Hi.
This is my first post to the forum, so greetings everyone!
I've been reading the forums for quite a few months now and at this moment I'm on the verge of buying my first bike - the GS500E.
Being severely limited financially I have to resort to second hand bikes.
It's actually been only a couple of days that I have enough money to at least negotiate, but I've already seen two bikes, the first one was a disaster, while cheap initially, required a lot of work, regulations, replacing chain and sprockets etc so it was a no-go. Today I inspected a '98 model and boy it does look perfect for me, the ultimate beginner:
it is in mint condition
it has pegs installed to prevent damage to the engine in case of slide or fall
it has undergone all the necessary maintenance recently, like changing oil, air filter and so on
I tired to test everything, no loose fit in the fork nor in the rear, electrical seems ok, the gears shift fine, no weird noises in the engine
the seller seems quite an honest person - he told me that one of the side plastics might not be original (which I haven't noticed) (btw is possible that there was a blue version for German market in '98? - perhaps the tank isn't original either...)
And finally he told that the bike has the horsepower capped :o
Initially, I think, this is a great advantage, first of all it means that the bike has not been stressed too much during it's usage by previous owners, second, it's good for me as a beginner.
But after two weeks or so, I expect, I'll hunger for more power and I would like to unlock it to full power. I've already found some info on how this is usually done and how to reverse it. In any case, I expect that the best solution would be to leave to a professional shop, but I wonder how costly the whole operation might be, which parts are involved etc...
I also wonder if this is really a factory limitation, or perhaps some fault in the regulations or worse yet some inherent flaw of the engine? The bike comes from Germany and 25hp limitations are quite common there, due to the regulations, but still...
I'd really appreciate your comments as today I plan for yet another visit, this time with a friend who owned gs for two years, and if everything is fine by him and the price is right, I would like to purchase just in time for weekend :)
There have been posts in the past about the hp restriction. IIRC, the restriction limits the carb slide travel. Others from across the pond should have more insight on this.
Would you be as kind as to point me to those discussions? :)
I did the obligatory search before posting, but found nothing relevant.
If the restriction is done as you suggest how does that affect engine, I mean how can I verify if that's the case? Is is possible w/o a dyno or disassembling the engine?
boy riding in Europe must suck..whats up with all the limitations.. :dunno_white:
Europe doesn't like to see people splattered across the road as much as America. North America is the only place you'll find rules that have so little regard for people's lives.
It should be my freedom to choose to get splattered. But I'd say it's more marketing than politics - you can get the same 'big' bike, that you couldn't otherwise legally ride at say age of 16 or a proper license. On the other hand in Germany you also get highways with no speed limit at all and you can drive you Bugatti Veyron as fast as you wish.
But back to technical aspect, how do I fix the problem, do I have to replace the carbs - second hand ones are pretty cheap, but there's a lot of work involved - literally ripping the whole bike apart :(, or is there a simpler way?
Futhermore, how do I find out if it's really factory setting and not the engine that's messed up and simply weak?
Check this thread :
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=33366.0 (http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=33366.0)
and this might help:
http://www.suzukiownersclub.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=29460&PN=14&TPN=1 (http://www.suzukiownersclub.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=29460&PN=14&TPN=1)
Thanks!!! Exactly what I've been looking for. Now I wonder if I'll be able to see if that's the case w/o ripping the engine apart, I suppose, I'll have to rev it up and see how fast it goes..
You don't have to rip the engine apart. The carbs are right underneath the airbox, just pop the airbox out then remove the two bolts holding the carbs on and they're free (ok, gotta remove fuel lines and throttle cable too).