GS1100g Cafe Racer - Project Romesy

oohsam

Active Member
It is with great honour, that I introduce you to the newest member of the oohsam family. "Romesy".


Lately, a passion has been instilled deep within to build myself a cafe racer. I think it was inspired many years ago, when I was obsessed with motorcycle build shows such as, biker build off, and Orange County Choppers, I would sit wide eyed infront of the tube, and watch them purely for the artistic creation that is born and bred into a motorcycle that one can truly admire and adore.


I often feared that I could build nothing close what I saw on these shows, however, after scouring the internet and forums, and found typical Joes building, or should I say, rebuilding bikes that were lost in time, and making them look bad ass, classy, and somewhat unique, i thought "hey, I can do this".


If you're anything like me, once an idea is planted deep within, its impossible to stop, and my wife knew the world of trouble we were in when I mentioned the words "Hunni, I think I want to build a cafe racer". She knew it was too late, so she joined the hunt to find a suitable bike.

I stated a thread maybe 2 days ago asking for advice on a suitable base bike to begin this build, and the response was overwhelming and I took the expertise from bikes with more experience than I, and dived deep into the hunt.


So without further ado, Here she is. Romesy....
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So after confirming that she does start up and runs well, I decided it was time to kick the project up a notch.


On the list of things to do was to sort out the wiring. The wiring, at best, is terrible. I had to completely bodge the wiring off the fuse box to get the bike to start and i hate how many wires are dangling and taped up.


The Old Loom :
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The original owner really did a number with this wiring...So instead of actually woking it all out, I decided to start from scratch and create my own simplified wiring loom.
I got the base loom design off thegsresrouces.com and made some changes.


Automotive cable is quite expensive, and i wanted some good quality stuff. After much calling around. I managed to find a roll for 9.95 for 30 meters and its high quality stuff. Got it from the 12v shop here in melbourne.


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Along with the cable, I decided to replace all the connectors...Might as well do it properly.


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And let the soldering begin! Along with my trusty multimeter, a piece of cardboard to protect the carpet, and my wooden soldering stand made form 2 offcuts of my merbau deck.....


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Completed Loom..
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And here are the new connectors...new vs old. The old ones are quite brittle.
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I also replaced the fusebox. I had to mod the fusebox so that accessory fuses would get power when the ignition was on. Just soldered a strip of wire along the back of the accessory fuses, bridged to the ignition fuse...When ignition has power = accessories have power.


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Finished Loom....New fusebox. All works well. I replaced all the bullet connectors coming off the bike with the clip connectors. Its much easier to dismantle the loom and the clips seal well.


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The best thing about staggered ordering from ebay...You get a gift every day!


Handlebars arrived. as well as the clutch and brake controls..Cant wait to get these on!
I'm waiting on a tripple clamp from america.
The part I got from Sydney, turned out to be for a GS1100GK...Even though the guy told me it was a GS1100G...They are different...different enough to not fit.
So till that part comes in. I got no front end!


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Oh yeah! New switches arrived.


These are 3 way switches...They have 2 buttons and a 3 way switch..
The plan was to use one switch for indicators, horn and high beam flash. And the other was for Kill switch and start button..and leave the last button blank.


I pulled the switch apart to see how it works, and im not overly impressed with the quality. The indicator part of the switch is very good and solid. That will work well. The button on the top seems good too, but the button on the side, is built really bad...So I'm considering not using it at all, and getting an independent Horn button. I also have to find a switch for the headlight (On/High beam) but I cant find anything that will match. I might just put get a on/off switch from jaycar and keep the light on all the time and highbeam with the switch. Not sure yet.


Aftermarket motorcycle controls are really hard to find...so I might just modify these to suit my application. I have to make sure the bike meets all the ADR's, which I'm going through thoroughly. I dont want to miss anything.


THe other option is to totally not have a high beam...This is legal and complies to the ADR's...but I dunno. I like having a highbeam.


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Went out the other day and picked up the headlight!
boooo yeah. Cant wait to mount this sucker...its a 7inch headlight. Picked it up from a motorcycle shop in Collingwood....Cant remember the name of the place now but the owner is an absolute champ. Has lots of bits..is a little pricey but this was a good pickup for me based on the prices for international shipping on all the ebay lights I found....def happy with this purchase.


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This is some good stuff! About your custom wiring harness... What wires did you keep? What wires did you ditch?
 
Hey noobzooki.
I kept enough wires in the harness to get the bike running and took out most of the garbage that I dont need.


I used a wiring diagram i found on The gs Resrouces site.


http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=153727


So that harness is just to get the bike running with kill switch etc.
And the fusebox I hooked up is for another wiring harness for the accessories. Which I have not incuded here. Its easy enough, cable goes to switch, comes out, goes to light, and unit is earthed. Switch is on, light is on.
So its a piece of cake.


This was actually very easy to do and I was shit scared to do it as I knew nothing bout wiring diagrams and what not before I started.
I can now totally rely on my wiring coz i know its done right...
 
Hey yall.
I havn't been on for a while, but I have been busy.


Tripple clamp came in from the US.
I just needed the top triple clamp, but I bought an entire tripple clamp, top and bottom.
WHen I went to fit the top, it didnt line up with my current forks. I was pretty upset as this is the second triple clamp I bought....
Then I realised, becuase i have the bottom tripple clamp as well, i could replace the entire unit.
The only difference is that my current clamp is in a V formation, and this one is more straight. Basically brings the forks closer to the frame by about 10mm.
not a big deal.


Ripped it off, and loaded it up. A bit of a hard job to do alone when you dont have decent jacks and what not, but i managed with some wood and some good balancing skills.


Also fitted a new clutch cable, mounted the key lock, and installed a throttle cable and new throttle sleeve...and put the grips on.


I'm pretty happy with the outcome at present....


Here's what she looks like now.


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Decided to get started on the tank.
I stripped off the petock, and the fuel level indicator. I was going to get the rust out from the inside of the tank first but i wasn't sure if i was going to use vinegar, or electrolysis. Yet.
So I thought I'd just strip the paint first...Here are some Before/During/After shots.


Never used paint stripper before, so i was quite amazed to watch it working. Was pretty
cool...


Before...
NOTE TO ALL - Do not use Polystyrene as your workmat..this stuff melts as soon as contact is made with stripper..haha..we used to melt the stuff when I was little with petrol but I wasnt thinking. I quickly changed the mat to cardboard!


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During...Had to do this about 5 times as the first time stripped the clear, second and thrid did the next few layers of paint, and the fourth and fifth removed the primer and bits and pieces that hardened before i got to get it off...


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After : There are some rust spots on the tank...Will use some CLR or some agent that will convert it before I primer it.


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Also. Put together my sandblasting box.
Now I can sandblast freely in my garage. Had to borrow a mates compressor as mine was struggling to keep up.
Its quite a lengthy process to sandblast something large. So I might just keep it to do the smaller stuff....


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Great work on the harness! I'm dreading working on mine.. I may have to go your route and just completely start from scratch. Good luck on your build!
 
There were some rust spots on the outside of the tank, and there is some decent rust on the inside.
Thought I'd give myself a go at electrolysis....Was gonna try vinegar, but I didn't want to buy 18 litres of the stuff...


I didnt have a bucket that was large enough to submerge the entire tank so I'll have to do this in 2 shots...1/2 now, 1/2 later...


Some water, Some napisan, a batttery charger, some coat-hangers connected by some wire...and 4 hours later, the water is absolute FILTH, and there is quite a bit of rust on the coat hangers...
I'll leave this overnight and see how it goes.
Should work sweet i thinks.


Keeping it next to the garage door, as the fumes are highly toxic....Safety first people!!!


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Ok. Electrolosys done. Was not overly impressed with the results. Lots and lots of rust came out of the tank...that ended up in the dirty water. However, the inside of the tank is still rusted as buggery.


So I'm about to start using some Rust Converter on the inside of the tank. I am not going to prime it with POR15 or anything of the such, as its quite hard to get here in aussie land.
I will just keep the tank full with fuel once its done to keep the H2O out of it....and let nature take its course.



Gooooooooooooodies waiting for me when I got home.
I cannot believe how small the vapor is...wife's iphone 4 for comparison. Cannot wait to get this hooked up.
Time to go to the garage me thinks...about that...its a bit of a mess from my fiberglassing attempts last night...Clean garage, install dash....fix up fuel tank....photos later.


PS. the gold pegs are not for the suzuki. They are for the R6....
I did buy a set of R6 Rear sets however, I got them alot cheaper because one of the footpegs was cracked. Easy solution, buy some new pegs for my R6, and use the existing ones on the Suzuki. Win win I call it.


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After not being impressed with Electrolysis rust removal, I opted to try something a little different.
Dont get me wrong, I'm sure it works well and has for many, however, I dont think my battery charger has enough power to pump the current through in 1 day to de-rust, and I really dont want to wait another 2-3 days for it.


So I went down to bunnings and bought some rust converter. Basically causes a chemical reaction with the rust, and converts it using Tanin and and some other chemical stuff. Tanin is the stuff that comes out timber, you would see it with merbau when people make those fences and dont stain them, and their driveways are all orange because the tanin seeped out....


Anyway, I made some seals for the tank, poured in 1 litre and shook it like a polaroid picture for about 30 mins...You can see how much rust was in there from the picture I took the other day after i paint stripped it, coming out of the spout....here it is now. I highly reccomend this stuff. It also protects the metal from rusting again. Was 36 dollars per litre. I got 2 litres as I have other stuff I need it fore. I also treated areas on the outside of teh tank and it come up really well.


Excuse the black blur in the corner, I was holding the torch while taking the pic.


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I was so excited I thought i'd give it a go on my headers...
You can see it working...I'll give the headers a sand tomorrow and hit it with some high temp black paint...Gotta get a pinhole welded up as well...but its almost ready.


Before
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During
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Didnt get time to do anything with the trailtech tonight. I will wait for my indicator lights first then I'll wire it up...
 
Great work. Just out of curiosity...What size compressor were using using before and what are you using now ?
 
Nice job mate! Looks exactly how how I started on my 850G - if this is anything like that, you'll love the sheer torque on tap when you free her up a bit! Throttle drop at 2k almost had me fly off the back of mine haha.

One tip on the rust converter - please hear me out - you can't paint over it unless you give the material a good go-over with a wet wire brush and then a sanding, followed by a flush with methylated spirits. If you don't do that the phosphoric acid (active rust converter ingredient) will eat through the paint and make it look flaky and white like in the 'chemical working' picture. Ask my poor Valiant how I know!

Other than that, top job. Keep up the good stuff.

- boingk
 
Boingk - Thanks man. I really appreciate the advice. I poured some of the rust converter on my concrete and I freaked out at what it did to it...so I assumed as much with the painting.
I was always in scope to sand the tank with some fine sandpaper and neutralize it in a bath some something that would neutralize the acids...yet to be researched!


As far as painting is concerned, I've never painted before and I'm a bit at loss as to where to start. There is a tiny dent in the tank that you can see in the pics when i stripped it. I tried to remove these with various methods i found online, none worked for me. I think its too small...So I bought some metal filler that should work and i'll smooth it out and make it nice.


Can someone enlighten me on priming....I have an etch primer, Do I need to have the surface very very very smooth before I do this, or the latter, scuff it up a bit, a few coats of primer then smooth all that out with some wet n dry paper?


I tried searching for this info but there isn't much available from an end to end paint job.




Oh as far as the compresser is concerned. I have no idea what size they are. I am borrowing a mates who is an avid hoarder of tools and had it in his garage. its a very very big one, with a belt drive. My one is a cheapie and was struggling to keep up....Sorry I'll try and get more info.


Cheers
 
400m grit should be fine for an undercoat. If you take it too much finer than this it'll get too hard for the paint to stick to. Wetsanding is definitely the way to go with this though - have a dripping tap and sand while under that. The slow trickle of water will help take away metal patricles and prolong the life of your sandpaper.

When it comes to spraying, many light coats is the way to go or it'll run and look like its crying, sagging...whatever - the kinda paintjob you don't want. Leave 15 minutes between coats and a day between starting with your topcoat. It also helps to spray from slightly before to slightly past the thing you're spraying, as reversing while still on the object builds paint up and its easy to overdo it and get a run.

Cheers - boingk
 
Thanks boingk. I'll give this a go tonight.


Should I be only using 400 grit? LIke, should I start with something like 200 grit and then move to 400?
 
If theres scores or deep scratches, or any paint left, then I'd start with 200. Otherwise 400 should be fine.

Cheers - boingk
 
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