The title was much more exciting than this first post. Sorry...

Anyways, I'm new here and I just bought this bike last week. Dirt cheap, needed a battery, clutch and choke cables, and the kickstand switch was broken.
Well, it still is, I just bypassed the sucker.

I have grand plans for a cafe racer style bike, but for now she'll do as is.
Here's my baby.

Nice bike. Looks wet there. Where are you located? Seattle by any chance?

Nah, NC. That was one of the crummiest days I've seen here.

Damn. Someone rode thier bike to Walmart, went in to get something really quick only to come out and find their bike was GONE! 

So do tell, how cheap was dirt cheap?

Well since I stole it at Wal Mart, it was free!
Lol I paid $500, cost me about $80 in parts to make it driveable. Much better than my '86 Shadow, which I still can't get to run right. Piece of crap...anybody wanna buy a Honda?

Oh she's so pretty in the dim light of my garage. But I decided she needs to be white with red stripes.

White with red stripes? Oh yeah, keep us updated on the progress 

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!        

Gunmetal colored rims & frame.
Black motor.
Stock red paint job.

BEST color scheme on a stock GS!

I honestly dont think white would mesh good with the gunmetal color.

if that was mine, I wouldnt alter Anything with that color scheme.
Just clean it up real good.

Dangit! if it gets painted..... i wont look as it will make me cry! 

That looks too perfect to paint.

Get a set of plastics and a tank that NEED painting and paint those.

Don't paint the rims white. I have plenty of white rim sets. In fact, there are a few parts whores on this board with any part that's needed for a GS500. You just have to ask or PM them directly.

Hay adidasguy you know when you buy something made in china and it has a small sticker that says 'made in china'. Maybe you need one of your own that says 'from adidasguy' or something 

The cosmetic mods are coming only after I do all the reliability maintenance. Took her for my first ride this afternoon. Once I'm going she runs great, plenty of pick-up. But at operating temp she stalls at idle and blows white smoke. I'm thinking...lean?

Stills smokes after warming up?   Have you read the plugs? What does it do with choke?  Any delay on throttle response?

White smoke is usually just vapor and is more prevalent in the cold. It also typically goes away once the bike has fully warmed up just like most cars do in the cold. Does the smoke hang around or does it quickly dissipate?

These bikes are cold blooded and take a bit of time to warm up.  How long did you let it warm up? Does it still stall after it has warmed up? 

Apologies for the barrage of questions. Just trying to get a full picture for myself or others to help out better.  Don't want you to waste your time on smalls, or miss the bigs if we can catch it with easy Q&As. Means less time on the sideline and more time riding!

- Bboy

She's running great now. I haven't been able to go for a long ride since adjusting the idle, but I'll update as soon as I do. It looks like *fingers crossed* that was my problem. She don't run rough or blow smoke no more

Quote from: MaxP on January 11, 2013, 03:24:01 PM
Hay adidasguy you know when you buy something made in china and it has a small sticker that says 'made in china'. Maybe you need one of your own that says 'from adidasguy' or something 

Thats a good one. I like that one 

...she died on the long drive today...
I jumped on the highway, made it about 20 minutes, and she sputtered to a stop.

I was doing 60mph at 5500-6000rpm for about 20 minutes straight, she lost power, and came to a gradual stall.
I let her sit for about 10 minutes, fired her up, she ran for another 5 minutes and died again.
This repeated itself 3 times before I made it back home.
Does this sound like an overheating issue? Damn thing doesn't have a temp indicator and I'm new to air cooled, carbureted bikes.
Any ideas?

Possibly the vent in the gas cap is plugged. The WIKI has a topic on cleaning it.
To test:
1. When it stalls and you open the gas cap, do you hear air rushing in?
2. What happens if you ride with the gas cap opened so air gets in?
3. Are you sure you have gas in the tank? Fill it up to be sure.
4. It is possible you have a pinched fuel line. If running in ON position, try RES or PRIME.
5. also possible the in-tank fuel filter screen is getting clogged up so fuel flows slowly from the tank to the carbs.

Does it only happen at highway speeds where fuel demand is highest?

My first thought was the gas cap. When I was stalled I opened the gas tank, put it on reserve, and tried to fire it up, but it wouldn't start until it had sat for at least 5 min.
I didn't hear a rush of air when I opened the cap, but I had a helmet on and I was on a highway shoulder. Didn't try driving it with the cap off since it wasn't starting with it off, but if it happens again I'll give it a shot. Had half a tank, I'll fill it up next time I ride and see if that helps.
This only happened on the highway, but this trip wasn't a good test of that since I didn't do any street driving.
As it was losing power, I was able to give it a few short bursts like it wanted to ONLY run fast but then it'd immediately die.

I'm going to do some city-only driving at lower rpm's and see how that affects the drivability.
This is terrifyingly similar to my Honda Shadow's problem which I was never able to diagnose. Damn thing is still sitting broken in my garage back home.

This sounds exactly like the problem my old 150cc gy6 scoot had for a while. Ended up being improper hose routing (both gas and vacuum), so I would recheck all your lines. Could also be a leak, spray the vacuum line from the petcock with some carb cleaner to check.

That's all I got, sorry >.<

If you weren't using the prime setting on the petcock when the bike stopped, make sure you do. Fuel will not flow in reserve unless the engine is already running. This would not explain the subsequent stops, however.

In addition to the possible fuel system restrictions Adidasguy mentioned:

Next time it acts up, try running the bike in prime and see if the symptoms persist.
Also, check your fuel lines to make sure they're not too close to the engine and boiling your gas.

It wasn't on prime before, I'll be trying that on my next ride.
I took a look at my fuel and vacuum lines, saw a couple fuel lines close to the engine but far from the cylinders so I don't think that was the issue.

I noticed the drain tube from the airbox was slightly kinked and capped off at the end. This ain't an issue is it?

Air box drain has a cap - we call it a peenis like thingy - on the end. It lets stuff out and not let air in.

(Filter now filters out peeeenis and makes it pee pee.)