Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Hi I'm 22 and am very interested in finally getting into riding. I have always wanted to since I first got my learners permit for cars. I plan on trying to find a used Suzuki GS500 as being a little bit bigger of a guy, have a bit of experience riding a 185cc enduro and a vespa, athletic and a relatively experienced cyclist(counter-steering, dealing with cars etc somewhat applies) so I think the larger end of the beginner spectrum would be perfect.

I guess my question is this: I'm finding it very hard to find any of these used in my area(College Station and Austin Texas). Most of the College kids all want the 600's or higher, so its proving more difficult. Now I can afford to buy a newer bike, however after 2004(I believe) they added full farings. I was wondering if it is possible to remove the farings while getting the hang of riding so that if I do end up dropping it on its side I wouldnt damage the relatively expensive farings. Are they vital protection at this point? I actually love the partial faring/naked bike look but was wondering if its possible.

Thanks for any help you can give me and I'm glad to be here!

Kellan

Unless the signals are in the plastic or something I dont see why you couldnt take them off. Try it and see!

Just remember that fairing covers up a lot of unsightly wires that would be hidden by the manufacturer when tif the bike was aNaked to start with. You'll be doing a lot of work to make it look good.

Just don't drop it. No, I'm not being totally facetious... You don't want to drop the bike, fairings or not. Even with the fairings removed, you'll hurt it and maybe yourself.

Personally, I think the GS500e (naked) looks a lot better than the faired model... if I was choosing between them, I'd try my best to find the naked version... but as a first bike, they are really about the same. It isn't worth pulling the fairings just because you are afraid you might drop the bike. Pull the fairings if you want a streetfighter? Yeah...that'd be cool.

I've seen two faired GS500's that had been dropped... at least in those cases, the damage wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Dented muffler, broken turn signals, mashed pegs, the bar ends had to be replaced... but the fairing itself wasn't badly hurt. The damage was probably identical to what it would've been on a naked bike.

Of course, I bought a shiny-new ninja 250 as my trainer bike... so I'm ignoring a whole bunch of sage advice myself. 870 miles so far no regrets.

Haha yeah I do not plan on dropping the bike, but accidents do happen. My reasoning behind possibly removing the farings wasnt just due to the fact that you might save them from damage..plenty of other stuff will get crunched as well. I definitely like the stripped down look of naked bike. The earlier GS500 have very little actual faring and I really love that look. Ducati has quite a few bikes with a similar style.

If anyone has tried this please feel free to give me some advice. I might be gettin a little ahead of myself but its good to know. I've done quite a bit of mechanic work on cars, so re-routing some wiring probably isnt too big a deal and could be fun on the right bike.

Thanks to all that have helped so far

This question has been brought up before in the GS Twin Forums...try doing a search there, or posting your question there, and you may find an answer. One thing that I know you'd have to do for sure is rig a different headlight, since it is integrated right into the fairing.

Good luck!