Bringing back a 650... and tweaking it a bit...

[jasonb]

Right, first project post despite having been on here browsing for some time now!

The story begins with the accidental purchase of a 1981 GS650GT, I never realised they were so unloved! - nor did I know anything about GS's before I bought it! Anyway, this particular specimen had a good 80,000 miles on the clock and was supplied as two boxes of bits an engine a V5 and a frame that had been poorly powdercoated in a rather nasty (to my taste) orange colour!

This is the bike immediately before it was stripped and the frame was coated by the previous owner (sorry about the quality, I used my phone to take a photo of some old 'real' photos of it):







It was even more of a rusty old state than the pictures really show! (evidenced by the bits that came with it in boxes)

On my collection, the frame was like this:



It was not a great powder coating job to be honest (not properly cleaned before coating) and the colour is even more orange in real life! I won't show pictures of the wheels which had again been badly powder coated in a lurid gold colour... safe to say, also not to my taste!!! Other bits and bobs like the fuel tank were in grey primer and definitely need more bodywork doing to them before they can be painted.

At this point I should probably own up to having bought the bike to do an oh-so cliche cafe race conversion on. (Sorry purists!!! - At least it is putting one bought at scrap price back on the road!)

The plan is to fit a cbr600rr front end and various other parts as I happen to get a very good price on them during another project. The usual cafe style seat is also a given.

I'll post the first round of work in the next post.

Jason

[Charlie G]

UNLOVED?

Welcome!

cg

[jasonb]

Yes Charlie, in the UK they aren't all that common and they don't fetch much money at all compared to other GS's!

It took me a while to find a cafe seat in what I consider to be the right proportion with the 650 GS tank. I ended up emailing carbon-moto and getting exactly the seat I wanted based on many different styles he had made previously.

Here is the frame with the aformentioned primer fuel tank and the new seat mocked up whilst working out the necessary frame chop:



Confident I had decided exactly what I wanted, out came the grinder:



Quite crusty under the footpeg mounts...



Out came the flap disc wheel and said bye bye to the brackets for good:



Bye bye centre stand:



Bye bye old steering lock:



All of this work was actually done today, so after this post the thread will be current!

Next up was trial fitting the cbr600rr forks. I had already purchased the correct taper rollers from my local bearing supplier and then cut the old lower race off the honda steering stem and pressed the new one on.

First job was to remove the ignition barrel and associated gubbins from the honda fork yoke as I want a cleaner look for the top of the bike. Out came the hacksaw and flap disc again!



Then the last thing I did today was to do a mockup of the overall proportions of the bike now that all the bracketry has been removed and the forks and clip-ons can be fitted.



I think it looks quite fetching!

Thread is now basically up to date and I hope to post into it regularly (which should force me to get on with the project more briskly!)

Tomorrow I hope to get a chance to see how much rebuilding the engine will need and maybe look at starting the carb rebuild and/or making the seat cushion pan.

Thanks for watching!

[Charlie G]

Ok...their a bit unloved here as well and don't fetch the big bucks. There are a few of us owners around who hold them in a special in our hearts. I have two. Do you mind saying where in the UK you are? I'll be watching..........

cg

[Flaggo60]

Ok...their a bit unloved here as well and don't fetch the big bucks. There are a few of us owners around who hold them in a special in our hearts. I have two. Do you mind saying where in the UK you are? I'll be watching..........

cg

GS650G bikes: It seems to be a big secret how good they are. And the resale price doesn't matter because most of us are keeping them, having had them for years or, if they just arrived, will have them for years. They're well balanced, good handling and reliable. Shhhh. Keep it to yourself....

[spyug]

Well unloved it may have been but it looks like you have some affection for it. Good for you.

You are right that the café thing has been done to death but if that's what you want then go for it. You are bringing the bike back to life and that's the important part from my perspective.

I just need to give you my café seat 'warning". Please make sure that you get a good and fairly thick pad for it as sitting on such a rigid pan can bring on damage to the sciatic nerves in the buttocks. Also make sure your shocks are good as more of the road "feel" is amplified by that type of seat and a jolt can easily hurt or even damage your lower spine.

It happened to me almost 6 years back when I built such a seat for my XS650 Street Tracker. Even with a good pad, I squished the sciatic nerve bundle in my left leg and trust me the pain is so bad that morphine becomes a good friend. My leg was out of commission for 18 months and I couldn't ride at all during that time. I couldn't even sit comfortably for the first 6 months. Even now I have weakness in the left leg from time to time. The one good thing from that experience is that I found the GS as the seat on my 83 was so comfortable I was able to get back into riding with it.

Well enough preaching. Enjoy the build and keep the pics coming.

[jasonb]

I'm based down in the south of the UK. I can understand why the 650 would be liked over the rest of the GS range, imho it has the best balance of weight, BHP/L and style; understated, but punchy.

I didn't get as much done as I hoped today, however I made a seat pan/cushion to prove to myself that I might be capable of doing the upholstery myself when the time comes. Good info on seats spyug, I will give it a bit more consideration (depending on the quality of the finish on the rest of the bike I may outsource it anyway).

The main thing I did was to pull the engine out of the hiding place it has occupied since I bought the project in order to have a bit of a look at it. I'm glad I've already invested time in the rest of the project, or the various hassles that the engine has provided (and no doubt will provide in the future) would have been more annoying.

First up is the clutch cover for a game of 'previous owner has managed to tighten the screws to the point that the heads have started stripping'. Thankfully a steady approach and correct size screwdriver saved the day. I ended up using the 'poor man's impact driver' technique, i.e. big hammer, good screwdriver and decent coordination between hands. Worked a treat (these are as they were before I removed them) :



Joy of joys, the ignition cover provided even more fun as a PO had already sheared one of the three bolts off and cracked the casting on another, the top one is blocked and the bottom is the casting damage:





And a clearer picture of the sheared fastener on the top right after clearing away the old ruined gasket. Once I've full checked the engine then I will go about repairing threads and replacing bolts and the like. Not sure if I'll get the cover welded or find another one.

I am glad to be finding this now though as it has informed my decision; I will be proceeding to strip down a large amount of the engine (as much as it takes). It's just a shame that a PO went to the trouble of spraying it (even if it is a bad coat) when there are clearly numerous issues with various fasteners and tapped holes. (Did I mention many of the screws on the cover the other side were also stripped and there was liberal instant gasket about... all warning enough that I'm best served not to assume anything and instead have a look myself.

[BigD_83]

Although I am no fan of shaft-driven cafe bikes, I think you are probably going the right direction with what was obviously a basket-case.

Too bad you are across the pond, as I would have been happy to send you a handful of parts, timing cover included, to help you along.

[SVSooke]

Just a little tip to help remove stripped JIS screws.Take the hammer and rap the head first,helps put the points back in place.A punch can be used to help with those you can't get to as easy.Had to use this just the other day.I replace as may as I can with allen (socket) head SS screws.

[jasonb]

Cheers SVsooke, it's a bit hidden in the text, but that's the method I used. (implied in 'poor man's impact driver' ) - I imagine these screws get rounded because people use any old screwdriver rather than a proper fitting JIS one.

The plan is indeed to replace all JIS screws with appropriate to task socket head cap screws. (as stainless fasteners are fine on covers and things, but not when it comes to anything that sees any kind of load cycle)

I've already ordered all the stainless socket head caps for the carbs along with all the right o-rings and a dynojet kit. So hopefully I can get on with that too.

Looking at the broken ignition casting (and lack of uk parts availability) I think I might just repair the one I have.

[jasonb]

Haven't done much over the last week as I've been commuting a 110 mile round trip, however I got round to repairing the ignition pickup cover today. I'd heard a lot about these aluminium miracle rods for low temp aluminium casting repair and decided this would be the ideal project to get a couple for just out of interest.

The casting is damaged in two places as the previous owner certainly seemed to have managed some serious cockups to ruin not one but two bolt ears, in one it needs a new ear building up and in the other it just needs patching over to keep the shape of the outer casting.

First I tinned the casing using the HTS 2000 rods and then I built up a steel mould to build the aluminium up into.



Then I dropped a steel bolt in where the hole ought to be and filled it up with rod. Finished ear (sorry not the best picture!):



Next I did the other cracked casting, again I put a steel bolt in the hole and fired up the propane torch:



Second repair finished and just needs a bit more cleaning up:



In all it is quite tricky to build a new ear the way I did and I would probably do something different next time. That said, I was expecting low temp brazing rods to be really crap and they actually aren't; they certainly seem to bite into the alu well and it cools very hard.

Yet to decide if I want to polish the engine covers or not in the end though, if I do then I may have to get another cover anyway. I do prefer to repair rather than throw away where I can though.

In other news, my o-rings stainless fasteners and dynojet kit turned up so I can begin ripping the carbs apart now

More soon
J