My first bike and the one I still ride is Suzuki GS500 - and it’s been a perfect choice. I had similar requirements as you do and I haven’t been disappointed, it’s a really fun and agile bike to ride and you’ll learn a lot while working on it. I’ve heard that people who used to own one but got rid of it and rode other bikes ended up getting another GS as secondary bike because it’s just genuinely a nice bike.
This is my 5th season and I’ve covered about 21k on it (we have about 4-5 riding months a year) and serviced it myself almost as completely as possible (electricity and lower engine haven’t been touched). I got it at 58k and in pretty bad condition for 1500e. Even though I’ve been looking for bigger bikes I don’t want to get rid of my GS, so until I have money for both I’m sticking to this. I don’t commute but rather ride it for fun and do touring, smaller roads and dirt roads too, but I’m sure there’s a reason why half of the world uses it as a commuter bike. It’s not the most comfortable ride for touring but it builds character and I’m quite proud of myself for going on all those adventures on my little GS.
As GS is a small bike you’ll find yourself shifting gears a lot and reading the rpms, but once you get used to it you will leave the cars behind on a green light – for a few moments at least (be inspired by this fella). Gusts of wind will shake you and higher speeds really feel like you are riding a bike and not an air conditioned comfort unit. But that’s the enjoyment of it and also that’ll definitely teach you how to ride. A reasonable amount of discomfort feels like you are actually doing something.
Another great thing is that GS being such a popular and universal bike the spare parts are widely available and cheap and servicing it yourself is possible & quite easy; there’s plenty of information available online, videos on Youtube and the GStwin forum that covers about everything you need to know about service and tweaking - better save it to the bookmarks right away because you’ll be looking for it after the bike has yet again stalled on a motorway (it’s the fucking fuel petcock). 💀
Edit: Also: GS is quite easy and fast to disassemble and rebuild, eg you’ll need to do the carbs every so often and it’s nice that you can access them within minutes and fitting them back on isn’t a trouble once you get the hang of it.
Did you tip it over on the parking lot? No worries, so did the previous owner and the one before that. Just fix the mirrors and if it won’t start check the plugs. It’ll be fine. You’ll be able to push it up yourself too.
I think the 90’s UJM bikes hit the sweet spot: design is classy yet technology is updated, but not yet too modernizised or limited by restrictions. You’ll be able to tinker with things but don’t necessarily have to (except with that fricken petcock, again!).
I fricken love my GS! 😂
I don’t think the player supports the disc’s format, regular cd players spin at 200-500 rpms and this disc says 12250rpm! You’d need a super fast device for that!