Well, it happened.......I got a new project, and boy does it need love. Welcome to the 1984 GS850G

      After the dissapointment of having the Guzzi sold out from under me I put a speculative add onto FACEBOOK....which led to all kinds of replies, but one, local to me caught my eye. Ned messaged me with 2 possibilities, a very nice CB1300 that needed very little work, a very nice bike indeed and a rather interesting '84 GS850G. Thats where it started, not Craigslist as before, but a simple add on FB. The picture sent:

     You get the drift, but somehow it appealed, anyways, long story short, it is now mine. 

First thing i did was to clean it, pictures below, first i gave it a good blast witht the leaf blower and then hit it with the Demon Shine soap through the jetwasher. Removed a lot of surface rust and a shit ton of accumilated dirt. The gold powder coat was not the best, and has flaked off in places on the wheels, not an issue as it all is getting blasted and recoated in satin blackThen i just wanted to put the tank on for an initial lookie see at lines and insirations.

     The tank doesn't fit, I googled the bike, and yup, its the wrong tank..Doh! Had an initial paddy, but needed to see, and now I know. I have no idea what the tank is from, i presume a suzuki of some lineage, but no idea from what. Thats around another £150 quid or so i did not budget for. Hey ho, not over the moon.

     

So the plan......or possibilities. 

     So, the big question - To restore to originial, cafe racer or bob it?

     The chopped rear of the frame, will make life very complex to restore it to original, but the bike in its former glory is a sweet ride: 

     Option 2 is the cafe racer, where my addiction for this all started. And there are some sweet modfications outh there. Although a shaftie, they do look good, with the rider - they are done well, something I am a fan of doing, using as much of the original bike as possible:

 or 

    You get the  drift, maybe a nod to the era with JPS paint...not sure yet.

    Or Option 3....the bobber, to bob a bike is basically ripping to minimums the same as cafe racers, but with the added loss of the rear suspension. Again, they do look right if done right, and there is the rub.

As with dodgy cafe racers, they is a plethora of dodgy bobbers around too. Here is the idea:

     So, decisions decisions.....But forst to strip down,and for that i am off to Halfords. Why? i hear you question, in a quiet and unassuming way. Well the bike lift they have is around 120 quid, down to around 96 quid, and with a Blue Light discount, it is down to a very reasonable 76 of your finest British pounds. Will make things so much easier for the restoration. Oh, and a gallon of WD 40.

More to follow very soon.