2000 GS500E Adventure Bike Project

[Manaenrc]

Why 43's?
because I tried 40 and it was still a little lean on the roll off idle. So I drilled them out to 43.

another way to help a stumbly roll off idle is to raise or lower the float height. it can be stumbly for both over-rich and over-lean.

that's a great point, I've got my float height set almost to the upper range. So I figured I would just increase the pilot which was ok since this bike seems to have a rather lean idle circuit. Even with the 43's I still have my mixture screws 3 turns out. been super busy so I have not had time to play around to much with it. Hopefully tomorrow I will have some time to try things out some more. Im getting real close to where I want to be. Of course as soon as I do I will probably get the urge to build the custom exhaust i've been thinking about and will need to start the process again.


I have a fishing trip coming up so soon the bike will have to be put on the side burner until I get back from Maine.



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[Funderb]

FISHING! I almost forgot!

I'm going to crank up the boat.
You'd probably get a kick out of it, as the tinkerer you seem to be. My pops and I built a little 16' power dory.

[Manaenrc]

FISHING! I almost forgot!

I'm going to crank up the boat.
You'd probably get a kick out of it, as the tinkerer you seem to be. My pops and I built a little 16' power dory.

Sweet!  I've got a 16' Lowe that was last years project, totally gutted and rebuilt. Long story, but I wish I could have shared it with my dad, it was something he always wanted, enjoy your time with him (and the boat) things can change fast. Anyway, link some picts would love to see it.



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[Funderb]

Got some pics up on the plan makers forum:

http://www.glen-l.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13190

this is its maiden voyage in the river here, during the sea trials of the horrible death engine from hell. We've got a better one now. Im sure you know how much attention these outboards require.

Catch something for me while your out!

[Manaenrc]

Got some pics up on the plan makers forum:

http://www.glen-l.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13190

this is its maiden voyage in the river here, during the sea trials of the horrible death engine from hell. We've got a better one now. Im sure you know how much attention these outboards require.

Catch something for me while your out!

Oh yeah, outboards are like kids. They require so much attention, yet provide so much reward. That boat is awesome! well done on the restore. There's nothing like the rewarding feeling of a project like that.

[bombsquad83]

Looking forward to more updates...

[Manaenrc]

Looking forward to more updates...

The turn signals finally came in and I think they are going to fit perfectly. Don't have time to post any updates for about another week. When all the craziness ends I will be jumping back onto the project.

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[Manaenrc]

Not much progress on the project. I hope to get back onto everything this coming week. It seems that my new laptop drive a top of the line patriot wildfire decided that it didn't like me after about 28 days of use. So I lost about 20 days of stuff and had to recover. So after much scrambling and a 480g intel 520 ssd replacement my computer is backup and running. The patriot went back to patriot for a refund.

Anyway I am going to be mounting the turn signals this week and will follow up with some additional photos. I will also be scheduling the first (of many) adventure rides into north central PA soon to test out the mods. I hope everyone has been getting some great rides in and I look forward to making/posting progress soon.

[Manaenrc]

After playing with the carbs for a few days I decided to put my stock modified needles back in. The new ones were just a little too lean off throttle and too rich mid opening. So I need something that is a little thinner and that has a little less taper. For now my modified stock needles are working well. My modified needles are just working so well from idle all the way to 8k from there things seem a little leaner but honestly the power I want is all down low anyway so I may just stick with the modified needles.

When I have time I want to take them out and shoot some photos and measure them so for comparison.  Honestly at this point I just want to get out and put some miles on this thing (other then my weekly 200mile highway ride to DC) I have grown to really hate driving in traffic.


Hope everyone has a great weekend and gets some riding in!

[Manaenrc]

OK I have been doing a lot of riding lately. So after a long ride on road/off road fishing trip combo I decided that it is time to tear into the engine and check my valves. It turns out as I have been suspecting, a few of my valves are too tight. Since there are more then enough valve adjusting threads out there I am not going to post many images.

I have about 2000 miles on the bike with all the mods in place. I have to say the new springs are really doing well. I had about 100 miles of mountain twisties the other day and I cannot believe how well this bike handles for what it is. I am not dragging knees but this bike just loves to eat up mountain roads. I found the limits of the dual sport tires by hitting a 10mph hairpin at about 30mph and did a nice little 2 wheel drift. Even while drifting the bike feels totally controllable.

AFA offroad, it is much better with the new springs. The bike still bottoms on bad bumps with my tank bag and full gas. I may add a little more preload to help this. Although I don't want to mess up the road manors too much. After I finish the valves I will re-measure the sag on the front and maybe add some preload.

[iclrag]

I may be a bit late on the praise, but thats a pretty sweet looking setup, i showed a bunch of my friends and they want one to haha! that looks like a great bike to take out on fishing trips!

[Manaenrc]

Thanks, it's been a fun project. I have been busy riding it all over the place the past few weeks and it's been great.

After adjusting my valves I ended up going back to the new needles that I purchased. I think with a little more tweaking these will almost be perfect. I was stupid for not checking my valve clearance first. But I was a bit rushed with work and other projects looming, but it turns out all the valve were n the tight side and two were under spec

[Manaenrc]

OK More progress to report on the Bike. sorry for the thread Resurrection but I wanted to keep this all together.

My fuel tank started leaking at the end of last season. So I drained the gas and knew I would have to find another tank before spring. Well after cruising ebay for a few weeks I finally found a reasonably priced donor. Since I already had a complete POR15 kit in my shop I decided to look for something used that I could refurbish. Why not refurbish the old tank? the P.O. already botched that and it is too far gone.  I ended up with finding one from a newer 2004 model with the larger capacity for 50$. It was rusted inside but not too bad so it is currently sitting in my basement with a coating of POR15 curing inside.

I am still not totally satisfied with the front shocks, but they are a work in progress.

[bombsquad83]

Glad you are back.  Looking forward to more progress on the project.

There is another guy on the forums recently who put a DR350 front end on his GS.  I'll look it up and get you a link.

EDIT: Found it.  It was a DR650.

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=61927.0

[Manaenrc]

Thanks for the link, I will be watching his progress to see where he goes with it.

[peteGS]

Mate I love your work! I rebuilt my '82 450 as a sort of scrambler, but didn't raise it or anything and after finishing it I'm not game to take it off road as I don't want to scratch the paint or ceramic coating off the headers... 

I really like how your 500 turned out though, looks like it'd be a bunch of fun!

[BrianKD]

Keep up the reports and updates and pictures! Yours is my favorite GS project!

[Manaenrc]

Thanks guys, There's not much to post right now since I have to wait for the weather to turn to begin the sanding and painting of my new tank and my old plastics. I will try to get some picks of the new (to me) tank with its seal coat. I was going to paint it but after smelling por15 for the past few weeks I think I will wait for some warm days to do it outside. Otherwise I may end up a single man after the entire family gets doped from the smell of paint

I think I am going flat black on everything with some gloss accents on the tank. This will also give me the chance to paint the frame and clean up some electrical issues.

I guess I am going to stick with standard engine paint for fuel resistance and cost. I could go get a 2 part from the paint shop but I didn't want to put that much money into paint that I would be worried about scratching. I thought about using bed liner but I just don't know how resistant it would be to ethanols. So I will stick with a standard engine enamel in flat black and use semi gloss clear to add some accents. I will use the clear and put some design on the side of the tank and the plastics.

[Manaenrc]

OK just ordered 4 of these from element14 for about 3$ a piece. The idea is to replace my missing lenses in my indicator panel with something more modern looking. They are LED panel mount indicators they will replace the stock light sockets and bulbs with LEDs.


I got
Red - for Oil Press indicator
Yellow - Turn Signal
2x Green - High Beam, Neutral Indicator

They don't have these in blue, and I wanted all the faces to match.

[ben2go]

OK just ordered 4 of these from element14 for about 3$ a piece. The idea is to replace my missing lenses in my indicator panel with something more modern looking. They are LED panel mount indicators they will replace the stock light sockets and bulbs with LEDs.


I got
Red - for Oil Press indicator
Yellow - Turn Signal
2x Green - High Beam, Neutral Indicator

They don't have these in blue, and I wanted all the faces to match.

I had the same idea but haven't bothered with it since I can't ride any more.Please post a pic when you have it done.