street style: kawi ex500


Street style is motorcycles real people ride. Motorcycle fashion for functional people that may or may not have any other form of transportation. So this is me, a 2003 Kawasaki EX500. The bike was purchased in 2010 for $1500 with 22k on the odometer because it was cheap to insure and consistently gets 45+ miles per gallon.


The front fairing broke off from vibration after a few thousand miles so I replaced it with a generic headlight ($50). Removing the fairing meant I would have to remove the speedometer so I purchased a Sigma 509 bicycle speedometer ($20) and calibrated the speedo to match the Kaw's 110/70/17 tire. The mirrors mounted to the fairing so I purchased a used CRG mirror for $25 off Criagslist to make the bike street legal.


Lastly, I added the cheapest watch I could find ($5) so I could tell exactly how late I was going to arrive to work. I've since put 20k+ miles on the bike doing nothing more then generic maintenance save an electrical problem and some leaking fuel, thankfully not at the same time though. It's been done before and it'll go down again. How about you? What do you ride everyday and why?

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