GS550T cafe-inspired build

[D-Mac]

Final update of the weekend. I got the lower tree painted, along with the brake arm that I forgot to drop at the powdercoater.

Hit them with a wire wheel and did a little sanding. Prepped.

Three coats of black caliper paint and two coats of clear later. I’ll cure them later this week.

 

[D-Mac]

Good week. Lots of pics….multiple postings.

I spent quite a bit of time working on a friend’s old bike (a Yamaha triple), but on Tuesday my front tire arrived along with tubes for the front and rear.

I have access to a tire changing machine where I’m taking motorcycle repair classes. Even with that, the front proved to be a little stubborn to change. The old tire was so hard and dry-rotted that it didn’t want to move. Then there was so much crud on the inside rim I spent 30 minutes just scrubbing it off. Then the tire didn’t want to seat evenly, so I ended up inflating and deflating it several times and leaving it as high as 75 psi for a few minutes so it could work itself into position.

Front done!

I also removed the rear tire and cleaned the rim. It was especially hard to get the old rear to sit down into the dogs on the tire changing machine. The old tire was badly rotted and 3 sizes too big, so it stuck out on the sides a lot. After a lot of wrestling and a bunch of tricks from guys in the shop I managed to get it off.

Dirty!

New rear tire arrived on Friday. I’m planning to spoon it on tomorrow.

On Friday I picked up the frame and some bits from powdercoat. Here ya go…..

Frame (satin finish)

Protected for assembly.

Swingarm (satin finish)

Centerstand (not sure I’m using it so it might be for sale)

[continued in next post]

 

[D-Mac]

Continued. More powdercoat pics….

Sidestand

Front fender inner brace. Came out nice!

Engine brackets

Headlight (more on this below)

Exhaust brackets

A few other bits came in this week.

Grips.

Bar end mirror

Headlight clamp (I’m ditching the ridiculously heavy, ugly, unadjustable thing Suzuki used, which will allow me to run clip ons).

Some electrical stuff also arrived (not shown)

I finally had a chance to use my thread chaser set. I prefer these chasers to taps where possible since they won’t undercut existing threads or cut new threads. They are designed to clean up old threads and they are good for removing bits of powdercoat, damage, and other crap.

I also bought a cheap metric tap set to clean out the headlight threads (my chaser set doesn’t cover anything below M6 size).

[continued in next post]

 

[D-Mac]

Continued….

The headlight is easily the biggest improvement from powdercoating. It looks even better than the pics show. The powder covered all the scratches perfectly. I replaced all of the rusty fasteners and rotted rubber bits too. Some pics of this beauty.

The new swingarm bearings went in with ease. After a night in the freezer I was able to tap them right in. Pleasant surprise. The powdercoater did an excellent plugging the holes and avoiding excessive build-up around them.

Steering head races (especially the top one) were a little tougher to get on. I used some heat gun to warm up the neck a bit and dropped in frozen races. I ended up using the old races and a couple of sockets to drive them in fully. [I do have access to a great tool to gently force them in, but I was impatient and wanted to see if I could drive them on before borrowing or making something to do it]

Top of head, before

Race seated.

Driving the lower bearing onto the steering stem was a pain. I had a perfect PVC pipe to drive it on, which made short work of it with a little caveman hammering. I put the stem in the freezer overnight beforehand. Yes….I remembered the little spacer/dust seal on the bottom, although I should have used the aftermarket one that came with my bearings because it fits better than what Suzuki uses. Oh well, this bike isn’t going to spend much time in the rain anyway. The original top dust seal fits well (better than the aftermarket one I had). I was sure to grease the bearings and everything else with enough high-impact grease to last a loooong time.

The service manual calls for torquing the main steering head nut to ~30 ft-lbs and then loosening it ¼-1/2 turn until it “feels right” (checking for looseless via the fork tubes when they are assembled). Since the bearings are new, I want to do it right (I know what “feel” I’m ultimately looking for after that). Of course I don’t have the 4-pronged Suzuki tool for the stem nut (the nut pictured below is the top clamp nut that goes on top of it….different nut). I think the shop where I’m taking classes has one so I’m taking the frame and stem there tomorrow to do it. If that fails, I’ll have to make one. After that I can get the forks, swingarm, and wheels on.

Here’s a pic with the top clamp just sitting on the head.

Unfortunately, I’m away most of the week so it could be several days before I get back to it. After that I will have a lot of free time to work on the bike. Stay tuned…

 

[deepwaterimports]

will have to follow this one looking good mate

 

[D-Mac]

Some exciting news! Last week I got this project looking more like a motorcycle. I began by installing the rear tire on the rim and borrowing the “special” tool needed to torque the steering head nut correctly.

Once this was done, I assembled the forks, front wheel, front caliper, inner fender and clip ons. I then pushed the forks up through the tree and re-clamped the clip-ons to the top. I checked and re-checked the rake and trail numbers and I still have lots of room to spare.

Front wheel on:

Front caliper installed:

Headlight on:

Swingarm installed:

Rear wheel installed. Shocks partially done:

Rear caliper and brake arm:

Clip ons adjusted:

Got new brake lines. Love these things!

More pics in the next post….

 

[D-Mac]

A few pics of the bike. Since these were taken I’ve replaced a lot of fasteners, replaced the grips/levers, and I’m working on the footpegs and brake lever – removing rust, treating them, polishing them, and clearing them. I will do rearsets eventually, but I’m going back to stock for now.

I also ordered and just received a K&L engine stand. I’ve wanted one for a long time. This will make any bottom-end work a snap, including painting the rest of the engine (recall that I’ve already painted the top-end components of my “parts engine” but I need to do the bottom end of the engine I plan to use). You can tear a bike down to the crank almost effortlessly since you can easily flip the engine upside down. The bottom piece seemed a little too long, so rather than cut the one that came with the stand, I bought a piece of square tube and cut it down a bit. In retrospect, the original piece might have “just” fit.

Anyway, some pics of the “original” 550 engine in the stand.

I ordered the Caswell gas tank liner so I can properly coat the tank. There is some old stuff in there (looks like Kreem?) that I will be removing first. A gallon of paint stripper, a jug of acetone, and some drywall screws oughta do it. After re-lining and stripping the paint off the tank I will assess the leak(s) (I know there is one already). If they are small, the Caswell liner should take care of them. If they are really bad I’ll learn how to solder the tank. Once the liner is done I’ll move on to patching the dent and painting it.

There is still tons to do…..engine work and a dreaded electrical odyssey. I’m currently taking a course that includes honing motorcycle cylinders, and cutting valves and valve seats. I plan to do mine in about a month or so. I finally ordered new rings and piston pin clips, so I now have all of the stuff to re-build the top end.

 

[MotoMadness]

Great progress and bike.

Watch out with those shocks though. You get what you pay for with them. A distributor of mine sent me a few to try and get me to carry them and 3 out of the 4 they sent me blew out right away. 1 was on a ZRX and 2 were on a Quad.

 

[D-Mac]

Great progress and bike.

Watch out with those shocks though. You get what you pay for with them. A distributor of mine sent me a few to try and get me to carry them and 3 out of the 4 they sent me blew out right away. 1 was on a ZRX and 2 were on a Quad.

They aren't very beefy (the ends looks more like what you'd find on a scooter), so I suspect they won't hold up to any amount of hard use. I've heard other good reviews of them on these bikes though. Compared with the stockers they are light-years ahead in design. I took one completely apart (ground off the peened end and disassembled it) and it was as good inside as it looks outside - just light-duty. The progressive spring is a nice surprise too. I showed it to some guys who do a lot of road racing and set up their own bikes (we've rebuilt a lot of Ohlins shocks together) and they thought it was a good value.....as long as it holds up. Unfortunately, you can't get parts for them, but at $80 a set I'll be happy as long as they last a couple of years.

 

[Cloyd]

I wish everyone posted this many detailed pictures. Just went through the whole build. Great stuff....

 

[D-Mac]

It's a little crazy in places, but I try and take pics of stuff I wish I'd seen on other builds (including my own).

 

[gentlemanjim]

JANAURY 7, 2012

Daily update:

I got a few nagging things done today.

First, I put in a big parts order. This included a few brake caliper parts I forgot to order last time, fasteners for the rear brake arm, a bunch of exterior engine fasteners/caps (might as well start getting this stuff now), swingarm bearings/seals etc, steering head bearings and other related things, and sprockets+nuts+washers. Easily my biggest parts order to date. A lot of this won’t get touched until the frame is done, but I don’t want to have to wait weeks to do anything at that point.

This morning I went to the shop where I’m taking motorcycle classes and rebuilt my forks. I used their fork vise and oil leveling contraption to help things along. I replaced the o-rings, washers, seals, dust covers, and snap rings. It didn’t go so well though in that I made pretty much every rookie mistake possible with the first fork (although nothing past the point of no return). Mistakes included: forgetting to put the drain bolt back in before filling the fork (duh!), overfilling a fork badly because the suction on the fork oil leveler syringe was broken (so I thought I hadn’t added enough oil when I had really been adding too much and it just wasn’t sucking any up) and then I accidently pumped the fork, which shot about 100mL of oil all over the place. I almost put the first seal on backwards too. I managed to scuff up a bit of the lower tubes as well. In the end, it got done and nothing leaks.

Finished! (I hope)

Then I picked up a book for the welding course I’m taking starting next week. I had no idea there were so many types of welding! Should be fun and useful. I will need to cut and weld some things on the frame.

Welding textbook. I immediately found myself immersed in the world of stick, MIG, and TIG.

Back at home I masked off the rotors.

Then I went back to my “paint booth” at the office and sprayed on some new black.
I goofed a little on one part (check out the black spoke at 8 o’clock, it ran a bit as I was trying to reach the sides of the rotor spokes).

Rear rotor

I still have to sort out what to do with the chipped paint on the outside rims of the rotors (I'll either sand it off or repaint it once the inner rotor dries).

Also took this part from the rear wheel……..

…..and made it look like this….

COMMENTS NEEDED: [EDIT: in the end, I went with my original idea of silver/black. I wasted a LOT of bandwidth on this issue...... :]

My original plan was to paint the engine with VHT Universal Aluminum (silver color). Now I’m really leaning toward blacking out the engine using VHT Black Oxide, except for new chrome cam covers at the top, OEM (silver/chrome) fasteners, and my bare polished crankcase covers of course. It would look kind of like the engine on this GS.

http://www.thegsresources.com/halloffame/2007/gs_photo_dec_2007.htm

Any thoughts on this idea?

With all the care and excellent workamanship. Why didn't you dismount the tires? I assusme you going to replace them with new.

 

[D-Mac]

I didn't have new ones at the time and figured it would be easier to leave them on (less risk of damaging the rims). I eventually got around to changing them though. The edges are just bare aluminum, so there isn't much risk of harming the paint when changing them out.

 

[tron97]

great thread. Im really enjoying it..I wish I made mine this detailed..

 

[SloKrt]

Very nice work so far! I just read through the whole thing. I'll def be watching this one.

 

[TomGravelle]

Did this bike ever get finished? I would love to see the final thing!!

 

[branumjb]

Wow man, great detail! What type of seat was that and where did you order it from?