i just got my 2004 yellow 500 about a week ago and already i am pondering getting rid of it. its a great bike and everything i just feel like i am going to want something bigger soon. I have been looking into getting a gsx 600 or a yamaha r6. ANyone have any opinions. everyone told me that i would outgrow the bike faster than i thought and i am starting to think they were right. dont get me wrong but i absolutely love the bike but i can feel myself getting just a tad bored on it. only have had it one week tomorrow and i have 200 miles on it so i have been riding it for 7 days straight. i cant put it down. Well just tell me what you guys think, should i wait ?? Or act now before my baby loses its value which i hear it does really fast. Anyone interested in buying it buy the way??
Keep it.
What you think of as "getting bored" is really only your comfort level rising. Your SKILL level does not grow at the same rate as your comfort level. You need 6-12 months MINIMUM on the bike before you should even consider another bike, especially a sport bike.
Let me tell you something. I rode my gs500 for 9,000 miles in 16 months, most of those miles in the canyons. I upgraded to a 600RR and the first month I had it I was SHOCKED at the power. It was like learning all over again. I am a much better rider on the sportbike now because I rode the hell out of my gs500. When riding my GS in the canyons I could hang with pretty much anyone (to their embarassment). I was riding the RR to the tires edge pretty quickly because of the skills I learned on the GS.
Finally, consider these last 2 things: First, most EXPERIENCED riders will agree to stick with the gs for a time. Dont let your friends or your ego tell you otherwise. Second, there's an old motorcycle saying that goes something like, "A slower bike makes a faster rider."
It's a free country. If you want to sell it here, you have to tell us where you are and maybe post on the for sale/trade/hot deals forum. Whatever you decide, good luck.
Till it's true that you really should stick with the GS for all the reasons already mentioned. Maybe you can find a track where you can see what it can do on the maneuverability and not be so bored. I've met guys who gave up the race bikes for dual purpose bikes with half the horsepower because they enjoyed the dirt and road maneuverability so much. I also know a guy who has owned 40+ bikes and his favorites, now his onlies, are a CB250 and an S40 (formerly Savage). He and others have talked about keeping up on the CB250 with some bikes costing 2-3 times as much on twisties. I also had a friend who went to a track where cops train in their Crown Victoria cruisers (of the 4-wheel variety), and the last thing they did was let him try to outrun them in his old Datsun 510 (what, 120hp?). See below for some examples:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2492323711
http://www.modernracer.com/features/fordcrownvictoriacop.html
They couldn't catch him. He, and the cop in the passenger seat of the cruiser, were just giggling themselves silly. While they might have gotten him on a straight highway chase, he got them on the turns, big time. FWIW.
--Mike D.
PS: If I had the kind of $$ you seem to I'd buy it off you, but I doubt you'd take a trade-in on my '98 GS500E. How about an '88 Nissan Sentra?
:icon_confused:
Quote from: 04yellow500should i wait ?? Or act now before my baby loses its value which i hear it does really fast.
the value was lost the moment you rode it off the lot.
also, i'm curious as to how exactly you're getting bored. have you been regularly scraping your pegs in turns? are you regularly opening the throttle all the way? are your friends on superbikes teasing you?
cheers,
will
Wow. 200 miles and you're bored. I have had my 97 GS for a little over a year and have put about 8,000 miles on it and I have just decided to keep the GS for one more year. Have you ridden in the upper RPM's ? What is it about the GS that bores you? You haven't even broken the bike in. We all have friends that have the R6's, R1's, CBR600RR's, ........ and the list goes on. Ride your own ride. Enjoy the learning curve. I know I have. My wife and kids thank me for it.
Good luck on your decision .
i have a perfect running/looking 2003 dual purpose im tryin to trade in the for sale section. i just put it up a couple hours ago. check it out. THANKS.
It doesn't take much to upgrade the bike- you'd be surprized what some radials and up'd suspension will do... then throw on an exhuast and a jet kit and BAM- the bike is a different beast.
I rode almost 6000 miles in 9 months and when I moved to the SV I really missed the GS. The SV is a better bike but the gs made me a better rider.
You are going to make some silly mistakes in the first the 6 months of riding- the GS is more forgiving and a whole lot less expensive to fix. You will also miss the extra 20 mpg and the CHEAP insurance.
Quote from: geekonabikelast thing they did was let him try to outrun them in his old Datsun 510 (what, 120hp?). quote]
Now you made me want to bid on that 510 on EBAY. My first new car was a 1969 510 - 1600cc and 96 hp. Every now and then I dream that I still have it.
I also wish I had my Honda S90 back again. I will never love any bike like that one even with its 65 mph top speed.
Wanna talk about a drop in sale-value? Try selling a motorcycle in the Fall or Winter compared to the Spring.
I agree with Pablo. Keep riding the GS until you stop improving. If you haven't been riding for at least a couple years before now, you have learned nothing about "properly" riding in only 200 miles. I had almost 10,000 miles on my '01 model in a year and a half riding as many curvy roads as I could find around here. I was still learning new things each time I went out. I also encountered lots of things that would have likely killed my if I had been on a "real" sportbike making the same mistakes.
thanks for all the replys guys. I have been riding for some time now. i know i am not the expert or anything but i have ridden bigger bikes and manuevered on them quite well for little ol me. I leared how to ride on my fathers hayabusa and rode that during the summer for transportation so i know how it feels to ride a fast bike. I got the gs500 for the exact reasons you guys stated. and i cant lie it was an excellent purchase. the thing that made me start thinking of selling it fast was learning about its resale/ trade in value. i know the value of any bike will go down once it leavs the lot but i wouldnt mind getting just a bit more for it by keeping the miles low and selling it before the year is up. We will see though. I am going through my senior year of college and i need to start saving money to be a "grown-up" soon. Who knows i might just have to sell my new baby all together and save for another bike anyways.
Quote from: 04yellow500thanks for all the replys guys. I have been riding for some time now. i know i am not the expert or anything but i have ridden bigger bikes and manuevered on them quite well for little ol me. I leared how to ride on my fathers hayabusa and rode that during the summer for transportation so i know how it feels to ride a fast bike.
Learned how to ride on the busa? :o :? :o :?
My story is a lot like yours, but I'm a lot older. Learned to ride on a Yamaha XS1100. "Graduated" to a Kaw KZ1K. Frightenly fast in the early 80s. Had several other bikes and a 13 year break. My son is 12 now. In July I got back on a 91GS5E. In a mere 2 month I graduated to a Bandit600S. I've only put 200 miles on the Bandit and I'm sorry I got it. The GS is 100 pounds lighter and infinitely more forgiving. I wasn't done learning what the GS had to teach me. Now I have two bikes and not enough time to ride one.
The equinox is fading in the rear view mirror and the price of bikes is already down 20%. Ride it through the winter when ever the weather will allow, then sell it in the spring. You will fetch a better price. MUCH better price. When the buds start coming out bike prices will jump.
There's a GS500F with around 1K miles about to expire on Ebay with a starting price of $3K, no reserve, and NO bids. If you sell now, you're going to take a major beating on the price.
As 04 GS owner as well i felt i may put my 2 cents in here. This is my first bike also and i learned on a small 250 honda crusier, so driving this bike home from the dealer made me nervous because it was bigger and an unfamiliar bike to me. I learned very quickly how to handle it but still have much more to learn. I also have been getting bored with it only because of the break in procedure. The bike doens't make any power under 5k and when i shift at 5k it seems like the power band is just starting. So to me it seems pretty slow but can't wait till i can start opening it up. Im at 250 miles. My advice is to wait at least till the motor is properly broken in, it won't loose much more value with an extra 400 miles anywho. Good luck
I would agree. I crossed 500 miles last Sunday and it pulls way stronger after 6000 RPM. I cannot rev it higher than 8000 RPM till 1000 miles, but even this power is enough for me now. Starting from a stop is fun :). I really like the bike so far and plan to keep it for a while.
just wait till you guys get it into the 7500-9500 range...then the bike comes alive! :o
Pablo knows whereof he speaks here. The GS will have no trouble keeping up with or pulling away from freeway traffic. I love on-ramps. :) I use them as dragstrips. :mrgreen: Pablo's new super Honda thingy however will cost him his drivers license if he twists it too hard. :nono:
Break-in can be a chore, but you can't judge a bike by its cover, wait until Chapter 2: After The Break-in.
Break-in can be a chore, but you can't judge a bike by its cover, wait until Chapter 2: After The Break-in.
Quote from: 04yellow500thanks for all the replys guys. I have been riding for some time now. i know i am not the expert or anything but i have ridden bigger bikes and manuevered on them quite well for little ol me. I leared how to ride on my fathers hayabusa and rode that during the summer for transportation so i know how it feels to ride a fast bike. I got the gs500 for the exact reasons you guys stated. and i cant lie it was an excellent purchase. the thing that made me start thinking of selling it fast was learning about its resale/ trade in value. i know the value of any bike will go down once it leavs the lot but i wouldnt mind getting just a bit more for it by keeping the miles low and selling it before the year is up. We will see though. I am going through my senior year of college and i need to start saving money to be a "grown-up" soon. Who knows i might just have to sell my new baby all together and save for another bike anyways.
Hayabusa, eh? All summer, and you just now decided the little bike won't do. I'm not cynical by nature. So please tell me this isn't a troll case and I'll probably believe you. --MMD
I don't want to highjack this thread, but, I have a question. I am a new rider and don't have many miles under my boots. I ride my '04 GS in top gear at 5000 RPM and the speed is about 60 MPH. What kind of speeds do you folks run at 9000 RPM?
top gear (or maybe 5th instead of 6th) at about 9500rpm is roughly 125mph.
The point though is to run the bike higher in the rpm range in the lower gears because the bike pulls and has a sweet spot between 7-9 so that's where you should try to keep it by shifting through the gears.
I would let a newbie look at my 'Busa (if I had one), but ride one? Your own flesh and blood? And then you didn't think you'd be bored by a GS500? Are you, perhaps, strectching it a bit? ?
Hey DaveO,
Take a look at the dyno on the home page. Look where the 40+ hp kicks in
Quote from: scratchBreak-in can be a chore, but you can't judge a bike by its cover, wait until Chapter 2: After The Break-in.
I agree!
thanks again for the replys. i decided to keep it. sorry the last guy who replied didint belive i learned on a busa. when you have a good teacher like my dad it is possible. I am still bugges out by the 500s resale value, but i guess that it with any bike. any brake in advice ??
dont be afraid to let er rip once in a while. its not bad for the motor if you pop over the limited rpms once in a while.
otherwise, below 5k rpm until 600 miles, under 6k rpm until 1000 miles...then let er rip.
ok ill try and make this clear just one more time before i stop replying to the posts. i bought the gs500 not for its speed. i KNEW, exactly what the gs was built for and i bought it exactly for that ( small forgiving bike to continue learning on). Not only that but i was on a rather tight budget when chosing what motorcycle i wanted to be my first bike.The question i had for the group was do i sell it/ trade it in now to keep some of its value up or do i hold on to it. I love the gs500f, but i dont plan on keeping it forever. I will admit, im into sport bikes. So eventually i am going to get one. As for the busa, learning on that was NOT fun as im sure most of you would guess. Which is another thing that drew me to the 500. Its all i had though. I rode the busa fine after weeks, but i was in no way as comfortable on it as i am with the gs500f. so in conclusion keeping the 500 for a while. im going to break it in like you guys said. I am thinking by next summer of getting an r6 though. sorry
Like I said, I'm not cynical by nature. I just wanted to get it from you. OK, I believe you. Sorry for doubting.
Let me propose a way to look at it. The GS will have reasonable repair/maintenance/other cost over its useful lifetime. After you beat some of the newness out of it, why not keep two bikes? When you stop having theft/collision on the GS it will cost what, $100/year to insure? Why not have one (spendy sportbike) for pure fun, and the other (GS500F) for utility/fun. Not to mention mpg's in the mid 50's instead of lower 40's, though admittedly that is a small percent of the total cost of ownership. Until you buy the sportier bike you can ride out the relatively low (in $/year) GS depreciation, though agreed the biggest hit happened when you rode it off the lot so that's already passed. Anyhow, I propose you eventually have one you won't mind riding in the rain, and the other you wipe off with your leather chamoise (sp?) after each sneeze, One for riding around a city with its potholes, questionable neighborhoods, etc., and the other for the smoothest of pavements. FWIW I don't read much about folks putting 40,000 miles on pure racing/sport bikes, for a number of reasons I think. No, I have come to believe that folks with relatively cheap bikes tend to put more miles on them. There are exceptions in the extreme cases, like retirees on Goldwings criss-crossing the country, and Newbies on 125cc bikes that stay off the highways. It's been reported on the CB250 Yahoo list that those folks with Harley friends looking down on their bikes usually put WAY more miles on their CB250's than their Harley friends on theirs. And that the Harely guys are more likely to put theirs on in a few weekends instead of every day. There again are exceptions, but it rings true to me.
BTW you haven't had carb troubles yet I imagine, but I myself noticed a big jump from my one-carb CB250 to the two-carb GS500. Think about a four-carb bike! Well, maybe the fuel injected bikes will be better. Don't know.
Another reason to keep two bikes? (Believe me I know what I write here!) The time a bike sits with the mechanic can be longer than a car's, as parts have to be ordered, waited for, maybe more parts after the first set doesn't quite fix the problem, etc., not to mention many of the more reasonable/honest shops have first-come-first-serve and no appointments allowed. It is not uncommon for a motorcycle repair to be a matter of weeks not days. Having multiple bike disorder is preferable to zero bike disorder, IMO.
Just a couple things to think about. Otherwise, if you really want to trade up now, for laughs ask the dealer what they'll give you. Sure you make more selling it yourself under ideal circumstances, but winter's a coming, the buyer might not be there, and you could wait a long time. You may even be able to duck some of the taxeif you let the dealer take the bike back and "sell" you the other for a lot less than the usual negotiated sticker price. I've been told you can reduce the taxes around here that way, though I'm not entirely sure I believe it.
FWIW, I got really good service from my Ford dealer after I accidentally left a FOR SALE sign in the window when I got my oil change there. I too had some buyer's remorse, mostly for financial reasons, but found I couldn't get back enough of what I put into it. That was three years ago, and I'm glad I kept it. Newest car I'd ever bought (1-year old at the time), and I'm so glad I kept it. BTW unless you're a wrench don't go used if you can avoid it. It is SO nice to have something new, that if it goes pith on you, you can righteously bring it back to the dealer and say FIX.
Just some thoughts. See what you think. --Mike D.
Quote from: geekonabikeI also had a friend who went to a track where cops train in their Crown Victoria cruisers (of the 4-wheel variety), and the last thing they did was let him try to outrun them in his old Datsun 510 (what, 120hp?).
Sorry for the hijack, but...
Never underestimate Datsun 510! They had a performance catalog where you could buy ANYTHING - LSDs, trick suspensions, fast heads, yadda, yadda.
I wish I had gotten a picture of this car being hounded, lap after lap, by a 510 at the last conference race at PR, but my battery ran out...
http://www.bmwpugetsound.com/images/race_10_3_04/s26.jpg
When I was racing my 240z I had a buddy who shoehorned in a RX7 13B motor into the 510 sedan...talk about quick.