Hi all!

Just took delivery of my first ever motorbike, a 2009 GS500! Here in Queensland, Australia, we're not allowed to ride solo until we pass a test - so she's sitting in the garage til the weekend when my mates can come around and supervise me while I figure out what the hell I'm doing on a motorbike haha.

I stumbled across this wonderful forum as I think I've managed to kill the battery by turning it on and off again and not getting the rpm up to the mid-range (I never knew bikes didn't charge at idle until now!  ) I have a trickle charger on its way and I'll throw it on charge tomorrow night. It managed to start fine with another 12v battery I've got that is a known good one. Never had any issues starting before I got my hands on it, so a dead battery is a good bet 

Anyway, thought I'd create an account and jump on and say hi as this place looks like a wealth of information!!!  Looking forward to sharing this passion with you all as mine grows, as it already has started! I am ashamed to say I haven't got any good pictures yet as the weather has been horrible.

Hi CaptainNate!!

Awesome first post and congrats on the bike!!! You are super right about this place having a ton of information.

Don't worry about the lack of pics, I'm sure you'll get some soon when the weather gets nice!

Welcome to the site 

Hey mate, welcome! Where in Qld? I'm north/west Brissie myself...

Welcome, Captain!!! 

We've ALL (almost all) done that with the battery!  You're way ahead of the game having a trickle charger on the way....also, do you know how old the battery is? Don't want you to get stuck out there in the wilds while your mates are giving the the low-down on what the hell to do on that fantastic new bike!!! LOL 

Love,
pandy

Quote from: peteGS on March 30, 2016, 02:14:30 PM
Hey mate, welcome! Where in Qld? I'm north/west Brissie myself...

I'm from the west side Lots of chances to practice my hill starts haha.

Quote from: pandy on March 30, 2016, 02:22:41 PM
We've ALL (almost all) done that with the battery!  You're way ahead of the game having a trickle charger on the way....also, do you know how old the battery is? Don't want you to get stuck out there in the wilds while your mates are giving the the low-down on what the hell to do on that fantastic new bike!!! LOL 

Battery says it was installed on 19/1/2014 - so a few years old. Fluid was low so I topped it up. Trickle charger was broken so that didn't work. Once we got some revs in to it on Saturday is has stayed charged. I'll pick up a new one anyway this week sometime for peace of mind.

Finally got the beast on the road during the weekend. Only threw 10kms on the clock, but most of it was learning the controls. It's a massive jump from the old 150cc trailbike I rode a few times in highschool! Only had to jump start it once when I stalled it at the beginning. There was a hair raising moment when we were a while away from home and I was trying to hillstart and I kept stalling it.....nearly didn't start on attempt 5 haha.

Loving it so far! Such a blast! Reasonably powered for a learner bike too

Good stuff, she looks pretty neat!

I think you'll find once you're comfortable on her she'll have enough power to last you quite a while.

My old 450 tends to do reasonably well out in the twisties and I don't really get left behind unless there's high speed stretches involved. I think you'll be surprised how well these little twins do once they're sorted and tuned a bit

She looks pretty sweet mate, enjoy!
And don't be backward in peppering us with questions, plenty of wised up helpful lads on here.

Awesome another QLD'er I am west of Ipswich booked in to do my Qride in about 10 days finally after having this bike for years.  Not sure how many SEQ members there are on here. 

Good deal Marcus!

 

Put 60kms on her today, took her for a ride out to Moggill, nice and easy road with very minimal stops and nice sweeping bends and hills. The beasty loved it! Felt my first (and hopefully last!) slight moment of target fixation - its crazy what simply turning your head does!

A mate with a VTR250 lead on the way there while I followed him and my mum (the supervisor haha) followed us in her car. Swapped up positions on the way home and I got to stretch her legs a bit from the front....I have never felt so free in my life!! Also had my first encounter with traffic and how stupid cars can be too 

Good stuff! Yes riding is an awesome feeling and there is nothing like it I've ever encountered 

Target fixation is very easy to succumb to, I still have occasional moments after years of riding, just a matter of training yourself over time to look *away* from that object...

As for traffic, yep, learn to assume that every single person on the road is out to kill you, including other motorcyclists. I commute every day and you see some stuff that just makes you cringe, including what other motorcyclists do.

I have them try to filter past me when I'm already filtering and can't fit between two cars... I've had them filter up past me once I've already filtered to the front and then sit in neutral while the lights turn green... I've had them block my filtering because they're not filtering and not looking in the rear vision mirror... and I've even had one knock a side mirror off a car parked illegally that then landed under my front wheel so I had no choice but to run over it... fortunately no flat tyre.

Then you have the car drivers who take their hands off the wheel to use their phone as they're slowing to a stop allowing the car to swerve almost into the next lane... the breakfast eaters... the coffee drinkers... the women doing make up... the newspaper readers... basically anything they can do to not pay attention to driving they will do.

So, take care, assume noone knows what they're doing, and they're all out to kill you... and you will be just fine