Hello everyone,
First let me say what a terrific resource this site is. It's great that so many like-minded people can get together and share ideas, stories, and information. This site and all the info and camraderie is part of the reason I decided on the GS500 as my second bike.

My first motorcycle was a Suzuki TM100 dirt bike, my next was a 1983 GS450L, bought new from a dealer in 1985 for $1400. Next was a 1982 GS550L, then came my Intruder.

I've had my 86 Suzuki Intruder since 1993 and decided I needed a bike with a little more varied capability.

Cruising the back roads, including gravel can make for a fun day (not so much fun on the Intruder). A friend that I ride with let me ride his 250 Ninja, it's outfitted with dual-sport tires and gets around on the gravel quite well. I decided I needed a similar bike for this kind of riding and began the search for what would be best for me.  After quite a bit of searching I concluded that the GS500E would be my bike of choice. I joined this board in June while I was searching for one, on July 6th I finally found one within driving distance and bought a purple '94 with just under 6K on the clock.

Since then I have been finding out all the things that the PO did to this poor motorcycle. I opened the carbs for inspection after the left one began leaking into the cylinder and airbox. I found that "O" rings are no longer necessary for sealing the needle seats into the carb body, just use a couple turns of electrical tape. It works great, at least long enough to get the bike sold.

And if you have a leaking shifter shaft seal, just use some caulking in a tube and build up a dam in the sprocket cover and run the bike a little low on oil, this will allow you to get it sold before oil again starts to run down the kickstand and into a 3' x 3' puddle on the ground.

I'm looking for a couple items for this bike, I need the rear frame cover piece that goes under that passenger grip bar, if anyone has an extra that would be great, if it's the '94 purple, that's even better. The vacuum port on the top of the right carb is broken off and replaced with a glob of JB weld or something similar, if anyone has one of those, I'd love to replace it so that I can sync the carbs. Also looking for a K&N drop in if someone has one that they no longer use.

Thanks for reading,
Paul

I've bought some ebay carbs that had horrible things done to them.  I posted some pics of the internals a while back though the pick links may be gone now.

I've seen the JB Weld mod also and may have one with the same repair.

Regarding the body part, I've got one, 91 green, for my restoration 90 red. I've only seen a few on ebay.  Dgyver may have a few as he has modded plenty of bikes to race only and stored the stock parts.

There are always new parts online. No problems with worn out crap that way and I think you can get the part in the correct color, 1HU Deep Purple Metallic - I think. 

I'll research it for you... Oh man...it is $38 plus shipping from MR Cycles in NC. It is purple but you need to add the Suzuki decal to be totally restored (if that is important to you).

Look under a 93 model year. The parts are all the same except the years break down into the colors used for the various models (letter codes for years until 2004).
LINK to MR Cycles

I might have a carb top here for you. I'll wander out to the garage later - I'm pretty sure I have a cannibalized pair of carbs with  good tops on them.

Those center pieces are getting harder to come by...Can you even get them at the dealer anymore?(it's been a few years since I ordered one..)

O ring pack - brand new $10 for a pack of 8 - 4 pairs - enough to do all important O rings on a carb off 1 GS 500. Add $2 shipping.
Cool.
Buddha.

Starwalt:
The wiki lists 92-93 as 1HU deep purple metallic and 94-95 as 1TU bright purple metallic.  My bike is a '94 built in 4/93, VIN is JS1GM1A5R2100016, I believe the R denotes 94 model year. The wiki says that 94 models got the new sprocket with a shoulder but mine does not have that. Maybe I also have the purple paint from 93 as well. Do you know of any way to tell? LOL, I just realized I was looking at your color page on the wiki.

I'm not terribly concerned with having an accurate restoration, no need for the decal, I just want it to look good. If I get one that's not purple I may just paint it black and see how that looks. Do you know of any place to get touch up paint for chips and scratches?



Jared:
Thanks a lot, I appreciate you looking.



Buddha:
I replaced three "O" rings in each carb so far, the ones on the float tube, the ones on the needle valve seat, and the one that sits on top of the carb (it looks like it seals the vacuum port). Which important one am I missing?

Do you still sell your rejet kits? While I had my carbs open I checked the main jets, they're 122.5, I want to go with a K N filter. I've read here that the lunchbox can make the bike difficult to tune if the stock pipe is retained (which I plan to do), so I'm planning to get a drop in and run it with a restrictor if necessary. The plugs are still in my carbs so I can't adjust the idle mix yet. I'm just trying to get everything working right in the stock configuration so I have a  baseline to start with before I begin changing the breathing and jetting, etc.

Any tips or recommendations are welcomed.

Still looking for '94 purple rear frame cover piece that goes under that passenger grip bar.

Jared, did you have any luck finding the carb cap?

Starwalt, do I understand that you would be willing to sell the green frame cover piece that you have?

Buddha, could you pm me price and payment info for one of your jet kits with 125 mains, an O-ring kit and an extra set of 127.5 mains.


Thanks,
Paul