Hello, im a new bike rider and the first bike i decided to get was a 05 GS500F with 5k miles on it. Ive been riding the thing for about 2 weeks now and love it.  Its been raining a majority of the time ive ride it so i havnt really gotten into it at all but im very happy with it and i love riding on a bike even if its cold as hell out.  Ive reduced the big ugly fender on the back to give it a cleaner look, plan for some new pegs and turn signals.  I love the forum, has helped alot in deciding what my first bike was going to be.  Thanks guys and keep up the good work!

post some pics of your bike so we can see. and congrats on the GS its a fun little bike. enjoy and ride safe.

Welcome aboard!

Heres a pic my cam died after the first pic so here is one.  I live on a farm and the bike is kinda muddy from my driveway.

Welcome new gs owner

Nice looking ride. Keep it shiny side up and oil in it and it will last a long time. Do a search for 'fuel starvation' and you'll understand why it's important to know how to deal with it in traffic.

Ride safe 

yea i been riding very cautiously i only got into it once on the highway doin 90mph it seemed to pull very well still at 90 then i let it back down.  Was alittle curious u know how it is...  Whats the 'fuel starvation' thing?  heh the second day i had the thing i ran out of gas and had to run on the res to get back to the gas station.  I fuel it frequently now.

Nice ride... WELCOME 

Nice ride! I like this color scheme a lot - almost as much as I like the yellow one  

cheers
KaMeL

PS.    PLEASE don't make her naked... 

no naked bike for me, i like the fairings alot.  I hope to keep them looking nice =D.  I have a hard time telling what gear im in sometimes, i usually try to keep count but i tend to lose it alot.  I was looking at the gear indicator mod on the wiki, it looks complicated atleast broken up between so many posts and not asmany pics.  Has anyone else done this and maybe has more details on how to do it?

no worries of fuel starvation with the newer gs's they fixed that old crappy petcock but the new ones still suck.

Welcome!

Quote from: Jlittle on December 16, 2007, 07:03:14 PMI have a hard time telling what gear im in sometimes, i usually try to keep count but i tend to lose it alot.

Here's what works for me:

First, find the gear (usually 4th or 5th) in which the speedometer needle and the tachometer needle "track" one another most closely ... ie, speedo shows 50mph when tach shows ~5,000 RPM, speedo shows 60mph when tach shows ~6,000 RPM, etc.

Then, note the difference in RPMs when you shift up or down.  For me, 1 gear seems to be worth about 1,000 RPM at the same speed.

It takes some getting used to, but it's pretty reliable with some experience.  Unfortunately, if you keep trying out new tire brands or sizes you will have to reevaluate the "system" with every switch.

For example, with the stock tires on my '99 the gauges "tracked" in 5th gear.  When my rear tire wore out, I replaced my 130/70-17 with a taller 130/90-17 that I found locally.  The taller tire meant that the wheel rotated fewer times for a given road distance, so the RPMs went down by 1,000 for a given gear at a given speed.  In other words, my gauges now "tracked" in 4th gear.  "Babe in the woods" that I was, it took me forever to figure out what had happened.  (Duh!)

As I have gone from one tire size to the next, or from a worn tire to a new tire, I have made slight adjustments in my thinking to match.

OK, OK, I admit it.  It's overkill.  My Dad said that he never used his gauges that way.  (Too many bikes to keep it all straight, I guess.  )  He just shifts (or tries to) when he feels like it.  If he's out of gears, so be it. 

Quote from: Kerry on December 16, 2007, 11:34:28 PM

Quote from: Jlittle on December 16, 2007, 07:03:14 PMI have a hard time telling what gear im in sometimes, i usually try to keep count but i tend to lose it alot.

Here's what works for me:

First, find the gear (usually 4th or 5th) in which the speedometer needle and the tachometer needle "track" one another most closely ... ie, speedo shows 50mph when tach shows ~5,000 RPM, speedo shows 60mph when tach shows ~6,000 RPM, etc.

Then, note the difference in RPMs when you shift up or down.  For me, 1 gear seems to be worth about 1,000 RPM at the same speed.

It takes some getting used to, but it's pretty reliable with some experience.  Unfortunately, if you keep trying out new tire brands or sizes you will have to reevaluate the "system" with every switch.

For example, with the stock tires on my '99 the gauges "tracked" in 5th gear.  When my rear tire wore out, I replaced my 130/70-17 with a taller 130/90-17 that I found locally.  The taller tire meant that the wheel rotated fewer times for a given road distance, so the RPMs went down by 1,000 for a given gear at a given speed.  In other words, my gauges now "tracked" in 4th gear.  "Babe in the woods" that I was, it took me forever to figure out what had happened.  (Duh!)

As I have gone from one tire size to the next, or from a worn tire to a new tire, I have made slight adjustments in my thinking to match.

OK, OK, I admit it.  It's overkill.  My Dad said that he never used his gauges that way.  (Too many bikes to keep it all straight, I guess.  )  He just shifts (or tries to) when he feels like it.  If he's out of gears, so be it. 

That last bit "OK,OK" sounds like dad was right. Yep I just shift by ear or feel, keeps you from looking down too much imho. I'll glance down to make sure the oil light isn't on, and double check that I've made it to neutral.

Yep.  I should have said that I use this mostly as a way to avoid needless upshifts when I'm already in 6th gear ... or to see whether I have one more gear left.  (Don't you just hate finding out that you've been "cruising" along in 5th gear for the last umpteen miles? )  The "system" is worthless even to me in the lower gears....

>Jlittle:
Welcome to GS 500 world!
Don't worry too much about the "damn-what-gear-am-I-in" issue, it's just a beginner thing, I experienced it but it'll flow away after a little time, listen to me semi-n00b.

It can be sometimes useful to know in what gear the speedo and tach track each other. For us metric system guys it's 6th gear, but it's a 2x ratio (i.e. 6th gear, 4000 rpm = 80 km/h, 5000 rpm = 100 km(h, 6000 rpm = 120 km/h and so on)
And same for me, 1 gear down = 1000 rpm more.

thanks guys i appreicate it.  I actually had my first accident 2 days ago.  I hit some gravel on these old farm roads out here and went down slid into a ditch.  Lost my left turn signal and cracked the fairing pretty badly.  I myself couldnt walk for 2 days but am up and around and went for a ride again today since it was so nice out.  Bein abit more cautious now.  I now have only the front half of my fairing on my bike.  It actually looks kinda cool like that.  I also dented the fuel tank which i would like to replace.

Thems is character marks man

Glad to hear your oops was minimal. Be careful, everyone wants to run over you

HEh the people behind me came flying up and asked if i was alright, i was too dazed to make a sensable anwser.  I just kinda mumbled.

Glad you survived.  The best thing that I can think of for gravel is to pretend you're riding a dirtbike. But, get the bike as verticle as possible, and stay off the brakes.  Be real gentle and smooth with steering and throttle inputs.

Welcome J. I've been riding since October and bought an 04 w/ 4000 miles on it. I love the GS. You're already one step ahaead of me, as far as crashing goes. I'm not too worried about myself getting hurt, just the extra money it will cost me! Go figure. I guess both ways work as long as you're cautious in the end. Nice color. I originally wanted the blue, but ended up getting yellow because I got such a good deal.