Good to hear a riding course is in your future. A friend of mine years ago bought a Honda PC800 Pacific Coast along with his brother, who had 'lots of experience' riding dirtbikes. On the way home with his NOS PC800 with his brother he drifted a little close to the centre line on the highway. He used his mad skillz to steer right and immediately went left directly into the path of an oncoming car. Not dead but seriously injured. Absolutely true story.

Haha yes there is fuel in it.  I checked 3 times actually.  And I will have to look for the adjustment screw you are referring to.  I want to trouble shoot this more when I can ride it and sadly it is freezing cold outside in these PA mountains a the moment.

SAFE - Yes the safety course I looked into even before I figured out which bike I need since you don't need to use your own bike during the course.  And that sounds awful. Guess no one told him what counter steering is. :/

About countersteering, it's not enough to "hear" about it, or "know" about it. You have to DO it. It is not intuitive. I suggest new riders consciously "press left to go left" and never "lean".

Yeah I know what you mean.  i went out yesterday and took a windier road just to practice counter steering some. 

Quote from: Phil B on April 21, 2013, 10:00:57 AM

Quote from: CCmatters on April 21, 2013, 08:53:36 AM
I am trying to put it in the highest gear possible to save fuel and to just cruise when I am cruising around where I live.

Thats good keep doing that

The gs500's strongest pulling is 10-50mph, yes.
If you want lots of acceleration at 60mph, you're gonna need a 600cc or something.
The bike itself goes to 100 just fine though.
If you want "strong(er)" acceleration at 60, you'll just have to drop into 5th.
6th is basically like "overdrive" on an old AT car transmission.

The power peak for the GS500 is between 8000-9000 rpm.  Hence you get the maximum acceleration by shifting down to a gear that puts you near the bottom of that power peak before accelerating hard.  At 70 mph you will get maximum acceleration in fourth gear and it will be dramatically quicker than you'd get in sixth.  This typically is only important when passing on a two lane road when it's safest to minimize the time spent passing or when merging with faster traffic in limited space.  Generally, if you're already going 70 and need to accelerate hard, you'd best be on a racetrack.

Hey CC welcome to the site!
Yes it sounds like you need to rev more. Did you bike sit for awhile before you got it? You might need to get a bit more intimate with your carbs and fuel system before to long. When I first got my GS it would not idle at lights, starved out on the freeway and made taking my driving test to renew my M classification and real PITA!
I used to ride bigger bikes years ago but now that I am older I find that the GS works just fine. I can cruise down the freeway to work at 80+ no problem and find my self backing off the throttle all the time to stay within the limits of the law. Mind you I am riding a naked '93 and I tip the scales at about 260lbs. When I first got my GS it would struggle just to do 70, after going through the carbs, rejetting to bigger jets and running with the fuel petcock in "Prime" instead of "On" it goes much better. Also I think riding with a slicker jacket makes a difference too, it seems to require less throttle when I have my motorcycle jacket on compared to my loose fitting leather and cloth jacket I used to use.

Quote from: adidasguy on April 20, 2013, 12:41:00 PM
Can you plug the phone into your USB port and download the pictures to your computer?

or he can ( like i do) send my pics to my email. charged as a text message, then edit or upload from there. to the OP, you can also change gear ratios in front. but ride it first and see where you want more

Thanks for the info guys.

Cal - I really need to look into a shop to take my bike to to get it checked out and to look over these things.  Is rejetting very costly? I am about the same size of you so this info was helpful.  Does it hurt to leave it on prime?  And do you think I should try it?

Yama - I just uploaded them to my facebook and then got them off of there. 

CC, where about in PA are you? There might be some members near you that could help out.

I live in dead central PA in Altoona.

CC,
Are you mechanical at all? Paying a shop to fix it could lead you down an expensive rabbit hole, heck the hardest part for me was just getting the throttle cable back on. It is not to difficult to rejet it yourself and the jets cost less than 10 dollars. One of the potential pitfalls you ewill hear about is stuck screws in the float bowls but I had no problem with that. Also doing a carb sync makes a big difference, again not to hard to do and you can make a sync tool yourself (manometer?) for pennies. I personally feel that working on your bike yourself makes you more comfortable with it and is a great bonding expierience    Between this site and Youtube you should get all the help you need to do just about anything to your GS and if you get stuck there always seems to be another GS'er in the area that is willing to lend a hand.

First off can you give us some background like what the previous owner did to it and how long it sat before you got it?
Also can you list out all issues you seem to be having?

Yes I am mechanically inclined to an extent.  I have worked on all of my cars, though I have never done any internal engine work.

The previous owner bough it as a project bike because it had some body work that needed to be done.  The only mechanical issue I can see, feel, or hear is the idling problem.  The previous owner said he road it close to 500 miles so far this year, replaced the spark plugs, cleaned the carbs, changed the oil and filter, new air filter, new front tire, and brakes all around.

Quote from: CCmatters on April 22, 2013, 03:09:59 PM

Cal - I really need to look into a shop to take my bike to to get it checked out and to look over these things.  Is rejetting very costly? I am about the same size of you so this info was helpful.  Does it hurt to leave it on prime?  And do you think I should try it?

I only leave mine on prime because of the starving issue, it does not hurt to leave it on "Prime" when you are running, just turn it back to "Run" or "Res" when you park it so fuel does not get past the floats. Its easy to try and see if it helps on your issue.

Quote from: Calpantera on April 23, 2013, 09:21:42 AMI only leave mine on prime because of the starving issue, it does not hurt to leave it on "Prime" when you are running, just turn it back to "Run" or "Res" when you park it so fuel does not get past the floats. Its easy to try and see if it helps on your issue.

If you flip the valve core, selector, and face plate 180 degrees it turns it to a manual petcock with reserve functionality. On and reserve petcock inlets are reversed, and the 'prime' selection is your new off. At least on the older petcocks, that is. Not sure about the new ones.

4.5k-5k is cruising rpm on the GS.  The power doesn't really kick in until 7k.  Don't be afraid to rev it!  No point in going above 9k-10k because the torque drops off, so no point to go all the way to the redline.

Alright guys thanks a lot, I'll try puting it in prime when I can ride it.  I havent been able to ride it yesterday or today because of working but I will try to hop on it tomorrow and try it out.

Quote from: bombsquad83 on April 23, 2013, 11:20:07 AM
4.5k-5k is cruising rpm on the GS.  The power doesn't really kick in until 7k.  Don't be afraid to rev it!  No point in going above 9k-10k because the torque drops off, so no point to go all the way to the redline.

Ya I was thinking about his post yesterday on my ride home and I don't think I drop below 6k at anytime unless I am slowing for a stop..

Is that optimal for maximum fuel efficiency?

Quote from: CCmatters on April 23, 2013, 12:49:42 PM
Is that optimal for maximum fuel efficiency?

I would think that there are way to many variables to define that one. Of course the less throttle you have open the better fuel economy you are going to get. Some guys on here are getting mid 50's MPG but I think I average in about the high 30's, of course a naked bike is going to be worse than a full fairing bike too.

Quote from: CCmatters on April 23, 2013, 12:49:42 PM
Is that optimal for maximum fuel efficiency?

I'm not sure about optimal for fuel, but anything below 3.5k is almost starting to bog down on this engine.