So, ya, little smaller, little slower. But, I needed the money, and the I got the gs500 for a deal from a friend. Surprisingly, I love this little bike, at least so far. Its my 6th bike, so I am not new to riding, in fact I have ridden at the track and very hard on the road quite a bit...I miss the speed and crazyness of the ol tiller, but I honestly like this little bike alot. Its comfortable, and it'll get up n go a bit when it needs to...i think I am just to the point when I want something fun, comfortable, and easy to maintain...I'll probably keep it for awhile...anyways, I just wanted to say hey cause im new and let everyone know that you can go from big, even really big, back down...heres my 2 bikes...

Welcome! You will love it hear and hopefully learn a lot. I like to see that you can still appreciate the GS after coming from what is inarguably a better bike. There is a lot to like about your new bike and you will probably find it does exactly what you need a motorcycle to do.

I'm sure you'll miss the TLR, but the hardest time you'll have is probably the hard time your friends are going to give you for taking the switch. You'll enjoy the forum though!

I have SV1000 - yea I know Tiller is more power ... but SV1000 is the big bro of the GS ...

And Willkommen to gstwin.

Cool.
Buddha.

more power but it's still built off the same engine.

ya, my friends ride and they have already ripped into me.... and the tiller did have waaayy more power, but i pretty much bought the gs, which is 5 years newer, for half the price...and i am gonna chill out and get some gas mileage for awhile....the big thing about the 2 is that the gs is so easy to ride and light, and the tl was always kind of a hassle..like for litte rides around town or whatever i wouldnt pull it out, only for track days and rides with people...whereas the gs you can just ride around everywhere and its just fun and easy..albeit slow...but whatevs, i like it more than i thought i would...and ya, in the winter ill probably pick up an sv or tl again..or maybe an rc51...like the twins...when they are cheap, and give this to my fiancee...

A big advantage of the GS, even when you come from bigger bikes, is that it can help refine your skills a lot. Learn to keep your corner speeds up, throttle control, body positioning, the works. Fine tune what you know already with a bike that forces you to have good skills in order to ride quickly.

I'd suggest swapping out the rear wheel with a Katana wheel so you can get some sticky rubber (Pilot Powers!), as you will undoubtedly overwhelm the bias-plys quite quickly.