A little about me. I'm Mistah T cause that's what all my kids call me. All 650. Ok, I'm a music teacher at an elementary school and teach K-5 general music, pre-K, special needs, choir, and direct a musical. About a month ago I finished my motorcycle training course and just got my first bike LAST NIGHT, a 1992 GS500E.

The bike has 15,000 original miles on it and I got it for just over a grand. At first I thought the green with white wheels was going to be a deal breaker, but honestly, it's not bad in person. Not going to stop me from painting the wheels black though. The bike has a K&N filter and a Vance Hines exhaust and it's NOT rejetted. I live in a townhouse and my garage is just under someone else's living room. I just got the bike last night and they are already complaining.... might need to swap it out. Sounds loud to me, but with a helmet, just loud enough.

The bike feels great up to 5 or 6 thousand rpms, then it seems like I go faster at 3/4 throttle than full throttle. On my scoot this was a gummed up main jet. Do you think it needs a cleaning or just a rejet?

OMG THE WIND!! At 50-60mph the wind was getting to me. Is it always going to blow me around? To me, this is the scariest part of going fast. I don't like the wind trying to push me to the other side of my lane or messing up my lean.

Anyone in Maryland with a GS500? Maybe meet up and ride or show me a few things?

Any places you recommend for service I don't want to do myself? A 49cc carb was fine, but I don't know if I want to tear apart and clean these carbs quite yet........

And here are the pics! Thanks for having me, very excited to be a part of the community!

Matthew

Welcome to the forum.  It sounds like you got a good deal on your bike.  I would recommend rejetting to match the K&N and exhaust.

Was the wind going 60 mph or were you traveling at that speed?  Anyway, you will always feel a strong wind when you ride.  It's just the laws of physics when you ride a light weight motorcycle naked.

What part of MD are you from?  There are several of us in MD who would be happy to ride with you and show you a thing or two on your bike.

Working on your bike is half the fun.  Paying someone to work on it gets a bit expensive.

-Porkchop

Loosen up on the bike. I found crosswinds an issue at first, now it's as if they're not there. The bike is heavier than you with a lower centre of gravity, so it's largely unaffected by the wind. You however present a decent surface area relative to your mass and are perched up on top, so you're a bit like a sail.

The trick is to hang on with your knees and thighs rather than your hands and keep your arms nice and loose so that when your body gets blown around it doesn't take the bike with it.  That 180kg lump of metal is pretty hard to blow around, and will only really change direction as a result of your inputs on the bars. The trick is not to be trying to use the bars to hang on, because then every body movement in the wind becomes an unwanted steering correction.

There are at least four of us in the Baltimore/ Towson/ Dundalk area.

Welcome! The bike looks great! Definitely a good deal. I just sold my 91 with 17k miles for $1400.

My bike had a Vance & Hines exhaust as well, I always thought it was way too loud. Well it was too loud until I got my new bike, which is twice as loud which made the GS sound much better. A garage under a neighbors living room sounds like an awful setup! haha, how're you supposed to make and garage noise?! You should tell your neighbors not to buy a house with a livingroom over someone else's garage. That's just neighbor tension waiting to happen.

It definitely sounds like you need a rejet, or just see if someone wants to trade you for a stock exhaust. It shouldn't be too hard to find someone to go for that trade and it wouldn't cost you any money, unless you had to ship it. I'd start with craigslist though. I think my bike annoys my neighbors too, so I get all my gear on, get the bike on the street, hit the starter and go. I would definitely have some more to deal with if I always let it idle while I was putting my helmet and gloves on. Just take it easy for the first 5 minutes until the motor warms up.

You'll get used to the wind! Getting on the highway and going 50-60mph for your first ride is definitely intimidating. I don't think I hit those speed for a while when I started, and I distinctly remember thinking I was going to die the first time I went 80mph. Even now that I'm used to riding anything from 70mph and up gets a little brutal, but you'll definitely get used to 50-60mph soon enough. Spend some time getting used to the bike at slower speeds and work your way up to highway speeds. You'll always get tossed around, you just won't notice it as much

I've pulled apart 50cc moped carbs, and to be honest the GS carbs aren't really any harder, there's just 2 of them, and everything is a little bigger. Just take your time for the first rebuild, and it'll be a piece of cake after that. Rejetting/cleaning jets doesn't even require much tearing into things. You just unbolt the bottom covers, unscrew the jets, and either screw in the new ones or clean your current ones and stick them back in. Some people here say you can even do it while the carbs are still on the bike, but I usually pull them off. If you want the V&H exhaust but don't feel like rejetting you could always just replace the K&N with a stock air filter and the bike should run better, but still sound the same.

I was browsing on my phone before so I couldn't see that pic properly.  I actually really like the green, but you're right about the white rims.  My vote would be matching them to the frame colour.

My bike originally had white rims, the PO painted them black when he had the bike painted yellow. He did a shoddy job on the wheel though and they were chipped all over the place.

I'm more impressed with the fact that someone labeled their toolbox drawers than I am with the GS!  Welcome to the forum   

-Jessie

And now that I don't have a car filling up that space, hopefully the rest of the garage will be as orderly

Also, thanks everyone for the warm welcome and good info, especially about the wind!

Welcome! Nice clean '92 you've got there. Rejetting is easy and recommended for your exhaust. If you put stock exhaust back on then keep stock jetting. K&N or stock airbox truth is the intake side is not so sensitive to jetting on these bikes.  Being blown around on the bike is common. As mentioned above you will find the bike very stable and calm if you loosen your arms and grip on the bars. Let the bike move freely and it will self-centre. Grip with your knees on the tank mostly.
Again, welcome to the community.

Welcome! Nice clean '92 you've got there. Rejetting is easy and recommended for your exhaust. If you put stock exhaust back on then keep stock jetting. K&N or stock airbox truth is the intake side is not so sensitive to jetting on these bikes.  Being blown around on the bike is common. As mentioned above you will find the bike very stable and calm if you loosen your arms and grip on the bars. Let the bike move freely and it will self-centre. Grip with your knees on the tank mostly.
Again, welcome to the community.