I’ve owned my Suzuki GS 850G for nearly a year now and it’s one of those bikes I just want to hold onto for a while. It’s just an awesome all rounder, sounds great, and is in perfect mechanical shape. Once I do the front forks the darn thing will be one of the most mechanically perfect vehicles I own.
But for all this time, I’ve never been sure about its looks. Just about everything on this bike but the wheels looks heavily worn. A lot of people just said “leave it alone, it shows character and tells the bike’s story. It’s natural patina!”. And sure, I guess nicks, blemishes and faded paint can tell a story. Unfortunately for me I don’t know anything about this bike’s past, so the whole “character” and “story” bits are lost on me.
It doesn’t look too bad from the left, where the tank’s paint is remarkably solid and really only the plastic bits are worn.
But the right side was clearly partially resprayed by someone who didn’t bother to color match.
The bike isn’t an eyesore by any means and people seem to give it a lot of street cred for looking this rough but running so well.
I’ve off and on considered doing that “night special” idea I had with the Rebel on this bike. Paint the engine and pipes black (like my Goldwing’s), then do the tank and plastic panels in white with a pink racing stripe. Paired with a flatter seat, I think it’d look pretty cool! I’d leave the wheels alone and at most do temporary plasti-dip wheel jobs for events (white and pink would work great with sky blue (trans colors) wheels for the Pride parade this bike may be in at the end of the month).
But part of me just wants to leave it alone because the bike runs so darn well and the paint is merely cosmetic. Why fix what’s not broken? Besides, I already have a project in the form of Ranger rust fixes!
What would you do, Oppo?
And for your time, have this Google Street View car I followed behind this morning. ;)
