New-to-me GS500E - new member, bunch of standard problems, a few things not FAQ

[DoD#i]

My 3rd bike, bought this weekend. Had an '82 Yamaha Maxim (shafty 4 cyl cruiser) as a first bike, (after MSF course and taking road test on a friend's bike), second was an 82 Seca (Shafty 4 cyl UJM with fairing and a funny spinny thing) which I still have, but have gradually accepted that I'm having a hard time getting parts for and getting back on road, nor do I have anything approaching a trustworthy motorcycle mechanic to hand it to and get charged out the wazoo. So I bought a GS500E to ride *NOW*, as the price was not a huge multiple on the minimum price I added up of stuff I could actually buy, if I managed to find the time I don't have to work on the 26 year old Yamaha.

Bike advertised as 1995 turned out to be 1990 - either has 121,000 miles or 21,000 and a title error. Given my current predicament I like the fact that GS500s essentially similar to this are still being imported, so parts availability should be good for a while yet.

It's got some issues. Standard ones include the petcock that only works on prime, I see plenty of posts about fixing that. Front brakes buzzes or ticks a bit, I guess loose floating bushings - never had floaters before. Seat to pegs is too short, and I'm only 5'10" - you 6' plus folks must be contortionists. Seat is slippery.  Front of seat is loose side-to-side - should there be a bracket for the nose (that goes under the lip of the gas tank) to slide into, or is this side-slop normal? Brake pedal is set too high. Some annoying former owner did a fenderectomy - anyone contemplating one of those that would like to trade a stock for a pre-cut, let's do a deal - I ride in the rain. Probably the same former owner did what seems to be a brush paintjob and covered the bike with stickers. That will have to wait for the winter to get fixed, other than the stickers I can get to peel off, as the whole point of this bike is to have one to ride now, not another project.

One that I can't find in the FAQ - I don't _think_ the airbox has been messed with, but some idiot "opened up" the stock exhaust by drilling and bashing out the final baffle. Someone with stock exhaust wanna tell me what size hole there should be, and if there's a tube (if so, how long?) or just a hole in a disk? I like plain old boring stock "works well everywhere" performance, not modded cranky limited powerband performance. I also like good MPG and non-noisy exhaust.  ...I'm a bit of an oddball, apparently. 

I expect in the near term I'll add some foam to this seat to improve my foot positioning comfort - would there be any interest (it WILL NOT happen very soon, if it happens - no earlier than winter) in a seatpan fabricated to be higher in front, and perhaps incorporating some more useful underseat storage in that space ( I gather this would fit 89-94 if it fits a 1990? or is it all the way to 99?) I don't need more padding, just a slightly higher position. I'll probably make at least two seatpans, and that will probably involve a mold and some fiberglass, at the end of which there would be a mold. The second seatpan I plan to make I'd be thinking to set up a solo seat with integrated trunk - not so much like a racer tail fairing as something big enough to eat a helmet or a bag of groceries that's in the mostly unused passenger seat space, rather than pushed out back, and swap seats when my wife wants to ride along. I'm also interested in hanging some hard side bags on, which seems to be a subject of limited success, except perhaps in the UK (and that wild 20mm ammo can job on the previous version of the GS).

Speaking of my wife, I hope to either find or fabricate a backrest (sissy bar), which I'm guessing I should be able to bolt in place of the grab handle - she does not like having nothing back there. I did not find much searching on backrest or sissy bar here, but I may well  have missed something.

Might get some pictures up later, past time to go to sleep now.

[philward]

Seat to pegs is too short, and I'm only 5'10" - you 6' plus folks must be contortionists. Seat is slippery.  Front of seat is loose side-to-side - should there be a bracket for the nose (that goes under the lip of the gas tank) to slide into, or is this side-slop normal? Brake pedal is set too high.

If you want some more leg room you could do the cheap peg upgrade (<$20).  As you can see from the image below you can easily gain an inch or so of extra leg-room.  Might not sound like much but would be easier than adding an inch to the seat, and will give you sporty looking pegs into the deal.



The brake pedal can easily be adjusted downward by slackening and tightening the nuts that connect to the foot lever.

[beRto]

Yikes! So many questions...

It's got some issues. Standard ones include the petcock that only works on prime, I see plenty of posts about fixing that. Front brakes buzzes or ticks a bit, I guess loose floating bushings - never had floaters before. Seat to pegs is too short, and I'm only 5'10" - you 6' plus folks must be contortionists. Seat is slippery.  Front of seat is loose side-to-side - should there be a bracket for the nose (that goes under the lip of the gas tank) to slide into, or is this side-slop normal? Brake pedal is set too high. Some annoying former owner did a fenderectomy - anyone contemplating one of those that would like to trade a stock for a pre-cut, let's do a deal - I ride in the rain.

• I'm 6'3" and find the GS pretty comfortable 
• The seat should fit snugly against the tank (I think there is a latch); side-to-side play is not normal.

One that I can't find in the FAQ - I don't _think_ the airbox has been messed with, but some idiot "opened up" the stock exhaust by drilling and bashing out the final baffle. Someone with stock exhaust wanna tell me what size hole there should be, and if there's a tube (if so, how long?) or just a hole in a disk? I like plain old boring stock "works well everywhere" performance, not modded cranky limited powerband performance. I also like good MPG and non-noisy exhaust.  ...I'm a bit of an oddball, apparently. 

Not sure where you're located, but people sell stock exhausts all the time (after upgrades, for example). You might be better off buying a new one?

If not, you might be able to scale a measurement from the photo in this thread:
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=40598.0

[DoD#i]

Firstly, I goofed up and posted a thanks note in the linked exhaust thread, not this thread - so thanks, guys, if you missed that. I thought for a long time that it had just not posted and eventually realized that it ended up in the wrong thread, because I was not paying attention to where I was posting a reply from. Footpeg and exhaust advice useful - what I did to the exhaust is in another exhaust thread (search for soup can).

Here, at long last, are some pictures (the "before" pictures - repaint a long ways off yet, but I have peeled most of the dang stickers off for a start).









The pin on the "frame doodad to hook your bungee net to (or possibly screw something into) is at a very different angle on the right front .vs. all the other 3 - stock, or broken and rewelded badly?

Repaint, whenever it finally happens, will probably be either silver/gray (no change to registered/titled "main color") and red or blue, or white and red; None of that dang slime green. For now, it works, I ride it, and I hope that whatever happens to the camchains on early GSs will not happen until I get around to going over it in more detail after riding season. It was supposedly tuned up this spring, but I have no details of work - some folks call two plugs and an oil change a tune up.