GN250 custom project: Wheels

[RichardB]

Awesome seat! Wondering how practical burlap is long term tho.

Could lace up front wheel but rim is awful skinny. Limits width of rear tyre.
If you're going to lace up a wheel check your spoke lengths carefully too. PITA to shorten 36 spokes that are 5mm too long.

[RichardB]

re: front brakes

Strip out master cylinder (dont get brake fluid on paintwork). Clean it out, check cylinder for corrosion/sliding like its supposed to do. Check rotor for scoring - may need surfacing. And of course check pads for uneven wear. New brake fluid and don't skimp on flushing all the old crap and air bubbles out. In my experience the GN disk brake was pretty good.

I've gone old school - wire wheels, drum brakes.

[bingslayer]

Did you all get the SR500 over here in NZ? Man that would make a killer cafe racer. I grew up hooning a road legal XT500 around town, and I miss it like crazy!

[98tls]

Where do I start looking? Could I use a GN front rim on the back with new spokes? Thanks for your reply by the way. I'd love to have the patience, skills and tools to strip the engine and polish, resleeve, etc. For now I have put a pod on, open pipe, thought about rejet, but it runs mint without rejetting. Lowered front end 2", repaint, clean the cluster to just the speedo. NEED to sort out that seat though, and the indicators, I'll have to get some good pics up. Oh and the front brake feels like pads are made of mashed potato.

And to all the haters laughing. Laugh. That's what a custom bike is all about. Seriously, the GN is more fun in many ways than my 650 Kwaka, especially on gravel! Definitely makes me laugh. And swear. It sure is more fun actually making things for the bike from complete scratch than buying things that fit right on.

N.B. The photo was taken a few months ago, but apart from the instrument cluster, it is pretty much the same. Work in progress!

Good for you fella,as someone said earlier ignore all the wank and simply do whatever ever it is that you enjoy doing with anything on two wheels.Correct on the fucking about with things is indeed fun which is what motorcycles are supposed to be about...or used to be

[KIPS powervalve]

re: front brakes

Strip out master cylinder (dont get brake fluid on paintwork). Clean it out, check cylinder for corrosion/sliding like its supposed to do. Check rotor for scoring - may need surfacing. And of course check pads for uneven wear. New brake fluid and don't skimp on flushing all the old crap and air bubbles out. In my experience the GN disk brake was pretty good.

I've gone old school - wire wheels, drum brakes.

I have bled the system thoroughly. It had a leak when I bought it, and the poor old previous owner kept topping it up. It was like a self-flushing system! the fluid was waaaaay cleaner than that in my '07 Kwaka. I think the leak was related to a crash damaged/loose banjo, which I tightened up. It no longer leaks fluid, but air seems to be finding a way in. 2 second procedure to release it though. No, what I meant by sort the brakes out it the rotor is (I think!) past serviceability. It's like a glacier has cut its way through it, pretty badly grooved, and possibly too thin to be machined. The pads may be contaminated with DOT4, and I am pretty sure I'm being ripped off for new ones: $50 for cheapo organic ones from the dealerships. Nobody seems to be selling tham online in this country either. I have learned to pretty much use the gears and rear for stopping it, but I'm not sure it'll pass a warrant. Maybe I just need to suck it up, but I'm worried that if I put said new pads on said worn rotor, I'm gonna be back at square 1, but out of pocket some. May import a part, new disks are about $70USD factory direct, pads $9-25, as opposed to $180 locally.

RE the burlap seat cover, it's a coffee sack that I cut up and placed over the existing (waterproof) cover. Bolted it underneath, and used some good old duct tape! Other than fading dramatically, the burlap has held up really well for the 8 or so months it's been on and makes the big ugly seat a bit different. Ultimately I want to refoam it, possibly cut the subframe a bit, make it thinner and shorter

[ducatilover]

There are quite a few rims that'll just go straight in. Couple mates have laced 17in alloy rims to theirs and 19 up front, but that was to fit MX tyres.

That DR250 17er I sent down to you will lace to a GN hub and fit an okay tyre too.
Not as common to find as the TS/TF/DR200 though

[KIPS powervalve]

If I were to but a complete wheel (DR/TF etc) could I just unlace the GN's and use the spokes/rim from the new wheel directly on the GN hub? maybe the angle of the spokes at the hub end will be bent differently than those of the GN's and not fit the GN hub. it's encouraging to hear of a few guys doing it though

[Drew]

That DR250 17er I sent down to you will lace to a GN hub and fit an okay tyre too.
Not as common to find as the TS/TF/DR200 though

That ended up in an SR rear end. Oodles of tyre option there now.

If I were to but a complete wheel (DR/TF etc) could I just unlace the GN's and use the spokes/rim from the new wheel directly on the GN hub? maybe the angle of the spokes at the hub end will be bent differently than those of the GN's and not fit the GN hub. it's encouraging to hear of a few guys doing it though

Bugger lacing an 18 in there, when you can adapt any number of whole wheels with minimal faffing about...though a spoked alloy looks fully fucken sick.

[ducatilover]

You'll need custom length spokes, or find something off the shelf to fit

[ducatilover]

That ended up in an SR rear end. Oodles of tyre option there now.

.

Burnouts?

[Drew]

You'll need custom length spokes, or find something off the shelf to fit

We are lucky enough to be mates with a bike wrecker. So they hunted through hundreds of spokes to get what they needed.

Burnouts?

The nobblies are useless for burnouts. They just turn to dust.

[RichardB]

It's like a glacier has cut its way through it, pretty badly grooved, and possibly too thin to be machined. The pads may be contaminated with DOT4, and I am pretty sure I'm being ripped off for new ones

RE the burlap seat cover, it's a coffee sack that I cut up and placed over the existing (waterproof) cover. Bolted it underneath, and used some good old duct tape! Other than fading dramatically, the burlap has held up really well for the 8 or so months it's been on and makes the big ugly seat a bit different. Ultimately I want to refoam it, possibly cut the subframe a bit, make it thinner and shorter

Forget about new pads until you deal with the rotor. Gouged rotor will fuck pads in a couple of seconds. Likely both pads and disc contaminated with DOT4 - the combination makes effective braking like sex in a concrete mixer - it ain't gonna happen.

Re: seat - I had very satisfactory results shortening and re-configuring my seat pan to look solo bobber style. Still same width but solo short. Bolts up to rear shock mounts. Not ready to recover until I make sure everything under seat fits - and will lop off excess frame rails. Arrgh shit- trouble trying to get the right pics uploaded - will post when I can.

I have an impressive pile of shit that has no place on my bike now and FA needed to replace the essential stuff (rear light, licence plate, turn signals). Still mulling over ideas on that.

[RichardB]

Sorry -hijacking your thread with my build. See my build thread for more pics.

[KIPS powervalve]

Sorry -hijacking your thread with my build. See my build thread for more pics.

Not at all, I love seeing what others are doing. The rear rim in you bobber doesn't look stock, am I right? I want to go for more of a scrambler look, so the seat won't be solo necessarily, also the rear guard will be larger, but that's the idea of a custom build aye, doing what you like yourself without having to give a rat's ass for what others think. I like the semi-knobbly tyre look and I don't think they come in 16"

[KIPS powervalve]

Hey Mr B, did you check the regulator/rectifier? My bro had a Hyosung that would never start, kept draining the battery, even a new one. Never found out what was causing it for sure. BUUUTTTT It was really easy to roll start. Then one day it wasn't. Turns out the current spike from roll starting it fried the CDI unit ($800) and the reg/rec ($450). I thought it may have been an exposed wire touching the frame, but perhaps more likely it was the reg/rec itself grounding more than it should have been. From what you have explained on another thread, it sounds unlikely that this is the problem, but as you say, most of the rest of the system you have eliminated