Thought I'd share a few photos of the project you've all be helping me with.

[BeerIsSoAwesome]

I've been riding for about ten years, however that includes a 2-year hiatus following a period of unemployment. My first bike (at the age of 19) was a GS500E that came to me with a bright yellow custom paint job, upside-down clubman bars and a sweet Yoshimural full exhaust.

I bought and sold a bunch of bikes since, including a BMW Rockster which was my longest-lived daily rider. I put about 18,000 miles on it in the few years I owned it. After the hiatus from riding, I bought my uncle's SV1000N which I never quite fell in love with, sold it and bought a ZRX1200R which I love conceptually, but it didn't quite suit me. Always felt just a bit big and squishy.

I decided a few months ago to sell the ZRX and try to resurrect this abused $500 1992 GS500E I bought with my ex, which was now languishing (and being beaten on by unknown forces) in the garage at my dad's apartment building. I originally bought it thinking "oh, this will be a good bike for you to learn on" before realizing I had no clue how to go about fixing it, or even how much work would be involved in making it a decent rider.

Since starting on this bike, I have:
Checked and adjusted valve clearances.
Cleaned the carbs and rejetted (Thanks Buddha!)
Chased a thousand vacuum leaks in the fueling system.
Rebuilt the forks with Sonic springs and 15w oil.
Installed a rear shock from a 2004 Katana 600
Installed a lovely Chuck81 fork brace.
Installed TechSpec tank grips.
Broken off a dairy-based header bolt, drilled it out, installed a Helicoil.
Installed a new chain.
Installed new Pirelli Sport Demon tires.
Installed drag bars (the originals were bent anyway)
Installed cool bar-end mirrors with horrible mounting hardware.
Banged the headlight bucket into a vaguely round shape so it points in roughly the right direction.
Oh, and I put on a 15t front sprocket yesterday.

Things that need to happen:
Figure out why the right cylinder is *still* idling lean, even though the bike runs 95% great.
Put on much, much shorter turn signals.
Replace crunched headlight assembly, either a similar unit or something really funky.
Plasti-Dip temporary "paint," probably satin black.

I've been having so much fun wrenching on and riding this bike. It's so satisfying to have set the suspension up just for me, rather than the 70-lb rider it comes sprung for, and it handles very well! I hope to do my first track day this summer.

Thanks again for all of your help, everyone!

As Bazookie came to me:


Bazookie yesterday afternoon:

[BeerIsSoAwesome]

Oh, and I thought you'd get a kick out of this-- the Battlax rear tire that was on the bike when I got it, compared to the new Pirelli. Sidewalls were cracked and dry-rotted, oh yeah, and it was square.

This bike had less than 15,000 miles on it, and I *highly* suspect that this was the original tire.

[cbrfxr67]

  pics! (applause)

[Gorilla]

damn nice. I gotta get me a rear tire as well.