Hey everyone, just saying hi. Just bought my 1996 GS500E about 2 weeks ago, took the MSF coarse 3 weeks ago, got my Motorcycle license 3 days ago, and now i need your help. I've searched and have sorta found a similar problem, but no solutions.
ok, so my problem is...
Background - got bike 2 weeks ago. Test drove it (a little bit), and it drove fine. Started easy, and there was no problems with it. And because I didn't have my license yet, the guy even drove it to my house. Now i've been riding it a little here and there in a residential track to get used to it and practice before I get out on the main roads. For the most part it's been fine, but it's been really hard to get started. would have to crank it about 10 times for at about 3 second intervals before it would finally turn over. Then I'd let it warm up for about 5 minutes or so, and it would be fine, and drive fine. Then about 3 or 4 days ago, I pulled the plugs to see if they were fouled to see if that's why it was hard to start. They were...both of them (carbon fouled). I'm guessing that the PO either road it with the choke on, has the mixture screws too rich, or the air filter is clogged. To my knowledge it is completely stock, but the mixture screws on both carbs do not have the brass cover on them. Let me know if my assumptions are totally off. I don't have any experience working on bikes, but I do know my way around a car. There is a little over 40k on the bike, so i'm pretty sure it hasn't sat for any of it's life, and the PO claimed that all the regular maintenance was done.
Ok, so the bigger problem beyond fouling plugs...I replaced the plugs with normal temperature champions, just to see if that would fix anything. It started up great with one crank of the starter! But then, I let it warm up for a few minutes and took it for a test ride, and it bucked, lurched, and had major power loss (I turned the throttle traveling about 10mph and it didn't do anything, but blip a little, then all of the sudden there would be a major power increase). None of these problems occurred with the old plugs. I think it may have needed to warm up a bit more, but I was able to take the choke off and it idled perfectly, so I figured it would be ready. Once i got to higher RPM's, the problem mostly went away, but I could still feel it missing a little bit.
I know that something isn't right. Please help me with what it could be. What is the list of stuff that I should check? float levels, air filter, synced carbs, old gas, what? Please tell me the easiest to the hardest to check, so that i can narrow down the problem with the easier things first.
Welcome!
At what rpm's are you rolling around at?