GS(X)-250E Motarding.

[mike-s]

That's a fair question, and aside from the fact that i'm pretty sure the valving is a slightly different diameter on the gsx compared to the tx, the question has to be asked about the advantages gained from using the valving from the road bike and only the TS's fork inners. Not a lot to be gained apart from an extra 4cm of ride-height due to the longer tubes as I am going to be limiting the stroke by using roadbike valving. Just having extra ride height isn't a big help as I've got longer stroke shocks to fit on the rear.

[Woodsy]

When i take my bike off road the centre stand bangs away on the frame with every small bump, i'm tempted to take mine off because of it, might be something to consider.

[mike-s]

Well as you can see in the top picture the centre stand JUST touches the exhaust when fully down, so that's another reason to think about not using it, though i'd happily take to the centre stand with a round file and cut a slight insert out. Or just not use it unless i really needed to.

Popped into the garage this morning on my way home from nightshift and wanting to only do minimal work as i was quite tired i just took a couple of photos to help figure out how hard it would be to mount a bash-plate under there. From what i can see it will be quite easy to do aside from the big fat exhaust sitting under there. But i should be able to get something put together easily enough. I'll do it after all the other modifications like sorting the suspension are completed, but it looks simple enough.

I can get some cardboard and make a mockup to get the dimensions right and then to get a 50x50cm 4-5mm sheet of aluminium and i should be well underway. That is once i clean up all the oil and crap that has accumulated under there.

[pete]

Hmmm... bash plate... that may not be such a bad addition to my scrambler!

If I can get my exhaust made up like I want it, I'll have no exhaust clearance issues either... have you considered a different exhaust more inline with a motard style?

I'm gonna guess that you've already realised it will restrict access to the oil filter and maybe the sump plug depending on how long you make it...

[mike-s]

I'm very much aware of the whole "access" issue, and something like this, this or this answers that issue. The one thing that is very important is to NOT excessively restrict airflow as from what i remember around 1/3 the cooling is done via the sump, hence a lot of finning down there.

I'm going to certainly be making a few calls around and see what i can do/get. The guys at http://www.obrien-aluminium.com.au/ are starting to sound an attractive prospect and if i can give then a basic design to prefab, including pre drilled cooling holes along the front, along with minimal bends i should get it at a minimal cost. However i shouldn't get ahead of myself and just get a few ideas together for a bit further down the road, excuse the pun. However if the prefab work costs a bit of money i might just stick with getting the base sheet off them and going at it myself.

I like the idea of 5083 alloy, but a high magnesium alloy (about 4-5%) like that can start to cost a bit and i might be better sticking with 5mm 5005 with it's sub 1% magnesium as it's a lot cheaper. I'm going to do my best to avoid using diamond plate unless it is substantially cheaper than other options.

[pete]

You have thought it out well! Those are all pretty good.

It shouldn't be hard to make and the only difficult bit from my perspective would be the bending and attaching the frame clamps to it.

I'm guessing you could buy the stock, cut and drill what you need, then mark it out for them to bend and attach the clamps. Sounds simple in theory

[hillsy]

That's a fair question, and aside from the fact that i'm pretty sure the valving is a slightly different diameter on the gsx compared to the tx, the question has to be asked about the advantages gained from using the valving from the road bike and only the TS's fork inners. Not a lot to be gained apart from an extra 4cm of ride-height due to the longer tubes as I am going to be limiting the stroke by using roadbike valving. Just having extra ride height isn't a big help as I've got longer stroke shocks to fit on the rear.

Huh? Isn't the point of making the fork hybrid to get more ride height to match the higher rear end?

And what do you mean by "limiting the stoke by using road bike valving" ? The stroke / travel is governed by the damper rod length and spring rate, not the damping valving. The size of holes in the damper rod affect the damping rate of the fork (you should find the holes in the TS damper rods to be larger than the GS ones).

Not arguing, just sayin'

[mike-s]

I should have said I'm planning on keeping the GSX springs, adding the preload spacer from the TS and changing the fork inner tube and the damping rod to the TS's instead of writing valve. Forgive me, the terminology and me on suspension didn't mix too well that day.

If i skipped changing the damping rod i would get the ride height from a longer fork inner tube as the TS inner tube is 4cm or so longer than the GSX one, but i would retain the stock suspension travel, not what I'm aiming for.

By changing the inner tube as well as the damping rod i get the longer travel and the extra ride height. It also works out to be the simplest modification I can do as I've not had a lot of luck in taking the damper rods out of the TS fork inners as yet, and am not going to if i don't have to. Also it appears that the diameters of the damping rods differ, so that is a lot simpler for me to deal with as well.

[mike-s]

Some good news and bad news today, first the good news. I picked up an offcut of 5mm Aluminium cut to nearly the size i require. Plus another peice cut as a strip for me to make any mountings. I also managed to figure out how to convince the after market shocks to fit, this took abit of work to do.

Now the bad news, It looks like either the bike had a fall in the past or the jig wasn't set quite right upon fabrication. Basically i took the shocks off and let the rear wheel drop down to fit the shocks and it won't work. It turns out that the left muffler mount/pillion peg mount is interfering with the swingarm movement and the right id mere mm from doing so too. Time to take the rear wheel off, tie the swingarm up so its as hich as it can go, and take to the frame with a hammer. Dealing with the now minor issue of fork modification is on hiatus until this clanger is fixed.

[pete]

Well you know what they say... you can tell how good a mechanic you are by the size of your hammer

Bit of a bugger there, but hopefully it won't be too hard to sort.

Good to hear you got your shocks sorted though and that aluminium should do the trick for the bash guard by the sounds.

[mike-s]

How to remove rubber bushes and their steel centre in one easy go. I had to do this as the bushes and their inner housing in the top eyelet on the new shocks were for a 10mm bolt and the ones on the frame were 12mm. I then forced the inner housing and the extremely hard old rubber out of the new shocks.



I then used the inner housing out of the GSX along with cut up sections of fuel injection hose to put the GSX inner housing in the new top end shock. Getting that to fit was not easy and i had to press it in with the aid of a vice. I kludged it with the bottom one in order to do a test fit and need to buy some cheap bicycle inner tube to provide the bottom rubber mounting as there is about 1.5mm clearance between the inner housing and the bottom shock eyelet and i didn't have any spare when i did the test fit this evening.


So close, yet so far. But nothing that a little hammer work won't fix. The other side where the muffler goes is going to be half as much work to fix up fortunately.


The new 5005 sheeting, all ready and waiting to go.

[mike-s]

Exhaust and Rear wheel are off and blowtorch and my heaviest hammer taken to the frame. Made a little bit of progress, however i need to go get a solid metal head one tomorrow as the rubber coating on this one is taking a beating (excuse the pun) and it's got to be absorbing some of the impact. Also think i need to be a little more enthusiastic with the use of the torch.

I have to tell you though, it is surprisingly therapeutic.

[edit]Afterthought: i might bring out the scissor jack and put it between the two mounts. If I pre-tension the mounts up with the jack and then apply a bit of heat to the side of the mounts with the mapp torch and put a bit more pressure on the mounts, i might be able to bend it. It's a slightly more controlled method than just heating it and bashing the snot out of it.[/edit]

[pete]

Exhaust and Rear wheel are off and blowtorch and my heaviest hammer taken to the frame. Made a little bit of progress, however i need to go get a solid metal head one tomorrow as the rubber coating on this one is taking a beating (excuse the pun) and it's got to be absorbing some of the impact. Also think i need to be a little more enthusiastic with the use of the torch.

I have to tell you though, it is surprisingly therapeutic.

[edit]Afterthought: i might bring out the scissor jack and put it between the two mounts. If I pre-tension the mounts up with the jack and then apply a bit of heat to the side of the mounts with the mapp torch and put a bit more pressure on the mounts, i might be able to bend it. It's a slightly more controlled method than just heating it and bashing the snot out of it.[/edit]

Mate, giving something a good hammering always makes me feel good! Just don't get to do it often enough for effective stress relief

Having said that, the scissor jack idea could be a good one, and by heating only the side you want to bend should ensure the other side stays still.

[mike-s]

Exactly what i was thinking.

[pete]

Good stuff, you'll have it straight in no time