rode my friends ninja 500, oh man now i know my bike is fckgwed

[p0diabl0]

Im a newbie to bikes, i passed my MSF course maybe 2 months ago now.
I bought my 97 GS500E around the same time, $1400, 31k miles, owner said it needs its carbs cleaned out. I did clean em out and it ran a bit better.
When i first started riding i thought "holy shaZam! this is fast!" but obviously thats died away. I didnt realize how much the effect SHOULDNT have died away so soon.

I understand that my friends ninja is a brand new 06 and is going to have some horsepower advantage over my gs500e, im cool with that. But on her bike I could be in 6th gear going 80, roll on the throttle and the bike plants my ass into the seat. On my bike if I REALLY push her I can get to 80, and then when im there, in 4th or 5th or whatever, I roll on the throttle and the engine makes more noise... and thats about it.
I have to rev to 5-6k not to lug the bike from a stop. With the idle set proper, easing off the clutch kills the engine without gas, however slight I ease off.
I get maybe 40 mpg at best on premium gas.
In short I think I got a GS250E  with gs500 gearing

Where do I start? spark plugs look fine. Carbs looked a bit aged but everything was still intact and working as far as I saw. Would it be really obvious if one cylinder wasnt firing or something? I wasnt kidding about the 250 thing 

Any help's appreciated.

[scratch]

Check if you have spark from both plugs, by removing one sparkplug, put it back in the cap, and ground the threads to the cylinder head fins, then press the starter button.  You should see a bluish spark.  Now, test the other side.

[hmmmnz]

its time to clean out those carbs, do an oil change, change the plugs, ect ect. my bike has done the same mileage and i can still get to 115 on the clock(not a real 115)
but do those basics and if your feeling frisky you could even change your pilot jet to the next size up so its not running lean

[Kerry]

Check if you have spark from both plugs, by removing one sparkplug, put it back in the cap, and ground the threads to the cylinder head fins[...]

Like this ... only it's best if you don't hold onto it!

[p0diabl0]

its time to clean out those carbs, do an oil change, change the plugs, ect ect. my bike has done the same mileage and i can still get to 115 on the clock(not a real 115)
but do those basics and if your feeling frisky you could even change your pilot jet to the next size up so its not running lean

oil was changed right before i bought the bike, he still had the oil container out and the filter's box
as already stated I cleaned the carbs out mighty well.

Will try testing for spark to make sure, but if one wasnt firing, shouldnt it be a different color than the other spark plug? both looked beautiful =X

[skoebl]

Check if you have spark from both plugs, by removing one sparkplug, put it back in the cap, and ground the threads to the cylinder head fins[...]

Like this ... only it's best if you don't hold onto it!

Oh yeah...that's some painful stuff when you shock yourself by holding the wire  AMHIK

[Kasumi]

its time to clean out those carbs, do an oil change, change the plugs, ect ect. my bike has done the same mileage and i can still get to 115 on the clock(not a real 115)
but do those basics and if your feeling frisky you could even change your pilot jet to the next size up so its not running lean

oil was changed right before i bought the bike, he still had the oil container out and the filter's box
as already stated I cleaned the carbs out mighty well.

Will try testing for spark to make sure, but if one wasnt firing, shouldnt it be a different color than the other spark plug? both looked beautiful =X

Maybe neither are firing and your just rolling 

[Kerry]

Hmmm ... it would be a good idea to check the compression in the cylinders.  (See this Haynes page for the specs.)

Maybe the first 31K miles were harder on your bike than on hmmmnz's and mine.     Are you burning oil?  Any blue smoke?

[Cal Price]

I've done that plug-against-fins thing with my Yamaha using rubber gloves to holf the plug in place, I get a spark, is there a way of telling if the spark is enough

[scratch]

Vacuum synchronization of the carbs might be a good idea, too.  This way they're both doing equal work, or carrying an equal load.

[Cal Price]

Hey! how did that blue perplexed smiley appear, i never did that. Has John added a mind-reading feature to the board

[rangerbrown]

why are you runing priemum? run regular

[rangerbrown]

my plugs are white, which means.... lean
if the carbs are set right they should be (the plugs that is ) light tan or brown, if there dark or carbon fouled then your too rich or the fuel is not burning all the way (the wrong gas, switch to lower grade)

[scratch]

why are you runing priemum? run regular

Good catch!

No wonder he's having terrible performance!

[Kerry]

Hey! how did that blue perplexed smiley appear, i never did that. Has John added a mind-reading feature to the board

Looks like you broke the code (3 ?s in a row) and restored one of our old smilies to us.  Thanks, Cal!

[p0diabl0]

Vacuum synchronization of the carbs might be a good idea, too.  This way they're both doing equal work, or carrying an equal load.

I synced em too. Or rather a friend did it for me cause I suck at teh carbs. I can clean anything, but the rest of that stuff.. im still learning.

As far as premium vs regular, Ive been told to do either by different peoples from all walks of motorcycling, i was going to switch back to regular next tank just to make sure but im pretty sure that the difference has been zip to nil. Will do though.

[rangerbrown]

yea, any one that tell you that doesnt know what there talking about, run reg and save the money, now if it was a high compression engine like the new 600-up and the manual said to use it then yea use it.

the higher the # means its resistance to burn, but the higher the compression the easer it is for it to burn. so if you use reg in a high (9.5 to 1 comp) it would burn before the plug fires and this is call spark nock.

[skoebl]

yea, any one that tell you that doesnt know what there talking about, run reg and save the money, now if it was a high compression engine like the new 600-up and the manual said to use it then yea use it.

the higher the # means its resistance to burn, but the higher the compression the easer it is for it to burn. so if you use reg in a high (9.5 to 1 comp) it would burn before the plug fires and this is call spark nock.

What about a new 650? My dealer said "treat it well, use premium"....was he just dumb (at least he was nice)? The bike seems to run well enough.

[corndog67]

Go to the last page of any Motorcyclist magazine.  The GS500e has the lowest horsepower and torque of any bike listed.  Only the Ninja 250 is missing.  We're Number One.  Our funny little  500's are down 10 horsies from the factory on those Ninjas.  That is about 25%.  Our carburation is also f_cked.  Mine gets about 50 MPG, though.  And it does start everyday.  It doesn't seem to wear out tires much (at least compared to the 955, the CBR1000f, and the Bandit 1200 I used to own.  My chain is also holding up well, the bike has 22,000 miles on it with the stock chain.  Just get used to it being a cheap, reliable bike.

Oh, by the way, mine will do about 110 MPH

[rangerbrown]

yea, any one that tell you that doesnt know what there talking about, run reg and save the money, now if it was a high compression engine like the new 600-up and the manual said to use it then yea use it.

the higher the # means its resistance to burn, but the higher the compression the easer it is for it to burn. so if you use reg in a high (9.5 to 1 comp) it would burn before the plug fires and this is call spark nock.

What about a new 650? My dealer said "treat it well, use premium"....was he just dumb (at least he was nice)? The bike seems to run well enough.

most if not all new bike have a sticker on the tank that says use (90+ octane to aviod sever damage to engine)

if not check the little book that comes with the bike (user manual) for details