1980 GS1000S Reluctant Rebuild

[Vmass]

The seat pan looks awesome. I remember my 80' seat cover from pit was almost a perfect fit and match. The only thing I couldn't quite get was a tight fit where the step up was on top of the seat.

A couple of months ago I picked up a new pair of Polk Audio RTIA7 speakers. They were having a direct promotion with the second speaker at half price. Most go for the small speakers these days. I thought I would try a set of towers only, no other speakers hooked up. Very nice sound.

[Kiwi Canuck]

So I've taken the Canadian Cooley out a few times now including to the Swap meet last weekend (I trailered it over there) and I've been really impressed with how smooth and fast she is.

She seems a bit faster than the Boise Beauty, and a lot smoother, she rides very nicely.

The BB does sound nice though with the 4-1 Bassani.

I will need to switch a few more parts around, just so I have all the very best bits on the Canadian Cooley and the BB will get the best of what's left.
Not that they are not great parts, I'm just putting all the new bits and the most pristine parts on the one bike so I'll end up with a 9/10 bike and a 7.5/10.

Canadian Cooley in front, Boise Beauty behind.




Still need to deal with the clutch, so that's on the agenda for this weekend if I get my parts from the mailbox.


Cheers.

[Cyrano]

What a great pair to have in the stable. Have you thought about breeding them?

[Kiwi Canuck]

The seat pan looks awesome. I remember my 80' seat cover from pit was almost a perfect fit and match. The only thing I couldn't quite get was a tight fit where the step up was on top of the seat.

A couple of months ago I picked up a new pair of Polk Audio RTIA7 speakers. They were having a direct promotion with the second speaker at half price. Most go for the small speakers these days. I thought I would try a set of towers only, no other speakers hooked up. Very nice sound.

Rich, yes my Pit Replica seat cover fitted really well, I'll see how it does once I ride it a bit.

I've looked at Polk Bookshelf Speakers, some on Craigslist right now I may buy, would prefer a pair of vintage speakers.

[Kiwi Canuck]

Cyrano, Thanks for the comment, and yes it seems they have a way of multiplying, I started out with just one, then came 2 and who knows if I'll come out and find a 3rd one in my garage one day.

Cheers,

David

[Kiwi Canuck]

I just found a picture from a facebook post in NZ, me on my GS1000S from 1979, pretty cool.

https://www.facebook.com/NZROADRACER/photos/a.1744871562422904.1073741828.1744865289090198/1755955137981213/?type=3

[Sandy]

I just found a picture from a facebook post in NZ, me on my GS1000S from 1979, pretty cool.

https://www.facebook.com/NZROADRACER/photos/a.1744871562422904.1073741828.1744865289090198/1755955137981213/?type=3

Cool. Although you all look like a bunch of bloody hooligans on a foot path in the city park. LOL.

[steve murdoch]

Very cool, Dave.
Looks like the number plate is just taped over the headlight?

[Kiwi Canuck]

Cool. Although you all look like a bunch of bloody hooligans on a foot path in the city park. LOL.

Sandy, that was Hawkesbury circuit IIRC and it was about 6KM per lap and was basically a large square country block with some interesting features on each straight, usually a bridge on an angle with wooden planks with overhanging trees and I remeber the front straight had a kink that you could almost take at WOT if you held your breath, it was an amazing place but pretty dangerous if you make a mistake.

I was following Bill Toomey on his CBX and he overcooked one of the corners and went into the ditch which was full of water, I stopped and ran back to see if he was OK and he was, so I asked him if he had a spare tea bag, he said What? the water around his bike was boiling so I thought he had stopped for a tea break. he didn't see the humor in it at the time.

Yeah a pretty narrow track but that's the training ground for Isle of Man, probably why the Kiwi's have done OK there.

David

[Kiwi Canuck]

Very cool, Dave.
Looks like the number plate is just taped over the headlight?

Steve,
The racing number plate was attached with through bolts and a piece across the inside but it was probably buzzing that's why I put the tape on. It would never have passed scrutineering with just tape.

Headlight and most of the instruments removed, just a tach and basics lights.

We would get the bikes from the dealer and we would own one ourselves and the rest were supplied to ride, so we keep the new pieces stored and put all the used parts on the new bikes until they changed the model.

That bike in the picture was a used one from the showroom floor with all my racing parts on it, as a mechanic was delivering my bike home to me and he got in an accident, so the night before the race I was building up a new bike.

It rode very differently than my bike and the transmission was rough so I keep missing gears coming out of corners so those guys behind me kept passing me on the straight as I was fighting a box full of neutrals, then I finally figured out how to keep it in gear and I took off.
Always did quite well there, IIRC I got two 2nd places in the Open Production class that year.

David.

[GregT]

I rode at Hawkesbury in '72. Had a homebuilt TR3 - an R5 ported to TR250 specs using TR250 pipes modded to suit. data and pipes supplied by a friend - Mike Sinclair. Ran into clutch problems and didn't finish any races on the day.
Had a good go in practise and managed to get it airborne 8 times in the lap...The stopbanks and bridges plus the sharp rise in the back straight plus a light bike meant you were in the air quite a bit. The double stopbanks after turn 1 were fun - I passed a couple while in the air on those....Prob why I had clutch probs,lol.
The kink in the front straight was Jones corner. Named for Craig Jones - Brent's father. Tommy McCleary pushed him off on the exit - and into a fence....

Watched Dale Wylie on the Boyle 350 Suzuki triple in the last race in 72 - spectacular jumps over bridges where the runoff was a barbed wire fence...

We won't be back there again - the area is now heavily built up. It was open farmland before.

[Kiwi Canuck]

I rode at Hawkesbury in '72. Had a homebuilt TR3 - an R5 ported to TR250 specs using TR250 pipes modded to suit. data and pipes supplied by a friend - Mike Sinclair. Ran into clutch problems and didn't finish any races on the day.
Had a good go in practise and managed to get it airborne 8 times in the lap...The stopbanks and bridges plus the sharp rise in the back straight plus a light bike meant you were in the air quite a bit. The double stopbanks after turn 1 were fun - I passed a couple while in the air on those....Prob why I had clutch probs,lol.
The kink in the front straight was Jones corner. Named for Craig Jones - Brent's father. Tommy McCleary pushed him off on the exit - and into a fence....

Watched Dale Wylie on the Boyle 350 Suzuki triple in the last race in 72 - spectacular jumps over bridges where the runoff was a barbed wire fence...

We won't be back there again - the area is now heavily built up. It was open farmland before.

Greg, that is pretty cool that you raced there as well, brings back a few memories.

I did have a very close call at that race meeting, probably the one moment in my life that things could have had a very different outcome if I didn't back off when I was already over committed.

The guy on bike 7 is Paul Goodyer, I had never raced him before as I was only new to the Open Production class in the last 2 years, he had been a very good racer in his day and was very comfortable on the Honda and he knew the circuit well.

He was making a one off race I believe, anyway after the start I got passed by many bikes as I was struggling with the transmission and each time I got some momentum I was picking guys off left and right, well I am pulling along side this guy and showing him my wheel waiting for him to back down as we go through the bridge section just before turning back onto the front straight, it's a single line through there and no way to fit 2 bikes.

I went in thinking I'll wait till he hits the brakes and then pass him, but he didn't brake until it was too late, I realized at some point this guy is not going to give up his place to me and I blinked first, not sure how I stayed on but I came out the other side all out of shape and ran on the grass for a while before being able to get back on the gas and go after him. I sometimes think back about that day and and I'm so thankful or maybe surprised I didn't take us both out and into the bridge railing.

That would have been a big one, I can hardly bear to think about the consequences of what could have been.

I must not have thought about it too much at the time because I was by him before we turned into turn one and Rob Holden was long gone by then so a relatively easy ride to 2nd place.

David

[GregT]

In 72 the bridge onto the front straight had no rails - just flat planking with tar breaking up on it. I remember it because we'd walked down there from the pits to watch the sidecars. It stayed in the memory because I saw a Norton outfit actually spin on that bridge....How they stayed on the bridge I still don't know...
Might have been Skilton - remember him ?
Paul Goodyer rings a bell. Never raced against him - I think his era was Marlboro series ? I'd retired for the first time by then.

[Davowa]

I remember when I was in the NZ airforce in 1975 and watching John Woodley, who was also in the RNZAF, racing an RG500 (I think) at Hawkesbury. Memory cells are a bit vague other than that but MotoGP it wasn't! It was much better.....

[Kiwi Canuck]

I remember when I was in the NZ airforce in 1975 and watching John Woodley, who was also in the RNZAF, racing an RG500 (I think) at Hawkesbury. Memory cells are a bit vague other than that but MotoGP it wasn't! It was much better.....

John is a good friend of mine, we talk on the phone from time to time.

We both came from Motueka originally, and yes he was riding the RG500 as he always brought his race bike home with him from Europe each year.

He gave me a lot of good coaching regarding the business of racing and sponsorship etc.

David.