Hey y'all, long time no post. I had a 93" GS years ago and long/short it's been a while since I had a bike. I've been looking and found a 98' GS with 14K for $2600 that's mostly stock minus the exhaust. It's a clean bike and I really like that the even the signal stalks haven't been cut down. Back in 2003 I bought my 93' w/ 10K for $1500 so I'm thinking if I could get this 98' with similar miles for $2300 it would be a good deal. Tires, chain, sprockets are all new. Not sure if the valves have been adjusted. Thoughts on what to ask/look for and what a fair price would be???
It's hard to evaluate $ value for old motorcycles like this.
I think any reasonable 90s Japanese street bike that will run correctly, has all of the parts intact, has no serious cosmetic damage and no mechanical issues, which you can ride away on and will get home from the purchase location under its own power without a field repair, is worth $2500. That's regardless of age or heritage, really. SV650, GS500, CB500, Ninja, Bandit, etc., all basically the same. Identical condition, you'd probably pay a couple of hundred more for an SV650 than a GS500, but a GS500 with lower miles and in better-kept condition will be worth more (to me) than an SV650 all else being equal. Considering that new tires, installed, cost over $300, general condition is a bigger deal than what the bike is.
You might offer $2K for the one you are looking at and wind up with it for $2300. You might wait a real long time and find one in the same condition for $900. Someone else might get $3K for one like that. It just varies. The category of motorcycle is not in short supply, but the specific GS500s are not very common in the market so it just is about timing to match up the offer for sale with when a specific buyer is looking. Also, it's getting a lot harder to find a 90s GS500 that has not been abused to death. So if you really want one and there's one available, probably worth picking it up even if the price is not perfect.
Quote from: mr72 on October 15, 2021, 10:28:27 AM
Also, it's getting a lot harder to find a 90s GS500 that has not been abused to death. So if you really want one and there's one available, probably worth picking it up even if the price is not perfect.
For my local craigslist, that seems to be true of any bike older than 2010. Everyone is trying to sell their bikes that have sat for 5+ years and don't run or are abused to death or are high mileage while the used bike market is hot. To find a good deal right now, you really have to be willing to wait for the old guy who hasn't kept up with used bike prices to post and then show up with cash within 2 hours.
If you need/want a bike or just a GS500 right now, that sounds like a correctly priced bike. Not much room for haggling if it is truly a clean bike and it may have sold in the time it took me to write this post. Most bikes in that $1500 - $2500 bracket either look rough or run rough or have very high mileage.
14k miles is just few enough miles that it will be ok if it never had a valve adjustment, just check it ASAP. Watch out items are:
-Rusty tank because thats a huge PITA to deal with and nice tanks are getting hard to find.
-Carbs/intake and airbox boots/fuel lines. When was the last time they were rebuilt? If never, thats okay but expect to eventually have to rebuild them yourself as it will start to have issues as the 20 year old rubber bits deteriorate.
-Fork seals. Check if there is a line on the forks from leaky fork oil
-Does it have the original brake lines? If so you will want to replace them soon and that's going to be several hundred dollars.
The only one that would be a walk away for me is the rusty tank interior. Everything else is just good to know going into it. Fresh tires and chain is worth a lot.
Thing is, this market works both ways. So if you buy it for $2600 and it turns out not to float your boat just right, you can probably get $2600 back out of it as long as you don't break it while you own it. But you might never run into one like that again.
Thanks for the input guys, I appreciate it! The seller messaged me back saying the bike was hesitating a bit and he doesn't want to sell it until he figures it out. I appreciate an honest seller so I told him to hit me up when it's back up and running.
Mine has a running problem and I'd totally sell it to you right now. I'll even tell you how to fix it. I'm just so freaking sick of messing with it. It was fine when I rode it every day but now that I ride it once every six months, it's a disaster.
(https://media.giphy.com/media/3o6MbezxiIfgyroMp2/giphy.gif)
you gotta be kidding, right?
Realistically, I would let my GS500 go as-is for $1800. If I get to cleaning the carbs, $2K. I'll probably do that this weekend between shuttling mrs72's scooter back and forth to the MSF class.
I realize it's worth more to me than to anyone else, which is why I probably won't ever sell it, no matter how mad I get at it.
That said, I'd trade it straight up for the right 200-250cc Vespa, or for a DR650 with electric start in similar condition to my GS.
(https://media.giphy.com/media/3ohuPkgbcIaG2OoDIs/giphy.gif)
dang it,.. Well it's still interestin to see what you might take for that sweet ride,...
One quote I remember from one guy's stressful build was, 'many a night you
could've bought it for a dollar, I hated the thing,....' He did finally finish it though,...
Heh.
Well, I am kind of coming off the high of resurrecting a free scooter, thinking I must be a mechanical magician. And then I get smacked with trivial issues with a wholly sorted GS500 that are more frustrating than anything.
If it was "just start and go any time" reliable like my Triumph is, I'd probably ride it 25% of the time. But it's "spend every weekend fixing it, then test ride" kind of pattern, which is just totally not what I am after. And it's just because THE FREAKING CARBS and it's just intolerant of sitting for any length of time at all. And it has to sit, because half the time I ride it, some tiny thing breaks and I have to fix it (like fork seals), and finding time to do that usually takes two months and it sits. Then the carbs go to crap no matter what I do for fuel. But my Triumph sat in pieces and crumpled up and broken for like 6 months and fired up immediately as soon as I hooked the battery back up. So much for legendary Suzuki reliability and quaint British bike breakdown tendencies.
And on that note, I think I'm going to go out and try to fix those carbs. And the new tires just arrived on the porch for the Triumph, so my Saturday is going to involve a whole lot of anger and madness changing tires. And a couple of packs of zip ties.
EDIT: Just got back in from sorting it back out. Left carb's pilot jet was completely blocked, as I had suspected. Now it runs fine. Just waiting on new handlebar risers to come in tomorrow to get it back in business.
So I don't hate it right now.
My 2002 GS has 83K, only opened the carbs once when purchased at 14k to fix PO mistakes. What I've learned from owning a couple GSs...dun mess with your carbs & they don't mess with you. Just don't let it sit more than 2-3 weeks.
Glad you got it running again!
I wouldn't think of it as "how long since I last rode the GS500" and more like "how long has that gas been in the tank." If I haven't run the bike for a month or two I make sure to put 160+ miles on it to get a fresh batch of fuel in there. If you run it every week but only for a couple miles then eventually it's sitting for a week at a time with months old fuel and that's where pilot jets start getting clogged.
I'm at over 50,000 miles and I've had luck letting mine sit 2 - 3 months at a time with E10 but you definitely can't let it sit all winter without doing a full winterization draining the carbs and with non-ethanol gas in the tank.
My GS carbs have been reliable enough that I don't remember what the inside of them look like. Haven't touched them since 2010.
I totally understand that mechanical high. I just registered a previously non-running 1980 GS1000 that I bought for $500. It was in great cosmetic shape but hadn't ran in 5 years, needing a rebuild of the 4 carbs, valve adjust, a new stator, R/R, and a ton of oil leaks fixed. After getting a 4 cylinder bike running again I feel like a mechanical god. At least the GS500 will seem simple from now since it has half as many carbs and valves. Although I think the GS500 air box will always be uniquely annoying to take on and off.
Well, I gave become quite the magician with the airbox. Seems like there was a time when I wrestled that thing, and then found it nearly impossible to fit the boots to the carbs. But now, it just slips in and out, nothing to it. And it just slips right onto the carbs. Easy peasy. I did spend some quality time with a heat gun making the front face of the airbox become flat, rather than the sort of light V-shape that it was stock which makes it very difficult to put on the carbs. Once I did that, it just slides right on the carbs no sweat. And the real trick to getting it in and out easily is to completely remove the frame petcock entirely before you try to move the airbox.
Speaking of gas, I have run ethanol free fuel in my GS for probably two years at least, and I treat it with Star-Tron. I use this in my lawn mower, both scooters, the pressure washer, etc. So I get it 5 gallons at a time and put an ounce of Star-Tron in each 5gal fillup and refuel exclusively from that. No matter. The carbs still get clogged.
I wonder if the later model carbs (three jets) are less susceptible to this passive degradation. I also wonder if it's not the aftermarket rebuild parts that just are not as good quality now as they were a decade ago, so the whole thing just goes bad.
I'm sticking to my theory that some contaminant made its way into the carb and clogged the pilot jet. It doesn't see to be bad fuel. It's just a gas tank with some gunk in it, the 30 year old petcock with bits of rubber diaphragm maybe flaking off, etc.
I really want to go ride it now. Unfortunately I have to work, and I still need those bar risers. But if the risers come in after my last afternoon meeting, I may bug out early and go for a ride.
Quote from: Bluesmudge on October 22, 2021, 09:06:59 AM
Glad you got it running again!
I wouldn’t think of it as “how long since I last rode the GS500” and more like “how long has that gas been in the tank.” If I haven’t run the bike for a month or two I make sure to put 160+ miles on it to get a fresh batch of fuel in there. If you run it every week but only for a couple miles then eventually it’s sitting for a week at a time with months old fuel and that’s where pilot jets start getting clogged.
I’m at over 50,000 miles and I’ve had luck letting mine sit 2 - 3 months at a time with E10 but you definitely can’t let it sit all winter without doing a full winterization draining the carbs and with non-ethanol gas in the tank.
My GS carbs have been reliable enough that I don’t remember what the inside of them look like. Haven’t touched them since 2010.
I totally understand that mechanical high. I just registered a previously non-running 1980 GS1000 that I bought for $500. It was in great cosmetic shape but hadn’t ran in 5 years, needing a rebuild of the 4 carbs, valve adjust, a new stator, R/R, and a ton of oil leaks fixed. After getting a 4 cylinder bike running again I feel like a mechanical god. At least the GS500 will seem simple from now since it has half as many carbs and valves. Although I think the GS500 air box will always be uniquely annoying to take on and off.
Good points. It's not uncommon for my newer FI bike to sit a couple months at a time. I do worry about old gas in the tank, but haven't had issue yet over the winter. I put in Shell gas and rock the bike back and forth every month or so to move the fuel around.
Quote from: mr72 on October 22, 2021, 09:38:43 AM
I also wonder if it's not the aftermarket rebuild parts that just are not as good quality now as they were a decade ago, so the whole thing just goes bad.
Oh man...on that GS1000 rebuild I had the carbs apart (did I mention there are 4 carbs :mad:) like 3 times before realizing the aftermarket K&L float needles were the issue. The spring was flimsy and the shape of the taper was different compared to OEM. I ended up spending almost $150 on 4 real Mikuni float needles and seats that fixed my weird issues of intermittent carb flooding. If I had known upfront how much time I would spend trying to fix the issue to save that money I would have gladly paid it. Its stings more having to pay it and still having spent a few weekends at your wits end. Its amazing how one bad experience can turn you off a brand you used to trust. I've rebuilt a lot of things with other K&L parts without issue but now I'll think twice, at least for carburetor parts.
For a decade now I have replaced the whole carburetor on my Echo string trimmer nearly every year just so I can keep it running. Last spring after the TX icepocalypse one of our big trees broke and I wound up buying new chainsaw to sort it out after my dad's old Husqvarna refused to run right, and btw he replaced the carb and it still won't work. I got a Greenworks 60v chainsaw to join the killer Greenworks 60v leaf blower I already had, and that saw is awesome. For next season, the gas trimmer is going bye bye and a greenworks 60v trimmer will replace it.
The scooters are a fluke. I really am putting my garage on a low carb diet. I just hate working on carbs, and I have found they are just not reliable even with ethanol free fuel. I still have my eye out for a Ducati monster, but it will have to be a 2000-2006 original frame with fuel injection. When mrs72 outgrows her 125cc scooter, I'm upgrading her to a fuel injected bike.
I'll probably keep the GS forever because it is not worth enough to sell, but I'll use it as a reminder to never buy something with carburetors again.
In theory.
Hey, maybe I can somehow convert my Stella to run on those Greenworks 60v batteries...