I'm new to the forum, so wanted to say hi, and make my first post.
I'm a pretty new rider, 4 months in yesterday. I got into bikes riding on the back of my boyfriend's fz6r for about 9 months before he kicked me off, so I decided to get my own. I bought Goose, my beautiful 96' GS500E on 9/11/2016 with 3000 miles and the original tires still on it for $900. After getting new tires, new handlebars (the old ones were bent), and getting my permit I went and got to ride my bike for the first time with a few friends - and immediately dropped it 5 minutes into the ride.
Now, Goose is my main form of transportation and my baby. He has since been dropped more times than I'd like to admit, but I'm taking good care of him and riding as much as possible. I live close to the Bay Area, CA, and so we have plenty of fun mountain roads and pretty good weather most of the time (though I've been known recently to ride no matter the weather because classes are too expensive to miss and I'd rather ride in the rain than bus to be honest).
I'm planning on doing some small upgrades when I get the chance, but first I'm worrying about getting Goose back to stock standards. I have awful front suspension at the moment, which my boyfriend and I think may be due to very little (if any) fork oil, so this weekend I'm planning to do my forks and fork seals. Next project will be changing the brake pads as soon as I get around to buying them. Soon, though, I'm hoping to put cartridge emulators in, then upgrading my rear suspension a bit.
Very soon, though, I'm planning to paint my bike on my own for the first time. I know, I should just go get it done, I'm going to hate every minute. I've heard it all. But I'm excited, I'm going to buy a new gas tank as well as a set of tail fairings and paint them to be sort of universe/galaxies/stars whatever themed. I haven't seen any bikes like that, even online, and it'll be a fun and artistic project.
I'm very excited to have found this forum, and I can't wait to start finding out more about riding and my bike. If anyone is near the Santa Cruz area, come join me and my friend's for a ride sometime. :)
New member here as well, welcome! That's awesome that you're diving so headlong into the bike and getting it ready. Proof that you didn't belong on the back of his fz any way! :laugh:
Thanks dude! I'm definitely having way more fun now :)