+1 on the Welcome, Shelly!

You'll find LOTS of good information here and good advice to any questions you have.. I've been riding since 1972, but new to the LS650. Sure wish I'd had this kind of info & support "back in the day."

Welcome Iammichaelh  

These LS650 sure are easy to like !      

Keep the idle speed up a little and it will have a long happy life .  

Hello All,

Just checking in to introduce myself. I had been looking for a Honda Rebel 450 as a project and ran into an LS650 back during July when I came across one for sale in a guys front lawn, stopped to look at it and decided I liked everything about it better than the Honda. Missed that ride, but finally found this one a 2003 at Harley dealer they had taken as a trade and wanted it gone. Back in the day I had bikes, several, but college and marriage they all sort of went the way of paying the bills.

Throughout my life I have had a desire to do a mod build on a bike. I have done 3 complete sailboat refurbs over the years, and actually build many custom parts for boats.

My life has been spent in custom fabrication. I owned a company that built custom flight cases and as such have a full farication shop at my disposal, including extensive mechanic tools. I'm not new to fabrication and spent some time in engineering studies while in college.

My plan over the next 2 years is for a bolt up mod build on this chassis. Nothing too rad, but trying to do something special. Figure to do mostly cosmetic over this winter, bars, mirrors, exhaust, signals, paint, etc. and major down the road. I have read through the discussions about fork mods and figure to maintain the stock rake until I get really comfortable with the bike as an every day ride and fully vet the mechanicals.

I have been riding the bike around the industrial park where my shops are located to really get a feel for it, only got the title 2 weeks ago, so no tags yet. Luckily have a big empty parking lot up street also for fooling around in. Once I get the tags I can take it on road but winter is closing fast here in Jersey, may only be a week or 2 left. Really like the thumper aspect, sound and feel.

I started work on it by removing all the extraneous, the ratty old saddlebags and associated offset bars, the shelf behind seat and some highway pegs from a crash bar, kept the bar though. This has cleaned up the lines nicely. Nothing against that stuff, mine was just old and used and had seen better days.

Anyway, looking forward to getting to know you folks. I will have plenty of questions and will be looking for advice and feedback. Already ran into issue with what actually is diameter of handlebars and controls with the local Suzuki dealer, I mic bars at 1", he swears they are 7/8".

Hope I wasn't to long winded, just really excited about my new ride and wanted to introduce myself.

SoC

Kenny G wrote on 11/17/16 at 21:26:25:


Thanks for that Kenny! That made my morning!  


Welcome everyone!

Hello, new Suzuki owner from Austin. I just picked up a 2011 for $1500. It has 2300 miles. My plan is to do a Scrambler/Standard conversion similar to Ryca. I love Ryca kits but I can't just drop 3k on a conversion kit so I'll be going at it bit by bit, part by part.

I have exactly zero experience with modding motorcycles and I lack a lot of space. I live in an Airstream full-time. Right now, I'm in a park in Austin but have been traveling full-time for the last 8 months or so. The plan is to get the bike a bit lighter and take it with me in the back of my truck. I'm not retired, I just work from the road full-time. I rode a Nighthawk 250 all through college and for a few years after that but it has been about 5 years since I last rode and I found the 650 has a lot of juice for the size. If you have any  questions on full-time RV life, just shoot them my way!

I'll start another thread for the conversion at some point but wanted to say hello and thanks for all the info I've already found on here.

Thanks for the welcome SoC.

I did get a great deal. I was just about to buy a much older one with more miles for the same price then saw this one and offered $1500 and got it. We are lucky down here in Austin, we only get a few days where it could be too cold to ride. But, nothing like up here.

B

JLC,

Welcome aboard mate.

You won't have to fix the S40 near as often as the Ariel.

Kenny G

posting here to introduce myself, my names tom and i currently live in florida as the weather suits me.  i recently bought a new suzuki s40 for 3700 after alot of research to find a bike to fit my needs.
im not the tallest guy in the world so i needed a bike where my feet were comfortable on the ground, good mpg, low maintenance, enough umph for some 2 up riding and not weigh a ton as i was hit by a car a few years ago that nearly killed me but left my legs a bit messed up.  

the s40 so far has done everything ive asked of her and has been a whole lot of fun. ive been riding for about 20 years and had everything from harleys to puch spit singles. i have not posted much as ive spent the last few months just reading and reading.