GS450L Resurrection Contemplation

[witttom]

Will any other seats fit this 450L? ...and from a 450E? What's my options? I've gotta get rid of this stepped seat. I want to keep my investment in this bike to a minimum.

[kawfeedave]

Will any other seats fit this 450L? ...and from a 450E? What's my options? I've gotta get rid of this stepped seat. I want to keep my investment in this bike to a minimum.

Just cut down the stocker. Remove the cover, and use an electric knife (Thanksgiving style if you have it) or a big serrated bread knife works too, and just trim the foam. From the look of the pics provided, you should be able to start at the rear of the drivers part of the seat, and just just hack most of that step right off. You could go straight back from there, but I think a small step is actually a good thing.

As for the cover, you might be able to work with the stocker, and pull the extra material under the pan before you staple it back down, or you could probably find a cheap generic seat cover for a UJM on ebay, maybe a 70's era CB750 or the like, any bike with a more-or-less basic oval-ish seat should work.

[witttom]

Just cut down the stocker. Remove the cover, and use an electric knife (Thanksgiving style if you have it) or a big serrated bread knife works too, and just trim the foam. From the look of the pics provided, you should be able to start at the rear of the drivers part of the seat, and just just hack most of that step right off. You could go straight back from there, but I think a small step is actually a good thing.

As for the cover, you might be able to work with the stocker, and pull the extra material under the pan before you staple it back down, or you could probably find a cheap generic seat cover for a UJM on ebay, maybe a 70's era CB750 or the like, any bike with a more-or-less basic oval-ish seat should work.

Despite my dislike for the style of the stock seat, it seems like such a shame to hack up a perfectly good stock seat. I would be more inclined to go find a stock seat pan I think, and sell off my stock seat to someone who actually needs it, and try to recoup some of my expense. I'm undecided though. We'll see how it goes. I'm still not 100% sure that I'm gonna keep it. I'm not entire sure if I can AFFORD to keep it. Hehe... something is gonna hafta go.

[pete]

Tom the E/S seat won't bolt on and the frame rails on the E/S models are slightly longer than the L/T models. You would also need to fabricate some way of mounting it as the rear has a latch on the duck tail on the E/S to clip onto. That's why when I did my seat I kept the stock pan and duck tail frame work and just made a new fibreglass shell for it.

The T seat should be a bolt on from memory.

I did the foam for mine but got a professional to do the cover. It was much easier than I thought it would be.

I got two different densities of foam and used a box cutter and 120 grit sandpaper to shape it. The pink-ish foam is a higher density than the orange-ish foam to give it a firmer base and softer top:









Cost for materials was probably less than $40 (don't forget everything's more expensive over here) including the contact adhesive and box cutter.

The professional cover was... well a lot more expensive than that, but if you have someone who can do the cover for you or if you can tackle it yourself then that's all the better.

If I was to do this again, I would attempt the cover myself.

[witttom]

I'm not sure if I'll ever achieve my 1-TON quest on the GS450.

Swapped my GS850 rear shocks in on the GS450 this evening. The lowest preload setting for the 850 shocks are firmer than that highest preload settings on the 450. It's like a new bike. I also now have dampening settings on these new shocks (well, at least I think I do), which I've not messed with yet.



I also added a smidge of air to the front forks. I think they're only suppose to have a couple pounds though, right? I was showing zero. That too made a big difference. If I keep this bike, I'm still contemplating a whole GS850 front end swap. That would entirely transform it (and give me dual calipers up front).

Took the bike out for another ride this evening. I pushed it to 80mph. That's when it started to drift around a little bit. The suspension was more stable than before, but now what I'm seeing is a front tire that just doesn't want to go faster than that. Once I hit 85mph, I hit a bit of an aerodynamic wall and just couldn't push past it. I just can't get tucked it real well with the dirtbike style handlebars. I think I could improve upon that with a small cafe fairing and going back to my flat drag bars (or maybe my clubmans), but I don't think I can squeeze another 15mph out of it.

This is still more fun on a bike than I've had in a while. That little twin just sings and has loads of mid-range torque. I'm really having a problem letting it go.

[gk45011]

Tom,
Unless I seriously missed something here you have yet to post up picture number one of this new aquisition. What gives? LOL

WE WANT PICTURES!

Gary

[witttom]

Tom,
Unless I seriously missed something here you have yet to post up picture number one of this new aquisition. What gives? LOL

WE WANT PICTURES!

Gary

You must have missed something. There are several photos in the very first post.

[pete]

Well Tom, I found my current max of 131kph wasn't too hard to attain... I need another 30kph to hit the ton... I reckon it's definitely doable on mine except for the blue and red flashing lights I expect to appear any time

I also just realised I need to try 95 octain fuel... I've been running regular 91 octain unleaded so far.

Since replacing the faulty Dynatek she's running better than she ever did since the rebuild (I think the first one was dodgy from the start maybe), but now if I open the throttle too wide below about 5K RPM I get some pinging, so I'm gonna try the higher octain fuel next tank and see what happens.

[witttom]

I've decided to sell it, regretfully.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?p=1728621

I could use the doe AND the space.

[pete]

Oh well Tom, you gotta do what you gotta do right?

[witttom]

Oh well Tom, you gotta do what you gotta do right?

Well.. that was sorta my intent from the very beginning. Kinda. Hehe... I mean, I initially bought it to part out. Then I realized that it was too nice to part out, and I got it running. I spent some time with it getting it running right, then began making tweaks. That's when I started having a love affair with it, and I realized that it would make a great little cafe. My daughter is coming of driving age, wants to get her MC permit (and a scooter or small motorcycle) and I thought, "Ah ha!". But that plan just didn't pan out. Still love riding it myself, but my garage is tight, I have no working room, and I need to fall back on the original plan of making a few bucks on this bike.

[pete]

Makes sense Tom, hopefully you can get some dollars to compensate for the loss of some fun