Hi there from Belgium!

[Diirk]

Hi!

I'm Dirk from Belgium (land of beer, chocolate and all kinds of sweet stuff), fabricated on a Monday in "88. Well, kind of... it did take me almost 9 months to roll of the line.
I could just show you a picture of my GS and be done with it, but what's the fun in that? Let me give you a little backstory.

In the north of Belgium aka shut up Flanders and the whole of the Netherlands we speak a common language: Dutch. And so we often share platforms such as fora. In this case motor-forum.nl.
On this forum a two week "challenge tour" throughout (a part of) Europe is organised more or less every 2 years.This tour is called the "500 Euro Challenge".
In a nutshell it's for mad lads who buy a bike with a max cost of €500 and then have a very limited extra amount (€150) of "wrenching budget" to get the bike ready for the tour.
As I'm always keen for an adventure, love bikes&people and I'm pretty much a poor boy :highly_amused: this appeals greatly to me. And so I set out to find the perfect bike.

It took me about a year to find that bike, but then I saw her: my Fat Suzy :love_heart: a 1979 Suzuki GS850G


Picked her up on the 10th of July for €200 (which means I have €300 extra for wrenching) from a really nice guy in the Netherlands and so the adventure of getting her back to a reliable state begins. The biggest problem I'm facing atm is, surprise surprise, of an electrical nature.
I'm still wrapping my head around the ins and outs of motorcycle electrics and electronics, but I'm confident I can place a new loom in a professional manner. Patience is key here.
Even though I'm fixing her up for the €500 challenge and I have to respect the budget, it doesn't mean I'm gonna do a half assed job. I'm sure you all agree she's worth a whole lotta love and a good amount of elbow grease. Also, all of the "safety stuff" is excluded from the budget so I don't have to cheap out on the brakes, springs etc.
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[Suzukian]

Here, I'd say "You stole that bike!!", If I came across that bike at that price, I would grab it right up!! Very nice indeed. Welcome to the forum!

 

[Paint It Black]

Hi Diirk,
sounds like a fun challenge,
welcome to the forum, I’m new around here too

 

[Diirk]

Suzukian you're spot on! I was actually willing to pay more, it was like the world was upside down. When he said "€200 is fine" I replied "what? no! that's nothing, let me give you €400 and a beer basket", but he wouldn't hear of it. It helped that he's a member of the same forum and thus familiar with the challenge.
So as to not feel like a criminal I made him two baskets of Belgian pride
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[Suzukian]

That's one heckuva forum!! I got some parts, nearly given to me on a Suzuki forum, that were of superb quality, a whole front end of a GS1150 for $75 dollars, both triple trees, full shocks, with everything, and the handlebars, which are exclusive for that bike, and cost a lot. . Sometimes these forums really can pay off.