Is there anything that can be done to make
the gs500 Start easier in the winter. I keep
having to roll start the bike in the cold mornings and it takes forever. The battery just does not seem to have much of a
charge either in the mornings. Would changeing the oil help, cause iv read on another site that 5w-30 is considered a cold grade oil and can help on some bikes. 


Thanks, Jeremy

1) Richen up jetting if US OEM stock still
2) Get a new battery
3) Garage it
4) Run lighter oil per manufacturer's temp recommendations (10-30W for under 86F per manufacturer, not sure it'd help.)

How cold is cold?

Could be the battery is simply crap - they don't generally last all that long. Or the charging system isn't working well (distant second, not too hard to check). As far as I recall that's in the FAQ section of the board, and possibly also the wiki - more or less see if the voltage gets up to 14-15V when the engine is revved to 5000RPM. I just put mine away for the winter last night (it's snowing now) and expect I'll need a new battery come spring - it's been wanting to talk to the charger more and more all fall.

Cleaning the battery cable contacts to the battery can help if corrosion and poor connections are the issue, which is sometimes the case. Going all the way though the system and cleaning all the heavy connections between the battery and the starter motor may be required in more extreme cases.

If you have one, some alarms draw more current than is wise and pull the battery down overnight.

5w30 won't help much if the problem is the battery. If you don't have a battery charger, you might want to get one, but all that will really do for a truly bad battery is spare you the bump starts when you are at home where the charger is. Sometimes that's enough for quite a while.

Quote from: DoD#i on December 05, 2009, 02:44:21 PM
Could be the battery is simply crap - they don't generally last all that long. Or the charging system isn't working well (distant second, not too hard to check). As far as I recall that's in the FAQ section of the board, and possibly also the wiki - more or less see if the voltage gets up to 14-15V when the engine is revved to 5000RPM. I just put mine away for the winter last night (it's snowing now) and expect I'll need a new battery come spring - it's been wanting to talk to the charger more and more all fall.

Cleaning the battery cable contacts to the battery can help if corrosion and poor connections are the issue, which is sometimes the case. Going all the way though the system and cleaning all the heavy connections between the battery and the starter motor may be required in more extreme cases.

If you have one, some alarms draw more current than is wise and pull the battery down overnight.

5w30 won't help much if the problem is the battery. If you don't have a battery charger, you might want to get one, but all that will really do for a truly bad battery is spare you the bump starts when you are at home where the charger is. Sometimes that's enough for quite a while.

+1

The bike should be able to crank for a good bit with a healthy battery.  It still may not want to start in the cold though....   

-Jessie

They make plug-in battery warmers for cars; perhaps you can adapt one to the bike?

Quote from: noiseguy on December 05, 2009, 07:14:16 PM
They make plug-in battery warmers for cars; perhaps you can adapt one to the bike?

If you want to warm the battery, a charger does that and provides another useful service at the same time, where a "battery warmer" just warms it without the charge. MHO...

get a maintainer/charger.  Sears has a DieHard one thats like 30-40 bucks

Quote from: DoD#i on December 05, 2009, 08:02:17 PM

Quote from: noiseguy on December 05, 2009, 07:14:16 PM
They make plug-in battery warmers for cars; perhaps you can adapt one to the bike?

If you want to warm the battery, a charger does that and provides another useful service at the same time, where a "battery warmer" just warms it without the charge. MHO...

Yeah, but I bet that battery heater would keep the seat warm too 

just get a heated blanket and keep the whole thing warm

Cheap 'fix' - take the battery out and keep it indoors when not riding - warm battery has more 'power' than a cold one.

Try priming the cylinders with fuel from a syringe, thru the spark plug holes - just a little, too much will wet the plugs .

Dont inject fuel into spark plug hole. You can easily hydrolock and kill a rod.

The battery should be strong enough to crank 5-6 times good.
Bike should be tuned right and fire up in 2-3 cranks.

Prime for 10 seconds before the first crank and crank it ... my savage did that perfectly today and it was a "cold for us" 27 this morning.

Cool.
Buddha.

Turn the handle bars to the right? what does that do? and how do you prime for 10 seconds? or do you just mean flip the petcock to prime for 10 and then flip it on?

I turned my carburetors rightly with Jet kit from Buddha. Also, I cant spell.

like greg said get a battery tender. Attach it to your battery, run the wires and the hook up real clean and descreet, and plug in after every ride. I had a weak battery and even when warm it was hard to start due to weak charge. After getting a tender battery is always strong and starts easy.