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I've owned two of the things, and I love the bikes, but seriously they're pretty ugly. I'll note that the comments in this thread largely pertain to L models.
What IS that thing? The guages are too high above the handlebars, the headlight is too high in general, it has a chrome grab handle/sissy bar/oddity on the back, some of them have these grotesquely anatomically correct scalloped butt cheek seats, and more, which I'll get to in a minute.
Some of them aren't ugly. Those bikes are called modified GSs. They're slightly tweaked in a lot of little areas.
80GS1000's bike is a nice example, though I've always had a thing against the wes cooley "fairing" up front, which is just this giant plastic lantern frame around the headlight.
Ditch the toolbag and so's Tracy Borchert's
What strikes me as bizarre about thegsresources (however much I love this place), is there are so many people obsessed with polishing and restoring these 25 year old time capsules from an era of hideous, wretched excess. Scroll through the "Appearance Mods" forum, and the vast majority of the threads you see will be about polishing chrome, getting rid of rust, how to bolt the cam end caps back on, or something as mundane as how to add saddle bags. It's a rare pleasure to find a thread that's actually about appearance mods.
Remember the bike Peter Fonda rode in Easy Rider? It was stretched out, lowered in the back, longer, rising toward the handlebars. It was a caricature of a motorcycle.
That inspired the rising to the right styling of the GS L models. The front wheel is too big. The rear is too small. It apes the classic chopper down to the joke pullback handlebars, minus any of the character or throbbing v-twin sex appeal. The fenders are chrome of all things, while the rest of the bike is painted. It's a design that shouts at you, only it's not one loud shout, it's a whole bunch of little ones from every ill-matched part all vying for attention of the eye.
As I'd hinted at, they didn't do all this to copy a Harley and try to steal the magic of a terrible motorcycle that had to be financially rescued by tariffs. They did this all wrapped around a japanese high revving four cylinder, making a confusing melange of ingredients all the more disturbing to the senses.
They're a GREAT platform for a chopper, bobber, streetfighter, cafe racer, etc, but stock, they just don't do it for me.
What IS that thing? The guages are too high above the handlebars, the headlight is too high in general, it has a chrome grab handle/sissy bar/oddity on the back, some of them have these grotesquely anatomically correct scalloped butt cheek seats, and more, which I'll get to in a minute.
Some of them aren't ugly. Those bikes are called modified GSs. They're slightly tweaked in a lot of little areas.
80GS1000's bike is a nice example, though I've always had a thing against the wes cooley "fairing" up front, which is just this giant plastic lantern frame around the headlight.
Ditch the toolbag and so's Tracy Borchert's
What strikes me as bizarre about thegsresources (however much I love this place), is there are so many people obsessed with polishing and restoring these 25 year old time capsules from an era of hideous, wretched excess. Scroll through the "Appearance Mods" forum, and the vast majority of the threads you see will be about polishing chrome, getting rid of rust, how to bolt the cam end caps back on, or something as mundane as how to add saddle bags. It's a rare pleasure to find a thread that's actually about appearance mods.
Remember the bike Peter Fonda rode in Easy Rider? It was stretched out, lowered in the back, longer, rising toward the handlebars. It was a caricature of a motorcycle.
That inspired the rising to the right styling of the GS L models. The front wheel is too big. The rear is too small. It apes the classic chopper down to the joke pullback handlebars, minus any of the character or throbbing v-twin sex appeal. The fenders are chrome of all things, while the rest of the bike is painted. It's a design that shouts at you, only it's not one loud shout, it's a whole bunch of little ones from every ill-matched part all vying for attention of the eye.
As I'd hinted at, they didn't do all this to copy a Harley and try to steal the magic of a terrible motorcycle that had to be financially rescued by tariffs. They did this all wrapped around a japanese high revving four cylinder, making a confusing melange of ingredients all the more disturbing to the senses.
They're a GREAT platform for a chopper, bobber, streetfighter, cafe racer, etc, but stock, they just don't do it for me.
But, strangely, the Henley fairing you wax about on the white and red does absolutely nothing for 
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