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Good evening everyone! So, this is my first post in what looks to be a long drawn out learning experience that I hope to have wrapped up by mid summer 2019.
A little backstory: I have been riding on and off since college (about 12 years), and just recently in the last two years, really fell in love with a bike. It is a 2008 Yamaha FZ1. It does everything I want, with power and comfort. Well, I had some space in my basement and got the itch to add another bike as a project. At first, I was hung up on a Honda CW 500, but I am a big guy and as soon as I sat on one, I thought I would crush it. LOL. Anyway, I was perusing craigslist and came across a local guy selling his GS 1100E. One thing lead to another, and one great deal later, I was proud new owner of a running riding vintage piece of cool-as-hell. I threw some new rubber on her, changed the oil, and put on 1500 miles in a few months. I absolutely fell in love! As much fun as I was having, I bought it as a winter project, so I parked it a few weeks ago and started pulling stuff apart. I had a rough idea of where I wanted this to go, but as things shifted in my mind, and I knew what I actually wanted out of the bike, my end game is pretty much solidified.
I got a great deal on a swing arm from a 98' 1200 Bandit, and a beautiful set of USD forks off of a 92' GSXR 1100, which came with 6 piston Tokicos. Well, the forks came in, as did the rebuild kit for them, and I got the calipers off. UGH!!! They were in TERRIBLE disrepair. Spending about 1.5 hours a night for 4 nights, I got the calipers cleaned up, and awaiting a rebuild kit that a buddy of mine is taking out of the tokicos he just rebuilt about 100 miles ago before he unexpectedly switched over to Nissens on his ZRX. He is giving me pistons, all seals, hardware, titanium bleed nipples, springs, pads, and pins.
I spontaneously bought a set of wheels and rotors from a 2007 triumph Daytona 675 that I though I was going to use, but after doing the math on the spacers I will have to make for the rotors to center them in the calipers, and all the other bushings and parts I will need to make to get them to work, I am just going to go another direction. I have a source that has a rear 98 bandit wheel with the rotor, and a caliper for it, as well as the cush drive, and sprocket. My swing arm came with the brake arm, axel, and all the other hardware. He also had a 92 gsxr 1100 front wheel with rotors, and a lightly used set of longer Galfer braided lines, which will work well as I am going to machine and weld rises for tubular bars onto the inside of the above the clamp clip on mounts that the forks came with, milling off the factory levers and master cylinder (this may sound confusing, but there will be some detailed and cool pictures of it coming in a few weeks when I finish the machining. I am a machinist by trade, and manage a job shop machine shop, owned by my mother and father in law.
As far at the finished result... I am going to be going for a minimalist build, getting rid of 70% of all the electronics. I am going to end up with a custom speedo housing, machined from aluminum with carbon fiber inlay, housing the digital readout for a bike computer (speedo and mileage). Hidden start button with kill switch, and staying with a large round headlight but of the HID flavor. Mounting the license plate on a custom mount set in the tail where brake light is now, with double stacked strip LED integrated brake and turn signals. I am going to hang a custom wiring harness of my making as well (which I only know enough about to be dangerous....LIKE I SAID IN THE TITLE...JUMPING RIGHT INTO THE DEEP END)
I have started compiling other parts. Chain, offset sprocket, wiring, fresh hardware, new stator and rectifier, steering head bearings, fresh fluids, and tons of other odds and ends. And along with my good fortune on getting a great deal on the bike, my wife was kind enough to buy me a motorcycle lift while I was away on a fishing trip. She's the best....even though she hates motorcycles.
I will also have a bunch of other cool little trick stuff of my own making along the way that will be posted in this thread as it happens. Along the way, you will see me across the forum begging for copious amounts of help from y'all as I can already tell this is going to get WAY more challenging then I though it would, and this forum is a straight wealth of knowledge. Most of you guys know more about GS's in your little finger, then I know from hours and hours of reading and research.
As for the mechanical shape of the bike, it runs great, but has an oil leak around the auto cam chain tensioner, a small seep at one of the bolts securing the gasket where the lower case splits (so minor I don't even care, and may be the bolt needs to be torqued), and what appears to be a very leaky oil pan gasket, as the bottom stays wet, and I can smell it burning off wile sitting stopped. I find it weird though that the oil level hasn't dropped a noticeable amount. I will also be pulling apart the fuel system, and rebuilding the carbs. Long term, after everything comes together, I plan to ride it for a season to make sure everything is to my liking, then pull it all back apart for paint and powder coat.
Now onto the fun part, THE PICTURES!
Day before tear down started
Tear down begins
Tear down continues, removed gauges, headlight, and labeled wiring (which is coming out anyway)
New swing arm while machining single shock mount off, and after clean up
New forks, and some before/after of the Tokicos
When this is all said and done, and all along the way, I will have some killer deals on OEM take off parts!
Thank y'all for reading!
A little backstory: I have been riding on and off since college (about 12 years), and just recently in the last two years, really fell in love with a bike. It is a 2008 Yamaha FZ1. It does everything I want, with power and comfort. Well, I had some space in my basement and got the itch to add another bike as a project. At first, I was hung up on a Honda CW 500, but I am a big guy and as soon as I sat on one, I thought I would crush it. LOL. Anyway, I was perusing craigslist and came across a local guy selling his GS 1100E. One thing lead to another, and one great deal later, I was proud new owner of a running riding vintage piece of cool-as-hell. I threw some new rubber on her, changed the oil, and put on 1500 miles in a few months. I absolutely fell in love! As much fun as I was having, I bought it as a winter project, so I parked it a few weeks ago and started pulling stuff apart. I had a rough idea of where I wanted this to go, but as things shifted in my mind, and I knew what I actually wanted out of the bike, my end game is pretty much solidified.
I got a great deal on a swing arm from a 98' 1200 Bandit, and a beautiful set of USD forks off of a 92' GSXR 1100, which came with 6 piston Tokicos. Well, the forks came in, as did the rebuild kit for them, and I got the calipers off. UGH!!! They were in TERRIBLE disrepair. Spending about 1.5 hours a night for 4 nights, I got the calipers cleaned up, and awaiting a rebuild kit that a buddy of mine is taking out of the tokicos he just rebuilt about 100 miles ago before he unexpectedly switched over to Nissens on his ZRX. He is giving me pistons, all seals, hardware, titanium bleed nipples, springs, pads, and pins.
I spontaneously bought a set of wheels and rotors from a 2007 triumph Daytona 675 that I though I was going to use, but after doing the math on the spacers I will have to make for the rotors to center them in the calipers, and all the other bushings and parts I will need to make to get them to work, I am just going to go another direction. I have a source that has a rear 98 bandit wheel with the rotor, and a caliper for it, as well as the cush drive, and sprocket. My swing arm came with the brake arm, axel, and all the other hardware. He also had a 92 gsxr 1100 front wheel with rotors, and a lightly used set of longer Galfer braided lines, which will work well as I am going to machine and weld rises for tubular bars onto the inside of the above the clamp clip on mounts that the forks came with, milling off the factory levers and master cylinder (this may sound confusing, but there will be some detailed and cool pictures of it coming in a few weeks when I finish the machining. I am a machinist by trade, and manage a job shop machine shop, owned by my mother and father in law.
As far at the finished result... I am going to be going for a minimalist build, getting rid of 70% of all the electronics. I am going to end up with a custom speedo housing, machined from aluminum with carbon fiber inlay, housing the digital readout for a bike computer (speedo and mileage). Hidden start button with kill switch, and staying with a large round headlight but of the HID flavor. Mounting the license plate on a custom mount set in the tail where brake light is now, with double stacked strip LED integrated brake and turn signals. I am going to hang a custom wiring harness of my making as well (which I only know enough about to be dangerous....LIKE I SAID IN THE TITLE...JUMPING RIGHT INTO THE DEEP END)
I have started compiling other parts. Chain, offset sprocket, wiring, fresh hardware, new stator and rectifier, steering head bearings, fresh fluids, and tons of other odds and ends. And along with my good fortune on getting a great deal on the bike, my wife was kind enough to buy me a motorcycle lift while I was away on a fishing trip. She's the best....even though she hates motorcycles.
I will also have a bunch of other cool little trick stuff of my own making along the way that will be posted in this thread as it happens. Along the way, you will see me across the forum begging for copious amounts of help from y'all as I can already tell this is going to get WAY more challenging then I though it would, and this forum is a straight wealth of knowledge. Most of you guys know more about GS's in your little finger, then I know from hours and hours of reading and research.
As for the mechanical shape of the bike, it runs great, but has an oil leak around the auto cam chain tensioner, a small seep at one of the bolts securing the gasket where the lower case splits (so minor I don't even care, and may be the bolt needs to be torqued), and what appears to be a very leaky oil pan gasket, as the bottom stays wet, and I can smell it burning off wile sitting stopped. I find it weird though that the oil level hasn't dropped a noticeable amount. I will also be pulling apart the fuel system, and rebuilding the carbs. Long term, after everything comes together, I plan to ride it for a season to make sure everything is to my liking, then pull it all back apart for paint and powder coat.
Now onto the fun part, THE PICTURES!
Day before tear down started
Tear down begins
Tear down continues, removed gauges, headlight, and labeled wiring (which is coming out anyway)
New swing arm while machining single shock mount off, and after clean up
New forks, and some before/after of the Tokicos
When this is all said and done, and all along the way, I will have some killer deals on OEM take off parts!
Thank y'all for reading!
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