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Last winter my dad bought me a motorcycle. He found two 1983 Suzuki GR650's on craigslist for cheap and he bought them. He is turning one into a bobber and he gave the other to me. He had the engine rebuilt and made sure everything ran well.
Here is what the bike looked like when I got it.
First thing I changed was the handlebars. I got a pair of drag bars and played around with them but they just weren't "cafe" enough for me.
I got new mufflers, new turn signals, new tail light, and shortened the rear fender.
Then I got clip on bars and mirrors and replaced the stock headlight mounts.
The instrument cluster looked pretty bad with the clip ons so I got rid of it and got a new mini speedo
I'm working on the cafe seat. I've got the cowl all fiberglassed, I'm just working on fitting it to an old GR seatpan that I cut up.
I've still got quite a bit to do and I've got to work in sections since this is my daily driver.
LOL! Rich has been helpful over on the GR forum and I can't wait to see what he's gonna do next. I like his paint scheme but it's a little too bold for my tastes. I'm thinking about going with a dark green and a white or cream stripe. Maybe that will give me some ideas of what to name her, cause I feel the same way that Rich does about the name "Tempter"
Rich - yeah he bought another that was wrecked after avoiding a deer. Hes cafe-ing that one too and has been my sounding board for how I should go about my build.
lol, didn't try to make it sound like a bad thing. I saw it a few days ago and thought, hhhhmmm i wonder when rich is going to pop in maybe i should pm him the link. Then i thought nah its like a suprise present when he finds it!
Makes perfect sense pablo. I keep thinking "what else can I do?" I know I've got the seat to finish and side panels to fabricate and I want to put pod filters on instead of my airbox. But other than painting and cleaning it up some more, I really don't think I want to do much else with it. I'm sure that I'll come up with something once I get all that done but for now, that is what I need to "finish" the bike.
I took a GR seatpan and cut it up to make a sleeker seat. I also wanted to be able to switch back to the 2 seater just in case I wanted to take a passenger or luggage.
I've got to trim a little more off both the seatpan and the cowl for it to fit right on the bike.
Here it is with the padding on it. I still wanna shape that a little more as well.
I'm gonna work on it this afternoon and hopefully get some pics up tonight.
The previous owner did this to the side panels. It looks like it could be a good idea, but it was not well executed. The mesh is held on by what looks like hot glue. Because of the placement, the upper peg that attaches to the tank is gone leaving it with only 2 rear pegs to hold it. I nearly lost the right one the other day on the highway.
This one has been cracked at the top since I got it.
Also because I've changed the cafe seat, it doesn't hang down anymore to hold down the edge of the panel. I'm trying to figure out the best way to just fiberglass some sides that will work with both seats.
Got the seat to a point that I can post some pictures of it on the bike. It's primed white and its a little hard to see but you get the idea.
You can see what I mean about the cafe seat not holding the top edge of the side panels.
Here it is with the foam. I'm thinking about cutting it even lower. I like the lower feel.
It isn't sitting quite even in this pic but I'll make sure it is before I get it all attached.
Still need to make tabs to attach the cowl to the seatpan. Then I need to find some fabric to cover the seat.
I can't decide if I want to put a small pad on the front of the cowl or if I should just leave it.
If you don't put something on the cowl, the paint will slowly get rubbed down. Have you tried sitting on the seat to feel how comfortable it is? Maybe it's the way my legs are, but the edge of the airbox/sidecovers dug into my thighs a lot.
If you cut it any lower than that I would checkk it with your tush before you decide to cover it and discover later on that its to thin for the kind of foam it is. If it looks right but feels to thin i would look into a higher density foam.
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