Hey y'all
Figured I'd start a build thread here as I'm trying to get my bike put together for this riding season.
Here's how it all started
Last year I'd been obsessively looking for a suitable first bike that I could learn to ride on, that would also make a good candidate for a cafe or a brat. I came across a GS550 on a trip home from Calgary one evening that I thought might be the ticket. With no cash in hand, and no trailer i asked the seller if he'd give me a day to think on it, and round up what I needed to bring the bike home. I called him the next day and made him a reasonable offer. He refused, so I had to pass on the bike.
A month went by scouring kijiji for a suitable bike inside of my budget. No luck. Seemingly everyone I would contact either flaked out, or sold to someone else. Little did I know my wife, along with my family members bought the GS550 that I first encountered and were secretly sabotaging any attempts I made to buy other bikes.
They gave it to me a little before my birthday as my wife didn't think she could keep it from me any longer.
So I swapped the handlebars out for some cheap clubmans and was off to the races!
Unfortunately it handled pretty terribly with those things, so I picked up some dirt bike bars at a bike salvage place. Also found some bar end mirrors. Not totally sold on them, but they may look a little better if I shorten up the bars a bit. I recently discovered that the rear shocks that are on my bike are more than 2" shorter than stock! That explains the heavy steering, so once I get things back to stock length, I may look at going back to the clubmans, or clip-ons.
I stripped the paint off the tank, along with the bondo flame on top and the cruiser-esque profile on the sides. Also scored a '79 GS1000 parts bike with no motor, but it had the original aluminum hoop spoked wheels. Swapped out some bearings to work with the 550 axles and everything bolted up perfectly.
Today I had a few minutes to play with some seat shapes. I'm a journeyman cabinetmaker, so wood is by far the easiest medium for me to work with. I had some heavy fir timbers laying around so I started cutting. Here's where I'm at so far, just getting the rough shapes and angles first, and then will be refining the curves later.
Sent from my iPhone using DO THE TON
Figured I'd start a build thread here as I'm trying to get my bike put together for this riding season.
Here's how it all started
Last year I'd been obsessively looking for a suitable first bike that I could learn to ride on, that would also make a good candidate for a cafe or a brat. I came across a GS550 on a trip home from Calgary one evening that I thought might be the ticket. With no cash in hand, and no trailer i asked the seller if he'd give me a day to think on it, and round up what I needed to bring the bike home. I called him the next day and made him a reasonable offer. He refused, so I had to pass on the bike.
A month went by scouring kijiji for a suitable bike inside of my budget. No luck. Seemingly everyone I would contact either flaked out, or sold to someone else. Little did I know my wife, along with my family members bought the GS550 that I first encountered and were secretly sabotaging any attempts I made to buy other bikes.
They gave it to me a little before my birthday as my wife didn't think she could keep it from me any longer.
So I swapped the handlebars out for some cheap clubmans and was off to the races!
Unfortunately it handled pretty terribly with those things, so I picked up some dirt bike bars at a bike salvage place. Also found some bar end mirrors. Not totally sold on them, but they may look a little better if I shorten up the bars a bit. I recently discovered that the rear shocks that are on my bike are more than 2" shorter than stock! That explains the heavy steering, so once I get things back to stock length, I may look at going back to the clubmans, or clip-ons.
I stripped the paint off the tank, along with the bondo flame on top and the cruiser-esque profile on the sides. Also scored a '79 GS1000 parts bike with no motor, but it had the original aluminum hoop spoked wheels. Swapped out some bearings to work with the 550 axles and everything bolted up perfectly.
Today I had a few minutes to play with some seat shapes. I'm a journeyman cabinetmaker, so wood is by far the easiest medium for me to work with. I had some heavy fir timbers laying around so I started cutting. Here's where I'm at so far, just getting the rough shapes and angles first, and then will be refining the curves later.
Sent from my iPhone using DO THE TON