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As per usual I was really slack on the picture taking for the...

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 08:42:56 -0500

As per usual I was really slack on the picture taking for the wiring harness thing because I just wanted to get it done and didn’t consider that I might be writing about it on here. SO! here’s some nice pictures I took when the bike was in bits… absolutely no help to anyone with this problem what-so-ever but they look nice at least.

Wiring Harness Woes... Overcome?

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 08:29:04 -0500

I’ve been bitching about this wiring harness for a while now. My main issue was that a lot of what used to be hidden away in the old headlight housing is now exposed due to there being no room for it in the new ones. This meant that most of the block connections had to be simply insulated with electrical tape and bound together down the side of the headstock. Considering this was a bit of a bodge and not very sightly, I actually think I managed to make it quite neat and tidy. However, I’ve been wanting to sort it for a long time because I’d be embarrassed to ever take it to a garage like that if I ever needed to (MOT approaching) or to sell it like that.

So the order of the day was to put these unsightly block connectors under the tank and in front of the engine where there is a small amount of space, hopefully, just enough to fit said connectors.

Removing all the tape and zip ties from my little arrangement was quite worrying because my main concern regarding this whole operation was that I’d actually done a good job of insulating it the first time around and that I would ruin all that good work and do a worse job this time around. Even though I was only riding with this bodge insulated harness for a few months, thus far it had actually done it’s job pretty well. Once I got down through all the tape to the actual block connectors I discovered that they were still dry even through all the horrible British weather that I’d been riding in lately. You’d think this would make me happy - knowing that I’d done an ace job of protecting the notoriously shite suzuki electrics from the peril of the elements, but actually I was more gutted and worried that I wouldn’t be able to meet the same standards again. But it’s too late for that now.

The new strategy for hiding this harness was, like I said putting it under the tank and in front of the engine. This is infinitely easier said than done because what I didn’t anticipate before my first encounter with motorcycle wiring, when I was fitting my headlights, is that wiring looms are disobedient little f*ckers and it’s nearly impossible to get them to go where you want them to go. In fairness, this is only really because when the bike was built, the wiring harness was designed to follow a certain path through the bike, be attached to the frame a certain points and all the wires are designed to be the right lengths to comfortably reach where they’re supposed to go so when you alter that, it becomes tricky. To add a little extra maneuverability I cut the little plastic clamps that hold the loom to the inside of the frame, this helped a lot towards letting me reposition it in a way that allowed everything to fit as nicely as possible into the new space.

After I’d figured that out, it was just a case of connecting everything back up without insulating it, just to make sure it all fitted correctly, then insulating all the block connectors, soldering the indicators and headlight connections back together and then using zip ties to keep the whole thing as far away from the engine and with as little stress on the wires and connections as possible.

The result of all this is that I no longer have a collection of block connectors running down the side of the headstock which looks a lot nicer and the connections are positioned under the tank and behind a piece of the frame which almost certainly gives them better protection from the rain. The only thing I’m not too happy about is that the whole harness doesn’t look as tidy, but it’s hidden away under the tank so the bike looks better from the outside but when you take off the tank, the loom follows a kind of winding path going from the battery, up the RH side of the frame then snakes over to the other side of the bike then back to the middle where the block connectors meet behind the headstock. I’m just glad it’s all done to be honest, wires are hard.

Just realised...

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 19:55:15 -0500

Damn she looks better with the new mirrors… must get a new photo… after she’s clean perhaps. Not sure when that will happen in this weather though.

I WANT NEW DOWNPIPES AND A STUBBY MICRON!!!… sorry <_<

Here’s Sukie. I’m pretty happy with how this project...

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 19:49:41 -0500

Here’s Sukie.

I’m pretty happy with how this project is going, if you can really call it a project. But I’ve got some issues with the wiring loom up front. Once I realised how much of a mess it looks in this picture it kind of ruined the picture for me but it really needs to be sorted. I’m pretty sure there is no way it can reach under the tank but that doesn’t mean im not going to get a shit load of heat shrink, take it all apart and try to hide it a bit better.

HOWEVER! even if i hide that big ugly group of wires going around the side of the headstock, the front end is still going to be covered in all sort of brake, clutch, and instrument wires and hoses. I will at some point get around to posting a picture of a GS500 streetfighter project I saw on customfighters.com which is a sick streetfighter and cafe racer forum. I will of course fully credit the guy for his work. Anyway the point of posting said photo is that the front end of that bike is remarkably tidy and what i really need to do is study his built thread intently and see what I can do to remedy this situation. Granted, he doesnt have any headlights or instruments on his but… you know, it’s nice.

As of just now. I’ve had an idea for possibly removing the instrument panel and just having a single clock for the rev counter in the middle… and maybe a digital speedo somewhere out the way. PROBLEM IS… with that, is that it’s a bit of an undertaking that I can only assume would involve some serious front end surgery that I’m not sure I have the time, knowledge or money to undertake. Never-the-less I will do some research and see what solutions I can come up with!

Don't buy shit indicators

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 09:51:04 -0500

If you’re a regular reader of this space (which you’re almost certainly not and if you are please make yourself known to me and I will be very happy) then you may remember that I purchased some new indicators, quite a while back. You may also remember that said indicators were a little dodgey - not very bright, one line of LEDs on the back right didn’t come on etc. Well as for the one line of LEDs not working, that’s fixed, it was a case of exactly what I thought [for once] - I just popped the clear plastic off, poked the PCB with my finger then put the cover back on. The brightness issue however, is still an issue and also there is a flash timing issue. I made some observations regarding brightness and flash timing and recorded them below.

*Note: slow = correct timing, bright = correct brightness

Engine not running:

Lights off - Flash slow and bright

Side Lights on - 1 flash slow then subsequently fast, always bright

Headlights on - 1 flash slow then subsequently fast, always dim

Full beam - 1 flash slow then subsequently fast, always dim

Engine running:

Lights off - Slow and bright

Sidelights on - Slow and bright

Headlights on - 1 flash slow then subsequently fast, always bright

Full beam - 1 flash slow then subsequently fast, always bright

Im not sure what this is supposed to mean and to be honest I haven’t really thought about it yet but its certainly irritating. When I bought the indicators, I bought them because they came with flash timing regulators which, obviously, regulate the flash timing of the indicators to comply with european standards of less than 120 per minute. My brother was confused as to why I had 4 regulators instead of just 1 for each pair but I installed them anyway. In retrospect, I suppose what I should have done was just disregarded the regulators and installed them first without and noted any issues. But I didn’t and now I have multiple unknowns which is awkward. I plan on one day, when I’m really super bored, on removing all the insulation i put on the indicators connectors, unsoldering the flash timing regulators, trying the indicators without them and seeing if that makes a difference. My thought is that perhaps I didn’t need them in the first place and having them installed is just messing with my shit.

Will update… one day.

So I don’t want to talk about this for too long because it...

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 09:29:26 -0500

So I don’t want to talk about this for too long because it pisses me off but I might as well vent (again).

I was staying with some friends in Cambridge the other weekend and when we came back from the pub the bike was on it’s side outside my mate’s house. Needless to say I was pretty pissed off. I could tell straight away what had happened - the bike was parked on the side stand, so, leaning to the left and there was a space in front of me big enough for a competent person to park a fair sized car, like a new shape fiesta, that sort of size. The bike was laying on the right hand side and it wasn’t that windy… it wasn’t push a 180kg bike through 110 degrees onto it’s side kind of windy, I don’t think it’s ever that windy in this country. So someone had obviously tried to park their fucking vauxhall captiva there then realised they were a prick and bailed. Either that or it was a woman and she couldn’t pick it up but even so, thanks for the note, bitch!

Given the situation, I was pretty lucky really. The only damage sustained was a light scarring to the engine casing, but no leaks… which is nice. And the right hand mirror was bent in slightly which made it awkward to use.

I’d been thinking about new mirrors anyway so I got them in the post today. They’re quite nice, you can see them up there in the picture. They were literally the cheapest pieces of shit I could find on eBay - £15 for the pair. They’re actually listed as chopper/cruiser mirrors but I used my motorcycle cunning to deduce that they would look big pimpin on a streetfighter such as sukie and I’m pretty happy with them considering they were so cheap. I saw in a forum a little while ago, can’t remember which one, a guy posted about how he wanted some new mirrors for his… streetfighter, of some description but he didn’t want bar-ends and I totally agreed with him. He proceeded to post a picture of some mirrors he liked on one of the newer ducati’s and that sort of reaffirmed that I knew what I wanted and it made sense - that I hadn’t just dreamed up the fact that this would look good. Yeah, best of a bad situation or what!

For too long my headlights (my Bandit headlights) were held on...

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 09:03:00 -0500

For too long my headlights (my Bandit headlights) were held on with only 4 of the 6 bolts that were supposed to hold them on because the [stupidly over-engineered] indicator brackets protruded about half a cm into the headlights’ personal space. The other week my brother suggested just filing the brackets down slightly with a rounded file to accommodate the headlights. I was a little skeptical as to how good an idea this would be but saw no reason not to at least try.

But anyway it worked!… which is nice. I’ve uploaded a rudimentary picture of the finished job as I always do - as kind of an after thought “oh yeah! maybe i’ll write about this on my blog”. Said rudimentary picture I believe depicts the location of both the indicator bracket and the headlights at the point of intersection, from which you can sort of tell the nature an severity of the task - not very severe, it took about an hour from taking the headlights off to deciding where and how much I had to remove and then finally fitting the lamps back on.

If anybody else is having this ‘Bandit headlight not fitting on GS500’ problem, which I’m sure they are, then I have for you the following tips…

1) You would do well to use a file with one rounded side.

2) You need to file from the rounded part of the bracket (where the indicator stalk goes through) to about 1.5” back up towards the clocks and top yoke, up that way.

3) Put cloth or even newspaper, anything you have to hand around the fork stanchions otherwise you could get filings in your fork seals and you don’t want that shit.

4) Spray a little paint on a toothbrush and gently cover the filed area once you’re done to prevent rusting.

5) Good news! [everybody!] You really don’t need to file into the brackets that far because the lamps need about and extra 1cm of leeway in total and so if you take half a cm off each bracket (or just over to be safe) you’re golden, so there’s no need to no nuts and turn the whole bracket to dust.

That’s what I have to say on the topic of making Bandit headlights fit a GS500. It might not be the best or cleanest way but it’s a way that costs you nothing except maybe the price of a shitty file if you can’t gypsy one off your brother. Happy seeing! (at night)

I did some things...

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 08:47:19 -0500

What did I do?…

Oh yeah! I finally got around to making my headlights fit properly, with all the bolts that are supposed to be holding them on instead of just most of them, which is nice.

Also I fitted some new mirrors because some twat reversed into my bike and knocked it over and was then either too weak, too scared or too much of a cunt to pick it up.

More on this soon, incl. pictures! exciting…

How to remove washer type 33bhp restrictor kits from a 2002 GS500e

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 16:28:20 -0400

As previously declared (I never promised anything) here is the ‘How to’ guide for removing washer type 33bhp restrictor kits. I emphasise washer type because obviously, there are other kinds of kits, for instance throttle restrictors that prevent the throttle from being opened all the way, there are also some other kinds and you can find out what they are by doing a quick google of ‘types of 33bhp restrictor kits’ or words to that effect.

Before I begin, I will say that I am in no way a qualified mechanic, or even a competent one! I just get bored of waiting for my brother to do things for me so go and do them myself, often with stressful but rewarding results so if you balls this up then it’s not my fault. This is just how I did it.

Let’s begin! The washer type kits are located inside the union between the carbs and the cylinder head. I first assumed that’s where they were but it was suggested to me that they may be between the carbs and the air box - this was not the case. There’s nothing in the Haynes manual about how to remove these kits but there is a section on how to remove, check and re install your carbs and for my first attempt, these were the instructions I followed. The problem with doing this is that it has you disconnecting all sorts of float hoses and throttle cables and you don’t need to do this, not to mention some of them can be a real prick to get to and it’s just not necessary.

1. Take off the bolts that hold the tank to the frame - pretty sure they’re 12mm hex. Slide the tank to the back of the bike and lift it away from the bike so you know it’s loose then set it back down with a piece of [something] wood [or whatever] under the back side of the tank so that you can get to the fuel hoses. Or if you have a lackey handy, get them to hold the tank up for you.

2. Make sure the remote fuel tap [also known as the fuel tap] is set to ON [yes ON]. With a flat head screwdriver, turn the tap located on the underside of the tank to off. Where the hoses join the tank, there is a tap controlled by said screw, you may have to move to the other side of the bike to get to it but it’s definitely there (on 2002 models anyway <_<). It should be vertical when you get to it so turn it to horizontal.

3. Using a flat head screwdriver, prize the fuel hoses from their union with the tank, making sure to remember which one went where and it is important because one is reserve and one is primary. Then do the same for the… I believe it’s the water drain hose? which is usually much easier to remove. If the hoses are a little stiff use some GT85 or similar to loosen them and they should come off a treat. Then lift the tank off and put it somewhere safe and make sure the little pipes off the bottom of the tank aren’t getting crushed.

4. The air box is the air box It’s a plastic box with an air filter in, don’t be too precious of it, just whip any attached hoses from it post haste! [carefully]. Then take off the bolts connecting it to the frame, I think they’re 10mm hex. You also need to use a Phillips head screwdriver to loosen off the clamps that hold the air box onto the carbs and then wiggle it until it comes off. It’s a little bit awkward but like I said it’s not a fragile or complicated piece of kit so don’t be afraid to give it a whack to loosen it off, just be careful of the carbs.

5. Nearly there! Loosen the clamps that hold the carbs onto the cylinder head using a phillips head screwdriver and the carbs should come free from the engine a lot easier than the air box came away from the carbs. When I did mine I just slipped one side off at a time, poked my finger inside the cylinder head and pulled the washer out, they weren’t in there tight or anything, they came out pretty easy.

6. That’s the kit out, now you just need to stick it all back together so just read this guide in reverse and it’s pretty simple. I will say a few things though and those things are as follows. The air box was a bit of an arse to get back on to the carbs for me and I constantly [still do] felt as though it wasn’t joined with the carbs properly on one side, like the seal wasn’t good enough, but I tried for a good half hour 40 minutes to get it so I was happy with it but it wasn’t budging and the screws went back in OK so it wasn’t going on any further really. Also, don’t forget to TIGHTEN UP THE CARB AND AIR BOX CLAMPS. Because you didn’t actually take them off I suppose one could quite easily forget about them and leave them slack but yeah make sure you don’t do that. I’m not sure of the repercussions but I would assume it would probably result in some sort of lack of compression. Also don’t forget to turn the fuel tap under the tank back on before you bolt the tank back on and after you’ve reattached the fuel hoses [the right way around].

And that’s about it. I think that’s a pretty idiot proof guide on how to do a relatively simple thing and I hope that some day someone will need this and find it and gain something from it, that would be cool. And right now I feel a little like that kid who gives the epic speech after learning how to ride a bicycle for the first time (y)

Removed my restrictor kit the other week, this is it, sitting on...

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 15:46:38 -0400

Removed my restrictor kit the other week, this is it, sitting on top of the carbs. I will be posting a thing about how I did it soon - not because I’m a genius and it’s so hard to do and no one has ever removed their own restrictor kit before but because there seems to be some confusion about where the washer type kits are located and how to get at them etc. All I know is that I looked quite hard for a ‘how to’ of removing the washer type restrictor kits and couldn’t find anything so I thought I might as well write something about it so that there is at least something on the internet that some amateur mechanic like myself can see and think “thank fuck, some clarity!”… hopefully anyway…

Forgot to update the battery issue thing...

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 15:38:09 -0400

I haven’t posted to here for a bit because I got distracted actually fixing the problems I was having as opposed to just documenting them and hoping they’d go away.

Long story short, I was riding to meet some friends in Cambridge a couple of weeks ago and as I was sitting in the middle of a box junction waiting to turn right, grip heaters on the go (not sure that makes a difference or not), the thing just died on me - the instrument panel went dead and the bike stopped running. So I hopped off like a mug in the middle of the road and pushed her up the road, onto the pavement and swore for a bit. After a few failed bump starts I decided to leave it locked up and walk the remaining 10 minutes of my journey (to the pub luckily). So the next day I swiftly hailed the RAC to tell me what was wrong and the conclusion the bloke came to was that I needed a new battery. So I replaced my apparently, shit battery (according to the guy in the shop) with a nice new one and touch… desk, I haven’t had any problems since!

If I’m being really honest… when the RAC guy came to take a look at the bike, the kill switch was engaged but there’s no way I could have just flipped the kill switch sitting at a turning. If anything, I suppose I could have accidentally hit it when I was trying to bump start it or failing that, some drunk could have walked past in the night and switched it for a laugh… this is Cambridge after all, that’s Cambridge peoples’ idea of mischief. Either way, I suppose it was naive to think that all this trouble was being caused by 2 low battery cells and quite honestly I’m just praying that it was a new battery jobby and nothing else. Fingers crossed I suppose.

Battery Issues

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 15:32:44 -0400

Before I fitted the new indicators i mentioned in the last post I was having some issues where the bike would start on a cold morning, konk out and then refuse to start again - the battery would just die and you could hear the starter motor struggling until it just didn’t turn over at all. I then fitted the indicators and this problem got worse (this was all in the space of about a 2 weeks by the way). I rode out to a nearby town with a friend one sunday afternoon, sat in the pub for an hour or so then came out, bike started fine and then on the way home it was dark and cold so the grip heaters were on and for some of the journey i was using my high beam and those dominator headlights draw a lot of power anyway so the battery was under a fair bit of stress. We stopped at asda, not 5 minutes from my house on the way back and when i came out, she didn’t want to start. So it’s not even like the engine was cold or anything and I hadn’t left the grip heaters on (again). I was worried because I know that pre2004 suzuki electrics are notoriously shit and just assumed the worst. Luckily I’d way over thought it and after much brain racking and coming this | | close to buying a new battery I remembered Occam’s razor and in a last ditch effort to save some cash i checked the battery water levels and low and behold 2 of them were low. That was a couple of days ago and touch desk I haven’t had the problem since but I will have to see how it goes. The last thing I want on my hands is a fucking electrical problem -_-. SO the point of this story is, don’t over think! because over thinking iiss…

Ditched the old ugly indicators in favor of some new smaller LED...

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 15:00:18 -0400

Ditched the old ugly indicators in favor of some new smaller LED ones. Unfortunately they are carbon effect but A) they were an absolute bargain and B) it was a choice between carbon effect with flash timing regulators or plain black without flash timing regulators so, i figured i’d rather they worked properly… and they still dont!… well… not really. They’re not quite as bright as the old ones and the back right is a bit dodgey and one line of LED’s along the bottom doesn’t light up but I’m sure this is something I can fix without too much trouble - I used to work at halfords and fixed many a bicycle light. It’s simply a case of opening it up and screwing down the PCB so the connections are a little more sound. If this doesn’t work I’m not too fussed because it’s basically fine.

Then I fitted some 25mm tailer risers and now she’s big...

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:53:44 -0400

Then I fitted some 25mm tailer risers and now she’s big pimpin! its streetfightin’ time!

Here’s the new chain going on. The whole chain/sprocket...

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:52:16 -0400

Here’s the new chain going on. The whole chain/sprocket installation ordeal was a bit of an emotional roller coaster but i got there in the end. I didn’t have a chain breaker/riveter which didn’t help but nothing a junior hacksaw and a centre punch can’t replace. So I hacksawed off the old chain, counted the links and then counted the links on the new chain, stroke of luck, they were exactly the same 55 links (y) spot on! then I threaded the new chain around the front sprocket and joined it as best I could using a [really shit] chain joiner but still had to push the master link through further with a vice (unbolted the vice from the side and put it under the chain). Then a lack of riveter required that I [my brother actually] hit the pins with a centre punch and a hammer to split them and stop them coming loose… like they were going to come loose anyway, they were in there good and proper but whatever, I suppose they might have once the chain stretched… :S maybe. I will also say that when I was changing the front sprocket, I thought i’d been sent the wrong one because it was a such a pisser to get on, but it went in the end, just had to push on each side of the sprocket alternately to kind of rock it onto the drive shaft (y) horray for perseverance!

Off comes the back wheel, no probs. Off comes the rear...

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:33:00 -0400

Off comes the back wheel, no probs. Off comes the rear sprocket… probs - rounded a nut >_< But that’s ok because I can just look for one in the shed, fail, look for one in halfords, fail, look for one in B&Q, fail, ring my mechanic, get told to ring a suzuki dealer, ring the suzuki dealer in the next town and order one, then find one in the shed! At least I now know that the guy who works in A&M motorcycles in Letchworth is a sound bloke! I probably wouldn’t have rounded it in the first place if I knew I had a hex socket set as opposed to just a regular one and I knew actually how good hex wrenches are! but anyway, problem solved. Got me some thread lock too, permenant so I just used a dribble… guess I’ll see how much of a good idea that was when I come to change the rear sprocket again… which to be honest will probably never happen as long as I have that bike so, good luck next owner! haha, no seriously I only used a bit. I also had to get the old sprocket off with a hammer for some reason even after taking all the nuts off, which was a bit weird, I don’t know if maybe some old thread lock had run or if it was just grimed on, maybe a combo but still took a good whack before it eventually fell onto my shin/foot… and all the coupling dampers fell out.. but thats fine. OH YEAH! and getting the coupling back on with all the dampers in place is really hard for some reason, I’m not sure what’s easier, putting the dampers on the coupling and putting it back in or putting the dampers in the wheel and pushing the coupling onto them, trial and error. Also cleaning the coupling with GT85 helps A TINY BIT.

A bit of GT85, a tooth brush, a rag and some elbow grease later...

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:15:00 -0400

A bit of GT85, a tooth brush, a rag and some elbow grease later and the crank casing is basically as clean as I can be bothered to get it! Was quite proud of that considering its previous state.

… or maybe it was WD40, whatever

It’s come time to replace my front and rear sprockets and...

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:11:00 -0400

It’s come time to replace my front and rear sprockets and chain (because the current ones really are fucked). So I take the crank casing off and look what greets me. I don’t even know what to call that, sort of a combination of grease, mud, stones, dust, eye of newt. Yeeaaahhh it’s all in around the chain and sprocket, up in the crank casing to the point where I can literally get 4 fingers and scrape it out. That last picture doesn’t even do it justice as to just how much was in there. gross.

Also you can see just how worn that front sprocket is!

wing mirrors are hideous fucking things

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:04:00 -0400

wing mirrors are hideous fucking things

Before and after rim tape. c£9 [eBay]… dropped my rear...

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:00:36 -0400

Before and after rim tape. c£9 [eBay]… dropped my rear sprocket on it days after… scarred for life… >_<