GStwin.com GS500 Message Forum

I recently registered after years of lurking and got a tip to make a project / build thread. Hell nahw, I thought, I'm not building anything because I like my bike stock! But then I sat and looked at my bike and while it's not a build project, it's definitely one hell of a project. Plus, I tend to make a lot of (repairable) mistakes and I'd hate to deprive anyone of a learning opportunity. So here goes. I'll just use this first post for some background information and a bit of an overview, and cover each "job" in separate posts, to keep it organized. Might be a while before I'm up to speed though.

Bike background
     We have a tiered bike license here in The Netherlands, and I was 22 when I decided I wanted to get my license. That, however, meant I had to get a restricted license (35kW max) and then retake the test two years later to have it unrestricted. I was dubbing whether to wait one year and a half or get it now and then I stumbled across a picture of a GS500. Immediately, I was in love. It was also a 35kW bike so I booked my first lesson right away. Two lessons in (we have one theory test, one maneuverability test and one riding on the streets test, so a license takes about 12 to 20 lessons) I came across a GS500 ad that I couldn't shake. My boyfriend sent it to me a day later, unknowing I'd already seen it, "THIS IS YOUR BIKE". We went to check it out, he OK'd it, I was long lost and smitten, so I bought it. The PO was utterly afraid of the thing and had no business riding bikes. He told me the owner before him had left it sitting outside on the streets in the winters, which was why there was so much salt damage on the crankcase covers. I told my boyfriend during the test ride that it was a bit of an ugly duck - looked pretty bad, but rode like silk. Boyfriend rode it to his home (no license for me yet) and that was it. I had a bike.
     I am the fourth owner of this beautiful 09/10/2002 (scientific format forever for me) GS500H ever since 08/03/2015 (forever, I said), for a whopping 900 euros.

(https://i.imgur.com/9dTCjJN.jpg?1)

     So I passed my theory and my maneuverability, which meant I was only one step away from getting my license. At that point, I asked my boyfriend to ride my bike to my house (it had been sitting at his until I got my license). He did, and when he got here, he had put a yellow ducky on the handlebars, one of those kids' bike bells that squeaks when you squeeze it. Ever since, its name has been "Duckling". I decided that I wanted to do maintenance on it myself, for reasons twofold. Obviously to save money, but also because I believe it's good to know what's holding you upright.


My technical background
     Short paragraph, this. Nonexistent. Couldn't even patch a bicycle tyre, let alone replace a light bulb.


(https://i.imgur.com/Sm6ggaC.jpg?1)

Maintenance
     I keep track of everything in a little booklet, where I write down the date, the mileage and the interval of said job. C stands for check, R for replace, NA for not applicable. I also write down notes on some jobs, but I will save those for the specific post of the job, to keep the overview here easy on the eyes.

16/06/'15   48.294km
Replaced the front brake pads (C 6.000km/12mths)
& front brake fluid (R 2yrs)

22/08/'15   49.915km
Changed speedo bulb (NA)
& replaced engine oil + filter (R 6.000km/12mths)

29/08/'15   50.091km
Changed rear tyre (NA)
& replaced rear brake pads (C 6.000km/12mths)

09/01/'16   52.707km
Checked valve clearances (C 6.000km/12mths)
& replaced valve cover gasket (NA)
& replaced O rings bolts valve cover (NA)
& replaced air filter (R 12.000km/2yrs)
& replaced handlebars (NA)
& replaced clutch and brake levers (NA)
& installed heated grips
& replaced tacho outer casing (NA)
& replaced bulb blinker indicator (NA)
& replaced spark plugs (C 6.000km/12mths | R 12.000km/2yrs)
& replaced fuel hoses (R 4yrs)

07/05/'16   53.173km
Installed new exhaust damper

09/07/'17   55.369km
Front brake caliper revision (C 12mths)
& installed steel braided front brake line

26/07/'17   55.369km
Replaced chain and sprockets (C 6.000km/12mths)
& replaced brake disc front (NA | 4mm)
& replaced battery (NA)
& replaced oil light (NA)
& replaced oil + filter (R 6.000km/12mths)
& replaced thread in oil filter cap (NA)

11/08/'17   55.444km
Replaced exhaust headers (NA)

02/09/'17   56.690km
Changed both tyres (NA)
& air valves (NA)

05/05/'18   58.000km
Checked valve clearances (C 6.000km/12mths)
& replaced valve cover gasket (NA)
& replaced air filter (R 12.000km/2yrs)
again at 59k - also spark plugs, see notes
& replaced front bolt valve cover (NA)
& installed new horn

18/07/'18   59.979km
Replaced oil + filter (R 6.000km/12mths)
& replaced timing rotor crankshaft bolt (NA)
& replaced right crankcase cover gasket (NA)

22/07/'18   60.500km
Installed HyperPro front fork springs
& let the forks sit slightly higher in the steering stem

12/08/'18   61.047km
Installed R6 rear shock
& replaced top shock bolt + nut (Suzuki) (NA)
& replaced lower shock bolt + nut + collar + washer (Yamaha) (NA)
& replaced blinker indicator bulb (NA)
& installed new steering clamp cap
& installed new side fairing mounting rubber


Resources
     In addition to this wonderful forum and website, and its links to several other excellent sources of information (such as pantablo500 and Patrick, who I unfortunately will never be able to thank personally for the encouragement I got from his videos and posts here), there is also a Dutch motor-forum which has a great thread dedicated to the GS500. I also find myself using Cmsnl a lot for parts lists and part numbers. The bonus there is that they have year-specific parts lists that include a picture of the system (say, front brake caliper) where each individual part is numbered and specified below. Very useful.

Great pics!  :star:

Thanks! If anyone wants to skip ahead to the current situation, a pic of that is over in the "who are you & where are you from" thread, with my introduction. :)

16/06/'15   48.294km
Replaced the front brake pads (C 6.000km/12mths)
& front brake fluid (R 2yrs)

Here is one big fat first lesson to all: check your brakes when you buy used! Why, you ask? Well, a picture is worth more than a thousand words...

(https://i.imgur.com/xF0NdiP.jpg?1)

(https://i.imgur.com/6pQuSps.jpg?1)

     Now that's out of the way, let's elaborate on my first actual maintenance job. Again, I had no mechanical background whatsoever at this point. Luckily, since my boyfriend rode it home for me, he was also very willing to help me check the brakes. And when I say willing, I mean demanding, because he knows me and he wanted my front brake to be solid before I started riding, which is fair. He rides himself, and he does all of his maintenance himself. He owned a Suzuki GSF600N (Bandit) at the time, which he wrecked and then completely rebuilt from the ground up again. Since the Bandit and the Duckling are largely the same bike in design, that was perfect for me.
     I won't lie. I was scared as F. This was my bike,
(https://i.imgur.com/ib2l59K.jpg?1)
^{(picture for dramatic effect)}
and we were about to take up a wrench and pull bits of it apart. That just felt iffy. So I had my boyfriend basically do this job with me watching and learning.
     Important things I learnt from taking the caliper off the bike:

• There is only one bolt that keeps the one caliper you have in place on the one disc you have. This bolt is thereby a Very Important Bolt. Torque it to spec.
• Brake fluid hurts your hands. I do have sensitive skin, but it irritated really badly. Luckily, we live in the 21st century. Thereby, gloves are recommended.
• Calipers get extremely dirty. The material on the brake pads turns to magic brake pad powder that will absolutely cover your brake line and caliper, and the only real good way of cleaning it is with brake cleaner. Brake cleaner hurts your hands. Thereby, see point 2.

     With the caliper off the bike, we could see what state it all was in (first two pictures of this post). We were both kind of quiet at that point, because if we'd known it was this bad, my boyfriend wouldn't have ridden it to me 264kms to my house before changing the brake pads. Brake pads should NOT look like metal plates and brake fluid should NOT look like a mixed concoction of coke and fanta. Other than a bit (hell of a lot bit) dirty, the caliper itself looked fine enough to warrant leaving it alone for now. It did go on my list of to do's, but since I didn't have the material to replace the seals on hand, we decided to clean it up as good as we could and stick to replacing the pads and the fluid.
     Note: We did not disconnect the brake line from the brake reservoir and thus not from the bike. It was off the disc, but not off the bike.
     If anyone is doing this job for the first time or if you're interested and have never really looked at your caliper, I highly recommend placing something in the caliper to hold back the pistons a bit (you don't want them to completely fall out of the caliper because then you kind of really need to change all the seals and completely clean the pistons) and then lightly squeeze the brake lever. You'll see the pistons get pushed out a bit. Then release the brake lever and look really closely. The pistons will now retract a tiny bit again. This is ingenious! Obviously, you want full stopping power with the brakes engaged - pistons being pushed out, brake pads being pushed against the disc, braking power. But you also want to be able to maneuver the bike while in neutral without the brakes engaged, so you want the brakes to loosen up a bit when you disengage. However, in order to account for wear (thinning) of the pads and disc, you want to pushing out motion to be larger than the retracting motion, which it is. I found this extremely interesting anyway. Beautiful design.
     We replaced the pads and in the process found two things we had to reuse (because I hadn't bought it new) that I didn't really want to reuse. I'm talking about the pin (part no. 5914144B01) and the clip (6914245000). The clip is something I'd never ever would want to reuse, just because it's small, relatively cheap and easy to damage when you pull it out. The pin is something I'd reuse as long as it looks good and you can clean it up to be smooth, but I ever since like to keep a spare one on hand just in case I think it's past it's prime. Remember, it's your brakes. Be safe rather than sorry. I also found out that it's way better to flush the system with brake fluid slowly than to drain it and then fill it up again, because it will largely save you the extremely irritating hassle of bleeding air out of the system. To do that comfortably, you really want to have two persons there. Our method was for one to engage the brake lever, for the other to open the bleeder, then to close the bleeder, and then for the one to disengage the brake lever again. Rinse, repeat. It's a pain to do this alone is you don't have the 'wingspan' to easily reach the lever and the bleeder simultaneously.
     After bleeding it we took a tie wrap and used that to keep the brake lever pulled in overnight, to build up pressure in the system. Worked like a charm, as well as the brakes, the next day.

Job well done!

Love the write up.  Uh, what is the rubber duck in the reflection?  I'm thinking it related to the duckling theme?

22/08/'15   49.915km
Changed speedo bulb (NA)
& replaced engine oil + filter (R 6.000km/12mths)

Stuff I needed

• Pantablo500's guide (http://pantablo500.tripod.com/id35.html) for changing the bulb. See attached image if site is offline or unreachable for a screenshot.
• Haynes manual for changing the oil and filter.
• Torque wrench for the oil drain plug (20-25Nm).
• A new sealing (crush) washer for the oil drain plug.
• An oil pan.

Obviously I also needed a new bulb, fresh oil, a new oil filter, a new oil filter gasket (that came with the filter so not listed) and regular tools.

     This job was the first job I actually did all on my own. Nobody nearby to help me out, just me and my stuff. So I first did the bulb change, because that seemed less daunting. With the help of Pablo's guide, this was actually a piece of cake. I faintly remember it being even easier, but you can't go wrong with his guide if I got it right in one go. The first light bulb I ever replaced in my life! So, unsurprisingly, I also learned a bit from this giant adventure. Namely, what a shot bulb actually looks like. Blackened.

(https://i.imgur.com/d9x0th5.jpg?1)

     With that out of the way, I could start on my oil change. I bought 10W40 Castrol Power RS oil, because nothing's too good for my little Duckling. I also got a K+N oil filter, because why not. As said, that came with a new O ring / gasket thingy, which was nice. First thing to do was protect my parents' garage floor. And by that, I mean cover the entire possible spill area with old newspapers on top of old blankets/sheets (better yet, as I learned later, is to use some plastic sheet, because nothing will seep through that). Don't want the parents mad? Don't spill oil. That looked like this:

(https://i.imgur.com/JIBcsHv.jpg?1)

(https://i.imgur.com/cXEZtjm.jpg?1)

     And here you see the oil pan and the crush washer. I basically followed Haynes to a T on this one. (spoiler alert: DON'T!) Haynes says to warm up the engine so the oil will drain easily. The downside of that is that the engine, the exhaust pipes and the oil itself will be pretty hot. And if you're replacing the oil filter, you're probably going to touch those exhaust pipes. A better approach is to warm up the engine and then let it cool off until you can comfortably touch the exhaust pipes near where they connect to the engine. The engine itself will still be warm on the inside, because heaps of metal don't cool off that easily - which is also why you want to let the bike sit overnight before checking valve clearances, but you won't burn yourself. The oil will drain a bit slower and you might not get all of it out, but whatever. Beats burn marks on your hands and arms.
     Now, when you unscrew the oil drain plug, don't lose it. There's a lot of oil on top of it which means a surprising amount of downward force. If you just unscrew it casually with the oil pan underneath, the plug WILL fall into the oil pan's hole and you'll have basically lost it, or need to go fishing. If you let the exhaust cool off before starting, you've also let the oil cool off. That means you don't have to worry about hot oil, meaning you can safely lossen the plug with some tools and then fully unscrew it with your fingers, catching it when it comes out. Again, also here, gloves are really nice (latex throwaway ones). If you didn't let the engine cool off, I found this is a pretty nice tool to catch the plug without having to touch hot oil:

(https://i.imgur.com/9DNK4Qj.jpg?1)

     Another note: just change the oil filter every single time you change the oil. It's cheap and if you're already draining the oil, it's not that much more of a hassle. Take good care of your bike if you love it, and the easiest way to do that is to combine maintenance stuff that's only a bit of extra time/money/effort, but a lot of win. If you find any metallic bits or flakes in your drained oil or old filter, that's alarming and you should take the bike to a mechanic, but it's probably already beyond saving. If you find fibre-like stuff, check your clutch.
     Reassembly is basically the same as disassembly. New washer on the oil drain plug, torque it up to spec, install the new oil filter, lightly cover the new O-ring of the filter cover with fresh oil, fit it in the cover and fit the cover onto the filter. I've found that the easiest way to do this last step without breaking anything and/or having the O-ring shift is to fit it onto the filter in one smooth motion and to keep maximum pressure on it with one hand (there's a spring, you can use quite a lot of force). Then use your other hand to (by hand) screw the nuts on the threads now sticking out of the filter cover, so make sure those nuts are within arm's length when you put the cover on. Tighten the nuts by hand while holding steady pressure in the middle of the filter with your first hand. If all nuts are hand-tight, move your first hand next to a nut and put maximum pressure there. Then tighten that nut again, hand tight. Do this for all three nuts. That's it for now.
     After that I cleaned up around all four bolts (drain plug and filter cover nuts), and refilled the engine with oil until it met the F mark on the dipstick. I then ran the engine for about two or three minutes, let it cool off for another two or three minutes and then checked the oil level again. It had dropped, as expected, because I installed a fresh, empty oil filter that had now filled up with oil, lowering the oil level. I refilled it to the F mark ánd checked for any leaks near the four nuts and bolts. Since the engine is now warm, it's best to do this while wearing your motorcycle gloves, using a piece of kitchen towel to swipe around each bolt. If one is seeping oil, tighten it by 1/4 turn, clean up around it and run the engine for a couple minutes again. Then let it cool off a bit and check for leaks again, etc. If you want to know why this caution is warranted, search for "oil filter cover stud snapped". If you snapped it and want to know how to fix it, check my next oil job. Yes, I was an idiot, thought I could do a quick oil change, and snapped a stud.
     Be sure to dispose of your old oil in an appropriate manner. You can google where to do this in your area, and what it will cost you (if anything). Please don't dispose of it onto the ground or down the drain, as you'll hurt the environment.

Job well done!

Quote from: cbrfxr67 on August 14, 2018, 09:02:52 AM
Love the write up.  Uh, what is the rubber duck in the reflection?  I'm thinking it related to the duckling theme?

Yes, it is! It's the yellow ducky on the handlebars, one of those kids' bike bells that squeaks when you squeeze it, that my boyfriend put on the bike before riding it over to my place, because I called it an ugly duckling when we first went to look at it. I thought it was cute and kept it on (you can also see it in the picture for dramatic effect in the post about the front brake). Kids love it when I honk it!  :thumb:

Esther I'm sooooo glad you decided to post a project thread. I love it! Great information and awesome pics too. I can't tell ya how many times I've referred back to my own thread, wondering, "When did I do that?" or "Where's that info again?"

Awesome to have ya here :cheers:

29/08/'15   50.091km
Changed rear tyre (NA)
& replaced rear brake pads (C 6.000km/12mths)

     The original rear tyre I bought it on was absolutely squared, so I wanted a new one. The front one was still good, however, so I decided to stick to the ContiGo's that were on the bike. I did change the size to a 140/80/17. I wasn't going to put a tyre on the rim myself, however, so I called a local shop to make an appointment. They ordered the tyre and all I had to do was bring the bike, wait for a bit in the store, and then ride it back home after the job was done. So I did. And while I was sitting there, time passed. Eventually I was called into the workshop.
     They showed me my rear caliper and told me they couldn't even get it off, it was that stuck. I had two options - either they'd drill it out and try and save the caliper, or they'd break it completely and fix me up with a "new" (secondhand) one. I chose the first option. They drilled the pin, removed the caliper, and changed my tyre. They also changed the rear brake pads and the rear brake fluid in one go. I was told to ride it slow and careful in the corners at first, and then build it up. "Just ride it up and down to [next city], which is about 20mins one-way over the highway, and you'll be good to go after that!" So I did that, hopped on and rode off carefully, but not after I asked them whether they did anything other than the tyre and the brake. No, nothing, really! 

(https://i.imgur.com/8XeEVgP.jpg?1)

     I decided to fuel up in the next city. As soon as I pulled up to the gas pump, I noticed something odd. My bike was revving at about 4000-5000rpm with the clutch engaged. This is where I started panicking, fully convinced they'd broken something. I called them (ten mins before closing) and I'm sure I was a Buddha Loves You to them, because I was a bit scared as well as angry. They gave the phone to the mechanic, who proceeded to tell me "Oh yeah, I tweaked the idle a bit, because it seemed low, that might be it." This is the same guy who told me just 20mins ago that he did absolutely NOTHING else on my bike but what was specified on the bill.  :cookoo:
     This shouldn't have been that big of a problem - just turn the idle screw a bit, right? That's theory. In practice, I had no freaking clue how to even change the idle. So I pushed the bike to the parking lot behind the gas station, and asked some guys whether they could help me put it on the center stand (took me six months of practicing to learn how to do that). They were very helpful. Then I tried to google how to adjust the idle. I finally found a link to the owner's manual wherein it is described WITH pictures (yay!). After a bit of searching, I found the idle screw on my Duckling. I pulled the seat, got the toolbag out and looked for a tool that would turn the idle screw. The engine was hot, I couldn't really find a good tool and I only managed to tweak it a tiny bit before realizing I was turning the screw the wrong way. ARGH.
     It was then that luck rained down on me and this old dude on his Goldwing'esque bike stopped next to me. "Need any help?" YES PLEASE YES. This dude went on and on about his bike trip across the globe, all the while simply reaching for the idle screw by hand and turning it until I said stop. Amazing. I don't think he'll ever know how grateful I was for him in that moment. So yeah. Don't use a tool for that screw, people. Just put your motorcycle gloves on, stick your hand in there and turn the knob. It's the white one below the tank, in basically the only spot your hand could possibly fit.

     I think it's important to note that I did not end up liking the size change on the rear tyre. It made me insecure at standstills because it got even harder for me to reach the ground, only being able to tiptoe it. It also didn't handle as well in corners, and I didn't really notice any positive changes from it. It's also important to note that I do not recommend the ContiGo's to anyone. They are absolutely horrible in the wet, when cold, and also kind of suck when warmed up in the dry. They're overall not very steady and while they're cheap, they're miles behind on other tyres. I'm now running stock sized Dunlop Arrowmax Streetsmarts and it's such a huge improvement, it's unbelievable. Don't get the ContiGo's. Just don't.

Lesson learned: even if it's frustrating and painful, doing maintenance yourself will at least ensure that you know exactly what's been done.

Quote from: ShowBizWolf on August 14, 2018, 12:34:10 PM
Esther I'm sooooo glad you decided to post a project thread. I love it! Great information and awesome pics too. I can't tell ya how many times I've referred back to my own thread, wondering, "When did I do that?" or "Where's that info again?"

Awesome to have ya here :cheers:

Hiya, thanks! Both for the recommendation, the encouragement, the help, and the compliment. ;)

Great thread, love the amount of detail you've put into these stories. These will surely be of help to someone in the future.

The Crash - JSYK: no permanent physical of mental damage, feel free to laugh

     Maybe you guessed already, based on the long list of stuff I modded in the next maintenance job, but I crashed my beloved on December 17th, 2015.  :sad:  I had to do a 20mins one-way highway trip to do an interview with someone. We planned it after his work hours, so it was lateish (left for home around five), dark (sundown at 16:16, according to Google), and misty. It was actually the warmest 17th of December since they kept logs, about 10 degrees (Celsius, always, although in this case Kelvin works too) warmer than usual. I had done the interview and proceeded to strap up my bag on the tail, using a cargo net, and noticed the back cover of my helmet camera was missing. Probably forgot to put it on after recharging the battery. So I took the camera off the helmet and put it in my bag, worried that the fog would cause water damage to the battery, SD card or camera itself otherwise. So alas, no video material of this event. I will try and analyze what went wrong as well as I can, but I honestly can't really trust my memory on this one, so feel free to point out any illogical reasoning or inconsistencies. Might help me clear stuff up. Here is some Google location timeline data for that day:


     

Location
     Text here, pictures are above. So, over here we have something we call a "ring road". It's basically a road that goes all the way around the city, with a maximum speed of 70kmph, and directions are generally given as "ring-west", "ring-east", "ring-north", and "ring-south". If you approach the ring road, you will always have two general directions given. One for the left lane and one for the right lane. Say, left for west, right for south. That way, if you need to be in the north of the city, you know you're now in-between west and south, so you need to pick west for the fastest route to north.
     Coming from this city in the south, I approached the ring road from the highway in exactly that location. There are five lanes. The two most left lanes lead to a different big city via an N-road (max speed 100kmph), so those would not get you on the ring road at all. The middle lane indicates "ring-west", so that lane would take you on the ring road. The two most right lanes indicate "ring-south", which would direct you to the ring road as well, just in the other direction. This is, however, just a four-way crossing (with lights). So while lane 1&2 have a different destination from 3 (counting from the left), indicated by the signs above the road as you approach the crossing, all three lanes have the same left arrow marked on the asphalt and the same left arrow in the traffic light. All three lanes take a left turn at this large crossing.
     After this left turn, there's three lanes left. Soon, signs above the road indicate the difference again, that the two left lanes will proceed to this other big city, and the right lane will lead to the ring road. The absolute end point of this exit (so not the start of the exit lane, the end) is approximately 600-700 meters away from the crossing. That's pretty soon when you're going 70kmph, which is also why, in general, you want to already be in lane 3 at the crossing if you need to take the exit to the ring road later on. I did that perfectly.
     What I did not do, was take into account that not everyone reads the six signs up to that point, and that someone might only notice the absolute last road sign indicating this, and then suddenly throwing their car onto the exit lane. I was going 70kmph, as were the cars in front of me. I had a solid 2s distance to the car immediately in front of me. Then this one car just threw itself onto the exit lane while going 50kmph, in the "gap" between me and the car in front. I don't even think she saw me at all. I had to make a split second decision and I grabbed the brake. Next thing I was thinking "oh F*" and my butt was lifted off the seat slightly. Then nothing.


Immediately after
     When I "woke up", I was lying on the asphalt, internally screaming to myself "YOU NEED A NEW HELMET YOU NEED A NEW HELMET..." which is a train of thought I cannot remember starting. I was facing the exited there was no bike there. So I slowly propped myself up, stood up, and looked back. There was a police officer coming towards me, almost there, another officer talking to a woman standing beside a car that was behind... my bike. The officer was pretty quick to fire some questions at me and I have to shamefully admit: I lied.  :embarrassed:  I told him that no, my head didn't hurt, no, I was not in pain, no, I was not feeling nauseous, no, I was not dizzy at all. They were apparently driving two cars behind me when it happened and had closed off the exit immediately. The lady driving behind me was in utter shock - she thought she hit me and caused the accident. I quickly explained that it was my own mistake, I didn't hit anyone, nobody hit me, braking error.
     We walked back to my bike, that was on its left side. With his help I soon got it upright again, trying really hard not to throw up. The Suzuki crankcase cover plate was missing (officer #2 found that for me on the side of the road - I still have it), the cover itself was definitely shaved, as was the tank, the handlebars and my clutch lever. The officers had already called a salvor to come pick the bike up, but if I got it running before they got there, I could ride it home. It wouldn't start, however. The lights would turn on just fine, but there was no starter engine.
     Luckily, the GS500 is a simple bike. I figured, there are five possible things stopping you from starting it after a crash if the lights will turn on. One, it's toast. Something broke beyond repair and F it all. Which I couldn't fix. Two, the battery was too dead to crank the bike, not dead enough to kill the lights. Also couldn't fix that. Three, the starter motor is toast. Couldn't fix it. Four, the jiffy sensor is stuck. Doable but kind of tricky. Five, the clutch switch is toast. That sounded plausible, considering I fell on that side, and it's an easy fix. Take it out, flip the switch manually (so it thinks the clutch is always engaged) and try and start the bike again.
     That actually worked. Still can't believe it. It was running seemingly fine, so I asked the officers if I was good to leave. I really wanted to black out or throw up and absolutely not ride, but my mind was playing tricks on me. I was somehow convinced that once the salvor had my bike, I would never see it again. So I HAD to ride it home. HAD TO. (bogus, says non impaired hindsight) They tentatively OK'd me, but said they'd follow me for a while to make sure I was really okay. I hopped on, followed the rest of the exit and approached the large roundabout that's there. The first corner. That's when I realized my handlebars were really bent. Cue me, trying to work through this shock mid-corner, with two cops on my ass watching my every move for any sign I'm unfit to ride. Yeah, you laugh.
     I decided at that point to not stop at my house (10mins away), but to continue riding to my parents (20mins away), because I didn't know what would happen to me once I got off the bike. The officers waved me off after a five minute tail, satisfied with my riding, and I rode the bike to my parents. I parked it in the driveway, rung the doorbell and absolutely collapsed. My parents opened the door to me sitting/leaning against it and absolutely bawling my eyes out. That was kind of a big shock. They thought my boyfriend had broken up with me or something. As soon as I got it out of my mouth that I'd crashed my bike, the panic started to set in (dad's a nurse).


Damages
     I had a bad bruise on my left elbow, where the elbow protector had dug into my arm. I also had a concussion and was unable to even leave my bed for a few days, and after that I still couldn't really do anything remotely intense. It took me about six months to feel back to normal. There wasn't really any damage to my gear, just slight scuffing on the visor of my helmet. I did listen to myself though and got a new helmet right away. Good thing too, because a few days after the crash I started remembering a bit more. The crash itself is still blacked out in my memory, with the exception of one point right in the middle: hitting the asphalt. Head first. I now remember the sound that made, the smell that immediately flooded me and the taste it left in my mouth. I wish I didn't remember that, honestly. I had nightmares about that for a while. The bruise picture below is from December 25th.
     The Duckling had a scuffed crankcase cover (salt damage was already there), scuffed tank, bent handlebars, bent clutch lever, scuffed mirror, cracked tacho casing, slightly scuffed headlight, and that was actually pretty much it. Could've been way worse for the both of us, honestly.



     Turns out it's really hard to spot whether your handlebars are bent or not. I knew they were because I'd felt it in the cornering, but I couldn't SEE it standing in the garage. Quick trick: align your steering stem plate (the thingy below your gauges, where the clamps are that hold your handlebars) and then go full on Bob Ross and draw a line along your handlebars, like in the picture above. That makes it much easier to see whether they're bent and how badly. To really see how well this trick works, this (https://i.imgur.com/2FndyTz.jpg%5B/url) is the exact same picture, but without the Bob Ross touch. Front view (https://i.imgur.com/60dMuFa.jpg) as well. If you know what you're looking for, you can kinda spot the bend, but it's way harder than with the red lines assisting you.

Quote from: qcbaker on August 15, 2018, 05:34:02 AM
Great thread, love the amount of detail you've put into these stories. These will surely be of help to someone in the future.

Thanks! I do hope so. :)

Thanks for posting your story!  I've been enjoying the process of discovery and your sense of humor.  Sorry to hear about your crash but you seem to have managed through it.  :) 

Looking forward to the next installment!

Thank you! Yes, I have. And it gave me the opportunity to do some decent upgrades on my bike as well, so that was nice. :) Might be a few days until the next job, since I'm gone for two or three days, but I can already assure you that it will cover my most hilarious lesson/mistake in bike maintenance.

09/01/'16   52.707km
Checked valve clearances (C 6.000km/12mths)
& replaced valve cover gasket (NA)
& replaced O rings bolts valve cover (NA)
& replaced air filter (R 12.000km/2yrs)
& replaced handlebars (NA)
& replaced clutch and brake levers (NA)
& installed heated grips
& replaced tacho outer casing (NA)
& replaced bulb blinker indicator (NA)
& replaced spark plugs (C 6.000km/12mths | R 12.000km/2yrs)
& replaced fuel hoses (R 4yrs)

Note: This post will mainly focus on mistakes, errors, idiocracy and problems. I don't really have a lot of pictures of this job, so I'll deal with the ins and outs of valve clearance checks and stuff in the post on my next valve job. With pictures. Another factor is that I was still concussed, so my memory is foggy here as well, which doesn't help.

     So, considering the bike was in the garage anyway, might as well get some work done, right? I definitely needed a new tacho casing, a new set of handlebars, a new clutch lever, and some new dignity. So I put down the date as 09/01/'16, but that's a bit of a white lie. That's when I started this job. I was back on the rode April 24st, 2016. Stuff happened. And something I did even before this job is "fix" the tank scratches. It's a temporary solution just so it doesn't look absolutely hideous and so it doesn't rust. I bought a touch-up pen kit (https://i.imgur.com/lbkCLQY.jpg) and... Well, dabbled. I don't really have a close-up of the tank in an "after" fashion, but I'll try and see if I can take a picture of that for you guys in the next few days. 
     The first plan was to replace the air filter and to check the valve clearances. Soon we stumbled onto problem #1: my fuel hoses were so far gone that there was no way we were ever getting them off intact. So we cut them off right under the petcock. Which meant we also were going to need to replace the fuel lines. It was a really stupid hassle to figure out where which fuel line actually routed, but I managed to find a diagram (https://i.imgur.com/GRLmg4J.jpg) that shows it pretty well. I used coloured rubber bands on each side of the fuel line that I had to leave on the petcock at first, and while removing the remaining fuel line, I moved the rubber band to the petcock. That way, all I had to do was match up colours, and that worked pretty well. Highly recommend.

(https://i.imgur.com/ETnoXlO.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/Izr55Ld.jpg)

     Such a sad look for my bike. No tank, no handlebars, no nothing. So we proceeded to actually do the valve clearance check, where we stumbled upon problem #2: the valve cover gasket. It was beyond beyond saving. It had turned brittle, stuck to the engine and just crumbled into pieces. You don't want hardened gasket falling into your engine, apparently, so we stuffed the spark plug holes with kitchen paper, and slowly started hacking at the gasket with flathead screwdrivers, from the inside, moving outwards. That took us a good hour or so.
     We had a bucket lifter tool, a pair of tweezers, and that was supposed to do the job. However, we encountered problem #3: the valves were so tight, that we couldn't depress the bucket far enough to lift the shims. So we decided to take out the cams. We didn't take any pictures of their position beforehand, which was obviously very stupid, but wouldn't have helped us anyway. We lifted the shims, switched them out and placed the cams back. Which was when we didn't realise that the newer facelift model only had one spool. So while the manual we looked up online (with pictures) said to time the cams on the left bottom, we were actually supposed to time them on the right top. We didn't. We also didn't know whether to time them nodges out or nodges in. We tried to look into the spark plug hole to figure out which cilinder would fire when and thus which valve would need to be open when, and ended up placing the cams back with something resembling certainty.
     We replaced the O-rings on the valve cover bolts, because well, you read what the gasket looked like. I also made a note that one bolt (the front one) didn't really have the adequate imbus shape anymore, so I'd need to replace that next time as well. We put in the new air filter, and went on to take off the handlebars.

(https://i.imgur.com/i3o28yQ.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/sAgKMmr.jpg?2)

     The new pair of handlebars had slightly different dimensions than the OEM ones - wider, with a bit more pullback. And the grip heaters have a little fancy block sticking out underneath to regulate the heat. Fortunately, nothing ended up touching the tank at either full side, so that was a nice positive!  :icon_mrgreen:  I replaced the steering weights as well, making it look like this in the end (you can still see the cracked silver tacho housing, which I replaced with a black one):

(https://i.imgur.com/pQWSGZM.jpg)

     All that out of the way and time to fire it up!

     ...

     Nope.  :sad:

     To give a summary: it is now the 25th of March. Valves were checked and adjusted, new spark plugs installed, new fuel lines, full battery, had been sitting for three months. The starter engine would turn and turn faster with the throttle open, petcock is set to ON, I could smell the gas after trying to start it repeatedly, brake cleaner had no effect, fuel cap open had no effect. So the first thing people asked me is if I still had a spark. I asked how to check for that, and the literal answer was: "Pull the spark plug, put it on the engine, on a metal part, and try and start the bike with the lights off. You should see blue sparks coming from the spark plug." which is exactly what I did. There was no spark. Guys, honestly, I went full cowboy with my multimeter. I measured anything and everything and all was good in the world, seemingly. So why did I have no spark?  :dunno_black:

     28th of March. The day I decided to ask my boyfriend how this spark check thing would work anyway. Like, would there be a magnetic field of some kind, telling the plug to spark? It went quiet at that point, and he asked me: "You DID leave the cable on the spark plug, right?"

     LESSON: when checking for sparks, leave the cable attached to the spark plug.  :embarassed:

(https://i.imgur.com/aXT07U2.jpg)

     So, eliminating that as a reason for not starting, I figured we must've put the cams back in the wrong way round. Opened up the valve cover again, adjusted the cam position and BAM.

(https://i.imgur.com/o2BxMeZ.jpg)

Job well done.  :cheers:

Hi Sara,

Now how is it that someone in the Netherlands speaks English better than the rest of us Americans and Brits?  :D
I'm always envious of Dutch folk who can speak 3-4 languages without skipping a beat.

Glad that the engine didn't smash itself to bits with the cam timing off.  Having the valves bash against the piston would be bad...

I'm cheating - my nanny was South African, so I grew up with the Tweenies. ;) But yeah, we have to, if we want to communicate internationally, because nobody's going to learn Dutch. So we're taught English all throughout high school, which is 4/5/6 years depending on your educational level. We also have to pick one other modern foreign language for our final exams, which is usually German or French. I aced the Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English way back when I was 16, so I consider myself a native speaker in Dutch as well as English, also since I'm formally fluent in both when it comes to my field of research. I can hold an informal conversation in German, but don't ask me to be grammatically correct. My passive German is excellent. I can ask for directions in French and maybe even understand the reply.  ;)  I'm currently learning Russian as a side project. So you're quite on point with 3-4. :icon_mrgreen:

Yeah, I was extremely lucky that it didn't start. What gave it away in the end was when I put a plastic baggy on the exhaust and then tried to start it. It sucked air in through the exhaust instead of expelling air.  :embarrassed:

07/05/'16   53.173km
Installed new exhaust damper

     As you cannot see in any of my previous pictures, my exhaust was a mess, rust-wise. The headers looked kind of fine where they came out of the engine, but it turned real bad towards the baffle. I hated the look of the baffle anyway, and I came across a good deal for a new one, RVS, with E approval. The last bit was actually pretty important to me, since I live very close to the border with Germany. I wanted to be able to ride there without any problems with the law enforcement, and they are very strict about exhausts. Normally, E approved baffles are crazy expensive, so I didn't hesitate to buy this SUZUKI GS500E '89- GM51A/B JAMA Original replacement muffler INOX Approved 95.2013 from Laser.
     I had done a bit of shopping around for a new shop to bring my bike for stuff I wouldn't or couldn't do myself, since I'd rather not take it back to the same place that put my new rear tyre on. Unfortunately, the other two places I went to take a look both had the most sexist mechanics in the history of motorcycle maintenance, so I found myself going back to the tyre changing place again. I told them to cut/saw through the exhaust to link pipe connection and put my new linkpipe and baffle on, either welding it or using clamps, I didn't really care. They ended up using a clamp.

(https://i.imgur.com/KIz5Uf9.jpg)

     It looked real pretty again.  :embarassed:  Here you can also kind of see the state of the remainder of the exhaust system - which is a bit of a sneak peek as to why I replaced the headers as well a while later. Maybe you'll also have noticed by now that I heavily favour this side of the bike for pictures. That's 100% because of the crash damage on the other side of the bike.


     I found this picture, taken the same day as the one where the new baffle has just been installed (click to enlarge). So this is after I did the touch up job with the pen. The dark spots on the engine side are due to salt damage - the scratches and the missing Suzuki logo plate are due to the crash. I put a new logo plate back on a couple months ago, so that sort of cleans up this side of the bike a bit, but the tank is such a shame. I still plan to have it re-done professionally, some day, when I have the money... But to be honest, I still have one side that's perfect for pictures, I don't see it when I'm on the bike, and if you don't know it's there, it's now hardly noticeable, unless you've got your nose pressed to the tank. So I've sort of accepted it. Sort of.