"80" GS450L -Black Heart Division-

Hows it going DTT members. My name is Michael, but most call me Pritch. April of 2011 I bought this bike , A 1980 Suzuki GS450L, for $500. It ran pretty good for a 30 year old bike that had been shown a minimal amount of love through it's life. 14,000 miles on it and looks as if they did just enough to keep it on the road. Had slime, grime, blood, guts and plenty of white rust on her to make her ugly. I've been working on this project for a few years now off and on. Didn't stop beacause I got tired of it or lost interest. Just the hick ups and speed bumps in life have held me up at times and then there's always the matter of "A" and "B". Ability and Budget. Both have also helped to stall things out at times. I knew very lil about motorcycles as I've never been a gear head. Strange kinda, as I do always seem to enjoy taking things apart and putting them back together again fixing it in the process. Anyways, I'm nearly done. I still have some work to do but it will be ready fro the Michigan spring. I've done alot of cleaning, wet sanding and some paint to get it to the point its at now. I'll shut my trap and start trying to dig up the pictures.

Welcome to the site Pritch!

There are a rising number of GS's around here, and there's always room for more. Be sure to get those pictures up!

I hear ya brother and thank you. Ok, so after some looking I managed to find some pics. I'll get on with it.

Here's my son Jalen and the GS when I first got it. It was kinda rough lookin, but intacted.


This is me and the first thing I started on was the front wheel. I wanted to see how thing would turn out on something small a easily replaceable.


Progress on the wheels. Tough on the fingers but the results were worth it.









When I seen what I could do with some time and elbow grease, it wasn't even a qouestion was it worth it. So I moved on to other things.

This was a good exaple of what I was dealing with.
Before...



After...




I did the polish work but when I went to do the rebuild the jets were stuck good and rather then strip and rip crap up I took em to a shop and had them cleaned a rebuilt. This shot is when i got them back.

The motor was in good shape besides the dirt and white rust. So I sent the motor out and had the valve clearance checked and a new gasket put on as it had a slight leak developing. When I got it back i started the clean up and polishing process.













After...













I used a high heat paint on the motor and while I was painting I decided to do something with the wheels. I needed new tires so I took care of that as well.











How she looked before I put the motor back in.



This how she looks now Just before I put it in the shed for the winter. Broke my colar bone back at the end of January and only recently have been able to start messing with it again. Ordered a Bratstyle seat and Tail loop I'm gonna put on in the coming weeks and got a speedo from DCC as well that will replace my stock mod number and keep all my indicator lights. I've had this bike down to the bones and back together again and am looking forward to riding it. I haven't ridden since I sold my CBR600F4i in 2006. Been a long time coming.
Will post more pics as the progress continues. What cha guys think? Lot of details and pics missing. I was a member of another forum and realized me and my bike/style were in the wrong place. Think I might be in the right spot now or real close.

Hey mate bike looks good so far. I like what you did with the wheels. Im picking up an 81 gsx250 tomorrow and they have the same wheel so I might take some inspiration from yours.

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Thanks brother. I painted everything, then went back and removed the paint from the star pattern and polished em up. Was rather easy. I like it too.

Looks great! It seems like the GS450 has become a very popular build this year!

Great bike. Good luck.