I am new to the bike world. This is my first bike, and it's a 92' GS500E. When I first rode it, I noticed it was a little lacking in power, and I have no frame of refference since this is my first GS500. When I was warming it up, I started noticing that the right cylinder bank was not getting hot as quickly as the left. I played around with it a bit. When I remove the spark plug wire from the right cylinder, there is no change in Idle, but when I remove the left one and leave the right one in, the bike just dies. Is this normal? Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do, or if this is a common problem area? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Its not normal... Should run on both cyls... I'll try to see if its carburetion or electrical. Then try to fix it.
First check for spark... If its there, then more than likely carburetion.
If the carbs are sucking air... (with engine running spray wd 40 around the carbs, White smoke from exhaust or sudden rise in revs say that its sucking air. Check manifold for leaks, check vaccum caps on carbs, check for o-rings under the cap. If they are all there, see if carb has fuel supply by opening drain screw and using U tube method to check level.
Ifall that check out fine... well take the carbs apart and make sure the passages etc are clean and not blocked.
Cool.
Srinath.

well, its definatly not normal. Thats for sure. My bike was lacking power when i first got it, i never tested for running on one cylinder though, i just thought the carbs were dirty, and turns out one of my diaphragms had a gaping hole in it. So i was basically running on 1.5 cylinders, because the 2nd would get some fuel, but no where near as much as the other one.

If your up to the challenge i'd take a gander in the carbs, just open up the float bowles and check for junk, if there is alot you may want to clean the jets the right way. Also, pull off the top of each carb and check the diaphragms (DONT LOSE THE LITTLE PLASTIC WASHER OR THE TINY O-RING!!!).

Unless someone comes up with a better idea, thats all i can think of, other than electrical problems.

If you do suspect electrical problems, you may want to follow along in the recent "monster" thread
Narrowing down the problems to a broken bike

But I would start with the carbs, especially if you have a manual to help out.

OK, so I took the plugs out and replaced them. This remedied the situation. I took the bike out and it was a whole cylinder of difference. I had heard the GS500 was weak in comparison to other sportbikes, but it was ridiculous, but now it's great. I asked the guy at the bike shop what could have caused one plug to get fouled and another one to be fine. He told me that if the bike had been sitting for a while(Which it has), then standing moisture could have gotten in. He also suggested that I'm running the choke to high. Can anyone advise on how high and how much I should run the choke prior to riding?

Thanks to everybody who posted advice