2005 GSA condition - expecting too much?

[LHutchin]

Evening

Went to look at a 28k 2005 GSA today, for sale at a dealer (not Motorrad).

Condition wise I was little disappointed.

No corrosion on the swing arm I could see, but the rear sub frame had quite abit.

None on the front of the engine but some on the front wheel hubs and some peppering on the front forks.

Other little bits here and there, mirror stalks showing little bits of rust and some of the plastics looking a little sun bleached.

Now I must admit I am extremely finnicky about my cars & bikes, but am I expecting too much for a 8yr old bike?

Dealer said he thought it was good gondition for age.

Having said that it did ride well

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

Both mine are not like that, with more miles

On this bike, the front engine case may have been sprayed, check to see if there is any corrosion on the fins, that'll give the game away

Main 'hotspots' are

fork lowers

fork brace

hubs

exhaust headers

rear subframe

barrel fins

 

[MikeP]

The paint on the sub-frames is sub-standard water based crap (just be happy that you don' hanker after a 1200 which has a lot more frame tubing and suffers even worse).

I took mine off after some years, stripped it and squirted it with Hammerite satin black:

The fork tubes take knocks, simplest solution I found was to wrap them in black vinyl:

The wheel hubs are more problematic. The issue is that they are powder-coated and then the surface is ground back to mount the discs, this leaves an edge in the coating that allows moisture to creep under and blow the powder-coat.

Short of having the wheels rebuilt, I found the best solution was to remove the flaking coating, feather the edges and paint with silver Hammerite smooth (it's almost a perfect match):

There's little that can't be sorted with a little effort by an owner and you'll have one of the best of the best GS variants.

 

[LHutchin]

Thanks for the replies

Is the subframe easy to remove to get powder coated?

On this bike, the front engine case may have been sprayed, check to see if there is any corrosion on the fins, that'll give the game away

Don't think they've been resprayed



Oh by the way I already have a 1200 GSA!