I bought a stock 1995 GS500 with 25000 miles on the clock for 600€ last year. Although a bit small for me, the bike ran great and I couldn't resist the cheap price.

After replacing the chain, spark plugs, overhauling the brakes and getting used to the bike, I took it on a 2500km trip to the Arctic Circle last summer. My goal was Sodankylä in Northern Finland - a small town 200km North from the Arctic Circle - where the Midnight Sun Film Festival takes place. I spent a week there and rode back home to Estonia after that. The bike held up great and apart from some rain and low temperatures, I didn't have any problems whatsoever.


The bike came with a luggage rack when I bought it and the trip would have been impossible without it.


Here's some of my gear - a small backpack, sleeping bag, Ferrino Spectre 2 tent (great for solo camping), camera, cooking equipment. Not visible are two DIY cases for the rack and a waterproof duffel bag.


Here's how all the stuff looks loaded on the bike. The roads were nice and it was great to see how the nature changed the further North I got. I had to take the bike offroad as well as I was camping every night.


The trip was a blast and I was really impressed with the bike. It had no problem to carry me and all my gear and do 120-130km/h on the highway.


I rode the bike in pretty much stock condition after returning home. I removed the rear fairings but that's about it.

Fast forward a couple of months: the temperature drops and it starts snowing. Yes, five long months of winter were ahead and I started looking for inspiration to rebuild the bike. The bottom one is from SpaceMonkey's build thread:


I however didn't want to cut the frame as I wanted to keep using the luggage rack and the possibility to return to stock in case I want to sell the bike won't hurt either. Add my non-existent spare money and the result is a super low-budget build.

First step was to pull the tank, headlight housing and handlebars and have them sandblasted and painted. Visible on the rear wheel is a donor fender that I later used.


I installed a RF shock to stiffen and raise the rear end a bit. Ignore the dirty garage and cheapo fork gaiters that I got from eBay.


Got the tank and other parts back and cut the front fender. Went with dark grey for the tank and black for the headlight housing and bars.


Mounted the new rear fender, taillight, turn signals and bar end mirrors. I also used some scrap leather I had lying around to cover the grips. Note the external canister for the RF shock on the second picture. Haven't gotten around to fixing it yet.



I didn't however like how high the seat was compared to the subframe. As I didn't want to cut it, I decided to cheat a bit and paint the subframe to make it less obvious. Works alright in my opinion.





Still left to do: wiring, oil change, new tires (Mitas E-08 120-90 on the front and 140/80 on the back) and maybe paint the rims.

I want to relocate the rectifier and made a mount for it under the battery box. Does anyone know how waterproof the thing is? Should I cover it to protect it from mud and water? I know that it gets rather hot, so I won't cover it completely. I'd also like to move the CDI and install it between the airbox and tank. Would that be ok or does it need cooling as well?

Awesome thread! Really enjoyed your pictures. Smart idea about painting only the tail section of the subframe What color were you thinking for the rims if you do paint them? I have a 140/80 rear tire and I love it... you will too, I'm sure 

Hopefully someone will reply soon with the answers to your questions!

The white rims are quite unpractical considering the fact that I have to take the bike off-road now and then. So I decided to paint them black.

I'll probably have enough free time tomorrow morning to go pick up the new tires and mount them.

Looking damn good!

I got the new tires mounted today. It feels like a completely different bike now - it sits higher and fits me much better. I'll have to extend the sidestand and the front fender was rubbing as well. This won't be a problem though and I'll probably have it done in the next couple of days.

Marvelous!

Thanks a lot! Hopefully I'll be able to finish the front fender, wiring and new fuel hoses in the next week and get the bike running.

And three more pictures from today. The licence plate looks a bit funny, I'll try to adjust in the next days.

I love the leather over the grips. Did you stich by hand? Was it easy enough to get the leather tight enough to the grips?
My girlfriend makes leather bags by hand, maybe I can get her to do my grips.

Yes, I did them by hand and used fishing line instead of thread to make the stitching stronger.
I recommend soaking the leather in hot water before tightening the stitches on the grips. Hot water allows the leather to stretch more and thus it tightens by itself when drying.

I got some work done yesterday - finished the front fender (dammit Suzuki, I can make stronger bolts out of play-doh compared to the stock ones!), painted the forks, replaced brake pads and started with the wiring. All the indicators, lights etc work. Also mounted the luggage rack to see how it's going to look.

I still haven't decided on how to proceed with the rectifier. Does anyone know how waterproof it is? I'd like to mount it under the battery box.

I mounted my rectifier under the battery box.  The license plate shields it from direct rear wheel spray.

I wouldn't count on it being waterproof.  But if you keep water from soaking it you will probably be fine.  There are people who run without the side plastics, exposing the rectifier, and they seem to be doing ok.

Nice work man nice work... those grips are classy 

Looks really cool. It's ready to do work with those tires. 

Looks amazingly well executed!

Thanks a lot!

There's still some stuff to do (relocate the rectifier, clean up the wiring, oil change) but I just couldn't wait any longer. The weather was nice and quite warm so I took the bike for a ride.

The bigger tires make the handling a bit slower but I really like the stability they seem to offer on the highway. The rear end is really stiff thanks to the new shock - still have some fine-tuning to do. Everything else seemed to be ok.

Great pics here!

Had some major problems with the bike - the tank was rusty as hell so the carbs kept clogging. I decided to clean the inside of the tank by spraying half a can of carb cleaner inside and shaking it with some screws and nuts for around two hours. This worked out quite well although I'll probably treat the tank with some acid next winter.

After solving the rust issue, the bike randomly started running on left cylinder only. I was certain that the jets were clogged so I pulled the carbs once again and cleaned them. The problem persisted, so I replaced the spark plugs. This seemed to fix it for some kilometers but the problem returned. Turns out that the cable going to the right coil was faulty. Replaced that and now everything works perfectly!

Adjusted the mixture and I'm quite happy with how the bike runs although I have a flat spot at around 4000 RPM. The plugs look good so I'll probably leave it the way it is.

The new tires are great and give me much better traction on gravel and offroad. Here's some pictures from today:

This machine looks fantastic, I've been looking to do something similar with my 94, the years have taken their toll on the old girl and this thread has been really inspirational.. Awesome result!

Looks incredible!

looks like it turned out great and i bet its a ton of fun to take off road ... well done