1978 Suzuki GS750 racer project

Sorry everyone, this was a winter project and she took a back seat to my farm & house chores and projects over the spring & summer. All of the powder coating is done and I have a pile of new parts here. Final assembly begins Christmas break.
 
Awesome project, and brought back memories of the GS850 I used to have. Flowed head. dynamically balanced internals, Bored and stroked to just short of 1100cc, running the flatslides off an old CBR1000 jellymould and S&B pod race filters. Oh, and a V&H 4-1 race pipe. PO had set the bike up perfectly, only issue I had was when the weather got real wet she didn't like it, and the tank would last me about 100 miles, in good weather I could ride cardiff to fishguard and back (228 miles). I wasn't gentle with the throttle either :D

GS's. Damn, but there's something about them that gets under your skin. Yours is going to be very nice indeed, I think. I have my reservations about combining the burgundy/dark colours in the wheel areas, but when seen in combination with colours on the rest of the bike I guess it could tie in nicely. But hell - at the end of the day it only has to please one person, right?

Good luck with getting time to do anything over christmas - I can't even get the combination of time and weather I need to even clean my bike :(
 
Santa brought some much needed bits. Got a fork damper valve set to upgrade the suspension. Waiting on a few o-rings & oil seal stoppers then I can get the forks reassembled. I'll be putting new bearings in the front wheel and getting that completely reassembled and ready today. Swing arm is assembled and back on the frame. Not happy about winter being here but it's nice to have time to get back to my winter project LOL.

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Got the new front wheel bearings in and the rest of the bits on to complete the front wheel. Going cross eyed polishing all these bolts. Looking forward to getting the front end all together once I get the rest of the fork o-rings & tires.

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Weasel said:
Got the new front wheel bearings in and the rest of the bits on to complete the front wheel. Going cross eyed polishing all these bolts. Looking forward to getting the front end all together once I get the rest of the fork o-rings & tires.

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Did you true your wheels yourself when you re-laced them? I picked up a kz with chrome spoke wheels and they look nasty and possibly unsafe. I started to look into relacing myself and then giving them to a bike shop to true. Used Mag's off eBay seem to be the better option though...
Weasel said:
Final disassembly and frame goes to powder coat this week.

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Had quite a few stubborn bolts but nothing a little heat can't fix.

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Was surprised to find the rear motor mount bolt bent...

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And the mystery was solved quickly, there was no bolt in the front motor mount. In fact, there were several motor mount bolts missing. And this thing had been ridden that way, the front chain sprocket cover was loaded with grease & road grime. Scary the things POs can do to bikes. I'm pretty sure that "extra" motor I got was the original.

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Weasel said:
Santa brought some much needed bits. Got a fork damper valve set to upgrade the suspension. Waiting on a few o-rings & oil seal stoppers then I can get the forks reassembled. I'll be putting new bearings in the front wheel and getting that completely reassembled and ready today. Swing arm is assembled and back on the frame. Not happy about winter being here but it's nice to have time to get back to my winter project LOL.

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Sent from my Z981 using DO THE TON mobile app
 
[quote author=deej link]
Did you true your wheels yourself when you re-laced them? I picked up a kz with chrome spoke wheels and they look nasty and possibly unsafe. I started to look into relacing myself and then giving them to a bike shop to true. Used Mag's off eBay seem to be the better option though...[/quote]

Yes, took old rims and hubs apart, cleaned them with a power drill mounted wire brush, had them powder coated and re-laced & trued them myself. The old spokes were in really bad shape so I just bought new ones. I almost took them to a shop to be trued because I was intimidated but by chance I mentioned it to a friend who re-laced and trued his own wheels. He had never done it before either but said it turned out to be an easy project. I took his advice and went for it. Mags will certainly work and are fine but for me, spokes are a big part of an old school bike.
 
I got the forks sorted, rebuilt and put back on the bike. I added the damper valve set and replaced the top springs. Looking forward to seeing how they handle.

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A new set of Avon AM26 Roadriders have arrived! I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel on the parts order list. I also just ordered some replacement gauges, brake pads and caliper rebuild kits.

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Wheels gonna look amazing thinking of Avon's for myself, glad the old rebuild juices are flowing bud. What gauges have you gone for? something I haven't put much thought into yet, keep the updates coming .
 
Got the front wheel trued after a morning full of spoke adjustment. Ready for rubber.

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Like the look n size of the gauge mate could follow your route on that one gonna be stripping and rebuilding my spoked wheels for the first time, it'll be a learning curve but yep it will be a full day job ime sure keep the effort up mate look forward to more updates
 
I was planning on using the original side covers but after trying to fit them with the new custom seat pan, I decided not to use them. The plastic seat pan I went with was pretty flimsy so I had to stiffen it up with fiberglass. Between the bottom pan I built to fit the frame, stiffening up the top and trying to figure out how to marry the two, I decided I don't enjoy working with fiberglass LOL.

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My neighbor Andy is a talented auto painter. He's doing the paint work for me. The tank was in pretty good shape so not much body work was needed. He got the underside finished and asked me to stop over and approve the design so he can finish painting it this week. The first pic is a design idea I saw and wanted to go with. The tank will be black with metallic burgundy on the sides. His paint supplier matched the burgundy powder coat perfectly. As I said before, burgundy was the original color of the bike and I wanted to incorporate it in the new look.

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That's gonna look cool and will be a top job when finished a good classic bike paint design look forward to seeing the finished tank mate
 
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