My first experience of road riding was a Suzuki GS450 so I have a soft spot for them. The motor was indestructible but the suspension/brakes were obviously a little dated, so I have always kept half an eye out for the newer GS500E. About 6 months ago I was looking for a project (still have the 450 lying in the workshop) so while I was looking at a FZR750 rolling chassis I mentioned to the guy how I would love to find a GS500. As luck would have it, he knew of one which I duly bought. It's an ex police bike and all the ignition parts had been pinched, fortunately the 450 parts bolted straight on and worked once I had worked out the wiring. The other issue with ex police bikes is that they never sell licensed vehicles so it had been scrapped/de-registered which meant quite a run around getting police clearances ect. Once I had sorted everything out I decided to strip it down and give it a bit of tarting up. Hit a huge luck with the painting, a friend of mine owns a panel beaters and he painted my tank and plastics for free! Anyway, here are some before and after pics http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/9127/photo0494.jpg http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/7886/photo0613u.jpg
That is quite the comeback there. She was a real pig before. But a pig in a good way. Now she looks all purrrty.