its a Dutch Cafe...

[Guest]

Hey guys,

i bought this bike a little while ago,.. it was nothing more then a semi-complete bike in bits and pieces..

its a 1980 GS750X-L , the engine was complete, cams were out but it supposedly ran when parked..
i wanted to turn it into a cafe-racer, so on it went







boxes with parts in it..

[GS-cafe]

i first assembled the bike, to see what i had en what parts weren't there, and what needed to be changed

so started cutting into it,..


placed a hoop on it and made a cover on it.





the seat is placed on a frame, i can unlock it and have a little storage room under the seat..


the front fork is from a 1997 suzuki GSX600F, it slips right in, and uses the same stem bearings as the GS, i also upgraded the brakes, these are from a '07 SV650, made adaptor plates from a sheet of aluminium 14mm thick



made the rear seat out of fiberglass , first made a exemaple out of the foam blocks, glued them together and sanded it to the shape i wanted of which i dont have any picture's of..

but here's the seat in fiberglass




made brackets for the headlight

[BADJACKSON]

Nice work!

[GS-cafe]

then i made the exhaust.. the bike came with a 4 into 1 LASER system , but after i made the footrests and adding bungs on the swingarm for a bike stand, the exhaust wouldnt fit , it interfered with the footrest and the swingarm spools,..

so i had to modify it..



the end tube is 3" and i used the LASER tube so i could pack the muffler

[GS-cafe]

since i didn't wanted to use the plastic side covers and a complete open look isn't the look i wanted for this bike,,. i made some covers..



its just a piece of sheet metal bend,welded and bead rolled, the right side has a hole in it, the rear brake reservoir will sit behind it.



then threw everything on it, sat it outside so i could have a look from a distance




the little stuff, finding a place for the battery,solenoids R-R, and such..





after that i came up with this..

[GS-cafe]

also made a piece for the seat..


after that, time to rip it apart, weld everything together an send the frame to the powdercoater..


and start building again..

new bearings in the steering stem ofcourse





the front fork also got new seals ,bearings and oil,.. the oil that was in it, was really old.. why do some people never service them?



the engine already ran so i knew it was good,.. adjusted the valves, wired up the old ignition some new o-rings in the carbs and it fired up.. the carbs were also overhauled after that, a dynojet kit was used ,for the pod-filters , new o-rings, jets and gaskets, and a good cleaning!

[GS-cafe]

then the fun part,

wiring!






the Acewell gauge.


since i welded on some pieces on the tank for the cover i made, the paint ( all 14 layers of it) came off around the welds, so time to strip the tank down to bare metal.



the left side is pretty good.

the right not so..



so some body work .. made a puller , welded on some bolts to pull the dent out.

[GS-cafe]

i know there are better tools for this, but those cost a pretty penny, this worked pretty good i think.






so thats were i am at the moment,..

i also installed a dynatek ignition on it,.. it runs really good with it. synced the carbs and with a blip of the starter it runs, so really happy with that

[GSXR7ED]

Awesome Work!!!

Wow! Ben, that is amazing! You speak it and it happens. Love the pics too!

I really admire someone who can take on a task until completion. Thanks for directing me to this link.

Ed

[dorkburger]

I dig those bead rolled covers.

[Sam 78 GS750]

Tracking... Can't wait to see this once it's done!

[Crankthat]

Looking forward to watching more progress.

[eil]

Not normally a big fan of the cafe style, but I dig those fabricated side covers and the natty tank trim piece.

[Cyrano]

Project build threads are a favourite of mine but this one made me smile as I scrolled down looking at the quality of work.

Keep it up.

[GS-cafe]

thanks everybody,.. just trying to make it look decent.

also got some parts in, exhaust filling, so i can finish that, got some new tyres, continental tkv's they look pretty nice, the old ones were from '94/'96


ordered new intake boots, these are a bit hard, so before i run into problems, i will replace them..

so more soon..