Xandor

Thanks! Definitely looking forward to it. If all goes well I should be able to get it up and running next month. Getting it street legal may take a bit more time as it looks like I am indeed missing stuff. I seem to be missing a piece or two on the front end to be able to attach the instrument panel, headlight and blinkers as well as needing to replace the blinkers themselves. Found the blinkers for about $40 a piece and I think I have identified the missing front end part and found it for about $50 but definitely need to do more research to be sure.

So I have (most of?) the original front end assembly as well, if that's what you mean by complete setup. The front blinkers dry rotted and disintegrated in the middle so they will need to be replaced. I have a feeling sourcing them will be fun. I'm having trouble getting the seat off but I was able to get the side panel to pop off and see under there well enough the get a view of the sticker. It is confirmed a 1985 GS 1150 ES, according to that. I am curious about the fairing though. He said all of the original parts should be there but I definitely don't have that. I'm not personally too worried about that though. I actually like the look of it without the fairing.

Thanks! Yeah, he was in the middle of putting the front end from a '96 GSX-R. The shell that is on the bike now has no labels but the red shell (presumably the original) was labeled as 'GS 1150 ES` with no letter after it. I had actually done some research already on model name and what all the letters mean and in that I found there should be another letter on there but don't remember seeing one. I will double check though to make sure. One of the other things that I noticed was off was when I looked all of that up the website said one of the most noticeable differences between the E and ES was the upper fairing which mine does not have. The originally owner said that it came with all the original parts. I do have the instrument panel and headlight but no fairing so I am not positive it is an ES. I'll post back on here though once I double check the labeling on the panel.

Well, the bike was from Tennessee but I imagine the point still stands. I definitely appreciate everyone pointing out that getting it to run is not the same as drivable. As I said, I do eventually want to rebuild the whole thing but when I got it rolling I likely would have started riding then.

Thanks for the tips and welcoming! Yeah, order of operations makes sense there. Eventually I will definitely be rebuilding the engine and all that. I should be getting a couple of spare carburetors soon as well but they haven't been able to locate them yet. Hopefully they are found but either way...

Hey there, Thanks for the reply. Apologies, just went through the rules now. As far as a general introduction, my name is Xandor. I am 32 out of Austin, TX. Very new to the motorcycle world but am very glad for my introduction to it to be with such a beautiful classic bike. I look forward to growing as a rider and being a part of this community. Yeah, that all makes sense. About similar to a car it would seem. I really can't wait to get this bike up and running and will be recording everything to upload to a YouTube series. I will post links to that (if that is acceptable, I don't think that crosses the lines of Eblag links and the such as I am not trying to sell anything) if it is something you and the other members of this community would be interested in. As far as my bike, I have attached a photo of it as well as shells it came with to be able to swap out the paint job (panels are off screen but the tanks give a good idea of the paint jobs).

I recently came by a 1985 (I think this is the year, still waiting on the title for confirmation) GS 1150 ES that has been sitting for a very long time. The previous owner said he was able to get it started 18 years ago but then sat in a garage since then. I've ridden dirt bikes some when I was younger but never owned any kind of bike myself so I am not too familiar with maintenance in general, let alone for something that has been sitting so long. I do have a good amount of mechanical experience from rebuilding a 1970 Maverick so I am up for the task but I want to make sure I do not hurt the bike any by trying to start it prematurely. I assume I should empty out the gas from the tank to get fresh in but not sure if the tank itself needs to be cleaned as well. I also figured going through the fuel lines to check for dry rot is a good idea and might as well replace the fuel filter while I'm at it. Same for the brakes. When I first got it, it was near impossible to move from the brakes being locked up so I imagine I need to check the brake system and get fresh pads but not sure how extensive I need to go as far as taking apart any calipers or anything like that. And then obviously I imagine some fresh oil and oil filter. Is there anything here I am missing (or that is overkill)? And how extensive should I dig into these systems? Eventually I would like to rebuild the whole thing but just want to focus on getting it safely drivable right now.