So I was riding on the NJ turnpike yesterday with my brother, me on my GS and him on an RC 51. Lemme just say first off its not fun chasing after an RC51 with a bone stock GS which is how this bike will remain. I kinda miss my R6 for the high speed rides. My brother has been riding for about 25 years now, he and his group of friends who are all very experienced riders have issues with me not riding fast enough with them. They feel that on the highway its dangerous to ride at the same speed as traffic noting that many cars will just not see a rider on a bike. However in order to keep up with their pace while they are just cruising in 3rd gear (RC's have ridiculous amounts of torque, and I mean ridiculous) I have to drop down two gears and then open up the throttle fully. Its mentally taxing for me to do this on a 4 hour ride. I was left mentally exhauseted and them critiquing me to go faster.
So I was wondering what was your take on all this. I must admit that I fell from the pack at some points by at least ten cars. However it was for safety reasons for myself...while sport bikes kinda fall into turns I find that I have to fight my GS, or its just my own rider error and I'm not bracing and leaning enough into the turns.
Also about handlebars. I currently do not have a windscreen. And the blast doing 85MPH can be brutal. My bike has katana clip ons and that helps somewhat however the vibration with the clips ons at high RPMs (say 7K and above) is something that I have not experienced on the modern sport bikes that I have ridden. Will the stock handlebars on a '93 GS remedy the vibration and what are the draw backs as these handlebars leaves me more upright, will I experience that much more windblast?
A stock GS is meant for beginners and easy commuters. You will find that if put some money into it, you will have a better time. Lets say you bump the jetting up a notch (25 bucks). You might be able to get Bob B to do the advancer mod ($5 and sooo worth it). Spend $15 on a 15t front sprocket. That right there will shave at least a second off your 0-60.
For about $100 dollars you can upgrade the suspension with progressive springs and a katana 600 shock (again, sooooo worth it).
The Gs can hold it's own- but it needs some help. A stock R6 already has decent suspension, decent exhaust, decent RADIALS so that it can handle more power from a bigger engine. And remember it costs about 3000 more for the bike, and nearly 2 to 3 times as much each year in insurance. But you start putting some of those "decent" parts on a gs and it will perform better.
The argument that you need to be constantly passing cars to stay safe is full of holes. This is an excuse used by some to justify passing everything in sight. I would look for some other riding companions... like anyone else from this board! 8)
Hi-T had some good advice; although at 80mph, the 15T sprocket may hurt more than help: all the shift points will be lowered. And I think Bob has said that the ignition advancer only helps at lower RPMs, not at freeway speeds.
The windscreen definitely helps: I added a substantial one, and caught myself riding 10-15mph faster than usual.
Yep the windscreen really helps on the highway.
If your having to go down gears on the highway then the sprocket will help out, but with a pod air filter and rejetting I never had to drop down gears unless I wanted to get somewhere real fast like a lane ending and a semi was on my right.
Vibration, there is pretty much no way around it, the GS motor is buzzy and your at pretty high rpm's at those speeds. Might try some heavy bars and heavy bar ends to help. Thick Gel grips also help some but my GS never felt as my Ninja at any RPM. And the Ninja is nowhere near as smooth as my fathers BMW.
And as others have said, you dont need to be going that fast on the interstate, no reason to pass everyone. I do stay in the far left lane unless my exit is coming up or there is no traffic, just because I can see the driver better and vice versa. Not because I need to pass everyone. I just stay with traffic and those that are hell bent to pass do so on the right and then try to squeeze in front before they come up on the slower traffic on the right.
GS really isnt a highway bike.
The GS is buzzy, no getting aruond that. The GS can hold its own, and might even outshine the sportbikes in tight twisties, but NOT on the highway. This is really where you'll miss the R6 the most. Ride your own ride, including riding as fast/slow as you want on the interstate. Dont try keeping up and they shouldnt ride your ass for doing so. [rant/off]
Wind blast is going to be bad as it would on any naked bike. I believe its light weight combined with its small tires makes it a bit skittish on the highways.
The GS can be upgraded (see my site) but ultimately it has its limitations...many of them.
Well they may call the GS500 a commuter's bike on the current Suzuki UK site, but I don't agree. Back in the 50's and 60's folks rode Brit bikes like the Triumph twins all over this country. A good all around bike that real men rode everywhere! (just love to get that real man thing in there:-) I consider the GS500 a good all around bike, a modern day Triumph T120. It's amazing how close they are in size and weight, almost identical. Only big difference is in the much better performance of the GS. How often can you say that about a GS500? :lol: See comparo:
http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/40396913_138bb/bc/My+Documents/gs500vsT120bonnie.txt?bfBzXeABu6nGXMZ2
Travelling on the 97 GS500, I could ride all day at 80 mph indicated. Mine was always completely stock and I did 400-500 mile days on it and didn't find it too buzzy. Real men(and women) wouldn't. :mrgreen: Sometimes when out riding with friends with big cruisers, I would just leave it in 5th gear to match their highway acceleration. Seems they would rather display their performance on the freeways rather than in the twisties. Don't forget a stock geared GS will go over 100 mph in 4th gear before hitting redline.
No windshield and clip-ons is your biggest problem. Those clip-ons transmit more vibtation than standard bars with end weights. And w/o a windshield you are holding on way too tight just to keep from being blown off. :lol: Too tight a grip on buzzy bars can turn your hands numb in time. I used a Plexi 2 for years on my bikes, but prefer the small shield like the Slipstreamer Spitfire now on the GS. A $50 windshield and it's all you need on a GS along with a fullface helmet to be comfortable cruising the freeways at 80-90 mph indicated. :thumb:
See sig pic below for the small Spitfire shield. There are fancier ones like the Givi, but cost is much more.
The GS is not a bad ride on the highway, so long as it has a small fairing and, as others have said, you do your own thing. Sometimes, less truly IS more, grasshopper.
It is a small, reliable, manoeverable, cheap means of transportation, not a RTW (you'll have to go to horizonsunlimited.com if you don't know what that means 8) ). At least, I've never found anyone there who has done it on a GS.
GS Jack sure covers enough road to vouch for the bike's highway abilities.
If you have the mounting for a handlebar still, you might try a drag bar from Flanders. They still will give you the more aggressive seating and look so it may be an option. I don't really notice much in the bars as I do through the rest of the bike but I have never ridden a 600. I also wear some Alpinestars gloves so thicker gloves may help. I also just put some LP bar ends on for a finished look so I don't even use the stock weighted ends. Its worth a shot and the Flanders bar I have was only 35 or 40 bucks. Srinath on this site also makes his bars really heavy so you might think about giving his a try.
Thicker clothing can help. My personal experience with my Icon boots is that I hardly feel any vibes from the pegs. For a while I was wondering why so many people were asking about vibes in the pegs :lol:. Then I'll wear my A-stars SMX boots and feel everything because there isn't much to the soles on those
Thanks for all the advice. I currently think that I'm going to shoot for a windscreen maybe one of those F series. And leave it at that. I was quite happy cruising at 6,000 RPM on the highway, and most of what caused my brain to singe was playing catching up with the guys, kinda wrong to compare a 10 year old bike with a pair '02 RC51s though and I guess they need to understand that, lol. If the vibration becomes annoying for me I might try to weight them down as suggested as well. But all in all I'd rather keep the bike stock. Its already been great as far as costs go I spent 13 bucks on spark plugs and a filter. A single spark plug for a sport bike costs that much.
Ultimately I don't wanna make the mistake of having a crotch rocket and doing something wrong that will happen waaaay too quickly in the city and get me in trouble. It happens all the time. I picked up the parts to build the R6 off of two bikes that we got salvaged for something like 15%-20% off the cost of the bikes. And they were driven and crashed in NYC. Both were '03's and identical in color so it must happen all the time!!! (From one story one of the bikes slid after the guy popped a long wheelie in first and couldn't manage to get the wheel safely back on the ground).
Quote from: chuey
Ultimately I don't wanna make the mistake of having a crotch rocket and doing something wrong that will happen waaaay too quickly in the city and get me in trouble. It happens all the time. I picked up the parts to build the R6 off of two bikes that we got salvaged for something like 15%-20% off the cost of the bikes. And they were driven and crashed in NYC. Both were '03's and identical in color so it must happen all the time!!! (From one story one of the bikes slid after the guy popped a long wheelie in first and couldn't manage to get the wheel safely back on the ground).
Beleive me, all the mods in the world (minus maybe a hefty shot of NOS) wont make the GS a crotch rocket. Unless you rev and pop the clutch you wont be getting the front wheel off the ground. You can still do dumb things on the GS like pop the clutch and get thrown off the back of it just like a crotch rocket. And if someone doesnt know how to get a wheelie down on a bike of any type then they are just brain dead. Be it a bicycle or dirtbike or whatever, everyone knows if you stop giving it power the front end will come down.
Some people are destined to become organ donors when riding a bike and some people have the brains not to become one.
Lol. I meant do something stupid like stare at a pretty girl to my left, rev my engine to get her attention and then let out my clutch hand to say hi to her not realizing I'm still in first gear which I can imagine myself doing.
I just finished a 1200km (750 mile?) trip this weekend, about half of it on freeways doing between 90-130km/h (55-80mph?), and I found it pretty taxing maintaining the higher speeds, wearing ear plugs on the way back home made a big difference (I was going home alone), but I was still felt pretty fatigued at the end.
With no screen the wind noise is pretty bad, and I found that worse than the blast, my ears were ringing after the first day.
Been there, done that.
Before I mounted my large windshield (National Cycle Plexistar II (http://users.sisna.com/KerryKJB1/Plexistar2.htm), same as the one GSJack used to use) I did a 3,800-mile trip in 5 1/2 riding days. Can you say "throttle lock" and "lay flat on the gas tank" and "why didn't I get a windshield"?
Before your next long ride, get a windshield! Even if you get a smaller, sportier one, it will make a BIG difference in your long-distance touring.
BTW ... I second the ear plugs idea, even WITH a windshield. It really does improve the comfort factor. There's no reason NOT to wear them on a long trip, especially if you're riding by yourself and don't need to communicate with riding buddies.
Don't be afraid to spin it up, I ride the gs on the higway at 80-90mph for an hour or more (~7-8K rpm in 6th, iirc). The VFR is a lot nicer for that, but the gs can handle it ok (just remember you can't accelerate fast out of a situation when you're using that much of the powerband already). It sucks not having any wind protection, a small fairing makes a *big* difference. I'm pretty happy with the a755, it takes the blast off your chest but doesn't create too much turbulence at the helmet. Looks pretty good on the bike imo.
Also, if your friends are riding that much faster than you consider just riding on your own until you develop your skillset and comfort level a little higher. Trying to keep up with faster riders is a major cause of accidents for newer riders, its hard to resist pushing the limits and staying with everyone. Relax, get familiar with the bike and motorcycle dynamics, and stay safe.