather you just need something like this;

http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online-store/products/Calibre-Mini-Air-Breather-12mm-CALMAB12.aspx?pid=155192#Description

when the paper gets too wet with oil and drips you need a new one, or wash it out with kero if your as cheap as me. helps if its mounted vertical.

Your carby overflows can just be routed down with the battery one.
Thats perfectly fine for rego purposes, as it it was the done thing when your bike was built.

Having seen your bike before you painted it I know your photos don't always do it justice. So if it looks that beaut in yer pics, Then cant wait to see it finished!


John

That looks the goods thanks John! That should do nicely, I'll have to get up there sometime soon and get me one of them.

I've been struggling to remember where the carb overflows ended up and you know I think you're spot on, and I think they may have actually routed down with the battery overflow... it's been so long since I took them off...

And thanks! I reckon it turned out alright for a first time effort

Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be on two wheels finally! Then we'll have to go for a spin...

That's the same breather I bought, it looks quite good too, well worth the price.

Cool, should do nicely! Did you mount yours somewhere? Don't recall seeing it on your thread...

[pete]

Had a look through the Clymer PDF and it seems to indicate the carb overflows just run down the right frame tube behind the side cover, so I just need to do something to get them out of the wind as I won't have side covers... so much easier

Oh, and nothing done tonight as I got to watch the MotoGP from last night.

No spoiler, but what a cracker of a race that was! And a very impressive Marco Simoncelli tribute too...

[Matchless]

Pete, she is turning out very well! That exhaust gives her a nice sleek look and the colour is outstanding!
You must be itching to take her for a ride by now!

[pete]

Pete, she is turning out very well! That exhaust gives her a nice sleek look and the colour is outstanding!
You must be itching to take her for a ride by now!

Cheers Andre, she is indeed!

I'm more than itching, I believe I have a rash...

[pete]

Ok so I did get in there last night...

Routed and mounted the stainless brake line:



Partially routed the speedo cable, but I have the speedo gearbox oriented incorrectly so that'll be fixed when I take the wheel off to do the bearings, disc, and tyre:



And I got all the seat foam I've done so far glued together with the contact adhesive (it's not glued to the seat pan though):



I'm working from home for a bit today as I'm going to my neighbour's funeral later on so I'm hoping to get time to quickly drop into the upholsterers up the road to see what they'll charge me for covering it...

[pete]

No progress to update as such as that was a bit of a sad day yesterday and it only really hit me then that my neighbour is actually gone... anyway...

I did duck up to the upholsterer and I have a lot more work to do.

I thought just getting the front, rear, and seat height would be enough but without either the bike or the original seat to work off they can't do much in the way of shaping themselves. Makes sense when you think about it

Anyway, when they cover it they'll put a thin layer of soft foam over the top and he gave me a sample of that that I can sit over an area once I'm done to make sure it won't bulk it up too much.

So, that means I have a bit more cutting to do and then some shaping. An angle grinder with something like a 120 grit sanding wheel is the way to go for that apparently, although doing that at night isn't really going to be an option. I'll give it a go by hand instead and see how that goes.

Oh, and he's also had better success on rivetting covers to metal pans with some big upholstery washers so it doesn't tear as opposed to putting some sort of spike on there, so that makes it a little easier for me also.

[Flyboy]

Damn Pete, sorry to hear about your neighbour, real downer, keep your chin up.
Sounds like you are rolling those rocks out of your way one by one, good progress, now you know it would be no fun if it all just worked and went to plan.
Yet more skills to be added to your ever growing list, awesome.
Sounds like you need to get shaping.

[pete]

Damn Pete, sorry to hear about your neighbour, real downer, keep your chin up.
Sounds like you are rolling those rocks out of your way one by one, good progress, now you know it would be no fun if it all just worked and went to plan.
Yet more skills to be added to your ever growing list, awesome.
Sounds like you need to get shaping.

Thanks for the sentiments Stan. I can't say we were close, but he was a good bloke, only 43, wife and two young kids. He was also a very highly regarded senior firefighter so it was quite sad and the biggest thing for me is realising he won't be asking how long til we can go for a ride together...

Anyway, yes, knocking the remaining bits off one by one and I think the seat is my last big learning curve.

I'm just uploading pic's of tonight's progress...

[pete]

And here we go, this is where it sits after tonight:



Now I realise it looks rather plank-ish at the moment, but it's still far more comfortable than I thought it would be, and it is a scrambler...

I have yet to try any hand sanding to smooth anything, everything so far has simply been cut.

I need to trim probably half an inch off the height of the pillion seat yet also.

One thing with the shape of that seat compared to the original one is that just sitting on it helps my knees move into the tank a lot easier, the old seat tended to push my legs apart.

[drivera84]

Its looking awesome pete!!

what are you going to do with the fenders?