1978 GS750 - Brat Tracker, First Bike

Re: 1978 GS750 - Brat style, first bike

Any luck bending the tube Wership?

Cafegoose is selling some fairly cheap in the for sale section. Here is the link. http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=34914.0

Re: 1978 GS750 - Brat style, first bike

thanks for the tip...
i havent yet... one problem is family stuff and spring cleaning, the other problem is that the weather is nice and id rather ride the bike... if i start cutting i have to finish and i just havent committed...

hopefully soon i can bend one up.. if the next one doesnt work ill buy one from cafegoose...
im planning on baking sand, welding a plug to both sides and heating it up to bend it... we'll see what happens...

ive got most everything else: batting, leather, triangular needles for sewing, thread,

im also trying to get a y-section of gs750 exhaust to put some shortys on... but i havent been able to find one claose enough for a resonable amount of money...

my last bit that ive been thinking about is a new headlight, im thinking of going small, like hte 3 1/2" h4 light from dime city... try to hide it as far back in the forks as i can... oh and a nissin small resevoir style front brake master cylinder to clean up the bars just a litle more...

so ive been thinking, just not doing... and this site is all about doing, so ill get my act together...
thanks for the reminder!

Re: 1978 GS750 - Brat style, first bike

Did you try the sand method? I've heard guys use the same 3/4 plywood setup you're using, but they pack the pipe with sand, weld caps on the ends, and gradually bend it. I believe this can be done without heating, and it'll manage pipe deformation. After every few degrees of bend you add, you mount a piece of plywood behind the pipe so it doesn't bend back out. Good luck!

Re: 1978 GS750 - Brat style, first bike

so its been a while...
im still working on the seat loop but it has paused for a bit

in the mean time i am getting some parts together for the exhaust
i got a 82 gs750 exhaust off Craigslist which i am going to chop up (see pics) and attach to some dime city shortys...
i went to a muffler shop to ask if they could fab a y connector to keep the 4 to 2 exhaust style but he said it would be more trouble for him than id really probably like to pay... so i came up with the idea of using a gs750 exhaust y connector... the only one i could find is slightly different than mine, but a flared piece of 1.5" tubing (from the aforementioned muffler shop) should come in handy for connecting the chopped exhaust to the shorty...
im thinking i can pie slice the 1.5" tubing to create whatever upsweep id like once i get the y on my current headers and the muffler positioned like i want...

so these are the pieces of the plan... my hesitation right now is the 82 y section is slightly wider than the 78... so i have to loosen the exhaust bolts... which i hear are prone to breaking off on these bikes, so im waiting til i have to to put the bike out of commission so im not bummed that i cant ride it...

at some point i need to do all this work: seat loop, headlight rewire (got a 3.5" unit from dime city), exhaust, smll nissin front brake master/lever, and a smaller front fender...

i just dont want to miss out on riding...

Re: 1978 GS750 - Brat style, first bike

i got a 3 1/2" headlight from dime city to put on it...



i fabbed a little bracket and have it positioned to where i thought i wanted it but the bolt for the headlight hits the steering stop, and is slightly off center which is due to using the mounting hole for the brake lines that met at a connector under the bottom tree... im replacing the lines with a stainless unit from z1 enterprises...

so im going to bump the bracket out a little to accommodate the bolt as well as two 9-way electrical connectors (7 spots for the turns and headlight, and another 9 for kill switch, brake light, and ignition) which i will put the female plug on the loom side and place it behind the bracket, then put all the pieces together in the male portions and plug them in... i think this will clean up my wiring and hide it as best i can for now...

im not sure how long ill keep the ignition where it is... id like to move it so that its cleaner on the bars, but i dont really plan on machining these trees any time soon to make them really smooth so itll probably stay for now...



you can see that the clutch cable goes over the lens, so im going to need to reroute that, probably just on the other side of the head tube

and im at a bit of a loss as to where to put the turns... i was thinking a bracket off the lower tree bolt or ears off the bracket im making for the headlight... im thinking the latter wont be wide enough for them to actually look like turn signals...





i didnt really notice the tilt to the right until i saw this photo... and it looks like a rats nest in there! i hope my ideas work out...

if you look at post number 24 on page 2 you can see the contrast of before and after

Re: 1978 GS750 - Brat style, first bike

so im almost done with the wiring, minus some revisions
the male connectors are attached to the loom (female plastic part but male metal leads)... the one on the bottom left is ignition, brake lever switch, and kill/start buttons... the one on the right is headlights and turns... the connector on the top left is connected to the ignition, brake lever and kill/start switch and has female metal pieces





i had to solder some tails on to the orange wire because it went to multiple places, and i arranged those along the bottom of the ignition connector... then the lights all have their own ground so i pigtailed those all to the bottom of the lights connector



now im putting it all back together and i think i broke a stud on the bottom of the forks... well see how that goes

Re: 1978 GS750 - Brat style, first bike

progress so far:
headlight + bracket - rewired and slightly shortened loom (small headlight make the engine look really wide
repaired/replaced fork studs
moved turn signals with bracket off lower tree
fork brace - drilled out the rivets on a fiberglass fender and used the metal part
stainless front brake line







loom with connectors hidden behind light... theres an extra .75" of the bracket sticking out that i was thinking of hiding the connectors in but the ignition loom is too short so i tucked it next to the neck, and there was more room so i just put the light connector in there too...
you can see the clamp marks on the bracket so i should make another one anyways..

Re: 1978 GS750 - Brat style, first bike

Slick turn signal setup. I've been trying to figure out how I might tuck a pair in on the front, that looks like the ticket.

Re: 1978 GS750 - Brat style, first bike

thanks!
i think im going to twist the top portion a little because they hit the tank slightly and they also wont seem like they are laid back when youre standing there looking at them... functionally not much different though

and mark them from where they are and trim them so you can hardly see the bracket...

also paint (turns, headlight bracket, and speedo bracket) will cover a multitude of ugliness and grinder marks that i cant clean up when im all done

Re: 1978 GS750 - Brat style, first bike

rode a little with my brother while visiting the parents...

Re: 1978 GS750 - Brat style, first bike

I finally got my Ballistics Battery... so picture window here I come
As you can see from the pictures I decided not to hang the battery like in my profile pic. I may regret that, but it'll be alright for now...

Here is the window without the side covers, battery box and with straggly wires:


Here is the battery as it sits. I welded two bolts to the swing arm to secure the battery. I will put the stock rubber pad under the battery to cushion it. Right now it is held with plumbers tape, but eventually I'll craft a band to go around it.



For the electrics, I'm making a plate that sits flush with the top of the frame rail. There will be two more holes drilled in the heavily shaded areas and a lot of grinding to smooth the wide circles out. The plate has spaces to hang the reg/rec (top left two holes), turn signal relay (two holes close together toward bottom of pic), and the starting motor relay [which may or may not be removed because my starter doesn't work] (two holes "in line" with the ones close together). Ill need to find a place to put the fuse that is easy to get to and then completely reroute and shorten most of the wires in this area. For now I'm just going to zip tie them all together to figure out if the configuration is good.




In other developments, I've been trying to get a friend to help me bend a seat loop. I got tired of waiting so I called around and it turns out machine shops want a lot of money to bend a 180 degree tube... I I may just light up the ol' fire pit and heat it myself and give it a whirl... I've got most everything I need now. Just not the skills/equipment to do what I want to do, the right way... But tomorrow is Billetproof in Antioch so I'm looking forward to getting ideas there. Hopefully there will be some bikes to look at!

Have you seen this? http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=34914.0;topicseen

just because im glad to get the rough work done and ride it after a few days of the bike being inoperable...

my starter doesnt work so i was tempted to get rid of the starter relay but just in case i get lazy and want to fix the starter rather than kick, ill keep it in...
the hard part is now making it look good by shortening all the wires and tidying the whole space up... i probably wont do that until i have the seat hoop bent (**thanks hoosier daddy, im going to try once more on my own then give in if i have to...) then i will know the final length for the harness... im considering chopping the harness at the tank and cleaning it all up for only what i need in the back, maybe installing a fuse/terminal block under the tank...

im also thinking of doing the tube-for-brake-reservoir ive seen around.. maybe a brass screw to top it off and a clamp to secure it in the same spot as the current reservoir is bolted on.

after the wiring is all cleanedup, the reservoir is cleared, and a couple brackets are removed, thats going to be a nice picture window...

pics in the light













can anyone share links to projects where you were particularly impressed with the wiring and there were clear pictures of how they wired?
thanks

got rid of the center stand and spent some time cleaning up the wiring... i shoved most of it under the tank and above the air box... then rewrapped the harness in 3m friction tape...










Here are some options for exhaust... I'm probably going to go with the shortys, one for each cylinder (i saw it on one of the blogs recently and i thought i saved the pic but i guess i didnt...)



but im really partial to the straight pipes...

Straight pipes kill performance. The exhaust pulse turns around at the end and heads back towards the engine causing it to create back pressure. This is only at certain rpm but it is usually around mid range.

I like the look of the shortys. My plan was to put a baffle in the 4-1 exhaust. I would love a supertrapp but I am not rich.

I can not imagine the sound of a a GS750 with straight pipes! It would be obnoxiously loud and as said hurt performance unless rejetted and probably even then. Drag pipes use open headers but a lot of engineering goes into those to provide scavenging and some back pressure.

SuperTrapp purchased Kerker in 1991, but I think they were associated long before that... so if you keep watch for a used old Kerker header it may very well come with one like mine did. Chrome was toast on the header pipes but solid and no dents, I sand blasted the tubes and used bar-b-que paint and kept the Supertrapp chrome. Less that $100 all in if I remember right.
Sounds awesome!

I LIKE

I like where your headed, check out my build for some wiring ideas.

DGR 2013 - Sacramento

Had a fun ride with the gents (and lasses)... contingent of cafes and about twice as many mopeds... we made an interesting group, united by dapperness...

these two showed up right before we were leaving in the morning, there was a lot of positive cursing when they came around the corner!


A few honda sohc's, a bsa, a couple bmw's, a bunch of puch's, a peugot... im sure im leaving some out...