Ya'll,

  I have a (2001 is what's listed on my title but..) 2000 is what is says on my steering head plate. When buying parts especially for the frame items should I go by the 2000 year model as my guide or 2001? What might the differences be between these two year models? There's a guy on this site that has a set of luggage racks I'd like to buy but I'm not into buying stuff that won't fit.

TIA

Denny, I can tell you the carbs are different, but not much else for certain.

Look on a site like www.partzilla.com and compare part numbers between years. Painted parts will have different numbers due to colors of paint, but it should be pretty easy to find out what fits and what doesn't. 

Biggest difference as far as luggage goes would be the 2001 and on have the new rear body parts same as 04-09 GSF models.

Rear body parts up to 2000:


Rear body parts 2001 and later (2002 shown):


2001 models would be manufactured in the summer of 2000 and plate on frame shows date of manufacture but title would say 2001.

Edit: fixed photo links

Quote from: Big Rich on November 17, 2014, 05:39:28 AM
Denny, I can tell you the carbs are different, but not much else for certain.

Look on a site like www.partzilla.com and compare part numbers between years. Painted parts will have different numbers due to colors of paint, but it should be pretty easy to find out what fits and what doesn't.

And that Rich was the biggest and best change ever made to the GS500 line.  I had a 97 that I really liked for 80k miles that was totalled in the summer of 03 and I replaced it with my current 02 GS500.  The 02 with the 3 circuit carbs pulled stronger and smoother thru the mid range and down to lower rpm's than the 97.  The 97 with the 2 circuit carbs still felt stronger on the top end but never was as much fun after I got the 02.  When the insurance was finally settled I restored the 97 and rode them back to back the same day a few times.