Suzuki GS550E — NOS Seat!

Finally found one 😉

This is just a small post to say that i finally found a brand new seat for the GS550!

A legend in Germany had one for sale on eBay and it arrived recently, looking pretty bloody good too!

I ordered new hinge pins and, after years of having to make aftermarket parts fit, was ecstatic to find it just went on and that was it. No adjustments, no cutting or trimming, it just fitted perfectly, on a forty-year-old bike.

To find a seat pan like that is the holy grail. The trims, the strap. WOW! 😍

So nice, and unusual nowadays, to have the original design on the cover. 

I know it's only a seat, but I've been looking for a good used one for bloody ages. To find a new one blew me away!

And it looks amazing!

And what a difference to the way it rides! 

The comfort from this seat is just unreal compared to what was on here before. I had no idea how much the seat forms part of the suspension before, keeping you isolated from the pounding of the road. It now feels like you could cover massive distances in a day. I'm so impressed with it.

And being that much thicker than the old one, my knees are no longer so bent up either. In all those years of riding, I've only ever had one new seat before and that was on the BSA in the nineties. It'll be much higher on my list of priorities for the old bikes in the future.

More soon...

Suzuki GS Series — Clutch End Float.

Low speed rattles?

There's a few common places that annoying rattles can resonate from on ye olde GS. One of them being the clutch.

It's a heavy unit to be spinning around on the big needle roller bearing and you will always see and feel the [normal] movement when you get hold of the clutch basket. Considering that the huge helical gear around the outside of it is being driven by the crank itself, movement isn't what you want. That sort of freeplay doesn't really matter, for instance, if the clutch is being driven by chain or belt as there is more flex. Gears don't exactly flex, but they will wear. 

On top of this, there is a gear sat behind it, driven by the basket, which then drives the oil pump. A lot going on for something that only has one bearing. 

Now a couple of the intelligent folks at GSResources forum removed some of the play by machining a little off the bearing hub that runs on the inside of the needle roller bearing. In effect, this removes a little of the end float and holds the basket at the angle it was designed to run. Thereby keeping the gears at the correct angle, and reducing some of the noise inside. Sounds good huh?

That's the back of the clutch basket. The large gear is driven by the crankshaft. The two slots in the back of the clutch centre drive the gear that, in turn, drives the oil pump. The springs you can see are for cushioning take up of drive as you let the clutch out to pull away etc. These sag slightly with age and, ideally, need replacing because they start to rattle. Or, as I was about to do, you can shim them with washers to quieten them down.

So this unit has a few jobs to do. Probably best that it spins as it should instead of flopping under its own weight...

Suzuki GS550E — Steering head bearings.

Wandering Aimlessly...

Since the new Metzelers have been fitted, there has been a slight weave at low speed. I hope it's a steering bearing issue and not a trait of the new boots. Being as it was on the list of to-do's for along time, I ordered a genuine top bearing from Suzuki, as there doesn't seem to be an equivalent generic part number, and the old "32006" taper roller from the local bearing shop for the bottom yoke.

While it was apart, it would be time to clean up and paint various parts on the front end. A month and half later and I'm still waiting on the springs to come from America. Postal service is struggling as they're waiting for flights!

Anyway, back to the clean up. The main things on the list were the yokes/triple clamps, headlamp brackets, indicator brackets, and maybe the speedo surround and headlamp itself.

Metzeler Tyre Test — Suzuki GS550E

First, a bit of history... hey, life isn't all just fun you know!

When the old GS came to me, that fateful morning in 2012, I knew it was going to change my life. It sat there for a long time, mournfully looking to be put back out there, to race around on the mountain roads, to show what it was really capable of.

But I had a GSXR1000 and a DRZ400 supermoto for the fun stuff. This one would wait. However, it kept looking... and I kept ignoring. 

Until, one day, it was reassembled enough to run under its own steam. The excitement was building. The little GS felt proud, there was potential and we could both see it. She was ready to go out and try the roads for the first time in years. The front tyre, however, was looking a bit lame. So I bought a secondhand Dunlop on eBay that was originally fitted to a Harley, the little GS wasn't happy about that, but it meant we got to ride. The rear Barracuda (the what?) had plenty of tread left so she was good to go. And for years she rode around on those old tyres, the front now being seventeen years old 😱.

Suzuki GS673 Conversion — The Road Test.

 What'll it do mister?

There are no certainties in this life. All we can do is work with the best we've got, and to the best of our ability. When you work with old vehicles, you are left with a hell of a lot of choices. Replace everything for fear of something breaking down the track, or use experience to decide what will keep going, and maybe rely on a little bit of luck. It's probably fair to say we use all of these methods without a second thought.

It would be nice to change every bearing, gear, thrust washer, bolt, moving part etc., but that generally isn't viable. Instead we check, measure and work out what we can get away with. Lots of parts aren't even available anyway so sometimes we are stuck with far greater tolerances. When there is wear in vehicles, we immediately feel it when we ride or drive them but, as human beings, we automatically adjust to cope with the discrepancies. Some better than others.

Sure it's nice to be on a brand new bike, where everything is perfect, but they also leave me feeling somewhat robbed (not just with the cost of them either:). They let you get away with things, incredible brakes, plush suspension, tyres with more grip than you know what to do with. You may even think you're better than you actually are (oof, perish the thought!). 

But with old stuff you feel everything that is happening, hold the bars too hard through the bends and the weaving starts, fight it and things get worse. But relax and let it work everything out for itself and they usually settle down quite nicely. You feel that you're achieving something, that a living being is out for a blast with you, stirs the soul don't they say? (It does get tiring though...)

So ladies and gentlemen, just once, get on an old bike and be amazed at what they will do if you're just prepared to put in the effort...

Suzuki GS550E — GS673 Conversion Progress.

 Finally getting there...

Once painting of the cases was done, I put the crank and gear clusters back in the crankcase. Turning everything over, something I hadn't noticed originally was pitting in the teeth of one of the gears. It turned out I needed sixth drive gear (obviously unavailable from Suzuki now), but a search on eBay came up with a NOS one in Cyprus. With a delay on postage due to COVID-19, all I could do was wait. 

The pitting is visible in this pic. The largest gear in the top cluster.

One NOS gear from Cyprus. Whoop!

GS673 Conversion — Cleaning The Crankcases and Painting Engine.

The 673 kit.

The next step for the GS550 is to relieve the crankcases slightly so that the bigger diameter liners will fit inside. I'd just ordered a new Dremel as my old Draper version was getting a bit tired. That thing has been amazing and I've had it almost twenty years — it's done lots of porting and polishing. Anyway, i was in the process of grinding out some of the casing when the Draper tool finally gave up and spat chunks of plastic out the side. The Dremel came just in time!

If you're wondering about the quality of the deburring tools, sandpaper barrels etc., the Dremel ones are superb! I've always bought the cheaper versions and they wear out in seconds, The Dremel ones are worth the extra cost. 

But on with the job. 

I found it easier to slip the cylinders over the studs, turn the case upside down and mark where the liners were touching. Then remove the cylinders and start grinding. Bit by bit, they went lower and lower.

RPM Moto Nerang — New Chain and Sprockets for the GS550E.

Suzuki GS550E — I'm attached to this little bike.
It's nowhere near restored or concourse, and likely never will be, but looks pretty good considering the condition it came to me in. I'm always doing little jobs on it, and enjoy the odd ride out even if the seat is as hard as wood.

The chain and sprockets were well worn, in fact the chain I was using came off my Gixer1000 years ago. So when I saw a NOS standard rear sprocket for next to nothing on eBay, I snapped it up (obviously a fifty tooth sprocket for a GS550 is not a common item now). The gearing on the 550 was way over the top before, and was fitted with a 43T on the back. I'd always thought it had the wrong chain guard on it because of the huge gap underneath, but that wasn't the case. Standard size was seven teeth bigger.

So now I needed a front sprocket and an O-ring chain to go with it. A quick look on eBay and there was a shop selling both, with different sized fronts if need be. I decided to go for a 16T to give the GS a sightly more relaxed time (15T is standard). The prices were superb, and with a little more investigation I found out they were actually on the Gold Coast.

So I popped in...

Suzuki Bandit 1200 — Suspension Upgrades.

The Bandit is pretty damn awesome!
Especially considering, for the last couple of months, the shock absorber has been breathing its last and dumped its oil. Not bad for a 24 year-old bike.
Hustling it along was ok as long as you didn't force it. Maintain pace and keep things smooth and it handled most roads perfectly. But while I've been off for the Christmas break, I figured it was time to sort it all out. With a GSXR1000 K8 shock ready to slot in, it was time to upgrade.

Mk1 Suzuki Bandit 1200 — Tacho Not Working!

Comfort.
I think I've been cramped up on sports bikes too long, because I absolutely love the comfort of the GSF1200! Just this Sunday, after a bacon and egg roll and flat white at Cafe Metz, I headed up the Goat Track. For those not in the know, it's a cracking little road full of hairpin bends that takes you up to North Tamborine. Great fun, up or down, whatever bike. 
Fifty K's per hour is how fast I was going. Fifty K's! 
I was more mellow than a bong-induced mellow guy from Mellowford, and happy to cruise. Until six or seven bikes flew past me like I was on a pushbike!
I took chase, but gave up when the front got a bit iffy in one of the bends. All good, back to Sunday morning cruising.

So what's this thing like day-to-day?
Honestly, it's blown me away. It's quick when you want it, happy to mooch around at snail's pace, just a cracking allrounder. I'm fixing up little things as I go, and making a list of things I want to do.

One thing that was niggling me since getting this thing running was the rev-counter... it wasn't counting the revs. I had two secondhand CDI units, it didn't work on either. I had continuity from the tacho (black/red), back to the CDI. I had 12v and a good earth at the tacho itself. So the tacho must be faulty? One would assume so. But to assume... 

New Old Stock.
Secondhand rev-counters were going for around $150 on eBay, if you could find them. But then a NOS one came up for $300. 

Suzuki Bandit 1200 — Brake Caliper Stripdown.

Nissin Calipers Overhaul.
The Bandit has been a lot of fun so far, but one thing was niggling me. Although all the discs and pads looked quite new, the rear brake was squealing so loudly I was actively trying to avoid using it.

So a couple of weeks ago I thought I'd whip off the rear caliper, clean up the pistons and pads, and apply some grease to the backs of the pads. During the cleaning of the pistons, I noticed part of an O-ring sticking out on one side. The only thing I could do was unbolt the two sides of the caliper and remove the pistons to see what was going on.

The secondary O-ring (dust seal) must have been so dry at some point that it got caught on the piston and worked its way out. However it happened, I popped out the pistons, cleaned everything up in soapy water, blew it all dry and refitted the O-ring along with rubber grease. With careful refitting of the piston, all was well. Obviously this was done with both sides of the caliper, and then new brake fluid was flushed through. The back brake was then perfect... and silent.

What I did notice while the caliper was apart was the amount of orange, jellied brake fluid hiding within. There is no way this stuff is getting out unless you strip the caliper completely, which left me wondering about the fronts...

Suzuki Bandit 1200 — Fuel Gauge Not Reading Correctly?

Rusty Tanks? Sounds like a Blues singer.
And if you leave the rust to spread, the blues is what you'll be singing.

Takes me back to when I was 18 or 19, riding a '58 Triumph Speedtwin. My mate and I were on our way into Hereford, the traffic was backed up a bit from the roundabout and we were busy swerving our way through when he came alongside me, on his Stan Stephen's Stage-3 tuned, RD350 YPVS, to tell me that I had a water leak.

My initial response was "F#ck, where from?"

It dawned pretty quickly that there is no water in a pre-unit Triumph! The tank had split and petrol was absolutely pissing out all over the head and barrels! I killed the engine, which helped a little because the vibration stopped, and calmly pushed (very quickly) it over to the bike shop that used to be on that very roundabout. A mechanic there gave me a tray to put under it, and my mate gave me a lift back home where I borrowed a Transit from work to pick up the old Trumpet. Job's a fish.

But I digress, as usual, because we're now in Bandit country. One of the first things I noticed about the Bandit was the fuel gauge, and it didn't move as Suzuki intended. There was also rust visible in the tank. 
A quick test of the fuel gauge goes as follows: unplug the tank sender unit, rear right of the petrol tank on the Bandit, and insert a wire into both terminals of the loom. This is basically returning 12v to the gauge (or mimicking a full tank). The gauge went to the full position so happy days. Time to pull out the tap and fuel sender.

 

Improving Your Motorcycle's Brakes... Cheaply.

As the lever fades...
With a few miles, or years, under its belt, most bikes start to feel a little bit lacking when it comes to the feel at the lever. And I, for one, am not keen on riding bikes where the lever almost touches the bars. Now, if money is no option, there are plenty of easy fixes:

• New discs and pads
• Braided brake lines
• Rebuild the calipers with new seals, maybe pistons if damaged
• Brembo adjustable master cylinder 

But this gets expensive, and changing parts could be masking an actual problem — something that could be easily fixed. So what if you could improve your standard brakes where things have deteriorated over time? Well read on...

Suzuki GS400 - Another Bike Project.

I've been busy... with wood. And I'm not a very accomplished woodworker. Prefer metal, but I wanted to create something out of junk. Pallets in this case. They'd been sat outside where I work for awhile, and were going to be broken up, so why not?

Suzuki GS550 Petrol Tap Overhaul.

Vacuum taps were once state of the art.

The day you upgraded to a bike with one those new-fangled vacuum taps things was a momentous occasion indeed. No more did you fumble with the petrol tap every time you started or switched off the bike. It was nothing short of a miracle!

But like anything, it can go wrong and some people are put off by trying to fix it. A diaphragm and O-rings are pretty much all there is to it, so this is a quick tutorial on how to fix it. Bearing in mind I've actually taken this tap off the tank four times since painting it, to try and get it to work correctly. It's been a pain, but today I think I nailed it. 

Also, number two carb needle valve could be leaking slightly and allowing it to flood the cylinder when left a couple of nights. Had the petrol tap switched off correctly it wouldn't have been an issue, but if my brother's sister's aunties' nephew wasn't my second cousin I wouldn't be in this palaver anyway. What?

Lakeside 2/7/2016 — Tyre Warmers and Giant Killers.

GSXR1000 vs GSXR750 (with tyre warmers).
It wouldn't be a trackday if we didn't top up with Wild Bean coffees on the way, so the Coomera BP garage was the first stop. And with one of their bacon and egg toasted sandwiches heartily disposed of, we were ready.
'Twas early morning. The sun was on the rise and catching the moon fast — just like an old GSXR1000 on cold tyres against a newish GSXR750 with warm boots — yep, about a lap in and it's all over. But more on this later.

GS550E Paint — And Now The Lacquer.

2000 Grit Wet & Dry
After a good flatting with soapy water and the old P2000 grit, the paintwork was looking smooth and, well, dull. Taking care on the curves and edges not to rub through the red, you're aiming for paint that is uniform all over without any orange peel. 
The scary part is taking your nice shiny paint finish and ruining it. 
But if it worries you, just run water over the paint and watch how it shines again — that's what the lacquer will do.

Gilbert's Cylinder Head Service — Gold Coast.

Skimming, guides, seats, porting... 
Having had several car cylinder heads overhauled by Paul Gilbert since being in Australia, I knew the service and quality was exceptional. That's no bull, they come back like a new part, and I was pretty amazed — especially for the cost.
So when I needed a couple of shims machined on the GS550, I dropped in to see if he could do them. No problem he says, come back in a couple of hours and they'll be ready to go. 
Once we got talking I realised he did a lot of motorcycle work too, and he showed me some of the heads he was currently working on.

This is one of two Rocket III heads that were being ported, one for a supercharger. He said that although he has a flow bench, the ports are now so big on this 2.3L engine that he's had to use someone else's larger version to check the flow. That's going to be one quick Trumpet!

Charging Systems — More efficient, and a cooler engine.

A clever update and worth sharing.

Firstly, I can't take the credit for this because I read about it on GS Resources forum, but here's a cracking little modification you can make to your bikes that are running the old style shunt regulators. But first a bit of history.

Stripped Threads... And How To Fix Them.

Doing it in situ.
There will come a time when, if you like to dabble with old vehicles, you will happen upon a damaged thread. And, to be fair, it can be an absolute bastard!

One minute you're tightening up a bolt into an alloy housing, the next the entire thread comes out with the bolt. And you usually only find out during reassembly and most of the work is already done. This is sod's law... par for the course... and a proper pain in the 'arris.

But there is a way. Fret not. You might not even have to strip the component completely if you know what you're doing, although that wasn't the case with this Trident: