Streetfighter Project-GS500F

[SlimKlim]

IMHO, going/spending further is kind of silly with this bike.

Yeah, true. Thanks for the tips. All that stuff is relatively cheap too, which is nice. Honestly, I think the most of my expense will be in racing leathers and boots which I'll have to save up for. I'm gonna see if I can save up 2k before this summer and get everything set up. I was thinking of doing Summit Point's Xcitement racing school so I can get certified for some track days and all that jazz.

I think what you need to do is to stop giving a shit about resale value. Like, completely.

i think you're probably right, and I think that my concern about profitability is what is really screwing with my head. I'm just going to ride the damn thing and stop giving shits about it. I'll upgrade when I have a job where I can get a brand spankin' new bike and worry about shit later. I'll just fix the broken stuff and maybe do a few cosmetic things... but not too much else. I need to stop thinking about it as a money pit and just focus on the fact that I'm putting this money into something I enjoy a lot so it's not really a waste at all. Sometimes tho, when money gets tight, all I think about is profitability to get myself out of a hole and I struggle with things like that. I.E. my entire m3 experience.

I don't think I explained this proper, but I bought fairings mainly because I found them cheap, and I heard that some track schools require fairings on bikes. I don't think Summit does, but I just wanted to make sure I had everything I needed to pass tech whenever that roles around. I prefer riding with fairings then riding without...its much more comfortable and I think this bike will be a good commuter/all purpose bike before too long, and I might try some longer overnight trips once I get some bags. I'm reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance right now... so obviously the bug to do a long motorcycle trip has bitten. Graduation is coming up, and I don't see there being any better time.

Now you're gettin' it. If you want to make money on the bike leave it along, fix every imperfection and do every maintenance item you can think of and list it for a high number when the weather warms up in March or so. Just ask Chris Levey about that.

If you like the bike and you want to keep it, keep and it and do what you like with it, whether that's leaving it alone and riding it or modding it until you can't even tell what it looks like anymore.

Not to muddy the waters any further (I'm going to muddy the waters further), but if you're seriously considering graduating, throwing a leg over your faithful steed and disappearing into the sunset for 3 months, you might consider upgrading to something like an SV650 before the trip. I loved riding my 500 when it ran, but it had some pretty significant limitations. Traveling at highway speed being one of them. Not having any pick up at 75mph isn't that big of a deal. but when you're on a 4 lane highway at 75mph, surrounded by 18-wheelers and over powered minivans, taking 3 minutes to accelerate from 75 to 80 mph becomes a much bigger issue.

Add a summer's worth of food, clothes and camping gear in there and you might as well just plan on sticking to the blue ridge parkway, the downhill parts. Maybe Channing or David M can provide some additional insight, since they both have a lot more seat time than I do.

If I were you I think I'd just do a filter + rejet on the 500, clean up any and all cosmetic issues and when it gets really cold this winter, kill some time just detailing the crap out of it. Throw it up for sale when the motorcycle bug bites, and roll the money into a fuel injected SV650 or maybe a VFR (if only because it has VTEC, yo). Both of those have significantly more power and torque than the GS for a little more confidence on the highway, and are designed to be long distance sport tourers.