gimbel

[jacob92icu]

Geeeeze, you folks are short! Haha. Love how the gimbels turned out, but i need a picture of your bike! if I'm correct in thinking so, you are the first guy to customize the color of the gimbels. 

[Donnie]

Jacob, not sure I'm the 1st to customize Gimbels but thank you for the compliment. My GS500 was not meant to be any kind of show bike. I bought it out of a pole barn that had not yet had a concrete floor in it. Actually the floor had a small stream running through it and several bikes setting off to the side on shipping crates. When I found it , it was advertised at $650.00. After looking it over I discovered that it had not ran for a few years and the gas tank had so many pin holes in it that it looked like someone had shot it with buck shot. The tank actually leaked from under the factory decals. Bearings needed replaced in the wheels, swing arm linkage and so on. The only thing it had going for it was it only had about 6000 miles on it. After a few beers and so negotiation I ended up paying $275.00. My initial thought was to just bring it back to life and enjoy the gas mileage and smallness of the design, being that I'm a short person of a whole 5'8". Well... after I got on to this site it just seemed to snow ball into a complete rebuild. I have a few bikes, gixer 1000, a street tracker 250 and a couple of others. None of which get any kind of gas mileage. The 250 has a Viper racing engine that is lucky to get 7 or 8 miles to the gallon, it was one of my flat track bikes that I race. After all was said and done the E model ended up an F. Trans planted the E frame with a F frame (2009). I opened up the engine for inspection and clean up, modified the carbs a little and did some porting and polishing. I knew that it was never meant to be a screamer so all the work done was done with as much gas mileage and reliability and 100 mph. cruising speed for miles on end, just my style of riding. I love cruise control and and laying on the tank with no need for steering with my hands. As soon as I get all the paint done on the fairings and the stock decals put on I definitely will post some more pictures on the "E to an F" thread. Thanks to all that have helped so far with a vision that I have in my mind. No matter what guys and gals, always make what you have your own with your taste of personal touches.