1990 GS500 Good purchase hard to find parts?

[cheetahman]

I would be prepared to rebuild the carbs, and replace the fuel lines.  I just bought a 93 and the fuel lines disintegrated at the first touch.  The carbs were full of brown stalagtites.  With a little percussive repair, everything works well now. 

[ohgood]

A non-running bike is potentially scrap. Don't pay a dime more than you could part it out for, and maybe not even that since you also have to account for the time it will take to advertise, sell, disassemble, pack and ship parts.

The only non-running bike I ever bought wound up costing me twice what I paid for it to get it running, which unfortunately also twice what it was worth. But it would have been worthless as a non-runner, and potentially taken years to part out. Fixed it and said good riddance and lesson learned.

This is the voice of reason. +1

I would jump on a rattle canned machine that runs and rides before an unknown that doesn't. Plenty of reasons why, the list is too long.

There are tons of gs out there for sale. Buying a 1200-2000 bike that runs as it should and is mostly to completely stock will pay off in spades. The aggrevation of fixing previous owners mistakes can become expensive too.

[ATLRIDER]

Right off the bat, the blue bike is more appealing due to it's original configuration.  Probably mostly original. The black one I personally wouldn't bother because, like mentioned earlier, who knows what was done with it.  Would be nice to at least do a compression test.
Just my .02

Good luck.

[Snake2715]

Well the rattle can man has not responded yet..

However the one with the Blue Bike has set the appointment for late this week.

I will update with the outcome. I will also take the advice given and look over the bike well, crank it over, etc.

I might even purchase a battery ahead of time to install turn her over check for spark, etc.

Any other input is welcome and I thank everyone so far for theirs.

[Worm]

No need to buy and battery unless you plan to buy the bike and know it needs it. Just use jumper cables to your car battery.

[thumper88]

Curious if you ever got to look at the bike (the blue one)? I sent a couple messages through craigslist a while back and never received a reply to either message. It's still listed though...

Getting a GS450 from a friend for free, so it all worked out anyways.