Gs700e cafe/superbike build

[Guest]

I bought an 85 gs700e last summer in original, decent shape for $850 and rode it until it dropped a valve, knocked a hole in the piston, and destroyed the head. Since it needed to come apart anyhow, it seemed an appropriate time to start making some of the changes I wanted to see in the bike. I am borderline obsessed with the Kevin schwantz gs700e, and wanted to draw from that look, while retaining a reasonable streetbike I can put a lot of miles on. I bought an 88 katana 600 parts bike to use the Vance and Hines 4-1, forks/trees/wheels/etc. on the gs. Currently a 2nd eBay motor is torn down to the bottom end to be rebuilt. I haven't seen too many threads on custom gs700's so I figured I'd post on my project

[dorkburger]

Sound like a cool project. Ill be following along. 2016-02-17-07-18-19-407250710.jpeg Going for this look?

[Buffalo Bill]

The Schwanzy bike lookalike sounds great, cept those license plates are kinda garish.
The cafe period was over before 83, going retro 60s with that bike?…meh.

[Ehood940]

Pictures of original motor

[Ehood940]

Yeah Cafe isn't really the appropriate term, I suppose naked would be more appropriate for the age but that makes me think of fz9's and z1000's with bug looking headlights, it's a superbike with a round headlight

[Ehood940]

This is it's present state with the motor out, katana forks on, new headlight brackets, and trail tech vapor speedometer

[Ehood940]

The trail tech is actually really nice for the price, much less bulky than the original, plus the tach should actually function.

[Buffalo Bill]

So headers from the SACS engines will fit the older GSX engines?
When I take the time, I wanna see if they fit me olde GS1100G 8 valve.

[Ehood940]

Yes the spacing, bolts, etc all line up between the oil cooled 600/750gsxr and the gs700/750 16 valve for certain, not sure about 8 valve but maybe an oil cooled liter Katana/gsxr header would be the ticket

[Ehood940]

My intentions cosmetically would be to cut the mudflap/license plate mount off the tail and tuck up the plate, possibly go with a different tailight, trim the seat around tail so its flush, make a more attractive chain guard(carbon?), go through and powder coat brakes, headlight ring, little bits, flat black powder for the motor, puig naked windscreen, relocate horns to under tank, AN style oil cooler hoses
For the motor everything is going to be measured and replaced if needed, motor only has 11xxx on it so pistons are fine, but valves/seats corroded so I'll have them recut/replace some of the valves that are pretty bad, V&H exhaust, stage 1 jets for now, but eventually I'd like to try the Katana carbs, not ideal swap but might have more to offer than the originals. If anyone needs parts I'm selling everything I replace, wheels, front end, brakes, I've got alot of good motor parts

[dorkburger]

I cleaned up the back of mine. The 1150 backend is..... not nice in stock form IMO.
I think the 750 isn't so bad.

[Buffalo Bill]

LOVE the daisies!

[Ehood940]

Nice bike! Yeah the 750 back end is a little long and low for me so by cutting the mudflap portion off the tail it would help with those lines, I'd really like to put 2 3" round tailights where the stock one is now, and have the license plate come right under them at a sharp angle, and get rid of the reflectors on the sides of the tail

[kingofvenus]

The last thing i would do is alter the bodywork on mine, when i saw the first picture in the fall of '82, i knew i had to buy one as soon as one would show up at the dealership i worked at. Heck, i was a die-hard honda guy till then. This is an old pic of it when it had a teapot frontend and rear wheel on it.

[Rob S.]

image.jpg

What the heck happened to that motor?