roadkillvespa

Some progress at last after a long lay off since Christmas when it was just to baltic to spend much time out there. New head bearings, sourced a decent set of fork stanchions, rebuilt forks anti dives and calipers, not top notch stuff but I can live with that. THe bike was last on the road in 2014 when during a spirited evening run to Ullapool and back the head gasket blew covering the back of the bike and me in oil, just after this happened I got the chance to buy a GPZ900R project at a good price and the Harris was parked,and money spent elsewhere. The motor was last out in 2010 to do the valve clearances and somehow my brain remembered this as being quick and straightforward, so I tore into it yesterday with great confidence, how wrong I was three hours of sweating,heaving and paint scraping later,the oily mess is on the floor. My spongy old brain had neglected to remind me until afterwards that the last time I did this it was in my dingy old powerless lock up with stout exposed rafters whitch the rolling chassis was ratchet stapped to making it a one man job, which it was certainly not in my current garage. I last changed the head gasket before I built the bike in 1984, as it was weeping, I am going to take my time and re-familiarise myself with the manual before I start as the confidence of youth that I must have had last time is seriously lacking. For those much more knowlegdeable than me at this any tips that I could benefit from would be greatly appreciated...even 'take it someone who knows what they are doing'

Yes Daz,anti dive is still there though undoutedly seized. I also have a 1988 GPZ 900 which I bought in 2014 when they were still cheap,it had stood for 17 years and needed a lot of work.I rebuilt the forks and freed off the antidive units but they still don't seem to do much although the forks and brakes feel much better than I remember them on the Harris.

They would indeed but realistically for all the use the bike is going to get I will stick with jigsaw I have all the bits for already ,it is far from a show bike and really compared to most of the builds on here its just a bitza .

After a bit of research on 600 Bandits today I can only agree with what you say Daz,if only it had been a 1200 I was offered I got in touch with a GPZ spares guy on Facebook I have had bits from in the past and he reckons he can sort me out with a decent stanchion and cap . I started stripping the calipers today and they are still in decent nick and were not seized. I do have an old pair of AP lockheed classic calipers in my box of bits so i might have look at them and see if they could be made to work.

My original intention was just to re-build the GPZ forks with new bushes and seals as the stanchions are in great nick for their age,but unfortunately I started stripping them yesterday and the internal thread on one is in a bad way and the cap will no longer thread past halfway without binding, bummer but these things happen. I have been offered a rough but complete 600 bandit cheap as a parts donor but I don't know that it would be any improvement other than 17 in wheels,and being Suzuki of course

The old aircooled GSX motor is a thing of beauty,I spent many an hour polishing those casings back in the day, four channels of TV and no internet had its good points.

This is how it looks currently

It gives me the jitters every time I take the tank off

The Harris has sat since 2014 and the head bearings are shot. Fortunately the came out easily enough. Wiring looks like a rats nest as it is the original 'modified' loom from the GSX but has not given me any problems over the years.

Back to today

They were indeed, the bikes maybe be better nowadays but the freedom we enjoyed then will never return.

Ultimate Streetbike 1988 I think maybe York or Long Marston

TT 1986 with GPZ900r running gear

South of France 1985,not the best 2 up tourer.