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1992 gsxr 600 project liposuction

7K views 26 replies 7 participants last post by  1978cb550 
#1 ·
1992 gsxr 600: Project Liposuction

Just recently picked up a 92 gsxr 600. Its in rough condition but it was only $900. It runs but I need to do some work on it to get it back in to good riding condition. My goal for this build, as you can probably guess from the title is to make it as light as possible without sacrificing necessities for the street. As I remove parts I will weigh them and put them back to the top of the thread. One thing I have noticed is most the things people take off really doesn't add up to much weight, so hopefully the actual weight of the part will help to form decisions on whether the part is justified to be removed. Before all of the comments of "the easiest way to save weight is going to the gym" are posted. I am 5'6" and weigh an incredible 115lb :lol. So I don't think I can loose anymore weight from my body.
20180424_075641 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

For some background I am 19 and started building my first bike, a 1978 CB550, when I was 15. I built a café racer out of it with a modern front end, and stripped a lot of weight off the bike. Recently I have finished the bike and I got this bike for a new project that is a little more streetable. I haven't decided if I am going to do a front end swap and wheel swap on this bike but for right now I will start cheap (this is what I said on the last build).
Here's some old pictures of the CB550-
20171112_151355 (2) by Michael Seyller, on Flick
20180214_204734 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

Here is the list of parts and their weights:
Passenger Seat Lock- .48 Lbs.
rear Turn Signals- .934 Lbs.
Rear tubular mounting bracket- 2.08 Lbs.
Shock reservoir clamps- .116 Lbs.
Rear fender liner- 1.192 Lbs.
Left Rearset Bracket- .302 Lbs.
Right Rearset Heal Guard- .206 Lbs.
Right Passenger Foot Peg- 1.114 Lbs.
Left Passenger Foot Peg- .966 Lbs.
Subframe wire hooks- .12 Lbs.
Front Fender Support- 1.17 Lbs.

Heres my weight savings:
Passenger Seat Lock- .48 Lbs.
rear Turn Signals- .934 Lbs.
Rear tubular mounting bracket- 2.08 Lbs.
Shock reservoir clamps- .116 Lbs.
Rear fender liner- 1.192 Lbs.
Left Rearset Bracket- .302 Lbs.
Right Rearset Heal Guard- .206 Lbs.
Subframe helmet hooks- .12 Lbs.
Front Fender Support- .242 Lbs.
Fairing Bolts- .3 Lbs.
Gas Cap- .614 Lbs.

Total Weight I Have Saved- 6.586 Lbs. (this is with passenger pegs and fender bracket still on bike)

Here is the passenger seat lock. If you remove it you can still pop it off with a flat head.
20180502_185415 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

I have not removed everything that's on the list. The list is just incase anyone wants to know the weight. I am keeping the passenger pegs on, because I don't have a cowl so I have to leave the passenger seat on. I did remove the extra bolts from the passenger pegs (the third bolt). I also just removed material off the front fender support instead of removing it, because I found out that the front fender is an Airtech (which is really light) and I would like to keep some support for it. I will post the final weight I removed but I was interrupted by tornadoes this afternoon.

20180502_194025 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr
20180502_190813 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr
20180502_191325 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr


My future plans are to put an exhaust on the bike, although removing the can like the previous owner did is probably as light as a full Yoshi :lol. I am also going to run a lithium battery, I did have one but it fried on my other bike when the rectifier came unplugged. I am going to run LED signals and probably run Airtech for the body. I am going to do something with the headlight too. It might be the biggest weight savings. Other than that I am just going to replace the usual wear parts and make the bike reliable
 
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#2 ·
Losing the passenger pegs/brackets, the stock rear shock, and most of the rear frame supports is only going to net you a few pounds. Losing the headlight/gauge/front fairing mount will save you that much in one fell swoop. Going to a more modern front end/wheel may shave a couple more pounds, but then you're down to ounces at a time. The truth is these were big, heavy bikes when they were born and will be big, heavy bikes that have attempted to diet when they die.
 
#3 ·
Yeah I'll be happy if I shed 20lbs with this bike. Right now I'm not really looking to go out of my way to shed weight, but if there's something simple that sheds weight than I'm all for it. On my last bike it was a similar deal, but I wanted to make it as light as possible, and by the end of it I have changed everything but the front half of the frame and the bottom end of the engine.

I finished lightening the front fender bracket. It shed about a 1/4 of a pound.
20180503_172023 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

Heres the bike now that everythings been removed.
20180503_174210 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr
 
#5 ·
Awesome! See my thread on my 6/11 build. Same bike!
I think the main issue with these watercooled bikes is just that they're piggies. I could probably drop a ton on them to get them in race trim, but there's not a ton you can remove to keep them streetable. You're going about it the correct way though!
Attached is my KTM RC390 that is at 283 lbs. :)
 

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#9 ·
Welcome to the diet club! I like the end result of the cb550, nice job. I have always lived by the "less is more" approach when modifying a vehicle. My '95 750 is on a diet. No idea how much weight I've managed to remove but every little bit helps. They are a few more free things you can do. Drill the rear brake lever and foot shift lever, drill and shave (bottom side) front foot pegs. Remove the helmet hooks and bolts, the mesh screen inside the airbox, tool kit, reflectors, handlebar end weights and the plastic air intake tubes that run from the fairing to the top of the engine.
Now you can spend a little money by replacing all the fairing and bodywork bolts, engine cover bolts, chain guard bolts, battery box bolts, coolant tank bolts and steering stem nut with aluminum pieces.
I have done all of these things and a few more to my bike with no issues. My goal is to shed weight at minimal cost. Keep up the nice work!:burnout
 

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#11 ·
A few more ideas; a lithium battery, compact LED turn signals, aluminum 520 chain and sprockets, aluminum (with steel inserts) sprocket nuts, remove airbox/frame covers (non-functioning except visual appeal), aluminum front fender mounting bolts, aluminum rear brake reservoir mounting bolts, aluminum windshield bolts, magnesium valve cover and signal generator cover (available from '94-'95 gsxr 750).


A word of caution; Do Not Use aluminum bolts, nuts, washers on safety related items such as brakes, hand and foot controls etc... You can use titanium but it is pricey.


Keep us posted of your progress with pics and weights. :burnout
 

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#12 ·
Thanks. I ordered a bunch of parts and just got a complete aluminum bolt kit for all of the plastics in the mail. It was a little slow going at first, but finally figured out where most of them go. I'll post some pictures tomorrow with the weight savings. Can definitely tell a difference just by holding them. And I'll have to look into the magnesium covers and 520 chain conversion, they sound like a good upgrade without affecting anything. Plus the chain will be rotating weight.
 
#13 ·
Heres the weight difference with the aluminum fairing kit. I didn't use all of the bolts in the kit, because I didn't see anywhere else they could go. Also Ill get pics of them on the bike once I fix some of the threads that were messed up from the PO.

These are the weight differences.
Clips- gained .0512lbs over factory. they weighed .0064lbs. more each
small bolts- lost .0576 lbs over stock. they weighed .0036lbs. less each
medium bolts- lost .22-.28 lbs over stock. they weighed .011-.014lbs. less each
long bolts- lost .07. they weighed .012 lbs less each.

I still haven't changed out the wind screen bolts and I didn't add up the weight of changing the metal washers for plastic. Overall I needed the bolts anyways since it was missing half of them, so I'm pretty happy loosing a 1/3 of a lb while I'm at it.

Total savings- .3lbs


These are the clips that came in the kit they are actually heavier than the stock clips.
20180510_120534 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

20180510_120513 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

Heres the longer bolts. I replaced 6 factory bolts with them.

20180510_120328 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

20180510_120344 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

20180510_120313 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

These are the small bolts. 16 of these were used.

20180510_120259 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

20180510_120229 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

These are the Medium Bolts. 20 were used.

20180510_120411 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

20180510_120359 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

I also ordered the magnesium covers last night.
 
#15 ·
Thanks, I'm going to switch to airtech for the fairings eventually, but for right now I'm trying not to spend a lot of money all at once. I like the fact that on the supersport seat you can keep your factory seat, though I'm not opposed to having a place like saddleman build me a new one.

Saw this picture on their website with the seat on a bike. Looks better than factory to me.
 

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#16 ·
I got some more parts in this afternoon. I got a new screw in fuel lid. It's chrome but I liked the style of it better than the others, so ill just have to either repaint it or polish it. It makes it a little harder to shut but its worth it considering the tank was messed up around the fuel lid where someone tried stealing it or lost the key. By the way it only cost around $20

Weight:
Old lid- 1.014 Lbs.
New Lid- .4 Lbs.

Total Savings- .614 Lbs
 

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#18 ·
Its been a while since I have posted last. Mainly due to moving back home from college for the summer, but I've still been working on the bike.

put some new mirrors on it. Saved some weight on them, about half a pound but I mainly just replaced them because the old ones were broken.
20180517_151532 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr
20180517_151523 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr
20180517_151742 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

I put a new wind screen on, since I didn't like the purple.
20180615_132106 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

I also made a new license plate bracket out of aluminum and tapped the frame to bolt it in with some aluminum bolts. I also replaced the taillight with a smoked taillight that has integrated signals.
20180518_120354 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr
20180615_132037 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

I've also cleaned up the carbs on it and found that one of the brass tubes were broke, I jb welded it for now but ill eventually replace it. I also put a K&N filter on the bike but it made more of a difference than I thought so I have the airbox restricted for now so I can ride it. I'll order a new exhaust and dynojet kit for it in the near future.
20180615_132026 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr
 
#20 ·
little update on the bike.

I decided to swap the swingarm for a braced swingarm off a 95. After ordering 3 swingarms through ebay I finally got one that was in good condition (like it was supposed to be), but I guess that's the way it goes on ebay sometimes.

I have started the swap but ran into a few part that I hadn't ordered so ill order them and should wrap up the swap next weekend. I'll also get the weight difference on them once I bring my bike back from my dads house.

I have also added an led tag light to the bike (which I don't have pictures of at the moment). I installed a factory exhaust and put a dynojet stage 1 kit in for the K&N filter, now the bike runs good and I was taking it to work a few times a week. I installed new brakes on the rear because it didn't have any before. I took the wheels to the powder coaters a week ago because I hated the red on them. I chose to have them painted a semi gloss black because I saw a picture of a bike with semi-gloss black wheels with a red stripe and liked the look, but i'll probably go with a white stripe instead. I also got an 07 gsxr 1000 rear shock to swap over and sent the yellow spring that was in the shock to the powder coaters as well.

The bikes been running good and I have just been trying to get it to the point I want it. I almost picked up a donor gsxr 1100 to do a 6-11 swap but I talked myself out of it because im going back to school soon and will probably need the money for books :crying:. I may do it next summer though.

For the meantime I found a full yoshimura 4-2-1 exhaust off a 750 that was in decent shape and for a good price so I just ordered it tonight.


here are some pics of the bike now and ill get more next weekend when I get the rest of the parts in to button up the swingarm/shock swap.

Jjj by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

20180818_115931 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr
 
#22 ·
I got the wheels back from powder coat and got the bike back together. I was in a bit of a rush because my dad was trying to move houses over the weekend so I had to get it out of his garage. That being the case I skipped installing the new shock. I'll just have to save it for another day. Also, when I dropped off the old tires with the wheels, the shop said they couldn't get the bead to seat on the tires :mad:, so I had to get new tires but I just went with the cheapest option which were the continentals that were on there before. I also put new brake pads on the rear and bled all of the brakes. The front brake fluid looked like caramel, so it took a full bottle of fluid to flush them out. I put about 150 miles on it the last two days and it feels a lot smoother (probably because the tires weren't balanced before). It feels tighter in the turns as well, before I was afraid to lean it over because it would sometimes have a little wobble in the rear, but that's gone now. I'm thinking the new bearings in the swingarm may have fixed the issue. here's a pic, I'll get some better ones when I get a chance.

20180827_210450 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr
 
#23 ·
Here's some better pictures of the bike. I've been riding it an hour to school everyday and haven't had any hiccups except for the headlight turning off from a corroded plug, but that was an easy fix. Also its been really hot and if I sit in traffic for more than 10 minutes the fan comes on but doesn't seem to cool it off, it just keeps it a little below the red line. My guess is maybe a stuck thermostat. When the weathers cooler than 100 it seems to cool it off fine. The only major issue I've began to notice is that second gear seems to be sh*tting the bed. I thought that maybe I've been missing shifts from first to second but after riding today there was one instance where I got on it pretty good and shifted to second and it held for a second and then went into neutral. Its a little weird though because the neutral light comes on like i was just missing a gear. Also when I down shift from second into first even with the clutch in it grinds sometimes. So im not sure if this is second gear going out or another issue but I've just been taking it easy for now. I'll post up some weights on the braced swingarm and banana swingarm Friday, I'm kind of interested to see if the braced is actually lighter.

20180829_173233 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

20180829_173250 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr
 
#24 ·
You're doing a nice job on your bike! The wheels look much better. I painted mine a charcoal grey. Concerning the shock swap, You can do it easily without removing the rear tire/rim or the swing arm. It's pretty simple. When you get ready, send me a message and I will tell you the easiest and quickest way. It takes less than an hour with a few simple tools. Keep up the good work!:burnout
 
#26 ·
Thanks, and I'll be sure to message you, I was thinking I would have to take my swingarm back off.

The overheating is a very common issue with these bikes. The fan won't cool it down in stop and go traffic where you are just crawling along. Some guys just wire a switch to the fan so they can override the thermostat control, I just try not to ride in traffic lol
Also, the 2nd gear issue is fairly common. Lots of folks fix it by getting their gears undercut, but long story short is the only way to fix it is split the cases. I've heard of guys just skipping 2nd when it started getting bad, the fix is not fun if it's a daily driver.
At least the overheating is a common issue, I just didn't want something to be wrong with the bike. I try to keep out of traffic but it gets pretty bad on my way to school. I'll look into putting a switch for the fan, because that would probably help some. Also, on the second gear I just assumed it was going out because I know its common on the 750's and 1100's but the other day I tested it by clutch dumping like I was going to wheelie and the front end lifted off the ground; but I did notice my shift lever was bent and would run into the bottom of the frame. So, I think my problem was just the lever made it hard to pull it all the way up to second.

I got the weights on the swingarms and the braced swingarm was 7 oz. heavier than the banana, which didn't surprise me after having them side by side.
 
#25 ·
The overheating is a very common issue with these bikes. The fan won't cool it down in stop and go traffic where you are just crawling along. Some guys just wire a switch to the fan so they can override the thermostat control, I just try not to ride in traffic lol
Also, the 2nd gear issue is fairly common. Lots of folks fix it by getting their gears undercut, but long story short is the only way to fix it is split the cases. I've heard of guys just skipping 2nd when it started getting bad, the fix is not fun if it's a daily driver.
 
#27 ·
Its been a while since I've updated this thread but I've still been working on the bike. I went ahead and cleaned up the Yoshi pipe I had and put it on the bike. It was well worth it, the bike picked up a lot of mid range power and the exhaust is a lot lighter. I had to take off the passenger pegs for it to fit and I will also have to make a bracket for the can. I also put turn signals inside the headlight housing because I was having problems with cars not seeing my signal on the side (even though this seems to be a problem with other bikes), I also painted the housing so it wasn't faded and put in LED headlights that work a lot better and don't draw as much current. Another thing I did was put in a 3 position switch to turn the rad fan on, it has high low and off. I just used a resistor for the low position (its a 50w 2ohm resistor if any needs to know). I replaced most of the wiring plugs on the front of the bike because they were giving me problems and I rerouted them all to the left side of the bike, which gave me more room. I also installed a rear shock off an 07 gsxr 1000, I couldn't tell if it was lighter but the extra adjustment is nice (I have it at all the way soft and its still a little hard). Now I just need to shim the valves and install a new clutch because it makes a strange popping noise when pulling away from a stop. I've also decided to pick up an 1100 this summer so I can 6/11 swap it I'm just debating on whether I should do the 6 speed swap in the 1100 before I put it in.

here's some pics-
20190226_194910 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

20190226_200609 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

20190226_200600 by Michael Seyller, on Flickr

20190226_200541(0) by Michael Seyller, on Flickr
 
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