Yet another 1976 Supercharger project

[Fred Camper]

I believe the only Lester rears for GL1000 applications available are 16 inch as that is what the customer of the day wanted. For me, I used CB 750F rear shocks to restore the stock ride height using the 16 inch rear.

[Qui-gon]

I believe the only Lester rears for GL1000 applications available are 16 inch as that is what the customer of the day wanted. For me, I used CB 750F rear shocks to restore the stock ride height using the 16 inch rear.

I would have gone up to 18 for the rear but they are as rare as rocking horse droppings! If one crops up at a later date I'll be all over it!
With the larger tyre on the outside diameter difference of the shod 17 and 16 wheels is about 35mm so roughly 17.5mm lower. It feels no different putting it on the centre stand. I think I have a pair of CB750 shocks somewhere so I may try them. Do you happen to know what the eye to eye length is? Both my resto with OEM shocks and the the blower bike with Showas measure 335mm.

[Qui-gon]

Latest progress.

Got the rear disc drilled and rear wheel drive spider cleaned ready for the wheel:



Fitted the humungous rear tyre on the rim, new bearings, drilled disc and spider ready for balancing:



The disc had to be marked and removed after balancing in order to get the tyre into the swinging arm. The weld on the inside of the drive side of the swinging arm needed to be removed and the paint made good before the tyre would fit without rubbing. The pads had to be removed from the caliper to get that back on as it wont go into the smaller, wider wheel with them in place. All that is quite easy on this bike with the shortened fender and the 4 into 1 exhaust.

Rear wheel back in place:



As requested a couple of pictures of the complete bike sporting the Lesters.

Left side:



Right side:

[Greg]

Awesome in every detail.
Thanks.
Greg.

[Fred Camper]

With the larger tyre on the outside diameter difference of the shod 17 and 16 wheels is about 35mm so roughly 17.5mm lower. It feels no different putting it on the centre stand. I think I have a pair of CB750 shocks somewhere so I may try them. Do you happen to know what the eye to eye length is? Both my resto with OEM shocks and the the blower bike with Showas measure 335mm.

Shocks are tricky to measure, but my best estimate is that the Showas off the CB750F were about 15 mm longer than the stock GL Shocks. But the end result is that the rear tire now will touch the ground while the bike is on the center stand. So maybe that was 5 mm too much. Yet when I sit on the bike, the geometry feels just right.

[Hal]

What is the spec of the rear tyre?

I had to loosen the disc so I could get the caliper to fit onto it when replacing the rear wheel, as the rim and the caliper interfere otherwise.

With the 155/15 tyre I didn't have to shave the welded flange off the right side of the swingarm though, it just fits..

[Kriss]

Hi. Nice very nice. are you going to run a tacho on the bike, if so where will it be driven from.
P.S. is any one out there tinkering with fuel injection ?.

[Oldewing]

Love the whole thing Q, you have done a great job

[robin1731]

snip.........P.S. is any one out there tinkering with fuel injection ?.

Go to the unique carburetion section on this site. There are at least a couple guys working on it right now.

[Qui-gon]

Thanks for all the comments and encouragement............

snip.......
Shocks are tricky to measure, but my best estimate is that the Showas off the CB750F were about 15 mm longer than the stock GL Shocks. But the end result is that the rear tire now will touch the ground while the bike is on the center stand. So maybe that was 5 mm too much. Yet when I sit on the bike, the geometry feels just right.

I did a bit of searching for data on the CB750 shocks and came up with a couple of sizes. People selling "sandcast model" ones quote a c to c length of 340mm which is only 5mm longer than the standard ones. Other quote a c to c measurement of 350 which I guess is what you have? That would probably make the rear touch the ground when on the stand. I also found these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/180672243528?it ... 23&vxp=mtr

The CB750 forums give them mixed reviews and I am not sure about the "one spring fits all" approach. Still they are cheap enough and look cool. Chinese I guess!

snip.........What is the spec of the rear tyre?

It's a Bridgestone Spitfire S11 150/80 16. The Lester rim is also wider than the stock one. I had to remove the weld on the inner right hand side of the swinging arm and the disc rotor goes on after the wheel is on the splines. It may be possible to slide the disc into the caliper before mounting the disc, I have not tried that. It was easy to drop the pads out and wiggle it on to the disc rotor. Plenty of room on that side with no exhaust in the way. The Lester wheel looks to be offset to the drive hub side to me so I will do some accurate measurements later. If it is it would be easy enough to move it across the spindle a bit.

snip......Hi. Nice very nice. are you going to run a tacho on the bike, if so where will it be driven from.

The tacho is included in the Acewell 3962 instrument It is electronic so no need for the carbuncle on the end of the right hand cam! . It also does the water temp, fuel gauge and a ton of other stuff. There is some more on it earlier in the thread I believe.

snip.........P.S. is any one out there tinkering with fuel injection ?.

Go to the unique carburetion section on this site. There are at least a couple guys working on it right now.

I am also looking at this....efi with a blower....could be my next project!

[calif wingnut]

I believe the only Lester rears for GL1000 applications available are 16 inch as that is what the customer of the day wanted. For me, I used CB 750F rear shocks to restore the stock ride height using the 16 inch rear.

The new 75 gl1000 17" rear tire was a strange tire size/configuration back then with poor tread life. It had a specific bead design and thus, Lester must of designed their 16" mag, with so many 16" tires available back in the day ?

Comments ?

[robin1731]

I believe the only Lester rears for GL1000 applications available are 16 inch as that is what the customer of the day wanted. For me, I used CB 750F rear shocks to restore the stock ride height using the 16 inch rear.

The new 75 gl1000 17" rear tire was a strange tire size/configuration back then with poor tread life. It had a specific bead design and thus, Lester must of designed their 16" mag, with so many 16" tires available back in the day ?

Comments ?

I would imagine another reason Lester went with the 16" rear was because everyone was taking the rear wheel's off and putting on 16" wheels. There are a lot of spoked wheel bikes that did this too. Remember all the 750's and even KZ900's running around with "hog" wheels? A popular mod back in the day.

[Qui-gon]

I believe the only Lester rears for GL1000 applications available are 16 inch as that is what the customer of the day wanted. For me, I used CB 750F rear shocks to restore the stock ride height using the 16 inch rear.

The new 75 gl1000 17" rear tire was a strange tire size/configuration back then with poor tread life. It had a specific bead design and thus, Lester must of designed their 16" mag, with so many 16" tires available back in the day ?

Comments ?

I would imagine another reason Lester went with the 16" rear was because everyone was taking the rear wheel's off and putting on 16" wheels. There are a lot of spoked wheel bikes that did this too. Remember all the 750's and even KZ900's running around with "hog" wheels? A popular mod back in the day.

Weird when you think that bikes like the cb750 had 18 inch rears? It may have been a way of customising whilst reducing the gearing slightly. I seem to remember you Mercans whinging about tractability in top gear for some reason?

[robin1731]

snip......... I seem to remember you Mercans whinging about tractability in top gear for some reason?

LOL, not all of us. I haveto laugh a little at the guys that do talk about the GL getting light in the front end at near triple digit speeds. They should have ridden a stock KZ900 at the same speed. The prase "death grip" comes to mind.

[sunnbobb]

Nice work. I have enjoyed reading about it, thanks.