I'll start this by saying that I haven't posted here since my last issue I brought up for advice, almost 2 years ago, but after I got that fixed, I hadn't had much trouble with my GS and all of your suggestions were very helpful.  Thank you for the assistance last time, and thanks in advance for any advice this time.  I did lurk around the boards for a while after that, but I'm not technically savvy enough to offer much advice, so I eventually stopped frequenting.

I rode my GS almost every day of 2012-2013.  It was my daily commuter and I rode through rain, snow, and very cold Philly temps.  The summer of last year, I decided to move to Ohio, for the only reason worth moving such a great distance (a girl), and left my GS behind for a month or so.  It was well protected and it wasn't cold, so I figured it was okay.  Around August, we drove back to Philly and gathered belongings, and I drove my GS back from Philadelphia to western Ohio, despite warnings from the nay-sayers in my family.  I'll surmise that trip as... ambitious considering I'd never ridden my bike for more than an hour or two at a time, but ultimately I was glad I accomplished my first long trip on a bike.  The only problems I had were that somewhere between the Appalachian Mountain tunnels, my speedometer was reading above-accurate speeds, and then completely stopped working.  Dropped to zero and dead.  This also caused my odometer to not work, which made guesstimating fuel levels hard, and later in the trip I think I got a bad tank of gas because the bike died on me, but switching it to reserve and refueling seemed to fix the problem, and we continued on our way.

The rest of the fall season I rode my bike only sparingly since my speedometer wasn't working and I didn't know any good bike shops in the area, the ones I researched online all had a mixture of glowing and awful reviews, and I didn't know how to fix it myself.  Effectively, my bike sat in the garage for the majority of the winter, with me simply running the engine once a month to stir the gas up.  However, one of those times I let the battery run too low, plugged it into the trickle charger overnight, and went back out the next morning to find I'd left the bike on and the battery ran completely out, to the point where it wouldn't charge from my trickle charger... what a bonehead move.  So I brought the battery inside, let it warm up, and plugged it back in inside the house, and it charged from the charger fine.  Phew.  I put the battery back in, started up the bike just fine.

Last month, I went out to run the bike again, and encountered my first sign of electrical trouble.  I tried to start the bike, it wouldn't start, and I figured the battery had lost charge again, so I turned off the bike and plugged it in.  I noticed the charger claimed the battery was above 80%, so I tried turning the bike back on, and then nothing worked.  The headlight didn't turn on, the dashboard lights didn't turn on, etc.  I tried the starter and oddly enough, the starter turned two of the dashboard lights on weakly, but did not start the bike, and after a second the lights would fade.  I assumed the battery had lost the ability to hold a charge, and I know that battery issues are the most common problem with starting issues, so I pulled out the ol' multimeter and tested the battery.  The battery read 12V while the key was in the off position on the ignition, but when turned to on, it dropped down to a 1 or 2 reading.  I called the nearest Suz dealer, but they seem unwilling to come pick it up to work on it, so I tried bump starting it and that did not work either.  Currently I get no response from turning the bike on, not even the dashboard flicker I had been getting when hitting the starter.

So my question is, does this still sound like a battery issue, and I should just replace it and try again, or does it sound like a more technical electrical issue?  Why would the battery read fine in the off position if it was really not fine?  As I said, I'm basically a complete n00b with zero competence to fix more complex issues, but I'm also looking like I'm moving again in another 2 months, and I don't plan to take the GS with me.  I don't want to sink a lot of money into fixing it, but I'm not sure I can find someone to buy a broken bike either, so I'm somewhat at a loss for what to do.  Would the speedometer problem cause an issue like this 6 months later?  I tried looking through the electrical system in the FAQ, but to be honest it looks complex enough that deciphering my issue seemed daunting.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

To me, it still just sounds like a bad battery...

The speedometer issue - that sounds like the cable came undone or broke, or the speedometer gear on the wheel broke... something simple of that sort.

- Bboy

+1 on the battery. Your bike electrical is probably fine. If it's a lead-acid battery, letting it fully die probably sealed its fate. Not pointing fingers at all, but lead-acids are finicky.

So the fact that it reads 12 when the bike is off doesn't indicate the battery is ok?

Well... how precise is your meter? I would recommend a meter using .1 increments at least... because, the bike needs at least 12.6V to start without much trouble.  It is a little misleading that a '12V battery' actually reads higher than 12V, but a good bike battery 'at rest' will normally read over 12.8Vs, and a little above 13V would actually be normal... so yeah, 12V is low... then, add that it drops way off with any load at all - you've probably got some 'dead' cells in there.

- Bboy

Ok, well the battery is probably the easiest and cheapest thing to replace, so I'll start there anyway.  Thanks for the suggestion.

If no lights come on and the battery is above 12v, then you have a blown fuse (not the one you see - that's a spare but the one under the cover).

FYI: The starter motor bypasses the fuse. The starter relay depends on the fuse along with the side stand switch, neutral switch and clutch safety switch.

Quote from: adidasguy on April 01, 2014, 01:47:10 PM
If no lights come on and the battery is above 12v, then you have a blown fuse (not the one you see - that's a spare but the one under the cover).

Any of your awesome videos detail how to address that problem?

An electrical video is in the plans, sometime this summer.

Wow. You learn something new every day. Check the fuse first, then lol.

Check the fuse first - even test it with a multimeter as some fuses are hard to tell by sight if the  element had gone or not. I say check this first as its
the cheapest option to start with.

However . . . The fact that you have around 12 volts with ignition off and massivly drops
With ignition on sugests to me that the battery is breaking down under
load which means the main fuse is fine and the battery is scrap

Well I ordered a new battery anyway.  Any good walkthroughs for where to check the fuse?  As I said, I'm not very good with the fixing.

I believe everyone must have a maintenance manual for your bike. It tells you all the stuff starting with periodic maintenance, how to do it and where the fuse is located.
Haynes or Clymer or Suzuki - whichever as long as you have one.

The fuse is inside the connector for the starter relay. (Unless you have an early 1989 where it is on a small module mounted under the seat on the battery box).

Sadly I think I left my manual in Philly.  my GS is 2007.

Well, I hate to be another sad statistic, but installing a new battery solved the turn on / startup issue. 

Thanks for the advice.  Is the fuse something I should still worry about if everything is functioning?
Hope not.  I'll still need to have it serviced anyway.  Thanks again!

I wouldn't worry about the fuse.. Bike wouldn't start if it was blown, and you wouldn't have any lights, etc... I would make sure you have a good spare, buts that's as far as I would worry about it on this one.

Have you checked along the speedo cable and speedo gear on front wheel yet?

- Bboy