I just went out today to take a look at a 1998 GS500. I looked her over and other than a bit of rust it looked fine to me (which isn't saying much I admit). I took it out on the road and went for a 15 minute test ride and other than it running out of fuel on me it worked out just fine. The only thing about the bike that concerned me is that the choke had to be on a bit for it to idle. This is going to be my first bike and I don't know much but from what I've read its just a matter of adjusting the idle knob to give it a bit more power and then I should be able to take the choke off all the way yes? And would running it with a bit of choke on over a few seasons like the previous owner did have any negative effects?

Thanks!

at worse it fouled the plugs... less than 5 bucks...

between the carbs is an idle adjustment screw... turn it in towards the carbs to raise the idle... it stick down a good ways... i can adjuste it while at a stoplight on the bike.

Did you get a feel for the bike's maintenance history?  If it doesn't idle well it could be indicative of poor maintenance (ie not getting winterized/fuel drained from carbs when sitting).  If the carbs are all gummed up that wouldn't be fun to play with when you want to riding your new bike.  How many miles are on it?

18,000km but the owner only has the recent history (last 3 years I believe) of the bike, but during all of that time he has kept it fairly well, other than letting the battery die last winter but he has a new one put in this past April, all of the maintenance records and such have all been kept together and I will get a better look at them tomorrow but overall other than this idling problem she seems to be fine.

He said that he never messed with the idle adjustment knob so I'm going to have to play around a bit with that once I've got the bike and see if I can't get it to idle well without the choke on at all, althought its hardly on at all now so I don't think it'll be a problem.

There was one thing that started to concern me now though. When I had it out for a test ride and I stopped into a gas station to give it a good look over to make sure nothing was loosening up or falling out of place when I got back on the bike to try and start it up I couldn't get it to start. I'm new to bikes and all but I thought that even though it seemed to be a low fuel problem when I pressed the electric start it didn't make any noise at all, but maybe thats normal because as soon as I switched it to reserve it started right up. I had looked in the tank though and I could see  gas in there but I'm not experienced enough to know whether it was low or a normal amount to have in there, but I could see the bump in the middle of the tank where it sits on the frame going all the way to the back of the tank, so maybe it was just low? Or maybe I'm getting suckered into a bad deal?  

And just for those who think in miles 18,000km = 11,200miles approximately.

Quote from: NarcissusI could see the bump in the middle of the tank where it sits on the frame going all the way to the back of the tank, so maybe it was just low? Or maybe I'm getting suckered into a bad deal?  

It was probably just low.  My '99 "deceived" me in the same way when I first got it (used).

32,000 miles later I'm pretty familiar with how many miles I can get from full tank to REServe, about how many I can get on REServe, and about how many I can get on PRI as a last resort.

Well today I was reading through my GS book and found myself an answer. Being a 98' as it is the book said theres a possibility that the clutch cable could be stretched. So I went out, tightened up the cable a bit and TA-DA! Its fixed, starts up everytime now, no problems. Now I just have to deal with the idle problem. Needs choke to idle now, and even then it doesn't idle well, which is expected because its probably not supposed to be like that anyways. I'm bold enough to mess around with the idle adjustment knob because I'm quite sure I can handle that much lol. But now the big question what RPM should I have it idleing at? I'll do a search but if its something that is somewhat personal opinion I'd like to hear it.

Thanks!

1,200 + or - 100 rpm

Sounds right to me lol, its sitting around 1,500 now with the choke. I'm hoping once I change this the clutch should be less touchy when I'm rolling around at an idle speed. I'm assuming that I can't mess it up too much while I'm doing it, the manual makes it look easy but they don't mention anything about choke so I guess I'll just turn the idle up until I can leave the choke completely off then slowly turn it down till I have it at 1,200ish.