1978 GS400X street tracker build

[Guest]

I spent my early years on dirt bikes n 3 er 4 wheelers. Loved playin in the mud n off road. I got into street bikes shortly after n saw how superior japanese stuff was. I had an uncle that was a Harley nut n just always figured the foreign stuff would run all over it... n it does. Its the old muscle car to 4 cyclinder turbo car addage. He did instill his love for Harleys and w that i fell in love w them too. Ive since been bit by the vintage chopper bug n ate up w it. I have come to the realization i love anything w wheels on it... more specifically, w 2 wheels on it. Im an equal opportunity abuser... i show no bias to the insignia on it or where it was made. I will treat em all the same... my only prerequisit is its gotta FLY!

I just moved to Georgia from Pennsylvania about 2 years ago n brought this bike, along w 5 others, down w me. Back home i have a friend, Jim, that wanted to ride w me on the trips i took on my Harley. I bought the bike from my buddy before I left Pa and moved to Georgia. The "X" model was their stripped down econo bike. The X got drum brakes front and back as well as kick only... I think some other stuff like it didnt have a gear indicator... which im sure, if yer readin this, u kno. It was a little hokey when I got it from Jim. Someone tried to turn it into a bobber. No front fender, lowered the trees on the tubes so it sat lower in the front, homade struts on the rear, cut down seat, a black n gun metal grey motif, and no rear fender. I guess it didnt look terrible but it just wasnt my cup of ******s. Jim liked it and he was gonna be able to ride with me so I was happy to see him get it. When he and I went to picked it up Jim asked me to take it for a ride. The bike was crazy fast... not top end, high gear fast... its a 400... but 1st n 2nd fast. The front wheel was off the ground more than it was on the ground. That bike would come around my Sportster from a dead start like it was tied to a Yugo and Ive always liked that Suzuki for that. The bike handled WEIRD tho. I think one strut was built longer or shorter than the other. Either that er the rear wheel was square in the swingarm. And I figured the lowered front end combined with the square stock struts made for a death trap. Jim made the deal to buy it for 500 bucks. Pic below is the day we brought it home...

(WANT TO ADD MORE PICS BUT I GUESS I CAN ONLY DO 1 PER POST, GUESS ILL JUST STRETCH IT OUT INTO A COUPLE POSTS)

[theironlung1976]

Over the course of a year er 2, Jim tried to work on it but was in over his head. Little by little he took things apart n tried to fix them or do something to customize the bike. The clutches eventually got stuck together n wouldnt go into gear w/out stalling. Jim fell on hard times so I bought the bike from him. There was so much taken apart, and w the clutches bein screwed up, he let me have it 225 bucks. Bummer not to see him finish it but it was now at home in my garage. Pic below is comfy in my garage...IMG_20120405_200516.jpg

[theironlung1976]

Ive sat and looked at the profile of that bike for hours... tryin to think of somethin to make it look different. Sportster tank, high bars, low bars, liftin the front end back up, 21" front wheel... all were a resounding NOPE. Metrics are tuff. Theres weird lines. But a chopper, it is not. I guess its from starin at Harleys with glassy eyes that makes me want everything to look like that. One thing that bothered me was the way it handled. Even if a bike is dog slow, if it handles nice it can still be fun. The bike had lotsa power as far as 1st, 2nd n 3rd were concerned. Those are the 3 gears where the YIPPE factor is high anyways. I didnt get the bike outta 3rd cause of the way it handled... and i had 3 more gears to go! A 6 speed should help with a decent cruising speed. N that was what always killed me w my old Harleys... gear bound 4 speeds. A trip was a chore for them. So after I cut off the taped on sissy bar and king n queen seat I sat there lookin at it... maybe it should go back to stock with the shocks on it... but what did THAT look like. I got out my phone and looked up a stock Suzuki. Ugh... maybe I should give the bike back to Jim. When I squinted and looked at the picture I saw on my phone I could see a taller bike. Taller than the struted, lowered bike that was in front of me anyways. Same size wheels... both 18s. And the part that really caught my eye was the rear cowl piece above the rear fender. The stock bike kinda looked like a flat/street track bike. That was 2 years ago. Below is the abortion it was turning out to b...IMG_20120618_173143.jpg

[theironlung1976]

Since my move down to Georgia I havent had much time to play with stuff Ive been JONESIN to work on. But that Suzuki has been on my mind every since the day I sat and looked the bike over. The street track bike movement has EXPLODED... and I love it. When I first started seein em, they were Sportsters... and thats what I wanted for a foundation to try my hand at. I dig Sportsters and the way they look and perform as a street track motorcycle when theyre done right... but that was a ways away... till I could afford another Sportster anyways. My thoughts about the Suzuki have evolved. From tryin to make it look like an abortion of a chopper to a street track motorcycle. Suzuki damn near made it one from the start. My thought was tryin to do what the factory SHOULDA done. Im roundin up parts... now that the moneys comin in. Should be a fun project... and cheap. MORE TO COME!

[JTGS850GL]

You OK dude? Seems like you're repeating yourself a lot. Why not just edit your first post and insert the pics there?

[Rob S.]

"Loved playin in the mud n off road..."

You're from Georgia.

Is your name Early Cuyler?

Just funnin' ya. Good luck with the build - street trackers look great.

[JTGS850GL]

"Loved playin in the mud n off road..."

You're from Georgia.

Is your name Early Cuyler?

Just funnin' ya. Good luck with the build - street trackers look great.

Watchin a little too much cartoons there Rob.

[theironlung1976]

"Why not just edit your first post and insert the pics there?"

I cant add more than 1 pic per post... maybe cause im a new register. Thats why i broke it up into a couple posts, as stated at the bottom of the first post of the thread.

"You OK dude? Seems like you're repeating yourself a lot"

Explaining how i came across the project n how i got to where im at w it. Its a story... grab yer milk n cookies Grayson, Ga and enjoy.

""Loved playin in the mud n off road..."

You're from Georgia.

Is your name Early Cuyler?

Just funnin' ya. Good luck with the build - street trackers look great."

If Early Cuyler rides a GS then yup... u can call me Early Culyer.. opps, i repeated Early Culyer twice. Damn it! Said Early Culyer 3 times... ****... said Early Culyer 4 times! This will go on forever (funnin w Grayson, Ga). Thanks Rob... lookin forward to finishing it.

[JTGS850GL]

You can add more then one picture at a time. You just need to host the picture on a picture hosting site like imageshack, tinypics or photobucket and insert the link using the insert picture tool. Go to the URL tab. Insert the direct link to the URL into the URL text box and then uncheck the box marked "Retrieve remote file and reference locally". Doing it that way you can insert as many as 10 pictures into a single post.

[Rob S.]

Free hat - limit one.

[theironlung1976]

Noted. Ill have to upload em all the a host i guess. Stay tuned, for the photo uploading shall commence. Been gittin alot done... as far as tryin stuff on the bike n seein how it looks. Early Cuyler says feel free to chime in. Golden girls is on in 5 mins so ill do it later.

[theironlung1976]

The first thing i did was change the bars. I had the apey lookin bars on it u see in the last pic i posted. I wasnt diggin em. I got these bars for free in a harley parts swap. They r cr80 bars so theyre narrower than most dirtbike bars n a little taller... youd think theyd b shorter. Theyre kinda like ATV bars. They fit for what i wanna do w the bike so im happy w em. N LIGHT. Important.

The next thing i did was to pull those FRIGGIN HOKEY-ASS STRUTS OFF! I had a set of Mulholland flat track shocks given to me that r 13" eye to eye. The springs r waaay too stiff but ill deal w that later. For now its sittin up where i want it n looks more appealing to my eyeballs when i walk out to the garage to talk sweetly to it. I looked on the world wide internet n found the stock shocks r 12.8"... or there about. These get the rear up a little taller than stock n a LOT more than the struts. SOOO glad to have it sittin up higher.

The headlight isnt stayin... just makes it look more like a bike. Its a Sportster headlight visor in case anyones wonderin. It actually fits the upper tree gauge mounts like it was made for it. A step in the right direction i guess.20141227_144755-1-1.jpg

[theironlung1976]

Just in case someone stumbles on this thread thru a search engine about my junk cause they have a 78 400x, i wanna link this post... a conversation between chuck n i. GREAT info! Thanks for takin the time to type it all out, link everything, n givin me the heavy so i didnt have to search it out. Much appreciated. Chuck rules!

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?230337-gs1100e-swingarm-conversion-swap-to-my-78-gs400x

[Chuck78]

I was replying to your email about swingarm length & shocks, & how you noticed the front end is so soft & dives pretty hard. You mentioned starting a build thread, so I'll just post it here.

look to YSS USS for rear shocks... be prepared to spend $300-500. around $400-500 will get you a good shock with adjustable rebound OR a good shock with piggyback/nitro reservoir. not both, both together runs $599 or $699. they make a very nice aluminum body $300 self adjusting emulsion shock that is a good upgrade from the bare minimum upgrade that forum members recommend - the $209 Hagon or Progressive shocks.

Hagon 2810's are good adjustable nonrebuildable $300 shocks also. Hagon Nitro (eye to eye mounts only, not for 1100e eye to clevis setup) are awesome, so are the Rebuildable Ikon 7610 shocks ($380 rebuildable version of the hagon 2810, formerly Koni Shocks).


The $200-300 shocks will be a great upgrade from stock, but $300-400 will be much better even.


The fork springs you will want to replace with straight rate springs from Sonic Suspension tailored to your rider+bike weight & riding style. While the forks are off the bike, best to buy new fork seals & dust boots & also install a set of racetech cartridge emulators which require disabling the stock damper rods with a big drill bit & a small file... Much better dampening from any former damper rod fork. Just use 15w or 10w fork oil even though racetech recommends 20w.
Get a 79-82/3 GS850G upper & lower triple clamp set (non-"L" model, must be off straight leg forks to get the more offset in the triples, not leading axle forks that have less offset in the triples). Then get 89-2010 GS500 fork legs & brake caliper & fork brace (E models are easier to rebuild, F models i think are harder to remove damper rods without a special tool). These are 37mm legs to fit the 850/1000 straight leg fork triples. They are same height as the stock gs400 forks (450's actually as measured by big rich, 400 should be the same). You now have a fork with built in brace, sliding twin piston caliper, & ability to modify a 310mm cbr900rr fireblade or cbr1100xx blackbird rotor for extreme stopping power without the extra weight of a 296mm CBR/ninja dual disc setup or a much heavier factory dual disc setup. Look to my list of rotor specs on salty_monk's twinpot brake threads, page 6 or 8 on one of his threads. Only certain years rotors work.

[Chuck78]

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?140253-Twinpot-Brake-upgrade-on-78-Skunk&p=1830492#post1830492

CBR900 RR-W,X Fireblade Front 1998-99 Model
310mm rotor with 21mm or 21.5mm offset.

22-23 is ideal, but with the sliding caliper, this should work- check how much wiggle room you have on the caliper pins before calling it done, may need to make a 1mm or 1.5mm aluminum plate spacer behind the rotors to keep the caliper on the pins a safe amount. Also this isn't taking into consideration the location of the gs500 fork's brake mount. 89-95(?) Uses the exact same caliper that we run on the popular "twinpot upgrade" (2piston side by side sliding caliper using ninja & gs500 calipers), ,96-2010 uses an ajp or adp caliper but same rotor, so I assume the fork mounts are the same for all years gs500's.

The blackbird rotors I mentioned have slightly more offset but need a new bolt pattern drilled as they are a 74mm bolt circle, ours are a 78mm like the 98-99 900RR Fireblade's. On the CBR900RR 310mm right side rotor (drilled pattern is made for right side tire rotation direction for venting gasses off the pad/rotor area), you need to align & perfectly clamp the rotor in a drill press using a drill but that is a tight fit in the stock 6 bolt holes, then remove the bit and drill it for the 8mm bolts that the gs hubs are drilled for. Do this alignment process with a 6mn or whatever size bit is a tight fit, for every single home, then you will have a perfectly bolt-centric rotor that is a direct bolt on after 20 minutes on the drill press. May need spacing adjustments off of the hub, but that is easier but more time consuming to make a spacer plate.
Bolt pattern: 74 mm
Offset: 22 mm
Honda RVF750 RR 94-98
Honda CBR1100 XX-V,W Blackbird 97-98

Those rotors are more common used on eBay, but will require a lot more precision in lining up on a drill press to completely redrill a new bolt pattern in between the existing 6 bolt pattern.