GS550L to Cafe Build

[Toasty]

I've been brainstorming ideas for fairing mounts lately. It's difficult because I don't own a welder but I came across this picture online.




The steel is sold everywhere and while it would take a while to bend, it looks totally do-able. Attaching it to the frame neck will be a little interesting but I may be able to fab something up. I need to find the correct size u-bolt like these and I could make a solid and adjustable mount. Hmm...

[DannyMotor]

That's actually a pretty cool mount!

[ChicagoBob]

Vetter used hose clamps to mount its Windjammer fairings, and they weighed about 25 lbs, so I guess a U-bolt would work.

[Toasty]

They really used hose clamps? Huh, weird. I've never seen a picture of the mounts they use. The heaviest part of this fairing setup is going to be the headlight, the GS one weighs quite a bit. The fairing its self is maybe 2lbs at the most, I don't think the windscreen will add much either.

[Toasty]

The gloomy overcast morning cleared up and so I took the opportunity to get some work done. I got out and sprayed a few engine parts that needed to be painted and then made a trip to the hardware store.


I wanted to reproduce the fairing bracket like the one I posted earlier, that one is steel and I only have a vice to bend the metal. I found some aluminum instead but it was only 3ft long and $9.89 a piece... So I looked around and found aluminum yard sticks that were the same thickness but wider and longer.


$8.89 each for the yard stick, plus a 15% off coupon they were handing out, score.




The fairing with the headlight mocked up.



I kinda messed up on the first bend, I tried to get a smoother curve and screwed it up a bit. Oh well, I'll either try to straighten it out just cut that part off.



First one!


Second one!






Newly painted parts.



Mount 75% done. It still needs some tweaking and trimming, the back needs to be cut to length but its mostly there. It clamps to the frame and I'll run a bolt through it using one of the existing holes in the frame neck. I had to lower my clip ons though to keep the bars from hitting the inside of the wings.

Its more then sturdy enough to hold up the headlight, and once I tap and die some aluminium rods for the upper and lower wing portions it'll be really solid.

[Toasty]

The mount needed to be shortened by about four inches so I had to redo the whole rear portion again. It's sort of on there, it needs another bolt on either side of the headlight though.












If you're looking to get a fairing, honestly I would go with Glass from the Past. My Airtech isn't too bad but I need to do a lot of surface prep and the cuts aren't very smooth (and the headlight cut was done pretty sloppily). GFTP sells theirs with a windscreen too, and from what I've seen the quality is much better. I'll only be saving about $50 once I get the windscreen from Gustaffsons, not really worth it tbh.

[JvZ]

That is looking so cool!

[Toasty]

I finally got a lot of work done today . I had a friend stop by in the morning and we scrubbed the hell out of the combustion chambers.


Shinyy.

The pistons got a light scrubbing after their carb dip bath.



I was gonna call it a day but decided to just get it over with and put the bottom end back together. It took me a bit to figure out that it needed to be upside down


The shifter shaft seal was a huge pita to remove but I figured I should replace it while I had the chance.


Threw the new seal in the freezer


Good as new



Cleaning the crankcase bolts. One got thrown into a pile of junk, thankfully in found it.



Victory! I got to borrow a really nice Snap On digital torque wrench. I really need to buy myself one, its amazing.

[Toasty]

Kick start mockup



650 ignition advance. The 650 has a weird red bung that I think is a ground... Its a green/yellow wire? Its just hanging loose here for now.



End of day mockup.



Tomorrow I may put on the rings... I'll see if I feel up to it, I gotta read up more. The valve stem seals need replacing too though.

[Toasty]

I didn't get too much accomplished today, I needed to get the cylinders painted before I can install the pistons though.


After one last scrub, and sanding all the flaking paint and clear coat I could get to.


Primer


Paint! I went with a semigloss black, hopefully it'll be easier to clean then gloss.

[Toasty]

I did a few things after I got home today, mostly putting the clutch back together. The basket had some pretty bad grooves and I know you're not supposed to, but I filed them a little. Not to the point where they were totally gone, I just wanted to knock the edges off and smooth them out.

It was only bad on one half of it actually, which makes sense now. When I first took it apart and measured the springs, half of them were within spec and half were way under. I didn't make much sense at the time, but now I can see how one side could be more compressed...





A little better, still there but much smoother.



New OEM springs



The difference between old and worn out, and brand new



Mostly installed. Im typing this now, and remind me before I start the bike, the big nut under the clutch basket is not torqued down yet. I know I'm gonna forget if I don't put it down here lol.

[Toasty]

I had a little energy left, so I tested out doing a brushed finish on my ignition cover. Here it is before, I had sanded off the clearcoat earlier but never got farther then that.



After a little bit of time on the wire wheel



Done. I think it looks fine, and it should be easier to maintain then polished. Plus I just don't want to put in all the work to polish it out, to be honest.



Note to self: Sand off clearcoat first... Once it's bare aluminum it only needs a light touch with the wheel. Once I sand this, it should be uniform.



Enough for one night

[Toasty]

I can't finish putting the top end together until I get the heads machined, do I was poking around looking for other stuff to do.


The Mac crane rear sets finally got modified to fit the R6 master. The holes were pretty close but needed reaming. I need to find better hardware for bolting it on though.



The hacksaw saw some action today, goodbye bent frame ends. Good thing L's don't feel pain



When I got the spokes I just kinda threw them on there, but the rim was sitting off center in the swingarm. Apparently the sprocket hub is longer for spoked rims.


The L hub I put had on there on the left, the 78 550E hub on the right.


Cleaned up.



Wire wheel and some sanding.



Looks clean against the black.





Before I called it a night, I sprayed some paint on the bare metal on the frame to keep it from rusting.


Edit: For some reason when I tighten the axel nut down it sticks out about 1/8th of an inch too far... I think I'm either missing a washer somewhere or one of my L spacers isn't long enough.

[Toasty]

Oh, and that ebay link I posted with the fairing that was for sale... I threw out an offer to the guy... and he took it . I wasn't really expecting him to take it but hey, it cost less then the price of a Gustaffson windscreen (plus I was failing hard at making my own). The quality looks nice, and it comes complete.


I'll post my own pics when I get it.





It looks a lot like an old Churchgate or Read-Titan (the top half of the full fairing), except without the bubble over the headlight. It looks kind of like a Rickman too, they both have the wheel cutout on the bottom of the fairing. The front is more bullet shaped then both of them though (and has that line as well from the windscreen). The side profile is a little different as well, more Ducati 900ss'like, but sharp at the ends.

[Toasty]

I got my other fairing in yesterday, it's nice! Very sturdy, has a little dashboard and a solid windscreen.







After doing a little research, I found it's a Pacifico Pathfinder from the 70's. There's a few pics on the web on other bikes.


He later turned it into a full fairing.






It's a little guppy-like, but I like it.