So I have been lurking these forums for awhile, and than joined to begin interacting. You all have been great so thank you for that. GS500 owners seem to lack the pretension of others, or at least other forums.

I picked up a 2006 that was not running. Got it for 500$, which I was stoked on, however she ended up accumulating a shop bill that told me...she is gunna be your rider my son, not a flipper.

But I am ok with it, it seems like enough bike for a first bike with a little room to improve a few things, but maybe never be the thing I give my heart away too...However we will have many days for her to prove me wrong.

Here she is as she is right at this moment. Tomorrow begins the aesthetic overhaul, and as soon as my replacement OEM screw, bolts etc come in for the headlight bucket than the F to E conversion will be finalized and we will be out on the road together.

I will post up pics of the progress and the little details.

Enjoy.



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DAY 1:
-Disassemble
-Put on 500E Headlight Fork Brackets, clean and Prep all parts that will be Plastidip'd



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Day 1: Part 2

-Plastidip parts



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Day 1: Conclusion

Was actually a lot more work than I thought. Plastidip didn't go as good as I hoped, my fault not the dip. But I am proud of what I did and learned. Next time I am just going to buy a gallon and use a sprayer. The shaker can makes it very difficult to lay it on smooth. Did pretty good, and I will leave it for awhile, but I will redo it eventually. The Satinizer is nice, not to much shine. And next time I dip it will only be tank and tail so it will be nowhere near as hard and time consuming.

I also put on new mirrors and they seem to be pretty functional we shall see. Ill snap a pic of them monday they look pretty nice I think lol. eBay link to mirrors: http://www.ebay.com/itm/111090129660?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Oh BTW I love the look of the bike without front fender, but know I need to leave it on, which brings me to another issue...WHAT THE HECK IS UP WITH THE DIFFICULTY IN VOLDED IN TAKING OFF FRONT FENDER?!?!?!!??!?!? I get it, its easy if the wheel is off but what a hassle! I have the Heavy duty fork brace from my fellow GStwin member to put on or I may have just gave up.

All in all it was a long fun day... more to go, and the bike is just crazy dusty dirty...any tips on an easy way to clean all that?

Also gotta figure out how to ghetto rig that Buell Blast windscreen. I have no official brackets so its gunna be a pain, probably the very very last thing I worry about. I realize the bike is very very "black" now...not everybody's cup of leaf juice but I may find someways to break that up as time goes....PRIORITY NUMBER 1 AT THE MOMENT IS PUTTING HER TOGETHER AND GETTING ON THE ROAD 

It's your bike. You do the modifications to make you happy. You can at least say " I did it ". As for cleaning the rest of the bike it just takes a lot of patience and elbow grease.

Awesome thread so far!  And omg I totally agree with ya about that fender... what a pita!

Although I like the matte looks, plastidip is the worst type of solution, imho.
Especially on the tank, it will rub off in a couple of days, a month tops.



Sent from my toilet seat using HTC FartPhone

I have no illusions concerning the longevity of it, I have a very clean tank and tail, so the real benefit it getting to see how I feel about the look of the dip, before I commit to a major painting project. Worse case is I peel it off and I now have a blue and black bike. I have about 7 layers of the plastidip on the bike at this point, 5 black 2 satin. So it will hold decently for the time being. But if chose to remove it at least bike will just look normal. I am going to dip it again once I get knee tank pads, just taping off the pads dipping all around, and that will than keep me from rubbing on the dip. Than sometime when my brother in law is free and i can let the bike alone for a week or so we are going to paint it..

I will keep you updated on the wearability of the dip

Day 2:
-Putting some stuff together
-Stupid flipping gas tank hoses are so big and so close together was biggest pain in butt to reconnect them.
-Broken after market turn signal with to long of threads...solution...Lock-tite, and hacksaw to shorten it to fit next to bucket.
-Bucket now on tank now on, and drained older gas inside to put some fresh gas in it.
-Wiring gong to rear tail is crazy, Ill take pics soon, as I have to figure out how to wire some rear turn signals, so i don't get in trouble, plus safer....but I have no clue where to start with this wiring.



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Quote from: ShowBizWolf on November 11, 2014, 08:36:38 AM
Awesome thread so far!  And omg I totally agree with ya about that fender... what a pita!

Only to be matched by the gas on/off screw being directly behind a vent tube and the main/reserve fuel lines being rediculously close together.....who build this bike, knomes or munchkins?

Your  bike looks good. I have also had some mat black bikes. Here is a picture of my Kawasaki, that i owned about 5 years ago. Maybe it will inspire you with its streetfighter style.  I bought i from Germany and when it arrived, it was delivered in a wooden coffin. My mother saw it and said that I have got a nice "ruumisarkku" free of charge. Günther had installed all kind of goodies to it, like small fairing with Aprilia 125cc 2003 style lamp and some special solo seat system.
Only bad thing with this mat colour was, that I lost  a lot of money, when i sold it.

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Yes yes I remember the first time I saw that gas on/off screw under the tank... I believe my face was this -->    smh

Quote from: ShowBizWolf on November 12, 2014, 08:27:58 AM
Yes yes I remember the first time I saw that gas on/off screw under the tank... I believe my face was this -->    smh

They must have a trained team of capuchin monkeys, tuning screws and installing gas lines at the Suzuki factory

DAY 3:
Lights, Locked Seat and Failed Start.

So I finally go new headlight wired up, using its LEDs as running lights since the 500F just have that convenient wire hanging out there, maybe ill make them running and signals one day...but today is not that day.

I also had the blasted wire come out in the tail and got my seat stuck locked....hour later and some bent wire finally got it open.
Got wiring for my new blinkers in back and some white LED plate bolts since this stupid tail light is both illegal and lacking plate illumination.

Tried to start bike...and heres what happen. We had drained tank and replaced gas, I should driained bowls but did not, and I forgot to switch her over to prime since the tank and lines had technically been drained....so allot attempts and finally some starter spray I got it running, but didn't really let it warm up enough on choke and had it die when I turned it down, plus it is probably a tiny bit flooded now, had a tiny little waft of smoke out of pipe when we turned it off, I was just to tired to think sanely about it and got worried something was wrong when mostly it was probably just me being impatient and a little forgetful of steps when starting the bike up for the first time in 5 days + a drained tank and lines.  So Friday will be the big day to get her started and drive it from his shop home.

Here are some Pics. Im not sure what to do with this buell blast fairing, Im waiting for new non rusty hardware to come in OEM...so I want to install it when I get that.



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Drove Home today, starting issue the other day was just from he breather being kinked....running all good and smooth now!

Try to get some pics up. But I am definitely going to have to find a way to rig up the blast windscreen or find another one, its not to wind without it, but would be nice to soften up the wind a bit, chest might as well just be a sail.

Well, maybe you should sell your naked, and get an F model.
(course I'm being a littler ironic here!)

Quote from: Joolstacho on November 15, 2014, 02:06:30 AM
Well, maybe you should sell your naked, and get an F model.
(course I'm being a littler ironic here!)

I like the look of a little windscreen in the front on a naked round headlight bike just trying to find the right one.
It is fun riding in full wind blast and when it warms up I'll like it a lot. But yeah that is the irony of making it naked lol

In perceive the irony guess I will have to adapt:) the blast windscreen will do for now but a puig or a carbon fiber lightening screen might be what i go for.

FINALY OUT RIDING!

Still more to do, but one little thing a week from here on out.

-Tank pads to install when I find right ones, than re plastidip tank after pad install.
-sand pipes and apply stove polish
-Install new grips.
-Paint exhaust black...maybe...i dunno for now.
-Clean the bike...its so generally dirty and dusty. Seat is also filthy, needs cleaned...Is there anyway to refresh its black color?
-install blinkers (asap) on the back, stupid illegal integrated tail...I have some amber LED strips coming...will be installing on passenger pegs.
-Install some kind of additional brake LED...so that extra brightness and safety
-Install some kind of additional front running light for dark time driving.
-install windscreen...wither buell blast one I have or another.

Must be hard to see you at night seeing as you look like Darth Vader