Hey all, just bought a GS500. Have ridden many different bikes, mostly v-twins and this is my first parallel twin. Anyway, picked up a 1990 500 w 33kmiles for $1200. It came with a parts bike (with no paperwork) and two other boxes of parts I closing fairings, windscreens, fluids, sprockets and manuals. I hope to learn a lot of info here and possibly try to tackle inspecting/adjusting valves in the bike - would be my first time doing this. Bike runs great though.
I'd try and post a pic but every time I do it flags it as spam or something and won't let me post. Thanks for having me.
Welcome aboard! Have fun with it and don't hesitate to ask if you have problems with it. It's a simple piece of machinery, easy to work on.
Quote from: Meukowi on March 07, 2021, 12:41:50 AM
Welcome aboard! Have fun with it and don't hesitate to ask if you have problems with it. It's a simple piece of machinery, easy to work on.
Thank you, looking forward to using it just as a simple commuter once I start working back at the office again. These CA gas prices are killing me and thought I'd invest in 2 wheels again before they get any higher.
I'll try and post a pic again.
yeah, where i live it's about 8$ a gallon.
And for pics, there might be a spam protection for new members so that they cant upload pics
Welcome to the forum and hello from Pennsylvania :cheers:
AFAIK, the forum's photo uploader is full... you have to host pics on another site (like imgur, for example) and then link them here.
(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/BewitchedShabbyAtlanticblackgoby-max-1mb.gif)
where pics? :dunno_black: Oh, yea,..errr I hope you figure that out :icon_mrgreen:
https://ibb.co/rwzhDhs
https://ibb.co/wQbnC87
https://ibb.co/84mf441
https://ibb.co/Xs6RnvR
Hopefully these links work.
(https://i.ibb.co/WpHMppm/5-EEF718-C-5-E42-4185-A008-AA3163428-F32.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/ZgwQKvS/7-AE9-A7-DB-8-AE3-4207-A6-F6-0-B233-B57-B427.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/S3MgFgr/CB543-F25-7-B91-4-F6-D-B8-FA-68-C97-BFD50-B3.jpg)
(https://i.ibb.co/nc4JX5J/BB32-F45-F-61-CE-47-C0-A807-D037-D80-F1-E7-F.jpg)
Thanks cbrfxr for posting these for my dumb***! :cheers:
:cheers: What are you doing first to it?
Well it runs pretty good but there's a slight hesitation when ripping the throttle all the way.. it's either between tearing open the carbs and seeing if they need a cleaning and/or jets or.. looking at painting it and flipping the color scheme to white with a blue stripe..
Whaddya think? Anything I should prioritize before those two?
If you whack the throttle open and the bike jerks or hesitates or falls on its face - its a sign the slides are coming up too fast.
Train your wrist to open a little more rolling on style, it actually doesn't accelerate any slower ... you feed it just enough throttle to keep it accelerating..
The alternative is to block 1 hole in the bottom of the slide, and I really dont advocate modding a part that is unobtainum.
Cool.
Buddha.
Thanks Buddha! Yeah it runs well enough that I'm not really interested in ripping it all apart just to get to the carbs and do a cleaning. I might run some fuel additive/cleaner for a bit just to get any lingering gunk out but the bike has been ridden regularly by the previous owner so I'm sure everything is fine enough.
What I don't know if it's been jetted to match the yoshi pipe on it but since I have the spare parts bike I might put the stocker back on just to see the difference.
Cleaning wont do it. You really dont need a clean IMHO if it runs well except for that 1 issue. That is a known issue on the bike. The less wrong way IMHO is to train your wrist. The more wrong way is to destroy a few NLA or hideously $$$ slides. There is no "right" way. Oh wait, yea put the stock airbox and filter and original pipe back on and put all original hoses and everythign back like it came from the factory and hope it doesn't do that ...
Yosh pipe and you're wondering if the jets are right ??? OK pipe alone = 40 pilots, 125 mains, 1-2 washers (wait some UK somewhere right) Needle position clip 3 - Middle, 3 turns on mix screws float level at the top of bowl and no higher. Or you can go by feel.
Lean bike will pull hard when opening throttle (that falling on its face is a separate issue, you should open throttle just fast enough for it to take it - that's fine for this test) but surge and fade under steady throttle cruise. You may also have idle hover when hot, take super long to warm up (but that's low in the throttle openings for 1/4 and up - you have to ride and check)
A rich bike will be soft in throttle response when opening throttle, but behave well at steady throttle and may sneeze type of misfire especially when opening the throttle slowly. At low throttle openings, when you blip the throttle the revs will rise and fall below the set idle rpm and then slowly climb back to the rpm.Or sometimes stall especially on a hot day and when the bike is hot.
You can always do a plug pull for idle check, but higher throttle openings a plug pull isn't practical unless you have a long empty freeway with a near unused exit you know of. Then run at the desired throttle opening for 2-3 min. Hit the kill switch as you peel off to the exit. Then try a plug pull. Yea dont do that and get clobbered by some cell phone texting fool.
Cool.
Buddha.
NorCalGS - where did I get UK from - maybe cos the ad said windsor - Anyway same jetting except you need 1-2 washers under the needle cos you dont have an adjustable clip on it.
Cool.
Buddha.
Thanks for the reply Buddha. Will take all that information into consideration. As mentioned, the bike runs pretty damn well except for the very slight hesitation - I'm almost inclined to not even mess with it much except for the routine maintenance and not unless the hesitation becomes worse. The yoshi pipe does sound nice though. :thumb:
Yosh has great burbly sound. I have a titanium yosh trioval on mine. Some time I want to cut it from 14" to about 8", just big enough for the badge and take off the strap clamp and make a billet carrier style clamp.
The standard for my bikes and I sold over 10 of them owning some less than a month, and 1 I owned less than a day driving over 300 miles to buy it, fixing it on the way, modding it in my driveway and selling it later that same day - get carbs to 40/125/3/1, slap a slip pipe on and I usually had the carb and pipe ready to go on, and sell it, never even changing the cycle trader ad ...
The stock pipe and jetting on the US spec GS are about as right as "Andrew Cuomo - NYC Nursing home director". And less popular.
Cool.
Buddha.
I feel like this is a question Buddha might now, looking at converting my gauges over to digital. I've searched what I feel is up, down, left right and every which way in the forum and can't find the answer. The bike I'm riding is the 1990 and has the analog, cable driven gauges. Is there a plug and play kit or adapters from manufacturers like trail tech, koso or similar? I really don't want to splice and dice everything and would like to keep cable driven if possible for ease of swapping everything over.
I'm guessing the answer is no, it can't be easily done.
Thanks in advance!
BTW one thing to consider, if you are already at 40/125 jets then you might need one washer under the needle clip to dial it right in. Mine has a chopped Yoshimura muffler and stock airbox along with UNI filter and it runs perfectly like this, but it does have some slight hesitation in the low-midrange and light throttle when it's not fully warmed up. After 20 minutes on the road it's perfection.
One thing though, since you're in Cali, ETHANOL FUEL WILL MAKE IT RUN LEANER!! And not only that, but it will make the carbs require much more frequent service. So before you go nuts trying to chase carb issues, put ethanol-free fuel in it with 2oz of Startron in the full tank and maybe some seafoam or B-12 for good measure. It will run richer with ethanol-free fuel and might fix your running issues. Plus if it's been sitting with ethanol fuel in it then there is likely gunk in the carbs but it might sort itself with a tank with seafoam or two run through it.