My 85' 1150E - project.

[Slowhand]

I bought her new in 85' , she was quick, damn quick, faster than anything I had ridden before. She replaced my 70' 750 Honda that I had rebuild with an 836 kit and cams add all sorts of RC and Yoshimura racing parts. Actually she didn't replace the Honda as I still have it in the garage, but she did push it into the back corner of the garage and my mind.
I would take her out to the interstate at 3am when there was no traffic, stop on the entrance ramp , then just go red lining her like a bat outa hell through all five gears. I would laugh and scream in my helmet every time at the shear rush I'd get from how fast she'd get me to 100 and beyond. The only thing close in stock form back then was the VMax and the FJ1200.
When I bought her the salesman actually asked me if I knew what I was getting into, did I realize just how much power she had. I told him I'd been riding for years , that I'd rebuilt my Honda and that it was quick.
He said," son, you have no idea what quick is". He was right, I had no idea. She cost 4 thousand new and was worth every penny. And I thank him for putting a warning label on her, it made me respect her rocket like performance and I took it easy until I felt I knew her.
Nowadays I understand she's nothing like what is out there now for power and especially handling. But back in 85' , she was a Queen !!

Enough about my reminiscing and on to reality, in 95' I took her out for a little spin, hadn't ridden her in a month due to a new/old house purchase and a new baby that kept me very busy. Just a quick little spin on her. Off I went, and didn't get back home for a week. Spent the week in the hospital. I lost her in a nice little sweeper turn that I'd taken a 100 times before. I guess I hit a patch of oil and lost the rear, not really sure as I don't remember much from the head shot I took from the handlebar. Anyway she slammed into the curb and the curb won. Wiped out the whole front end, exhaust and all sorts of little things. When I got home from the hospital I had her towed back home, put her mangled forks on a dolly and pushed her into a corner of one of my garages.
She sat there for 17 years. I just couldn't get rid of her. One day I said to myself, one day I'll fix her. Now thanks to the internet, and some free time, I can actually find parts, new and used, that don't cost a fortune, and try and bring her back to life.
I started buying parts last fall and I'm already a ways along on her, I'll post some pictures when I can.

Sorry if I bored you with my preamble, but it felt good to talk about the old girl.

My regular ride these past years has been a 1200 Sportster, but I hope to ride the rocket again.

[Ghostgs1]

Hi slowhand, Welcome to the GSR. Looks to be very repairable and a nice bike other than the crash damage. Looking forward to weeing the finished product. Ray

[trevor]

Looking forward to watching your work. I kinda like those bike too.

[7981GS]

So the impact actually broke the hub loose from the rim? Don't see that every day.
You have healed up after all of these years obviously and are still riding.
Good news!
Looking forward to seeing you get her in running shape again.

Eric

[Slowhand]

Thanks for the words of encouragement guys. I've been have fun working on her. It's funny, or not, that the day I crashed her I was wearing a 3/4 helmet. I was out working in the yard and figured I should take her for a quick spin, lit a cigarette and grabbed the 3/4 instead of the fullface I always wore so I could smoke it. It was only supposed to be a quick little 10 minute ride around the reservoir. That's what caused the week in the hospital, I took the handlebar( that's my guess) in the face. Fractured jaw and one hell of a concussion. You just never know......

[trevor]

Thanks for the words of encouragement guys. I've been have fun working on her. It's funny, or not, that the day I crashed her I was wearing a 3/4 helmet. I was out working in the yard and figured I should take her for a quick spin, lit a cigarette and grabbed the 3/4 instead of the fullface I always wore so I could smoke it. It was only supposed to be a quick little 10 minute ride around the reservoir. That's what caused the week in the hospital, I took the handlebar( that's my guess) in the face. Fractured jaw and one hell of a concussion. You just never know......

Smoking is bad for you.

[Slowhand]

Right you are Trevor, and they nearly killed me that day !

There were two things that concerned me before I started this. 1.) Is the frame bent at all. I went over every weld and couldn't find a crack or a split anywhere. Visually it looks fine, all the motor mounts are tight and true as far as I can tell, nothing seems out of place at all. The neck was/is a concern but it appears to be fine also. I figured the only way I'll really know is to ride it. And that was the second concern, can I get the damn thing to run after sitting for 17 years. After the accident I started it in the garage every few weeks until the battery went dead and I just covered it up and left it. She did run after the crash so I figured I at least have a shot at getting her going again. Eventually.



So, first things first, I have to get her moving to do anything. Out with the old. I just pulled out the forks and busted up rim.



I found a set of cheap forks and trees last September from a guy in Oklahoma on ebay, he had "DragBike" in his name. I would come to realize that explained why the forks were 2 inches shorter ! Drag forks. Oh well , they serve my purpose for now. I also found a cheap crappy rim from a guy in Canada. I just slapped the 'shorty' forks through my trees and took that Metzler off the busted rim(It still held some air after all these years) and spooned it on the crappy rim. She was at least rolling now. My next intention was to pull the carbs and rebuild them. If I can get her running then I'll continue along was the idea.

http://i928.photobucket.com/albums/ad127/photos-web/1985%20Suzuki%20GS1150%20E/Suzuki-Harley012.jpg

[Slowhand]

Next it was off with the tank and air intake system to get to the carbs and remove them. I wanted to get the carbs into my basement workshop where I could take my time on them out of the elements over the winter. I found a mouse had moved into the airfilter box and made a nice little home for himself. He was evicted !

[7981GS]

Did you collect past rent?

Eric

[rich001]

Slow hand, thanks for the story. It's always great to hear someone else's journey (probably because it's always so much more interesting than my own).

With regard to you questioning the frame straightness, I too had that query with the GSX1100EF in my sig. Long story short I had the frame electronically checked and given a full report on all aspects of the frames ''trueness''. It was great to be given the info. Maybe you could try that to see. A mobile bloke with a big suitcase came to my local bike shop and did the whole lot in about 1 1/2 hrs. Easy peasy.

Richard

[UncleMike]

Glad to see it's not going to die a slow death in the back of your garage.

Nice rack, btw. I've never seen one of those for the 1150. Do you remember where you got it?

[Slowhand]

That's a good idea Rich, I will inquire about it at my local shop, see if they know someone who does that.
Mike I don't remember who made the rack, I even checked it for a name but there's nothing stamped on it at all. I bought a Yoshimura buddy bag and that rack in the first two years I owned it from the dealer where I bought the bike.

On to the carbs. The one good thing about them is that I owned them, they were on my bike and they were perfect when I crashed her, she only had 12,400 miles. I didn't want to dip them because I wanted them black and didn't want to lose the paint. Even though they are chipped in spots I can retouch them. Two of the slides were stuck hard and required a good soaking with PB Blaster, once they came lose everything moved as freely as it should so didn't see any reason to unrack them and lose all the setting at this time, right now I'm just trying to see if she'll run at all, if they require any more work I'll do that down the road. When I got all 4 slides out they looked fine, the diaphragms were clean and pliable, no tears, I would reuse them after cleaning.
I figured what they needed was a royal cleaning and replacement of all the rubber except the fuel line o-ring between the carbs since I'm not unracking them. I lightly etched every piece I took out of each carb so they went back to the carb it came out of. The only thing other than the rubber I replaced was the float needles because the springs were stuck in two of them. I took out every jet and piece of brass and cleaned them, then went over them lightly using my Dremel with wire brush bits. They looked new when I was finished. I ran the Dremel over the entire inside of the carbs and bowls too. I also used my ARC Welder tip cleaners, these were invaluable as I could run them through even the smallest openings anywhere in the carbs and the jets. I took my time on each one and they came out looking fine when I was finished, every opening clear and spotless. 4 cans of CV throttle bottle cleaner, my Dremel, benchtop air compressor and the Welder tips. I don't see any reason they shouldn't work fine. (famous last words!).




Back together and ready for mounting !


These Welder cleaning tip were great, I could gently run the size I needed through the smallest openings everywhere to clean them out while using the throttle body cleaner.

[UncleMike]

I'd still want to open them up and dip them. At the very least replace those fuel T o-rings. Repainting isn't hard at all, and they end up looking so good!

If you're ever looking to get rid of that rack, please think of me!

[Slowhand]

I agree Mike, dipping is the way to go, but I want to make sure I have a viable bike before I go the full Monty on it. I cleaned every orifice on them, pulled every jet and brass piece and Dremeled them shinny, gave them a complete colonoscopy with the welder tips and other pipe cleaner type tools I have. I don't think the fuel orings will be an issue right now. If all goes well I will probably strip the bike back down and give it the total care package next winter or sooner.
Next was mounting the carbs back on the bike. The intake boots are ok, not completely rock like but not new either. I had left the boots on the engine so I just had to press the carbs back on the boots. Impossible by hand, I tried for about 5 minutes and realized that wasn't going to work. So I got my wood working clamps. They have rubber mounts on both ends so they wouldn't scratch anything. I greased everything up then put one clamp on each side of the bike. I put one end of the clamp on the front of the engine head and the other end of the clamp on the rear carb mounting plate. Tighten both clamps very slowly and evenly, readjusting the angle as I went along and they popped right back on the boots. It took about 10 minutes, I never would have gotten them on by hand.

[7981GS]

I have found that, what I believe to be anyway, the most important O-ring to change is on the fuel inlet at the float needle.




If you don't change those out, I don't care how many times you try to adjust the float,
you are going to get too much fuel past it.

Eric