Gs450 cafe flat track bobber thingy

[mlc216]

Yes it is... I wouldn't mind having a SR500... just not super easy to find around here...

[mlc216]

Rode for about 45 minutes as soon as I got home




Then I figured I should make a taillight mount and out a tag on so I can ride it to work tomorrow


Rode for another 30 minutes... Man this thing is fun to ride!!!

[pete]

Just sitting there it looks like a hoot! You done good

Aside from the seat is there more to be done or you gonna leave it pretty much like that?

[mlc216]

Umm I still have some stuff I want to do to it...

Finish the seat, lower the forks to get a more aggressive stance and better handling, probably try to use the 2.5 gallon sportster tank instead of the 1.5 gallon that's on there now... Finish and smooth out the metal work and come up with a paint scheme.... As soon as I get the lathe up and running I'm going to adapt a matching 19" front wheel to run as a rear wheel for a real deal flat track setup... Then some flat track tires... Then on to the 500+cc motor build!!!

This thing should be a beast when I get "done"!

[pete]

Mate I'm definitely gonna be watching!

You doing the GR650 head on the 450 bottom end? Or am I getting that wrong?

It will be a beast indeed

[mlc216]

I'm thinking gs500 jugs with gr650 sleeves cut down with a reworked 450 head. But nothing is set in stone yet

[pete]

Definitely beastly...

[mlc216]

Rode to work this morning... got there in record time! haha


Loving it. I probably rode 7-8 miles of gravel roads this morning, and that was mostly in 5th gear!!! This thing handles pretty well, but I can't wait to get the front end down a little bit.

[pete]

Every time I see that thing I like it more and more... definitely the nicest bike in that car park! Looking forward to see it done...

And will you be moving the tail light at all? I would think a really bright thin LED taillight mounted underneath the back of the tail section will be effective without spoiling the lines...

[mlc216]

I thought about doing an LED tail... I may have to one day

[Flaming Chainsaws]

Get that Harley out of the way! I want to see the MR2 .

[pete]

You also need one of these...

[mlc216]

Wow pete that is an incredibly clean exhaust... that turned out great!

[pete]

Yeah I reckon MLC! I'm lovin' it... very happy with the end result!

I had a quick look on eBay but couldn't see what I was thinking for your tail light (didn't do a lot of searching), but a flexible one could curve with your tail piece, meaning almost invisible yet very visible when in use.

I'm just not real fussed on the one sided brakelight thing... what happens if someone's exiting a driveway on your right side and doesn't notice you're braking? They may pull out expecting you to have passed... they don't always look right again after they've checked once...

Anyway, that's purely my opinion, feel free to disregard (as most probably should)

[mlc216]

A friend planned to come hang out this weekend, so I rode halfway (Tuscaloosa, AL) to meet him and ride the last half together. We met up and I topped off the gas tank and we were on our way. Got a few miles down the rode and discovered he was no longer behind me, so I turned around... turns out his bike was dying at anything above idle. After checking over a bunch of stuff we determined that his capacitor had crapped out (perm. magnet conversion with capacitor and no battery on his xs650).

So I rode back towards tuscaloosa and stopped at a dollar general. Found some 6V lantern batteries so I bought 4 of them... rode back to stinson, and we wired two of them up in series to make a temp. 12V battery and unhooked the charging system all together.

Super sketch! haha but really these bad boys took us ~25 miles to a church where we sought shelter from pouring rain

When we tried to roll out, we discovered the batteries didn't have enough juice in them... so the last two dollar general batteries went in and off we went. Beautiful ride for the last 45-50 miles back to my house... and those dollar general batteries made it all the way back to my house with no issues!

We ended up putting an extra motorcycle battery I had in that night just to try it and the stator was charging it fine, so we assume that the capacitor was really messing up the stator's ability to charge somehow. He made it all the way home with no problems the next day with the motorcycle battery.
Moral of the story: Always wear sunscreen when you go for a ride... because you never know when a 3 hour ride will turn into an 8 hour ride haha
Oh yeah and if your charging system takes a crap, buy cheap 6v lantern batteries, wire in series, disconnect everything but the coil(s) and ride as far as you can! haha
The end.