It’s been a few years since I was last on this site. Youwere all of great help when I resurrected a neglected 1979 GS1000N from a barn backin 2006. After removing the Vetter fairing and trailer hitch, restoring a rustytank, cleaning carbs, replacing seals in the forks, calipers and mastercylinder, upgrading the R/R, re-building the rattly clutch hub, removing thehead to extract broken exhaust bolts, and repainting all of the body pieces, Ifinally had the chance to put a few miles on it before it had to go back into storagefor the past few years. This winter I’m going to start checking more items offthe GS project list...I finally have a space to work on it and I’ve set aside amodest budget. Disassembly has already begun. My plan is to keep the bike mostlyoriginal-looking and true to the time period. I’d like to increase performancewithout greatly reducing reliability/longevity of the engine and drive. Here’sthe list of what I’m planning for sure:
-Repairing the wiring harness (the old one is a mess from wiringin the Vetter fairing and a trailer hitch, and there’s definitely corrosion ina lot of the connectors).
-Blast and paint the frame
-Recover the seat
-Wiseco 1085 piston kit
-Dyna S ignition, coils, wires
-V&H 4 into 1
-K&N pods
-530 chain conversion
-Braided brake lines
-Oil cooler
-Wes Cooley fairing matching the current paint
There are a few things that are undecided… cams, port andpolish, different carbs, and what to do with the bottom end. *Disclaimer* I amby no means a master mechanic, but I have a general understanding of how mostthings work. I am looking for suggestions as to where I can get the most bang for my buck performance wise. I don’twant to spend $500 on something that gives barely noticeable gains…you knowthat whole idea of “diminishing marginal returns” from economicsJ
-Cams: I’ve read that a cam upgrade is recommended with thebig bore kit and I’m considering some from DynoMan (Web Cams, 110 grind). Foranyone who has run them with the Wiseco 1085 kit, how streetable are they? Idon’t want to totally kill the bottom end of the power band.
-Port and Polish: I know that this can make a hugedifference in performance, but is it really necessary? If I get the cams anddon’t port and polish, are the cams a waste of money? Currently I am leaningtowards not spending money on the port and polish.
-Carbs: If I were to port and polish and do the cams (orjust do the cams), do I need to upgrade the stock VM26, or will they do thejob? I’d really prefer not to spend more money on carbs. If a carb upgrade isabsolutely needed, I’ve read that 29mm smooth bores can be fitted, but anythingelse would require one of the large port heads. I saw some 28mm smoothbores,would those work? Ultimately, if I won’t see a gain from the port and polish and/orcams without upgrading carbs too, I may just stop at the bigbore kit, 4 into1,and pod filters for now.
-Bottom End: The bike has 20,000 original miles on it…as faras the bottom end, I was planning on pulling the crank, having it indexed andwelded. That should be all that is needed, right? Is that something that anydecent machine shop can handle?
Thanks for any comments/suggestions…and sorry for the shortnovel.
Spencer
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