My Suzuki GS500 custom / R6 solo seat tail swap

[kowal_dc]

hello everyone
a year ago i bougth my first bike, suzuki gs 500 i really like this bike and i decide to change it for a bit
just a custom bike but it fit me perfect and i love the way it looks right now.

i still got some small things to do but i am gonna take care of it soon.

from beginning i was thinking about turning my gs into something like sv650n or give it some a monster dark look (pics below), you know what i mean, i like that "classic naked bike" look (headlight) with kinda sporty/aggressive tail.





and here you can see some work progression:


























hope you like it
feel free to let me know your opinion

regards

kowal_dc

[GI_JO_NATHAN]

Looks great. Any plans for wider tires to compliment that rear?
Edit: Oh, and welcome to the site. Great first post.

[Anderw]

That looks great! 

[tt_four]

Hey, great job on the tail! There's a few GSs here with R6 tails on them, but yours is definitely one of the better looking ones. I'd be interested to see a little more detail of what you actually did to the subframe after you cut it. This is the first swap I've seen with the newer R6 tail as well. All the other ones have the 98-05ish tails on them.

If you get bored and want another project, When I had done a tail swap a while ago I got the seat that matched the frame and then just modified the front of it to fit up flat against the GS tank. It wasn't the much work and I think went well with blending the tail into the bike.

There's a post somewhere too that has links to all the bikes with the tail swaps just for peoples reference. This one should definitely be added, I'm just too tired to find it right now.

[Twisted]

Very nice job!

Could I ask where you got your chain guard? That looks shcmick 

[tt_four]

Alright, finally woke up a bit. Here's the old thread if you want to check out some other people's work. I'll add a link to this one for future reference.

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=51666.0

[kowal_dc]

Thank you all, i am glad you like my gs.

Any plans for wider tires to compliment that rear?

Umm rigth now i am just gonna ride it believe me or not but i didnt plan all this changes i made.
In the beggining i was like: maybe i should paint my gs black? yeah ill do that, but thats all i am gonna do
About wider tire i am not saying no cuz i dont know what i am going to do in a couple of months

I'd be interested to see a little more detail of what you actually did to the subframe after you cut it.

Honestly i am not really proud of my subframe. I mean everything fits great, subframe is doing the job well and everything is solid but i dont really like the way it looks, but i am ok with that cuz its hidden under plastics



I know it can be done better and maybe i re-do it but right now i am gonna ride it like i said.
oh and sorry, i dont have better photo at this moment, but ill do some so you can see more.

I saw your gs here before i start to do something with mine and i gotta say it was one of my inspirations

Could I ask where you got your chain guard?

Chain guard is custom made by a guy a meet on another gs500 message board here in poland

[ragecage23]

Oh my, talk about joining with a bang. Welcome to the site and I absolutely love the bike, you should send it in to Suzuki so they can start making the GS's like this haha. Great job, looks awesome.

[tt_four]

That's actually a pretty decent job on the subframe. I don't know what you're standards are if you're actually good at welding, but most of the ones I've seen, mine included, yours is way nicer than anything else I've seen. I bought a cheap welder over spring and it'll be nice if I ever figure out how to use it. It'll make cleaning mine up a lot easier. If not I'll probably just do some work with some riv-nuts and rivets. I'd love to move my lower rails up out of the way, but I'm not about to really chop into mine since I think it's probably going to move along in spring, but I don't feel up to selling a bike with a self-welded subframe. I bought some paint guns for mine too, and still haven't bothered learning how to use those yet either, haha. Spray paint is just too easy.

Wider rear tires are cool, but gsxr front ends are the way to go 

[kowal_dc]

One of issues when i was working was fact that i dont have my own welder so i was forced to borrow it from my friend. I was in a hurry when i was working so thats why i think my subframe i not 100% exact as i wanted it to be. So i need to buy a welder too
About using spray gun, when i was painting my gs, it was first time when i was dealing with it. Thats not as hard as everybody think. You just need a looooot of patience. If you screw your paintjob, no big deal, just do it again. I was painting my gas tank 4 times until i realized it will be fine.

Spray paint is just too easy.

Amen to that

Wider rear tires are cool, but gsxr front ends are the way to go 

You right, actually i was even looking for it on ebay, ill do some searching in winter

[tt_four]

I need to find a friend around here that knows how to weld so he can come over and show me what to do. I don't expect and great results from the one I got to learn on, but I tried it one day and got absolutely nowhere, haha.

I'm not too intimidated by using the spray guns, but I think I just haven't wanted to deal with buying other paint. I don't know much about paint and wasn't sure if I should just walk into Sherman Williams and say "I want to paint a motorcycle" or what. Either way the GS is gonna need painted before I sell it in spring, so I'll definitely learn by then. I'm probably gonna start easy and just go with black. I absolutely hate sanding things, but I know I'm gonna have to get used to it if I want the paint to come out well. As of now I just have my tail spray painted blue and it no where near matches my tank. It's a shame to repaint the tank because I got it brand new last spring, but I don't think my chances of finding the right blue to match are that good. Plus it'll be easier to blend in the work on the tail swap if everything is black.

[SoJayR]

Hey new here...I just got my hands on a 92 gs500 and want to do something similar to this. I'm wondering what year the r6 tail is, and what that under fairing is off of......or maybe links to where i can buy them. Anything would be great!!! Thank you guys!!

And buy the way, sweet bike!!!! I love it!!! Its my inspiration!!

[ghostrider_23]

HS that is freaking sweetttttttttttttttttttttttttt

Nice job on that bad boy

[cbrfxr67]

Great looking bike here

[kowal_dc]

Hello again!
Today I finally moved my ass, grabbed a camera and made couple of new shots of my GS.
Theres no big changes, new can, crash pads, stickers etc.

Regards
kowal_dc

[The Buddha]

You glassed that tail section ?

If so man that is so freaking cool. I'd just shave off the parts of it that are the widest ... it has to be no wider than the original GS tail IMHO to look right, the pointy tail light if anything will distate it be even skinnier ... but the stock GS curves would be fine.
Cool.
Buddha.

[SecretAgent]

  Beautiful looking bike.  Great Job!!!

[kowal_dc]

You glassed that tail section ?

If so man that is so freaking cool. I'd just shave off the parts of it that are the widest ... it has to be no wider than the original GS tail IMHO to look right, the pointy tail light if anything will distate it be even skinnier ... but the stock GS curves would be fine.
Cool.
Buddha.

No I didnt. I bought whole R6 racing unit from a guy making this kind of stuff with fiberglass.
And I need to say that this tail isnt as much wide as it looks on pics.

regards
kowal_dc