What have you done for your bike today????

[Badot]

Cutting the springs shorter just causes the slides to start lifting sooner. This can improve throttle response just by correcting the mixture, but the motion of the slide should be fairly unaffected otherwise.

Widening the slide holes in where the throttle responsiveness comes in.

On CV carbs you have air from the airbox on the bottom of the diaphragm (essentially atmospheric pressure), and vacuum from the carb barrel on top of the diaphragm. The vacuum 'flows' from the carb barrel to above the diaphragm through the slide holes. Larger holes allow the vacuum to 'flow' faster, meaning the slide will lift more quickly after vacuum is introduced in the barrel (giving you better response).

The downside to this is that as the carburetor vacuum 'pulses' due to the engine only drawing in air about 1/4 of the time, the slide position follows. Larger holes allow the slides to move significantly more due to this, and therefore incur significantly more wear.

If the slides are metal and you can solder (with a torch, not an iron) then you should be able to reverse whatever you do.

[bombsquad83]

That makes sense.  I was thinking of the vacuum from the wrong side.

[peteGS]

Badot, makes sense! I'm not pretending I fully understand the effects as I'm no carb guru... but I do get that it makes a worthwhile difference

The mod's on the 450 are K&N pod filters and a custom 2 to 1 exhaust system made by an exhaust shop here in Brissie (Tranzac) that is quite free flowing.

The engine is completely stock although rebuilt a bit over 15,000km's ago.

Stock mains are 117.5 and pilots are 17.5.

[RossLH]

Started it for the first time since I laid it down a couple months ago. Took a little persuasion, but still runs like a top.

[Calpantera]

Started it for the first time since I laid it down a couple months ago. Took a little persuasion, but still runs like a top.

WOOT!!

[sytsmadad]

Adjusted the clutch and took her for a spin to get a full tank of gas. She needs a little more TLC before she will ready for any road trips though.

[peteGS]

She feels stronger today at WOT with the bigger mains but woah did I go wrong on the mixture screws! Every time I got off the throttle on the way to work... pop pop crackle bang pop... ugh! Couldn't find a small enough flat blade at work to have a fiddle so did it all the way home again this avo'... had a fiddle when I got home and fingers crossed it's sorted now...

[Calpantera]

Got the painted plastics and grab bar on and rode her to work this morning..

Fuel starved on the freeway on me. I made it to a gas station and put in 3.6 gallons but only had 110 miles on the trip meter. I assume my bad milage was in part due to the fact that I was down to about 22lbs of air in each of the tires when I checked  last night and most of my riding was quick runs to the store and stuff on that tank before it sat for a month or so.
Also got my new modular helmet last night, its was nice for this mornings ride although the fit is still not broken in..

[MVent03]

Been having some issues with the bike cutting out while accelerating, like I'm hitting a rev limiter then it goes away. Feels very anemic on the top side from about 8K on up.

Running some carb/fuel system cleaner through this tank.

[sytsmadad]

Gave her a bath and a wax job. Cleaned everything top to bottom and lubed the chain.

[W79]

Same here.  Elbow grease & a bit of wax.

Colleague of mine always says there are 2 kind of bikers:
ones that clean their bike / ones that ride their bike.

Try to be both

[peteGS]

Run to work was much better this morning! Still a little popping but much improved. Idle was a little high too so I quickly dropped that down and leaned the mixture screws another quarter turn when I got to work so hopefully better again this avo'.

I also did a wash and polish of the shiny bits this morning in preparation for the 500+km ride tomorrow... but it's going to be showering/raining today and it's outside the front of the building so probably all a big waste of time... 

Oh well, at least the shiny bits have another layer of protection hopefully 

[Watevaman]

 Put on the HEL rear brake line. Honestly, what was Suzuki thinking when they had those  metal brackets holding the line in? I ended up ripping the old line out because of the front one.

[Twisted]

Picked up a SV650 flyscreen. Just need to paint it black and figure out a way to rig it up to the GS Headlight. May need to make up some lil brackets. Should look sweet fitted.

[peteGS]

Nice one Twisted.

When I made my fly screen I just fab'ed up some brackets to use the headlight mounting bolts. Easy as.

I just got prepared for tomorrow's ride, oil good, wet weather gear strapped on the seat, all set to rock and roll. Just need to check the tyres and get fuel in the morning.

[Twisted]

What'd you fab the brackets outta?

[peteGS]

Just some aluminium I had here, around 1mm thick or so. Just got some contact adhesive and glued rubber pads on to protect the acrylic perspex as well, although you probably won't need to do that.

[sytsmadad]

Cleaned and lubed the chain last night. After several months sitting in my garage motionless she is up and running. Drove to work today. She is running better than ever.

[camsGS500E]

Recently (not today sorry!) added a bicycle computer. I made an aluminium mount and screwed it in between speedo and tacho visible at the top of both. I think the stock GS500E's speedo reads way fast. The bicycle speedo, so long as you enter the correct front tyre circumference, should be vey accurate if you buy a good brand (Cateye in this case).

Also tyres, a set of Pirelli Diablo Rosso II's have transformed the handling of the bike over the Pirelli Demon's that were on it. The Rosso II's are radials and flex plenty and heat up fast and get very warm. The bike leans into corners so much better, as though on another bike, allowing you to lean the bike with confidence. I find when riding my favourite weekend road that the toe of my boots sometime touches the road and I feel in need to raise suspension height to compensate. In the wet they feel safe under you and with the way these tyres allow you to roll into corners without effort they never seem to feel like they are working hard.

Speedo and tyre photos: http://s1273.beta.photobucket.com/user/soq255/library/

[Twisted]

Recently (not today sorry!) added a bicycle computer. I made an aluminium mount and screwed it in between speedo and tacho visible at the top of both. I think the stock GS500E's speedo reads way fast. The bicycle speedo, so long as you enter the correct front tyre circumference, should be vey accurate if you buy a good brand (Cateye in this case).

Also tyres, a set of Pirelli Diablo Rosso II's have transformed the handling of the bike over the Pirelli Demon's that were on it. The Rosso II's are radials and flex plenty and heat up fast and get very warm. The bike leans into corners so much better, as though on another bike, allowing you to lean the bike with confidence. I find when riding my favourite weekend road that the toe of my boots sometime touches the road and I feel in need to raise suspension height to compensate. In the wet they feel safe under you and with the way these tyres allow you to roll into corners without effort they never seem to feel like they are working hard.

Speedo and tyre photos: http://s1273.beta.photobucket.com/user/soq255/library/

What size rear are you running? I thought they didn't make them small enough to fit the GS?