recently bought a gs500 and got some questions

[exacto]

Hi i recently bought a used 2001 gs500e as my first street bike, its got 22,000 miles and paid $2,000 for it. its in good condition but i have some questions...

1. is it ok if i take the chain guard off for appearance?

2. the rear fender mud flap... where the liscnese plate attaches too... looks a little weird to me and i see some pictures of others bikes with it gone and it looks nicer. Did you guys just cut it or did you buy something to replace it because i noticed the signals are attached to it too.

thanks in advance, and i hope to learn lots more and ride tons.

any other advice is appreciated too...

[adidasguy]

Chain guard: not sure what you don't like about it. It does keep lots of crap from flying into the innerds like chain oil. You can take it off, paint it or go stainless like I did. I added the shark fin, too. Keeps fingers out of the rear when wiping the chain with a rag.
Fender: There are options. Balu Racing has a fender replacement which one of my bikes will get soon (Trey - the purple one). My bikes did have chopped fenders and I put full ones back on due to wet weather here in Seattle. Keeps the rear cleaner. I did remount the plate, reflector flush for better appearance. Couldn't find anyone that wanted the chopped fenders so they went in the trash    Might cut off an inch and a half and move the reflector up but I won't do the full amputation of the tail.

Keep looking around the board and you'll get lots of ideas of things to do to your bike (whatever is its name?)

This is Junior (oh, bikes require a name. I have Suzi, Junior and Trey) except belly pan is replaced with a red one now.

[elvis]

I used a Dremel to cut the bottom of my fender even with the bottom of the license plate. I like the look a lot better, and it was completely free to do.

[jacob_ns]

1. is it ok if i take the chain guard off for appearance?

Here in Nova Scotia you require a chain guard on any street legal bike. If you're pulled over by the police without it, it's a ticket for not having a road worthy vehicle. They can impound it on the side of the road and require you to get it trailered away.

[weedahoe]

^^^ Ouch....that sucks

[bombjack]

This is Junior (oh, bikes require a name. I have Suzi, Junior and Trey) except belly pan is replaced with a red one now.

Wow, what kind of rear end is that? It looks great! 

[numus]

Mine is called PITA...