Hey there everyone.
Since my lady friend had gotten her motorcycle endorsement, we have been on the lookout for her own ride. In the year since she has gotten the endorsement, she's ridden my SV650s, Buell Blasts, a Harley 883, and a ZX-6E that we worked on for to long time for her, so she has plenty of experience. Basically brought that one back from the dead, but she wasn't confident on it, so we cut our losses and picked up the search again.
3 days later we picked up a red '92 GS500E (from a guy that actually recommended joining this forum) and she absolutely loves the thing. Can't get her off it :)
Mods are:
- Full yoshimura exhaust system
- Lunch box air filter
- Carbs jetted accordingly
- Braided front brake line
- LED gauge lights
- SV650 mirrors
The thing is a pleasure to ride and is actually pretty comfortable. It was nice to buy her something that doesn't need any working on right away and only needs regular maintenance. The only "gripe" that she has at the moment is the wind beats her up on the highway, so we're looking to get her a little bolt on flyscreen from somewhere. Anyone have some recommendations on where/how to find/make one?
Pics will follow later on this evening and I will actually get my fiancee on here soon enough. Pleasure to be a part of the fray!
Welcome to the forum, congratulations on the purchase. The best thing to do about highway wind (apart from strengthening her upper body) is to do a slight tuck in. Move the butt back 5-6 inches and bring the chest/head down towards the gauges. She'll know she's doing it right because the wind will support her instead of trying to blow her off of the bike.
Welcome to the forum! The red GS bikes look really sleek, def post some pics :thumb:
Welcome! Need pics of everything in the stable!
work is slow today, and i forgot that i had everything up on an online album to share elsewhere.
so here's her new ride (the day we picked it up), affectionately named "Jo" for some reason... he will be her commuter for the time being while she finishes up her schooling.
(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h222/LBstud42/ThedaywegotJo.jpg)
here was her old horse. got it in pieces and resurrected it to decent riding condition after about 3 months of working on it and pouring oodles of monies into it.
the day we got it
(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h222/LBstud42/IMG-20120424-00257.jpg)
what we finished with
(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h222/LBstud42/IMG-20120513-00277.jpg)
(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h222/LBstud42/IMG-20120513-00278.jpg)
even after putting all the work into it, she never was fully comfortable riding it since there were so many previous problems before.
the buells i referred to are the one she learned on for her MSF course and one that my dad has. The 883 was a rental that we got for her last year so she could ride down to daytona for biketoberfest.
here is my personal every day commuter. 2007 SV650S
(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h222/LBstud42/IMG_3398.jpg)
and last but not least, a his and hers shot
(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h222/LBstud42/IMG-20120802-00349.jpg)
Very nice!!! many of us on here are a fan of the sv650 and the gs500, and i think more than a few own both. Welcome to the forums! you may soon find yourself riding the GS more than you would have thought!
Quote from: dry_humor on August 10, 2012, 07:11:19 AM..........The only "gripe" that she has at the moment is the wind beats her up on the highway, so we're looking to get her a little bolt on flyscreen from somewhere. Anyone have some recommendations on where/how to find/make one?............
Something like a National Cycle Flyscreen might be what she is looking for.
(http://www.nationalcycle.com/images/600/lssumn2543gs500e90.jpg)
Personally, I like a Slipstreamer Spitfire size screen for all day high speed rides and find it about the right amount of summer shield for me. I still use a big NC Plexi 2 shield winters here in NE Ohio changing them every spring and fall:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v443/jcp8832/summer-winterGS.jpg)
that national cycle one is pretty much what we're looking for. thanks jack :) i've thought about just modding something up similar to the solid color "flyscreens" that buells have. probably a solid colored red/black piece of plastic just big enough to shove the air over her head a little more.
Quote from: dry_humor on August 10, 2012, 08:19:40 AM
(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h222/LBstud42/IMG-20120513-00278.jpg)
I have a '93 ZX-6E that is my daily commuter, it is copperhead orange, but came to me as pink/purple.
I love the ZX-6E, but it is night and day between the GS.
Nice new GS!!
Great pics! :thumb:
Quote from: cbrfxr67 on August 10, 2012, 09:36:07 AM
Great pics! :thumb:
thanks. i'm probably going to try and get a photogenic GS/motorcycle thread going here soon, unless someone else beats me to it ;)
I kind of thought about that after jester nailed a great pic recently on the picture game,.....I wonder if anyone ever tried to start one,....
theres a pretty good one for SV's at svrider.com.
looks like i can make a rather contributable thread here :woohoo:
I think we have / had one, the gallery here went down and it dissapeared. or atleast that's what i think happend :dunno_white:
I don't know what's up with the gstwins coppermine gallery aka "Wall of Fame." It's still there in some form, because my old pictures from it in old threads (and my avatar) still load, but whenever I go to the gallery page itself now I get "Critical error - There was an error while processing a database query "
I liked to put pictures for GStwins posts in that gallery, becasue that way they stay put and the posts still work years later when some other poor schmuck is having the same problems/questions that I was at the time. I actually have one (carb o-rings, scanned for size with rulers) I'd like to load up now, but it's still broken.
Quote from: dry_humor on August 10, 2012, 08:19:40 AM
work is slow today, and i forgot that i had everything up on an online album to share elsewhere.
so here's her new ride (the day we picked it up), affectionately named "Jo" for some reason... he will be her commuter for the time being while she finishes up her schooling.
(http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h222/LBstud42/ThedaywegotJo.jpg)
+1 sexy ride! Where'd you get it? :cheers:
Glad she enjoys the bike. They will take good care of you here.
Now I gotta find an SV650....
hey hey thanks tussey! she loves the thing! still getting used to the fact that there is no fuel gauge though lol.
we just had a "maintenance day" of sorts sunday. i cleaned up and checked everything on my SV prepping for a shock swap while she followed suit as much as she could on the GS. my dad wants his carbtune back, so i walked her through how to sync the carbs before i sent it back. she's getting about 150 miles before she has to switch to reserve, which is rather excellent in my book :)
also, this is quite possibly one of the easiest bikes to work on.
the photogenic thread will be started here soon. the weather has been horrendous here lately :(
Congrats on a great purchase! And welcome to the forum - to both of you. GS is a lovely thing to ride. I got mine about two and half years ago, to replace a Yamaha. No comparison: GS wins hands down. The lack of the fuel gauge has never been a problem for me, since I never owned a ride that had one :) Just reset the trip-meter to 0 at every fill up.
I usually get about 180-190 before reserve and well over 200 including reserve. A few folks here tune theirs up to get 70 MPG and even more. However 150 isn't bad at all.
Anyway, I'm sure your lady will enjoy "Jo" - it's a great everyday commuter. And don't be surprised if you end up riding it more than you expect.
Quote from: shchuka on August 22, 2012, 12:59:39 AM
Congrats on a great purchase! And welcome to the forum - to both of you. GS is a lovely thing to ride. I got mine about two and half years ago, to replace a Yamaha. No comparison: GS wins hands down. The lack of the fuel gauge has never been a problem for me, since I never owned a ride that had one :) Just reset the trip-meter to 0 at every fill up.
I usually get about 180-190 before reserve and well over 200 including reserve. A few folks here tune theirs up to get 70 MPG and even more. However 150 isn't bad at all.
Anyway, I'm sure your lady will enjoy "Jo" - it's a great everyday commuter. And don't be surprised if you end up riding it more than you expect.
thanks for the welcome!
i figured with the exhaust/air box/carb mods, fuel consumption would be a little more than usual, especially with the fact that she's dealing with quite a bit of traffic to and from school/work. i'm hoping to see some improvement now that we've done the carb sync and her commutes include a teensie bit more highway now. they weren't that far off, but who knows... when i synched the throttle bodies on my SV my range went from 185 miles a tank to about 210.
keeping my fingers crossed :)