GS450 Cafe / Fighter Style

[pete]

Electric tacho? Interesting... good luck getting that to work!

However, it might be possible to fire it off the signal generator for the ignitor depending on what sort of signal it needs... food for thought anyway.

No worries on the filter, we can share when we both get them mounted, hope to pick one up this weekend if I can.

[DrunkenChekhov]

Looks awesome. I love how you have your dash layed out. Just out of curiousity, how wide is the rear of your tank? Im thonking about swapping a 450 tank onto my 650.

[pete]

Hey Collo... long time no update! Any more progress or have you fallen off the face of the earth?

[Collo]

Hi Pete,

I haven't been as active on here, or the bike, as I would like lately. Therefor, there really isn't anything exciting to update as nothing has been done. I can say the upholstery is complete so I will try and post a photo soon - I'm happy with how it turned out. Unfortunately, it's going to be a further 6 months at least until I get any chance of doing further work.

I also have a lot of catching up on here to see everyones progress... I hope you've been working well on your bike?

[Englishman]

Hi Pete,

I haven't been as active on here, or the bike, as I would like lately. Therefor, there really isn't anything exciting to update as nothing has been done.

I know that feeling

[pete]

Hi Pete,

I haven't been as active on here, or the bike, as I would like lately. Therefor, there really isn't anything exciting to update as nothing has been done. I can say the upholstery is complete so I will try and post a photo soon - I'm happy with how it turned out. Unfortunately, it's going to be a further 6 months at least until I get any chance of doing further work.

I also have a lot of catching up on here to see everyones progress... I hope you've been working well on your bike?

Good to hear from you Collo, bugger on the progress but life tends to get in the way sometimes... definitely keen to see how the upholstery came out though!

Another 6 months hey? Bugger! Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes I guess...

Mine's done except for a few little extra touches and it went back on the road just before Christmas and is now my daily rider

I know that feeling

Yeah... you've been a touch quiet lately too Mark

[Collo]

Okay so as promised here are some quick photos of the seat all done. I'm pretty happy with it and it's surprisingly comfortable. I still need to make a way for it to attach properly to the base, but I'll get there eventually.

[pete]

Mate the seat and seat pan look great!

Did you do the foam and upholstery yourself or get it done by a professional?

[Collo]

Thanks Pete, the upholstery was done by a pro. I wish I had more time to work on the bike but I've been way too busy. I think the next thing to do is get some rearsets, but have some reading on the forum regarding that and it seems so far that not many companies are making them?

[pete]

Thanks Pete, the upholstery was done by a pro. I wish I had more time to work on the bike but I've been way too busy. I think the next thing to do is get some rearsets, but have some reading on the forum regarding that and it seems so far that not many companies are making them?

Yeah I know what you mean, gets like that sometimes...

Raask make them for our 450's, but mixed reports as to build quality for the price.

There are also Tarozzi but I don't recall seeing the 450's listed.

The other alternative of course is adapting some to fit.

Have a look at Hillsy's thread and see what he did, although they're nowhere near finished yet:

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=133544&highlight=450

[Englishman]

When you say you guys go to an upholstry shop, are these the same shops that re-cover sofa and chairs, or are they something more specialist?

Mark

[Collo]

When you say you guys go to an upholstry shop, are these the same shops that re-cover sofa and chairs, or are they something more specialist?

Mark

Hi Mark,

The place I went to didn't really specialise in motorbike seats, though he mentioned he had done many of them in the past, including cafe racer seats. Looking in his workshop I could see he worked on anything needing re-covering, including marine and furniture. He seemed to know exactly what I wanted and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the finished product.

Pete, as for the rearsets, I would much prefer to buy something already made. The Raask may not look so cool but I think they'll do the trick for now. Thanks for the link i'll check it out.

[Englishman]

Hi Mark,

The place I went to didn't really specialise in motorbike seats, though he mentioned he had done many of them in the past, including cafe racer seats. Looking in his workshop I could see he worked on anything needing re-covering, including marine and furniture. He seemed to know exactly what I wanted and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the finished product.

Pete, as for the rearsets, I would much prefer to buy something already made. The Raask may not look so cool but I think they'll do the trick for now. Thanks for the link i'll check it out.

Collo

Thanks for the info on upholstery shops, I'll look here for something similar.
I have Raask pegs on my 400 with some pics of the same in my build thread. I have to say they are just OK. Do you know how they are mounted on a 450 as mine had massive boomerang type brackets to hold them on.

Mark

[pete]

The upholstery place I got mine done specialises in auto upholstery, so roof lining, toneu (sp?) covers, seats, etc. but they do the occassional couch and motorcycle seat as well.

If I did it over again though I think I'd try to find a motorcycle specific one. The result was good and I'm happy enough with it, but a motorcycle specific one will have some better options regarding type of fabric etc. which would've been better I think.

As for the rearsets, yeah forgot you got a set Mark!

I got my stator from these guys:

http://www.motorcycle-parts.com.au/

Excellent customer service and very helpful people, so I can definitely recommend them, and they sell both Raask and Tarozzi bits.

Tarozzi doesn't list a 450, but they do have 500's and a 550 as well as selling the bits individually to make a set out of spares which might work.

[Collo]

Okay it's been a while but finally got to take a photo of the bike in its storage state. Can't wait to respray the lot but that's going to be a while yet.