2004 GS500F

[Blueknyt]

granted, remaping fuel and ignition curves are a pain, but these things are becoming more and more common and the little handheld computers are getting cheaper. hell, most of us here have computers, i can see us draging in our brain boxes jacking into the USB ports and dialing them up to what we want. im sure this site would be the first to sport the programs for Downloading.



side draft, down draft, again adapting wouldnt be hard from factory standpoint.    easyer to play with carbs? hmmm, plug in laptop, click, click, execute, you now are ready to race(fuel/ignition program). Again this would be based on a Factory system.

[JasonB]

It also looks to me like there are many more wires below the gas tank. Im pretty sure my GS doesnt have those under there.

Extra wires are more than likely there instead of in the headlight bucket like on the old ones. The plugs look like some that were in my headlight that I had to move back behind when I did the twin headlamps on mine.

I wonder the cost of the new fairing and headlight and other parts to convert my 95 to a full fairing one. It would keep me in my bike much longer than I had planned.  I hope someone makes some frame sliders for the bike now also that will work with the new plastics!

[kyzee]

Yep Throttle Position Sensor. Its that black plastic thingy with a wire coming out of it in front of the carb behind the engine cylinder.
Its a potentiometer on the carb that tells the bike's computer how much throttle the rider is giving the bike and then the it calculates what kind of ignition timing to send to the cylinders.
Probably at partial or half throttle it retards the timing for a complete fuel burn/low emisssions but at wide open it probably advances it to make more power.

This made me think of something. For a digital variable ignition to work, it also has to have a engine speed sensor too. So that means it needs something other than the old mechanical cable tach.  I looked at that engine close up, and guess what?  Suzuki finally did away with that gawd damned leaky tach cable!

Tks for the enlightement. This baby warrants a closer look. You guys are right in saying that we'll have many mods to look for with the coming of this model. At least we know the ole GS will be here to stay for a long time so it worthwhile investing some serious dough on it.

[ejl10]

No center stand with a fairing.  But I like the looks of the new bike, much more stylish than my black/pink 93.  The only concern is with newbies getting lots of plastic... that could become expensive fast.  I driveway dropped my GS twice while learning to ride.  Nevertheless, it was definitely about time for a change.  I know what I hate, and I don't hate this.

Emmett Lyman

[JamesG]

It still has the center stand. Notice how the fairing lower ends abruptly under the engine?

[pizzleboy]

I wonder if the fairing could be modified to have RAM air into the airbox...

Hmm...I like RAM air.

[The Buddha]

It dont go fast enough to have ram air do anything...at 100 ram air is just getting activated atleast on the ZX11.
Cool.
Srinath.

[rinthiran]

I'm excited that Suzuki brought back the wonderful GS500 lineup. I learned to ride on a '90 GS500E with around 50K miles and thinking about it gives me the "very-first-love" feelin'. It was one easy bike to learn on and was probably the best example of a standard with its up right riding and low seat height. Took all the abuse you wanted to give it, but boy was it a slow dog. But that was also a good thing for a newbie.

I'm hoping its everything the GS500E is, with better brakes and cooling. Actually, in regards to cooling, I've noticed a trend for Suzuki to add oil coolers to their lower-end lineup (e.g., GS500F, SV#) in the past two years. From this forum and the SV forum, it seems that cooling has never really been a problem for Suzuki owners other than in extreme hot weather race track riding. But that's true for almost every other motorcycle. Seems like an added component that isn't really needed for 99% of owners.

I think the fairing is a good thing. It has a sweet "mini-GSXR1000" look,
although if the riding position is anywhere near where it is for the stock GS500E, most of your body would be in the wind with that short windscreen. Might save lives by getting first time riders to think of buying it as apposed to a GSXR600. The only downside it that a new fairing would probably cost $700+. It also seems closer to competing with all the new entry-level bikes out there.

[pattonme]

you'd be surprised how effective a screen can be. I wouldn't count it out so soon.