Starting from super-ugly as purchased, my bike has recently achieved "moderately ugly" with the help of $15 worth of rattlecan paint. All the stickerscars and old pinstripes can still be detected up close, as I really didn't take time to do a proper prep job (that's for winter), but I'm glad to have the green gone. Got the exhaust while I was at it, though I just used BBQ black rather than hunting down a high-temp red for that.



And before:

im in painting mine tommarrow .

looks good but do i still see blue on the bottom edge of the tank?

Yup, there was a small area that I missed at the very bottom, but the paint was used up and I wasn't going to go get another can. It's really a temporary job.

900x better!!!  Good god the before paint job look like it was straight out of 1985!

Definitely an improvement over the original...that green was worse than my pink...yikes

That looks waaay better now 
good work!

Looks better but I do kinda dig the two tone.  Maybe when you repaint this winter you could add red on the side of the tank where the blue was and on the back plastics.  Siver and red two tone would look cool.

do you have an extension on the tip of your exhaust?  looks a tad bit longer than norm..

but good idea on the paint... it definitely WAS hideous  haha

I've been thinking of trying a few paint schemes myself...  maybe black/grey or black/red two tone.

Hope you end up with something awesome!

Soup can - Campbells. Restricts and quiets Clever Prior Owner's removal of the entire rear baffle. Bike runs much better with soup can.

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=42443.msg479098#msg479098

Other than the stripes on the front where it was already silver (red/black were stickers that peeled off - blue/green were paint), and exactly the width of my masking tape, anything but whole-part coloring was too much fuss for this go-round. I'm actually thinking to go all white/red frame / swingarm / centerstand / etc. (keeping black cylinders/heads for cooling, perhaps with the edges of the fins ground clean per utgunslinger's styling repaint
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=42338.msg477035#msg477035

I really need to think about a two-tone scheme that will be more classic BMW/Indian  than classic Starsky and Hutch. 

Looks better, but I think red on the top of the tank would bring it together.

Looks 87x better. Just painted mine too! Looks like there's a trend...

Outstanding, both of you.

And double bonus points for the soup can. That's just freakin' awesome!

Looks mucho better, and I dig that windshield.  Do you know what kind it is? Brand and/or model number?

Can't seem to find anything similar on the Wiki.

Suzuki factory option, per bike-bandit's parts fiche for 1990 GS500E. Thus, other than asking here, your best bet is probably a bike junkyard.

There is a chin fairing listed there too, but no trace of one on this bike 18 years later - might have had one, might not.