Earth Motorcycles only popped up on our radar within the last two years, but the Slovakian shop has already made their presence known. With just a handful of builds to their name so far, they’ve managed to establish a strong signature style. Their vibe is low-key chic, with bikes that are restrained, slick and perfectly proportioned.
It’s a style that this vintage Suzuki GS500E wears extremely well. First released in 1979, the GS500E was the younger sibling of the more commonly known GS550. Built specifically for countries where regulations favored sub-500 cc motorcycles, it used a re-sleeved version of the GS550’s four-cylinder power plant.

This particular GS500E is a 1979 model, and was well and truly showing its age when its owner rolled it into Earth Motorcycles’ workshop. ?The bike was a wreck, unused for a years,? says Ale? Tomis, who runs the shop alongside Vladimir Dinga. (Ale? is the resident wrench, while Vlad takes care of the company’s design and marketing.) The customer originally wanted something flat tracker-esque, but was ultimately happy for Ale? and Vlad to take the project in any direction they wanted to. With an open brief, they envisioned a stripped-down daily runner with the compact proportions of a street tracker, but a more traditional aesthetic.

Ale? particularly liked the idea of perching a narrow, tapered fuel tank?the sort you’d find on a flat tracker?above the GS500E’s broad inline-four motor. So h...