Hey guys,

So Friday night I crashed my poor 2002 gs500 while driving home. You can read about my crash here  if you want, but the short story is I lowsided to the left and my bike is very broken.  

The frame is good, the engine is fine, the forks are straight, the wheels are fine, but the tank is crushed (will still run, but is ugly), the bar is bent, the headlight is smashed, the mirrors are gone, the speedometer and tachometer are crushed, the fairings are toast.

I'm not making an insurance claim, vehicle insurance is really stupid where I live (it's cheaper to not be insured for collision, and just fix your bike yourself sometimes) so I'll be doing the repairs myself, well, my mechanic and I will be.

So my question is, since I now have the opportunity to do something different with my bike, what sort of body kits, and different parts can I replace the front with? I've seen gs500's that look a lot more like gixxer 1000's, and I like that look, can you actually put other suzuki parts on a gs500, or are these things specially made for the bike? I'll be going to wreckers to see if they have any bike parts I can buy up for the rebuild, and there aren't a lot of gs500's where I live, so I doubt I'll have luck finding anything, there are however a lot of gixxer's and sv's that I might be able to raid.

Any ideas?? Anyone else done anything like this?? Anyone have any ideas for cool rebuilds??

Advice would be very helpful!! Thanks so much!

Sorry to hear you crashed. Glad you survived and are allright.

Unfortunately, I only know that you will have to replace the tank with another GS tank. The rear plastics can be replaced with the bodywork from a Honda CBR600F2. There is a bodywork kit available from someone here on this site, or through Rich500.

I beleive a race F4i tail will fit a 89-00 GS, It should also fit a 01+ bike, but No oone has done it so far, its far from a slam dunk deal, and its definetely not going to go back to being like stock, cos a race tail has its own pan you will ahve to sacrifice the cushy comfy of the stock seat and live with a mouse pad glued on a fiberglass board, also forget passenger seat, and taking it off and putting it back on to do battery or fuse or air box or electrical work, will be much harder.
Cool.
Srinath.

That's right, what Seshadri said. Thank you for the correction.

I have been thinking of repainting.  But my '92 plastics are in good shape, so figured sanding them down would lower resale value.  However, it _would_ make sense for me to trade them with somebedy with rashed-up plastics (plus a few $$), then repaint the rashed-up ones.  

I'm just assuming that the '02 seat+tank+plastics might fit on a pre-01 (and vice-versa).  Anyone know about that?

Anyways, just a thought.

want to sell the tank?

Quote from: davipuwant to sell the tank?

Duuuude how was the 3000 mile ride...
Cool.
Srinath.

it sucks that you wrecked but like everyone said, at least you are ok. Now it's time to enjoy rebuilding it the way you want!



I had one wreck on a moto so far and luckily it was on my dual sport, NOT a street bike... basically the plastics, signals, mirrors, & bars got a bit scratched. The fire dept took my bike to the station and then I rode the bike home from there.  

A car turned left in front of me and I smacked into the side of them... me & the bike going down on the street. I too was lucky to walk away fine (just bruised ribs), but it appears the dirt bike-ness of my dualie held up better than any full street bike would have.  

The tank is gonna cost you over $500 for new. If you are patient, wait for a used one but it wiil still cost you a bit.

No, the tank and plastics do not work with the older models(look at the seat).

The tach and speedo will be the next highest priced items to keep an eye out for. They also changed with the cosmetic changes in 2001 but the older ones look like they might work. Never investigated that one other than just looking.

The headlights look like they are the same as well.

Handlebars and mirrors are unervisal and available everywhere fairly cheap. The OEM versions are junk anyways.

Quote from: JohNLANo, the tank and plastics do not work with the older models(look at the seat)

I meant: if the tank & plastings & seat & taillight were swapped as a group.  Then the question is: is the frame under the tank wider or shaped differently on the 01+?  Or are the rails under the seat different?  My suspicion is that changing the frame would have cost Suzi too much, so you may be able to move the taillight+plastics+seat+tank as a group.

Wow.   I'm glad to hear that you're ok. You can always try looking for parts on eBay as well. One of the guys from another site bought a tank from eBay, slightly dinged, and fixed it up (stripped paint, sanded, down, fixed dings, repainted) pretty inexpensively.

http://www.gtamotorcycle.com/viewtopic.php?t=17089

He's planning on using it for a race tank. Good luck!

-Kel

Quote from: Rema1000

Quote from: JohNLANo, the tank and plastics do not work with the older models(look at the seat)

I meant: if the tank & plastings & seat & taillight were swapped as a group.  Then the question is: is the frame under the tank wider or shaped differently on the 01+?  Or are the rails under the seat different?  My suspicion is that changing the frame would have cost Suzi too much, so you may be able to move the taillight+plastics+seat+tank as a group.

I suspect the tank would fit but then you need the coresponding seat.
The plastics mount in different spots. So you would have to weld new brackets to the frame.

something like... this? This is what came of my crash. It used to be a drab black GS

http://www.gstwins.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7435&highlight=dual+headlights

 -Anti