First Bike Ever!

[Almost]

Hello everyone posted in the Who are you thread to introduce myself, but my name's Connor.
Yesterday I took a 1 1/2 hour drive to Greensboro to pick up my first motorcycle. I found it on craigslist and I think I got it for an okay price. It is a 1995 Suzuki GS500E with roughly 16k miles on it with hardly any cosmetic damage and I got it for 800$. Is that good or bad?

Lol anyways, I got the chance to ride it today and I have quite a bit of questions for anybody that's willing to help!

To start with, I plan on keeping this bike in great shape for the entirety that I own it.
So my plan is to replace all the fluids (Brake, trans, oil, gas, anything else?) clean and sync the carbs, make sure the valve clearance is good, and replace the front tire. Is there anything else I should do before I even think about driving it across town?

Also, I bought it knowing there was an issue with the battery. It's not that it's dead, I've had it on a trickle charger untill it signaled that it was charged, put a volt meter on it and it still reads 11.8 V, thats kinda low right? But the lights all turn on, but it has trouble starting. The only way I can really get it to start is to turn the petcock on prime for a second and then back to On. Maybe thats what i should do since it's like 35 degrees outside?

And the last thing, I drove it up and down my road today, and it shifts fine and everything, but it kinda sputters when you really give it some gas, and it stalls out if you hold the clutch in.

That's all I can think of for now, any help, suggestions, advice, or inputs would be greatly appreciated! If you need any more information just ask and I'll be happy to give it to you!

Oh, and I'm really not trying to get spoon fed info, it's just i dont really know how to word what i need in the search. This is my first bike so I'm kinda of really new at all of this, glad to be a part of the community everyone!

[fetor56]

New battery,preferably non-wet.
New spark plugs,i use Iridium but that's up to u.
Service & Repair Manual.
   
Welcome! 

[Atesz792]

Welcome here
Well, I can't comment on the price since I live a bit far from you, so let's start with things to replace.  You may want to include fork oil in that list, and the brake lines, spark plugs... Those come to mind right now, but there's a great maintenance chart on this site, just delete everything after the .com in the link and I'm sure you will find it. This place is more than a forum
That battery may be a bit weak, but needing the prime position to start can be caused by various things... for example a few days without riding it (of course a really good fresh battery will turn the crank 'till it starts without turning to prime... hmmm... maybe I contradict myself sometimes ) But no acid battery likes 35 degrees (if that's Fahrenheit).
If you just rode it a few hundred meters in your street, it never got a chance to really warm up, and I guess you pushed the choke back before riding. That's your explanation for sputtering and stalling right there (if you let it warm up for a few minutes, and then it still died after pulling the clutch in, that may be worth looking into), but a good carb clean won't hurt.

[Almost]

I will definitely replace the plugs, and brake lines, probably all the lines on it matter of fact haha. Thanks for the help you guys, I live right down the road from a Suzuki shop so I'll swing by tomorrow and see what all they got for me I've been looking up a lot of repair videos and guides and I think ill start on most of that tomorrow. As for it warming up, it was running a good 10 minutes before i took off. And the choke was off. I'll run it again tomorrow after I clean up a few things. Thanks for the quick replies guys, I'll keep ya updated on how it runs!

[radodrill]

a '95 with only 16K miles!

Sounds like it's probably been sitting a lot; probably a good idea to drain/clean the tank and use fresh gas.  I'd also check all the fuel/vacuum lines and carburetor boots.  You could have an air or vacuum leak causing your starting/sputtering problems.

11.8V is extremely low especially if you used a charger/maintainer; you should be reading around 12.6V, under 12V is almost dead.

[weedahoe]

Welcome to the site and Congrats on the bike

[Almost]

Thaks for all your help guys! I pulled the carbs out today and they seemed pretty clean, which surprised me because I thought they'd look horrible. Anyways I cleaned what I could on it and put it all back together, didn't have time to do a valve check on it tho.

But I still seem to be running into some problems. The bike doesn't want to start unless I put the petcock on prime first, maybe just a vacuum issue? Also, I noticed a little bit ago that the exhaust where it comes out of the motor and through the forks are getting super hot, like glowing red hot. I don't know if it has been doing that but I just noticed it. Any reason for that?

And the last issue I'm having is that I'm pretty sure when you rev the motor, the RPMs should drop pretty quick, mine it drops really slow. Throttle cable issue is what I'm thinking, I'll look into it tomorrow.

OH! Also, when it's idling it does fine for about 4 minutes then the RPMs drop so low that it stalls, any ideas or suggestions are very welcomed! I'm just trying to get my bike running as smooth as the rest of you all, so thanks for any input!

[DrtRydr23]

Thaks for all your help guys! I pulled the carbs out today and they seemed pretty clean, which surprised me because I thought they'd look horrible. Anyways I cleaned what I could on it and put it all back together, didn't have time to do a valve check on it tho.

But I still seem to be running into some problems. The bike doesn't want to start unless I put the petcock on prime first, maybe just a vacuum issue? Also, I noticed a little bit ago that the exhaust where it comes out of the motor and through the forks are getting super hot, like glowing red hot. I don't know if it has been doing that but I just noticed it. Any reason for that?

And the last issue I'm having is that I'm pretty sure when you rev the motor, the RPMs should drop pretty quick, mine it drops really slow. Throttle cable issue is what I'm thinking, I'll look into it tomorrow.

OH! Also, when it's idling it does fine for about 4 minutes then the RPMs drop so low that it stalls, any ideas or suggestions are very welcomed! I'm just trying to get my bike running as smooth as the rest of you all, so thanks for any input!

You could be running really lean.  Hanging RPMs after you give it throttle is typically a lean issue I think.  If the throttle tube snaps back closed then it is likely a fuel/air problem.  Same with the no starting unless it is on prime.  Maybe not enough fuel getting to the carbs, or still some restriction in the carbs/lines.

[cWj]

Fellow noob here. Hola.

I got Pokey a couple months ago. He refused to hold proper idle at all; died at rest unless you sat on the throttle. I took it to a mech who started with cleaning the carbs, then he replaced the intake manifolds and finally seemed to find the problem when he adjusted the seemingly never-previously-adjusted valves. I'm suspicious you'll find your solution there.

Since you are venturing into the carbs, make sure to take a look at the rejetting section of the wiki.

And for the love of Papa Smurf, replace the front springs with...something....ANYTHING.

(such as Progressives from Powersport Superstore if you're a cheap slowpoke like me or a weight-matched set of Sonic springs if you prefer to matriculate at higher rates of progression...but, seriously....SOMETHING)

Have fun. Ride safe.