I purchased my 1997 GS 500 E three years ago with graduation money from a member of this site. I was lucky enough to have found this wonderful stash of wisdom before i even sat on the bike for the first time!
Anyway, like countless others i found a weak midrange and countless random occurances of what anyone would first diagnose as a fuel problem, running lean, dogging down at cruise sometimes even to a full shut off.

Season 1=rejet, power increase, also checked ALL the lines, and i thought the problem was solved untill late in the season problems resumed for no apparent reason.

Season 2=Yosh pipe, very nice btw. At this point i KNEW i had fuel, and compression, that just left air and spark, checked all wires, coils and plugs. trouble in the middle of the season, what could it be??!!??

Late Season 2= I was changing tires and cleaning seldom seen parts of the bike and noticed a buildup of grease and dirt on the kill switch for the kickstand which held the switch just at the breaking point where a single bump on the road would kill the engine and then grease buildup on the kickstand joint held it in that position and there was not enough spring tension to pull the stand back.

long story short cleaned the joint and switch to move free and bike has run perfect ever since. This might be a one-off situation but it's worth a check.

Ockham's razor as they say.

oil from your chain

and that means it's time to clean and oil it again

O yeah the previous owner left the bike outside for two years and wasn't to keen on maintenence.
I highly recomend Motorex lubes especially the 622, hardly throws at all.

Quote from: yellowfatebird on March 17, 2008, 06:34:52 AM
O yeah the previous owner left the bike outside for two years and wasn't to keen on maintenence.
I highly recomend Motorex lubes especially the 622, hardly throws at all.

cool, thanks for the recommendation