I figured I would just start a project log sort of thread, since I am a constant tinkerer.

A little background, I bought this 2006 GS500F with about 14000 miles on it this June as my first motorcycle. The PO had low sided it, so he took off all the fairings. They were pretty much garbage so I just left them with him. As soon as I got the bike inspected, I was hoping to ride off into the sunset and be happy forever more, but I started having some serious hanging idle issues. Turned out it was just the factory ridiculously lean settings, so once I had it re-jetted and the fuel ratios adjusted everything is perfect again. And now that it is running nicely, I can turn my head to some other little things that need doing.

Oh, and I tend to post a lot of pictures, so get ready.





Here we are when I first got it back home. Notice the tiny little bicycle mirrors the PO had put on there. My first order of business was to get some nicer ones since at any speed above 30 those things vibrated so much it was literally impossible to see. I don't think I have any pictures of them, since I took them off before I started work today.

Anyway, to today's work. There were some random bolts and things around the bike that had some nasty rust on them so I took those out and wire wheeled them clean. The biggest offender was my headlight bracket...


This is how they started out...pretty nasty


I got the headlight and stuff off and cleaned all the grime they left behind on the forks.


Then I got them cleaned off with the wire wheel

And since I was just in the tinkering mood, I attacked another project that I figured I would just wait to do till this winter.


We started like this...


Then I got the handlebars off.

And here is how my bike sits at the end of the day. My lower bar clamp had some nasty streaks and grime on it, so I took it off to repaint it since I was already repainting the headlight bracket.


At the end of the day this is where the parts sit, after hours of wire wheeling and sanding they are primed and ready for paint. I gouged the bar clamps with the wire wheel in a few spots, and thought I had sanded it all away, but I don't think it will bother me too much. What is left will hopefully not be as visible with the black, and it really isn't that bad at all.

I think I am going to paint the handlebars black as well, since the ones that are on there are relatively new and not in bad shape at all. This is quite the long post, but hey, everyone loves a good project...

More updates as things come together, bye for now.

Nice start, look forward to seeing more 

Just a quick update, no pictures for now (really dark, nasty, and rainy here).

So I got everything painted black, and it is all looking really good. The scratches on the upper bar clamps show through a little bit, but all in all it was a success. The headlight brackets look really good, 1000x better than nasty pitted and rusted chrome. Everything is mounted back on there, except for the handlebars in their final position since I dropped one of the upper clamps and had to spray some more paint on it.

The paint on the handlebars didnt work at all. Well the paint worked, but the clutch perch wouldn't go on and when I tried forcing it it just wrecked the paint. Oh well, it was just an experiment. I got the paint off and sanded it back to the "prepped" stage, which kind of has a cool brushed aluminum look to it.

I have grips and bar ends coming in the mail soon, I'll get some pictures tomorrow with everything buttoned back up.