GS450 "Sport" - Done!

So this happened recently:



The mounting tab snapped off, so the whole rear of the guard was just flopping around. Unfortunately, there are no plastic chain guards for an E/S model available, so I had to fit a chrome one from an L model:



It still needed trimmed to clear the 17" tire, and I noticed the front mounts are slightly different. On the plastic guard, there's a flat tab on the inside of the chain (towards the tire) that stabilizes the guard. On the metal guard, it has a female peg - so I'm assuming the L model's swingarm has a male peg. I ended up just cutting off the female mount on the guard.....and it seems ok so far. I plan on keeping an eye out for another plastic guard though.
 
Rich,it'd look good if you could tighten up that gap, between the chain guard and where it wraps around the back of the rear sprocket.I'm not a big fan of plastic chain guards.I had one go thru my chain and wrap up around the rear sprocket and bent it all to hell.It was on an XR100 and I was a kid.Scared the crap out of me when the tire locked and the engine quit.I low sided in a grassy pasture and didn't get hurt.Luckily.
 
Yeah, I'm not a fan of the massive chunk of chrome hanging on the swingarm. I had thought about bending / shaping an aluminum guard, but I'm not certain how well aluminum will withstand the abuse (especially after it is bent). Stainless steel sounds like a pretty good option though......
 
Big Rich said:
Yeah, I'm not a fan of the massive chunk of chrome hanging on the swingarm. I had thought about bending / shaping an aluminum guard, but I'm not certain how well aluminum will withstand the abuse (especially after it is bent). Stainless steel sounds like a pretty good option though......

I agree with the SS.Aluminum will crack over time,unless it's thick or the brackets brace it really well.
 
Nice to see some attention lavished on a GS450…

This build is being featured in the BikeBuilds.net directory here: Big Rich's GS450 RestoMod

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If anyone would like to have a build of their own listed, just send me a message with a link to the build thread and we'll take care of the rest.

Ken
 
Got this for Christmas :



So I took off the passenger peg mounts and crash bars and had them blasted:



And used the matte black PC from Harbor Freight:



Now everything just needs bolted back up ...
 
Awesome Rich, where did you bake them? In Meg's kitchen or did you get an old thrift store oven in the garage etc. I have to get my boss's magna wheels powdered and if I can get the gun and an oven for the same or less than paying someone else I will totally get my own setup.
 
Oh no, there would be chemical hell to pay.....

I've had a small toaster oven in the garage for a while now for curing paint. It's not ideal by any means for powder but it gets the job done..... I did however mention it to Meg that I can only bake small parts in the toaster oven, and need an electric stove. Within a day or so she found one for free somewhere online so next week I'll be driving to get a 220v oven.

I figure with a normal oven I can do everything except for frames.
 
Big Rich said:
Oh no, there would be chemical hell to pay.....

I've had a small toaster oven in the garage for a while now for curing paint. It's not ideal by any means for powder but it gets the job done..... I did however mention it to Meg that I can only bake small parts in the toaster oven, and need an electric stove. Within a day or so she found one for free somewhere online so next week I'll be driving to get a 220v oven.

I figure with a normal oven I can do everything except for frames.

Cool, I've been using the toaster oven in garage trick for the jugs on the Magna to do the black jug polished fin. It handles the 300 F needed for that but not sure if it will handle the 400 -500 F powders need. You can make a home made oven for frames, I have seen them on the interwebs, might be cool to do. How did the gun work? the parts you did look pretty good. Jill wants a new oven in our kitchen so maybe I can swing that to inherit the old one for powder!
 
Ya know, I've seen the whole DIY oven thing online. It comes down to how often I would use a massive oven compared to how much I'm willing to send something out. Luckily, a local friend of ours (in Pittsburgh) is doing PC so there's no point of hogging up garage space with a monster oven.

The gun worked pretty well I suppose. It is a Harbor Freight gun, so I wasn't expecting any miracles though.
 
Good to know. I have 3 companies contacted about powdering the wheels, we'll see how much it will be, gloss black is almost always cheapest.
 
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