tenderblender

no class, 12” inside of the pivots Poldark, this is neat haha

Poldark, that’s kinda what I’m thinking, id like to keep the threads in the frame (gsx1100g cases and back to shaft drive someday? who knows haha, I do prefer shaft drive but anyways) if I keep the threads I’ll order a couple g slugs and drill them out to fit a full length pivot axle. The drawing I mentioned I would make those out of steel to fit the swing arm, it’d be like the stock bushing outer race that’s really wide. I just want to make it solid and safe, I want to do the easiest way I can do it correctly, no short cuts yk? I’ll do some more reading on the gs mono shock builds. I do like the idea of a solid pivot bolt, do you know any pivot bolts or even axles that are wide enough? (13”+) *edit, I missed the part where you said I’d have to make my own axle, I’ll probably end up doing that*

Poldark, makes sense, the seat raised high is probably going to be about how it will sit, the wheel in full compression is just to see how low it would go if it were to bottom out. I’d like an inverted front end some day but that will probably be next year, but I would like to keep as much ground clearance as I can get so nothing too short. I’m contemplating using the bandit shock/linkage because it seems to be a pain in the @śš to keep it twin shock but I’ll keep toying with the idea. Still have to sort out the swing arm pivot. I’m thinking of making inserts that go into where the bearings sit inside the swing arm that screw together and have the gs bearings on the outside if that makes sense (hastily drawn pic below.) So far I think the hardest part of getting it rideable will be the rear suspension. (The b12 already ran before plucked so just a matter of getting it running again in my frame I reckon)

So some slight progress, got the new motor in with the rear mount after finalizing the spacer dimensions, and threw the bandit 180/55r17 wheel on the swing arm in the frame for reference. I’m going to figure out the other mounts likely next week. I’m wondering if I should look for a shorter swing arm to keep the same (ish) handling or keep the b12 swinger that’s about a 3” stretch because of the increased power, what’s the general consensus?

Poldark, all good not too negative at all, just realistic, completely understood. I have the whole bandit minus the front forks and front wheels. I have the triples and brakes, but steering neck back I have just about everything. I pulled the stock bandit swinger off, cleaned it enough, and through it in the frame. Looks pretty decent, I may just use this and tig some twin shock mounts on it. (Still have to figure out the swinger spacers first though, that and get around to wiring my tig into my house wiring) Front end will stay stock for now, I figure my bike and the blandit are about the same weight and I don’t plan on going much more than legal speeds so I figure it’ll be fine for right now. I’d love to get an inverted front end but one step at a time haha. R1guy, Mille swinger? I’m assuming off of an Aprilia Rsv1000 your talkin about?

Poldark, I have the bandit, but front wheel is bent beyond repair and the guy I bought it from didn’t have the forks. May would be neat, but I most definitely won’t lose sleep over it if not. R1guy, perfect! Pretty darn close to what I want to do, inverted forks would be sick too but in due time haha. Is that a turbo I’m seeing? Do you have a build thread? Whatcha do for the swinger? wraith, I imagine I’m going to need a wider rear wheel and tire, I’m thinking of a couple of slugs for the swinger that will thread together internally. Poldark 2, agreed and for sure. I knew the swinger, wheel, and cases were different, I should have interpreted that the frames were different because of how wide the pivot is because of the u joint.

Wraith, The plan is full custom but not all at once, current goal by may isn’t to be completely done, just rideable you know? It’s just a personal goal, I won’t lose any sleep over it if not, just would be neat. My original thought and concern was if I had a thinner 9” swing arm that’s about 1.5” of a bushing or spacer on each side, I’m concerned with the force it would put on the arm, frame, and axle with that much spacer even if it was done up 100% correct. I could be very wrong but it’s a concern of mine at the moment at least. The info you gave is very helpful indeed. I suppose if I machined down some slugs on the lathe that screwed into the frame with a deep counter bore I could find an axle that’s an Allen and use a small nut on the other side. That or basically make little “inner bearing extenders” (like the swing arm extenders you see on eb@y, but just expanding the pivots) with a bolt and nut pulling them together into the races. I don’t mind making parts one bit, just want it to be safe when completed (Motorcycles don’t go hand in hand with safety compared to cagers but no need for the swing arm to suddenly not be attached after a big pot hole or something haha, maybe I’m just a worry wart) just rideable is all I’m looking for. I don’t mind buying a new arm, or modifying it, or making parts, ect, just want it to be solid and simple. I want to keep the same (ish) look and feel but am probably going to continue to mod until I feel happy (which sometimes never ends, who knows). I am not out to have the 180 tire, tire width doesn’t really matter to me (unless the blandit starts to break it free at speed.) currently has a 120/90-17 Michelin Anakee 3 on the stock 17x2.5 rim. I would have gotten thinner which is closer to stock because the rim does kind of wallow side to side in the tire just a hair, but that’s the smallest anakee 3 made at the time. For the new rim I’m likely going to pick the anakee 3 again because it’s an awesome tire so far, but just sized correctly to that new rim. Does either frame (extending in off the frame flats to fit a stock swing arm off a different bike) or swing arm extenders (to fit the stock frame) sound like a good idea? Poldark, ye she goes to school in New Hampshire. And I thought about it, but I did purchase the blandit for $500, going to sell the frame, tank, and other bits I don’t need, along with the stock 650 top end (I’ll make it a package for some one with a 550) the cases, ect, should keep the overall costs decently low. I also made a couple adapters to fit the 650 lower rear bolt to the blandit and got some 1” 6061 Aluminum round bar for the spacers between the motor and frame.

Thanks everyone for the quick responses so far! (I’ll respond to everyone in order) Wraith, excellent work on the swap, I’ll look into a zx9r swingarm as I have one on a friends bike I can use for measurements (he still wants to keep his bike haha) One of my goals is to keep it all Suzuki but that may change. Tank should be simple enough to figure out, either raise or modify I reckon. I’m going to try to find the thread of “project scrap heap” (parentheses because yours appears to be fully operational which is much farther than mine to say the least haha) Poldark, I’ve set a personal challenge with myself of riding it at least once to my girl’s school (2.5 hour one way) before she graduates In may, I love the character of the bike and it’s one of two I don’t plan on ever selling so I don’t mind fully custom. I’m going to be throwing all of my knowledge and skill I’ve collected so far at this one, and I’m going to continue to use it as a test bed for all of my ideas for the future as I come up with them, know what I mean? Full custom doesn’t scare me one bit (so far) and that’s something I’d like to do with it, I want to build on the soul it has to one day be a proper bike like the members of this site (all of y’all’s bikes are exquisitely done, the knowledge and creativity here is down right ludicrous, I love it.) If you could get a measurement of the Gs650e width at the pivot and the centre to centre of the pivot to axle that’d be wonderful, if it’s close (enough) to what I have I could use one as a roller and go nuts with the swing arm swap later and be closer to riding. Oh and I’ve thought about another G engine or rebuilding the numbers matching one but I would much rather have the oil burner and all the parts available for it. clivegto, I would and that was the plan, but it’s much too thin at the pivot for my liking, I’d have to shave off the mono tabs and weld new tabs on the end, I feel as if it would be easier to mod an arm that’s closer to what I’d need and sell the stock bandit arm to someone that needs it yk? thanks again everyone, I appreciate all of your responses tremendously.

Howdy! So I bought the G when I was 17 (November 2014), just turned 23 last December. I’ve had quite a few piles you could loosely call motorcycles (15 other motorcycles, dirt bikes, scooters, and 1 bicycle with a motor contraption) since around age 14. My G is my favorite so far and one of two bikes I plan on keeping, the rest come and go. I bought the G with a bad connecting rod bearing in high school and threw a used crank with rods on it in after I cleaned all the bearing chips out and rebuilt it before I knew anything about motorcycle engine work and machining. It ran pretty well considering the carbs were dumping gas in at all parts throttle. (Didn’t know 10% of carburetor theory and practice that I do now.) I did the usual “tune up” stuff to it including a new ignition from crank to head by Dynatek which helped burn the copious amounts of extra gas haha. So fast forward to September 2017 where one of the transmission bearings (forward set of gears, outboard bearing) that was damaged by the original bad crank finally had enough and let go into the oil pan. Pulled that motor out of the frame (again) and put it aside in my garage and fixed and built a few of my other bikes and eventually sold. Out of all of these bikes I haven’t found one yet as comfortable, reliable (save the o.g. 673), sharp handling, and overall character of my G, so last April I did some reading and learned more about blandits and oil burners and really loved the idea of having a burner in my frame. I figure it’s about the same mass and cog as my air cooled (loosely) so my handing should stay where I like it, still be just as comfortable, and have a much needed kick in the pants. I read Wraith’s GSX1100F swapped GS550 so I figured to hell with it I’m going to try it. So Mid April 2019 I found a smashed B12 (decimated the front fork and wheel, everything else is somehow perfect) and brought it home. February 1st 2020 I got the B12 to run (somehow with only the lower halves of the carbs), tested the transmission (all five gears don’t pop out without a load so that’s something I guess? Hard to tell without it in the bike or splitting the cases so we will see once it gets going down the road.) February 3rd I pulled all the wiring off the B12 frame, pulled the oil cooler, oil filter, carbs, muffler, header, and frame member. February 4th I pulled the motor out, cleaned off most of the grease and oil off the outside, and placed it next to my g. February 5th I fixed my lathe and helped a buddy with his car, February 6th I checked the valve clearances and pulled as much stuff out of the way on the g (removed the air box, moved some wiring, and pulled the swing arm, rear brake system, and shocks out) and realized how wide the swing arm is. It’s about 12 inches! Most swing arms for other bikes aren’t even close at around 9 to 10 inch. Does anyone have any ideas for the swing arm? It has these threaded pivot plug things that thread into the frame and put preload on the tapered roller bearings in the swing arm. With my lathe I should be able to spin up some adapters but don’t like the idea of having super long adapters with all the forces a swing arm and frame put on each other so I’d like to get one that fits as close as possible. I really want to keep the twin shocks (no other reason than the aesthetics to me, and it worked well enough for me, plus I don’t know how I feel about adding mono linkage to this frame.) so my stock swing arm has a length of 18 11/16”, a pivot width of 12” and has twin shocks, is there any aluminum ones out there that are close? Will a 1981 Gs650e swing arm fit? Sorry about the naïve questions in advance, Thanks fellas.