Fairings are all ready for paint, will paint/sand them and apply decals next week, but then I will have to finish the tank in order to apply a the clear coat and finally be finished with the paint.

Put 4 or so coats on the fairings and will be sanding them and figuring out how I want to orientate the decals. Then next week I will be painting the gas tank and decaling and then clear coating everything and sanding polishing then be done with it!!



By the way I have decided to buy a Katana shock, both for the apparent lift and the stiffness. The shock plus the links I got to raise the bike an inch should get it back to stock height. I will be getting some new fork springs when money isn't so tight so that the whole bike is stiff not just the rear.

I'm wondering how the Trail Tech X2 Headlight would look on the GS. Its really bright and works well according to some videos I saw on youtube.

When it comes to thing like that it only matter if you like it. I have seen it on dirt bikes and looked good, never on a gs500 though.

Yea that's true. I feel like because its been on dirtbikes all the time its always classified as a dirtbike thing, so it would look weird. Plus its like 200 dollars.

Put the decals on the fairings and the front fender. Waiting for gas tank to do clear coat. What do you guys think?





Im not so sure I like the Suzuki S placements right now... But theres no changing it now... I can live with it.

Probably OK but I really can't say until it shows up at the Bike Cave.

One day... Oneeee day. Haha. Busy this weekend and the two weekends after that but maybe then I can come over lol

Hey guys, little bit of an update, nothing real exciting. Some kind of crappy stuff though.

So what I originally thought was a bubble in the paint due to rust was actually a weld job on the gas tank deeply covered by bondo. The bubble was from gas fumes seeping out of the weld I am lead to think now. Heres what it looks like:



My solution after being frustrated is to spread some JB weld on it covering up the area where the bubble was and then bondo and sand and paint and be done with it. The other two scraped spots are actually where rust was. These will be fixed with rust-o-mort a good rust dissolver

One other update is that I disassembled and cleaned my petcock today and bought some CLR in preperation for cleaning the gas tank.



Looks pretty nice, and I got a pretty decent chunk of gunk out of there as well. I wont have access to bondo, jb weld, or the acid dissolver till this weekend, so paint will have to wait till then. But I think I will clean it and sand it in the mean time.

The spot welds look like from a spot weld dent puller. They tried to pull out a dent and gave up or dud what they could then bondo'd over it.
You can use metal body filler to repair it better. Eastwood has different metal fillers for doing repairs that last. Probabkly kits available elsewhere and of different types and prices.

So, today I finally did something with the fender I got from Adidasguy. I did so because it was so much cleaner than my other fender. I never liked the little stub thats left after most peoples fender elimination so I delt with that problem with a band saw. Here are some pictures:







I will be using the side reflector stems for the blinkers, rotating them up and drilling a new hole (confusing I know, but soon it will all make sense). The little bucket will have the license plate directly bolted onto it with the tail tidy light that Adidas gave me (gotta put it to use!) above it.

What you need is one of these. It is an actual fender eliminator for a GS500. Holds license plate and turn signals.
Then, that would mean you'd have to come to the Bike Cave and we understand that can be a bit difficult to do 


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Yea, those would be nice, but I want it to be tucked up and out of the way and those look bulky haha. But maybe I'll rig the blinkers up just temporarily until I can head over and see how it looks or whatever.

Today I fixed my low problem and did my fender elimination. Enough chat, time for pictures,

Some people think the Katana shock is the same size as the stock shock, but you can see here its a little bit longer, not by much though.




Out with the old in with the new,



Katana 600 Shock





Before:


After:


Before Fender Elimination:


Drilled a hole in the stock reflector stem for the blinker:


This is the R&G tail tidy kit I got from Adidas:


Heres what it looks like:


View from the back cause I figured someone would want it. This is the pocket where the oem tool kit goes:


Rear View:


Side view with fender eliminator:


Overall I love the Katana shock, it plus the links I put in raised the rear pretty much back to stock. The shock is almost on setting 4 out of 7 and it barely budges when I and a partner sit on it. Excellent swap and I would recommend it for anyone that wants to swap shocks. Cant wait to get some .9 sonic fork springs to balance the bike.

hey if you ever get lost in the woods take that heel guard with you to signal the choppers!

looks good.

You must be thinking the light from the heat lamp is the reflection on the heel guard my friend haha. And thanks! It's definitely a well needed upgrade.

ah you are correct. Amazing what happens when you look at pictures on a phone... I see the lamp now. I am thinking man that thing must be polished to a super smooth pure silver to catch that much light. I really like the taillights its turning out well.

Haha thats funny. I loled

By the way your exhaust sounds nice! lol

I just bought the same shock (2004 Katana) off eBay and rebuilt my forks with .85 Sonic springs with 15w fork oil. It handles like a VERY different bike. You'll be amazed at how much better the bike stops when you're not smacking your knuckles on the asphalt every time you tap the front brake.

Haha yea, I have yet to buy some fork springs but soon I will. I really love the feel of the katana shock, so much stiffer and less sag. When I first took it off the center stand I was suprised because the pogo was completely gone hahaha...