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I want to get a used bike as my first one. My first choice would be to pick a running bike, since I do not know a lot about bikes now, but I am learning. Anyway, I found a 1985 gs550ES that I can most likely get for under $500. The bike will obviously not run because the owner said it has been sitting around for a couple of years. My question is what would I need to get repaired and how much money could that end up costing? I know I would definitely need the carbs cleaned, replace the battery, change all the oils, and get new tires. Last thing is what else would I need to do if the owner left gas sitting there in the tank for that long?

Drain the gas first, look for rust, get rid of any rust, and before running it at all put an inline fuel filter on the hose coming out of the tank so any flakes of rust you miss (or leave if you don't treat it) don't go into the carb and destroy the work you put into clearing out all the channels.

Make sure you flush the brakes. You may need a rebuild kit for the caliper because the rubber down there doesn't like to sit around unused.

First thing I would do is get a battery, check for compression, check for spark- if you have those then drain the tank, add the fuel filter, clean the carbs, lube your cables.
See if she'll start up.

If so then change fluids and filters, sync the carbs, flush your brakes, add new fluid, bleed them. See if you need to rebuild the calipers (if they leak or if they stick then yes). Check your fork seals, replace if needed, change fork oil

If she's working fine then I'd change the tires.

Hope that helps

Yes, that did help. I decided to go with a running '95 ninja 500r. It is only $2,200 too. Getting that will just be a lot easier for me, and I don't have to worry about shipping with this guy because he is riding it to my house. I just have to bring him back.