Hello everyone,

New rider/ GS owner here. (the next two paragraphs don't have to do much with the topic subject, but just to give yo a little background info on me and the bike. this is my first post, excited to join the community.) I Just bought a 1999 GS500 with 15k on it. Just got my permit, the plates insurance everything squared away. You can't keep me off this bike, I've been riding it to work every morning, in the 36 degree weather we've been having here in CT lately. Been out at night, caught a rain shower, I've been learning a lot. I went from being terrified to be on the road with cars to excited as hell to get out for how ever long I can, a quick trip on the highway to get to dmv really made driving the backroads so much easier by comparison. I was getting side swiped by 30mph winds over the putnam bridge on the CT river.

Anyways, previous owner gave me full disclosure on the bike. Has a hard time starting up cold, takes about 10 minutes of full choke (revs high when on choke, 4-5k?) takes a long time to be able to pull the choke off. Had a friend pull the carbs, they looked fine. He put them back together, got a new battery, got new valve stems (both had been torn) and I've been riding it like that for the past week. (friend also mentioned that I should get the carbs synced and have a pro go through them, rejet them etc. said the bike had a bog in the bottom end, but that might be common on this bike) Previous owner also switched the vaccum lines around, already ran out of gas once, (Was a combination of sticking the fuel nozzle all the way in the tank when filling it up and letting it cut off automaticaly, i've since learned to keep the dirty nozzle out of the tank:) ) and another long morning of letting it warm up under choke, I was out of gas, was a 3 minute walk to the gas station and a nice driver picked me up and drove me back to my bike.

I'm going to ride the bike for a while before getting any work done, just to get a feel for it, so when i do get some work done i'll be able to appreciate it more, it's not like i need the extra performance while learning.

ok, here's my beef. I've been riding no problems for a few weeks, past two days I notice that the bike starts swaying real slow back and forth, leaning and completly unable to keep upright, i will kinda start leaning back and forth on purpose, deliberatly, in order to try to control it (as if i was warming up the tires) I thought it was my nerves at first, just getting used to the bike at slow speeds, but since it's been going on for two days, almost always after 10 minutes of riding I'm beginning to see a pattern, it's really not that fun to ride when this happens. It feels kinda like centripidal force, like a gyro mechanism. When I first get out on the bike it's fine, dead steady, then after 10 minutes I can't keep it straight, i try leaning, trying relaxing, try pulling at the handle bars, and it's all very disorienting

.Read up quickly on google about it, had a hard time knowing what to search for: "low speed wobble" brought up some pages about high speed high frequency wobbling, which this isn't, but it did mention that bikes can resonate at different frequencies, wheels and engine and everything. luggage can affect balance etc. all sorts of things to be checked, suspension, tire pressure etc.
don't know if this problem is considered "tracking" or what, very unfamiler with the terminology.

If anyone has any insight into this problem, the input would be greatly appreciated, if not, just wanted to say this sight came highly recommended to me by a friend of mine, and I can see why, great posts, great people. one stop shop for everything awesome motorcycle.

I think the starting point should be to make sure you're up to date on all your maintenance, and perform a full inspection. Are your forks straight? Are the steering stem bearings good? Any play in the stem? How is your fork brace? Is the front brake dragging? Are all the bearings in the swingarm and suspension linkage good? Tires in good condition? How old are they? How are the wheel bearings? What tire pressure are you running?

Sounds to me like a fork alignment or bearing problem.

I was riding one of my bikes a couple weeks ago and it felt unsteady and was weaving. It was tire pressure. I hadn't checked them for a while. Something like 20psi. Pumped them back up and all is OK. New tires were on an extra set of rims for a few months before I put them on the bike and forgot to check the pressure.

Note: Never noticed it at first or on really short rides. Probably because the tires were cold and stiff. When they warmed up and softened, then everything became squishy and unsteady.

Thanks for the quick reply, I'll have to give the bike a complete once over with the areas you suggested. I'm new to the whole bike thing, a good friend of mine gave the bike a once over and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. I'll get him over here and work through the list.

I'll check the tire pressure first, I would have checked it tonight, but I was told to check it against the recommended settings when it's cold. Thanks for the tips.

QuoteNote: Never noticed it at first or on really short rides. Probably because the tires were cold and stiff. When they warmed up and softened, then everything became squishy and unsteady.

this sounds like it could be exactly the problem. I just had the valve stems replaced last week, and the shop had the tires off and on, didn't think I could lose so much pressure so quick.

You can check the pressures when hot, just be aware that they are going to read 3+ PSI high. For the purposes of determining whether or not tire pressure is causing your problem, that should be fine. E.g. if you check your pressure and it reads 38PSI, I wouldn't worry about it. If your hot pressure is 25PSI, you are running low for sure.

Generally, pressure goes up more with underinflated tires than it does with overinflated tires. E.g. at the correct cold pressure, expect to see 3-5psi rise when hot. If the tire is overinflated, the increase may only be 1-2 psi. If the tire is under inflated, pressure may increase 5-7psi when hot.

It only takes about an hour for tires to cool off sufficiently to get a rough cold pressure. Be aware though that some gauges can be wildly inaccurate. Digital self calibrating gauges seem to be the best. Dial gauges some of the worst.

Thanks again for the tips guys. Would napa or pep boys carry a high quality tire gauge?

Don't know. All depends on what your local store has in stock. Heck, even Target or Home Depot has tire gauges.
Or a bicycle shop or lots of places.
Its more important to have something - even if a pound or two off. Nothing is going to be 10 pounds off so get anything - its better than nothing.
I use a bicycle pump with a dial gauge on it. 33, 34, 35? meh....    but 20? time to pump it up.

Quote from: r08 on April 08, 2011, 05:58:18 PM
Thanks again for the tips guys. Would napa or pep boys carry a high quality tire gauge?

High quality is relative. A basic digital fuel gauge should be fine. Spend $10-$20 on a digital gauge. In the moto racing world, $100 is high end, or middle of the road depending on who you talk to. The pro race teams and tire guys often spend upwards of $300.

A $2 tire gauge would be better than no gauge. I have several and keep them in glove compartment, tool boxes, etc.

Check you haven`t got a brake sticking (would grab more as it gets hotter)

Hey guys,

The bike was getting worked on all summer at a techschool. Finally got it back and it runs great (a whole other story) Finally started taking the bike out again as often as I can in the cold. I got a $20 digital tire pressure gauge and noticed a small leak in one of the tires. Although I rode for an hour on a slightly underinflated tire, (25psi) and then noticed the pulling, so I filled it up and didn't feel any difference. I had correct pressure front and back and was still feeling the pull.

Thanks for all the tips, I think i'll check out the brakes over the winter.

Pulling? Can you describe it a little more?

Check for lose bolts/nuts. Maybe head bearings are bad or improperly torqued.

You don't have one radial tire and one bias tire do you?

...the bike starts swaying real slow back and forth, completly unable to keep upright, (not tipping over, but requiring constant correction on my part) I have leaned left and right on purpose, (as if doing a cone test, and can do that no problem, I actually prefer that since i can control the motion) I thought it was my nerves at first, just getting used to the bike coming from high speeds back down to slow speeds.  I'm beginning to see a pattern: in the summer it would happen after 10 minutes of riding, in the winter, it's taken up to an hour to rear its head.  it's really not that fun to ride when this happens. It feels kinda like centripidal force, like a gyro mechanism. When I first get out on the bike it's fine, dead steady, then after 10 minutes I can't keep it straight, i try leaning, trying relaxing, try pulling at the handle bars, and it's all very disorienting.

i just had a ton of work done on the motor, (valves, pistons) so I wanted to ride it for a bit before i put it back under the wrench, but so far it sounds like it could be: (and i'll check in this order)

1.) brakes warming up and engaging the disk.
2.) worn tires / mismatched tires(i do have a slow leak in the front, but the problem persists when i refil with air at the end of a ride.)
3.) stem, (although there isn't any steady wobble, it looks solid, it just wants to tip from side to side.)
4.)

Temperature difference... Bad tire maybe.

Stem could be too tight...  Get the front wheel off the ground, center the front wheel, then give it a gentle nudge.  It should move quite easily.

I had same problem of swap and not able to keep upright. Felt like low tires.

Problem was crappy steering stem bearings. After riding 5 to 10 minutes (same as you) bike would sway and not want to right itself. Bearings would warm up and seize up.

Changed steering bearings and all was OK.

Suggest buying a used triple from a newer used bike for $50-$80. Those bearings are hard to get off. Also good to have a spare triple because your bearings may not come off. We had a spare triple and were able to pull the bearing off of it and pound a new one on. Original triple had bearings rusted in place.

I went through a month or more of determining the problem. My Suzuki dealer mechanic even said might be steering. I had them put new tires on Trey so had them look as it could have been a bad new tire.

We lifted up the fron end here is West Seattle and found the front was not easy to turn. That was after I rode 10 minutes to a friends house so the bearings were warm and sticky.

thanks so much for the insight adiddas guy, i'll take a look into replacing the bearings.

so are you suggesting just replacing the entire triple assembly, rather then the bearings?

Well, you can get used triples with good bearings for not much. Considering the cost of bearings and the trouble replacing them, a used one with good bearings can be easier and cheaper.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/07-Suzuki-GS500-GS-500-FORK-FORKS-TRIPLE-TREE-/200553201849?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item2eb1e700b9
I've picked some used triples and they all had good bearings. Bearings go bad when they rust away (that's what happened to Trey) and water gets inside them. Trey's really weren't bearings anymore.
Even if you do replace bearings, you might want a spare triple to work on. Those bearings are really hard to get off. If yours are rusty, they may never come off. A newer triple with clean bearings - you should be able to replace the bearings.

Just a suggestion on how to do it. I know if we didn't have that spare triple (we did replace bearings on it) Trey would have been dead - couldn't get the old bearings off no mater how hard we tried. They were rusted to the shaft.

The collars on the frame were good so we only had to replace the triple & bearings.

Maybe not always true, but the frames we have all have good collars in the steering. The collars I understand are even harder to correctly replace.