The first street bike I ever owned was a showroom new 1989 GS500E. (Thanks, Suzuki First Time Buyers Program!) I parted ways with it a few years later in order to finance bigger & faster things, but I'd always missed it. My stable of bikes has fluctuated over the years, from zero (the dark dark days) up to six (with the majority of them actually running!), but it's never worked out for me to get another GS in the garage. This year, the funds and the need for a backup / commuter / lender bike were there. (Well, one that runs at least. I've got a pile of parts that say Kawasaki on them that I think used to be a motorcycle, though it's been in that state for so long it may well be a dishwasher for all I know.) I knew I was looking for something in the UJM vein with a specific price ceiling. The GS was high on my list, but I have to admit that I wasn't looking exclusively for one. It had the benefit of being the one that I was most willing to accept a wide range of options though. While ideally I'd find a clean, low-mileage '89 (clip-ons baby!), I was fine with anything that ended in E. Some of the other things on my list were a lot more specific. For example, I'd like to own another Kawasaki KZ650, but it needed to be a C model with mag wheels, triple discs and the standard tank. All I could find were spokes, singles with drums or the later cruiserish looking tank. I'm already in the process of rebuilding a bike (besides the pile of Kawi parts) and didn't want my reliable backup to be something that I'd want to start making a buncha changes to.
In the process of helping a friend who's about to take her MSF course shop for a bike, I ran across a Craigslist ad for a nice looking '96. I must admit that when I first saw it, I didn't put too much thought into it and just passed the ad on to her. I sorta had a line on a KZ and was also holding out hope that I'd find an '89 that I wasn't gonna hafta get a triple cover or bars for. As the hours wore on though, I kept returning to the CL ad. It looked very clean. Couple of seemingly tastefully done mods. 11,700 miles! On a '96! Hell, it's only 30 minutes from my house, maybe I should go take a look. By this point I've pretty much convinced myself that, as long as it's as clean as it looks and there are no surprises, I'm gonna buy the bike. :)
So I make arrangements with the owner (who was thankfully still awake and emailing at 11:30 at night) to see the bike bright and early the next morning. As it's warming up, we chit-chat for a bit about me looking to replace my first one. This is his first bike ever. Was bought from the original owner (with about 3,000 miles on it) and ridden for 2 seasons. He's letting it go and moving up to a Buell 1125R. Meh. Not my thing (my sportbikes need to sound like racing machines, not tugboats), but he does live in Wisconsin, so whatd'ya expect? (I'm from IL.)
I grab my tank bag full of bike-checking junk and take it out for a test ride. Out of sight of the owner, I spend several minutes going over it in a way that often tends to make the owner a little uncomfortable. I'd rather not do this with them hanging over my shoulder. Easier to do it around the corner. Only issue I can find is some hanging revs. Idling where it should be, throttle doesn't seem to be hanging, let's hope it's just a bad intake boot or some such. A few quick squirts isolates it to what seems to be the top of the left intake boot. Simple enough fix that I'm certainly not gonna hassle about price over. 'Specially since it doesn't make the bike unridable or anything. And if I've gotta spend $10 and a few hours replacing an intake boot, well, that's better than finding mag wheels & a tank for a late 70's KZ650. :)
Thankfully, he'll take a couple hundred bucks and hold the bike for a few days until a check into my discretionary spending fund clears. (I'd just depleted much of it buying tires, chain & sprockets for the CBR. One of the major reasons I was looking for a bike like the GS. I've done too much commuting on the CBR lately. I'd like to have a set of tires on it last through 2 seasons or maybe even 3 seasons, instead of 3/4 of one. I'd like to cut it back to mostly weekend riding.) As we were completing our deal and bullshitting about bikes, he had two different interested parties call to confirm that they were coming to look at it at their agreed-upon times. He had to tell them both that it was already sold. He'd told me that there were people coming before my original desired time of noon, so I'm glad that I bumped up my appointment to 9:00 AM. :) Now all that's left to do is go back in the truck on Friday to pick it up. (I never ride a new-to-me used bike home any more, even if it looks 100% reliable & trustworthy. I've learned my lesson.) And inform my friend that hopefully she wasn't too excited about buying it for herself. But that I'd let her ride it when she got her license to help decide if she wants to go with a 250 or a 500 class as her first bike. :)
The battery has a bad cell and discharges itself if not run daily and I still haven't fixed the intake leak yet, but eh. It's already doing yeoman's work as a commuter. Of course, as per my standard M.O., I've already begun accumulating parts for some upgrading. MAYBE I can hold off until riding season is done, but it's unlikely. The R6 shock should be here Friday. :) Lunchbox, jets, & intake boots are already here. Exhaust & springs later this month. I'm gonna hold out for an '89 clip-on setup as long as I can, but I'll probably just break down and pick up a Suburban Machinery bar instead. Almost bought a front end offa a Bandit 400 just to get the left side fork with caliper mounting bosses, but convinced myself that if I needed dual front brakes I might as well just throw an entire new front end on it that'll have more adjustability. That may end up being the winter project. :)
Anyways, if you've read this far, thanks for listening to my tale.
If literacy isn't your thing and words scare you, here's the short version:
Started on a GS. Missed it. Got another one. Happy to be back in the fold.
Now here's some pictures:
(http://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/gs500e-1.jpg)
(http://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/gs500e-2.jpg)
(http://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/gs500e-3.jpg)
(http://home.comcast.net/~douglashillman/gs500e-4.jpg)
Very clean looking 96. Congrats and welcome back to the GS world. I use my GS as a commuter as well and find it perfect for the job.
Nice...I use my 01 GS 500 "Cafe-style bagger" as my commuter also. great bike for what it was meant to be. :thumb:
Cool bike, I like the all black with the simple decals. Just Suzuki no BS O0. Never seen mirrors like that, they are pretty cool.
Quote from: Flux Maven on April 05, 2012, 01:31:33 PM
Cool bike, I like the all black with the simple decals. Just Suzuki no BS O0. Never seen mirrors like that, they are pretty cool.
The paint actually has blue metalflake in it, though it's absolutely unnoticable until you're like 6 inches from the bike. :) I'm not sure why it's in there, as it doesn't impart any blue tinge or sparkle that I can notice. It's very odd. It's not hurting for paint, but I may redo it this winter. If I do, I'll likely make it even a bit more austere and swap the "Suzuki" on the tank for an "S" symbol. Undecided about that though. I'll hafta do some Photoshop mockups.
The mirrors kick ass. Hooray to the previous owner for adding them. They're multi-position with detents. They're rock-solidly constructed and as absolutely vibration free as bar-end mirrors can ever be. They're WORLDS better than some of the cheapy bar-ends on other bikes I've ridden. WELL worth the $100+ price tag if you're going to go with bar-ends. I like the angular shape vs. rounds. Looks a little sportier.
http://www.constructorsrg.com/mirrors/index.html
If that is OEM paint, it probably is "Pearl Novelty Black". That color has a tiny bit of flake in it. You'll notice it under direct, bright sun. That color was used a lot. Most people probably never notice it.
I assumed that it was a repaint since it didn't have any callouts or graphics on the side panels, but I must admit that I'm actually not familiar with factory paint schemes other than the first coupla years back when I had my first one.
A Google image search for the model year unfortunately doesn't turn me up anything that specifically says, "These are the two US paint schemes for 1996." as far as I can tell.
The WIKI has color codes for each year. Includes the paint color and the color code.
1996 had Pearl Novelty Black - color code 33J
There are paint schemes with only SUZUKI on the tank. Nothing on the tail.
I look at this bike and I wonder why they didn't use this platform for the Aztec Orange...it would've looked so much better in my opinion. The black motor, charcoal frame to match the charcoal rims...? Would've looked amazing.
There's another similar scheme that has a nice crimson red tank/fenders/plastics...another gorgeous scheme. To me, the silver frames like my 97 really show the dirt and messy welds.
As a side note...did you drop your camera? Looks like the lens has shifted. Might be able to fix it yourself if you care to.
I don't recollect dropping it, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. :) Is that the culprit causing the fuzzy left edge?
Yeah, orange woulda looked much better on this frame than on silver.
The silver swingarm sorta stands out awkwardly to me here. It's got a decent bit of rust on the right side (only rust on the bike), so I'll probably pull it this winter and either paint it or powder it to match the frame.
Quote from: dougdoberman on April 05, 2012, 04:47:09 PM
Quote from: Flux Maven on April 05, 2012, 01:31:33 PM
Cool bike, I like the all black with the simple decals. Just Suzuki no BS O0. Never seen mirrors like that, they are pretty cool.
The paint actually has blue metalflake in it, though it's absolutely unnoticable until you're like 6 inches from the bike. :) I'm not sure why it's in there, as it doesn't impart any blue tinge or sparkle that I can notice. It's very odd. It's not hurting for paint, but I may redo it this winter. If I do, I'll likely make it even a bit more austere and swap the "Suzuki" on the tank for an "S" symbol. Undecided about that though. I'll hafta do some Photoshop mockups.
The mirrors kick ass. Hooray to the previous owner for adding them. They're multi-position with detents. They're rock-solidly constructed and as absolutely vibration free as bar-end mirrors can ever be. They're WORLDS better than some of the cheapy bar-ends on other bikes I've ridden. WELL worth the $100+ price tag if you're going to go with bar-ends. I like the angular shape vs. rounds. Looks a little sportier.
http://www.constructorsrg.com/mirrors/index.html
Nice ride. Those mirrors are definitely sweet, but no way I could justify the $110 price tag for EACH one. That's insane.
the 900rr is pretty sweet too!
I have an apreciation for older bikes.. (80's-90's)
TJ