Quote History I like your style
I lusted after one of these for a long time...never found one for sale that didn't have > +100k miles or in decent shape or it was outrageously expensive for a lower mileage one.
I bought a lightly used Suzuki GS500 from a Camp Pendleton Marine that was about to deploy. It sat unused in his storage and it wouldn't start when I got there (I suspected the carb needed a rebuild - it did) so I got it for a song. I rebuilt the carb, did a tune up and bought a new battery...fired right up! That was a great bike with enough power to get in trouble, but I secretly wished I had bought a SV650 instead for when I was wanting more power.
I found some used GSXR 600 USD forks from a wrecked bike at a junk yard and swapped them onto my GS500, added a K&N filter, full exhaust, re-jetted the carb and added a wider rear tire to go along with the new front end and the bike was transformed. I still wanted more power, but that bike was very fun in the mountains, reliable as hell and got ~50mpg...maintenance was ultra simple as well.
As others have said, take the MSF courses and buy some quality gear...because it's not a matter of "if" but "when"