Let's see I'm 34.....bought a '90 GS500E from someone locally who actually recommended this website..funny though cause I had already found it before I actually found the bike I ended up buying. The GS will serve several purposes..

It'll server commuter duty for me. Not only will I save gas money, I'll save the money I have to spend to park my truck.

My wife has expressed interest year after year about learning to ride. I plan on upgrading the kid's dirt bike to a little bigger bike with a clutch etc. So more than likely I will teach the wife on that as well. I've tried to convince her to take the "jump start" MSF class they hold locally, she just isn't convinced until she sees if she likes riding at all.

As for me..I started on dirt bikes at about 9 years old...it was by older brother's hand-me-down YZ80..not the ideal starter bike, but it was either learn to ride that or not ride at all...so I learned. From then it progressed to my favorite beast I ever owned a YZ490...what a beast. Got my first true street bike (meaning, tags, insurance, etc etc) when my brother sold me his 86 GSXR750 when he upgraded to a ZX10. Put 30k miles on that torture rack in less than two years. After 2 high sides and 1 low side, it was finally REALLY totalled out. FWIW none of the 3 were "my fault" but to me it doesn't really matter whether a car "just didn't see the bike" or it's a rider mistake. The end result is the same. Hitting the pavement. After the first, I realized that gear was worth the sweat and money. After that college, then the military kept me from riding as regularly as I wanted, but I managed to squeeze a few thousand miles in between...including a few months on a ZX10 in Europe..let's just say I've satisfied my taste for top speed running on bikes, and I'll never forget raising my head out of a crouch at 140mph plus, and staring at the stars for several adrenaline pumped seconds. I'll never do that again.

In the last 9 years or so, I've taught several friends and co-workers to ride, but never owned one of my own. Ended up borrowing alot of bikes when these same guys didn't want to ride alone....Once we finally bought the house we are in now, where I now have garage space and knowing we'll be here a long while, I got the bug again. IT actually came from modding / wrenching on my 10 year old's little chinese knock off 70cc dirtbike. After the carb rebuild and adding a pipe...I was bit again.

Looked for several months....never did find the deal I really liked, or never found a bike that I thought would work in several roles.

Found the GS on Craigslist....talked the owner into getting off early to let me look at it, since he already 4 or 5 guys coming to look at it. Rode it around a bit, gave him cash to hold it, then picked it up that night. It's got 13k on it. The previous owner did alot of work to it...he just upgraded to a new SV650. Stainless brake lines, new gaskets in the engine, clutch, cables, updated petcock, tires, chain etc etc. Bike runs very well. The bike was painted before he got it..and it's yellow, but it's livable for now.

Owner even told me it did leak a few drops of oil after a ride. And it does. Nothing crazy...he said he thought it was the output shaft...I didn't know at the time to ask if he'd replaced the clutch pushrod seal or the gear shift seal...it leaks down the kickstand a bit after a ride..at this point, nothing serious enough for me to sweat it until it's too cold to ride.

I'm sure I'll be searching more and posting about it when I decide to open it up. It's mechanically stock, and will stay that way for now. I'm considering a Vance and Hines exhaust, air filter replacement and a re-jet...but that's to come...

Since I picked up my hellmet and jacket (Nitro brand mesh / textile jacket w/ armor...) I've managed to put a couple hundred miles on it in only a few evenings...I forgot how nice it was to ride at night with the wind blowing around you...

So a long-winded hello from VA...


Chris

Hello Congrates on the new bike

cudos on your new buy.  You are in luck..its seems that over the past two days we have had a whole bunch of new people join.  so you are not alone.      enjoy the site it will help you out a lot ...just be weary some of us are a little crazy

Welcome aboard.
Sounds like you know what you're doing.

There's a lot of good information here and some very good people.

Congrats on the new bike, and welcome! 

Welcome!

Make sure the oil leak is not from just excessive chain lube.