After not having a bike for many years, I bought a 2006 GS500F in March. It had been sitting for about a year. It was in rough cosmetic shape and OK mechanical shape.

I immediately started taking it apart and going through it. The bike wasn't in good enough shape for me to be comfortable riding it.

After a month or so of working on it, I happily put it back on the road. It's been fantastic having a bike again! I'm really happy with how the GS500F performs. I can see why it's such a widely recommended bike!

I'm looking forward to doing some tours around the Seattle area this summer

If anyone is curious, here's a list of most of what I did to it:
Add basket, tool kit, tire pump
Add windshield
Change mirrors
Reinstall tank and fuel lines
Install license plate
Balance carbs
Oil & filter rr (2022/04/18, 18,1xxmi Rotella conventional 15w-40 and k&n filter)
Top petcock: rr gasket, add fuel filter
Grips rr
Tail light bulbs rr
Rear wheel: torque brake caliper, torque axle nut, tension chain, rr cotter pin (redid chain tension)
Vacuum hoses rr
Airbox insulators rr
Reattach rear fairing 
Carb parts: rr bowl gaskets, drain screws, bowl screws, all insulator screws
Bleed brakes, f&r DOT4
Headlamp - l beam out - fixed
Chain and front sprocket: rr (JT x ring chain & sprocket)
Register with WA
Charge battery. Put on battery tender
Headlight rr + bolts (10mm x 1.25).
Turn signals rr
Clean bike
Tail lamp running light out - fixed Wiring harness was routed so it was cut by the forks. RR wiring. Works now. Fixed Headlamp issue as well.
Carb parts: main jet o-rings replaced with Storehouse 4.8mm x1.9mm o-rings
Fork oil rr - done. Filled with 20wt oil to ~110mm.
Cleaned carb bowls and jets
Spark plugs rr. Stock replacements
Cleaned front sprocket area, cover, and sprocket, Forks, R sprocket and carrier, R wheel, F wheel, shifter, chain
R wheel bearings, sprocket bearing rr - All Balls units
Tires & valve stems rr - done, Kenda k671 f&r.
Top petcock: repair nipple
Front wheel: rr cotter pin
Brake lever rr
Front wheel: installed brake rotor, put on bike
Dash lights: hi beam and turn signal rr
Add rubber isolaters around fork legs for headlamp brackets

Good job keeping that GS on the road! It should have many miles of joy to give you after all that maintenance. The blue 2006 GS500F was my favorite color combo. Love that tank. Can I assume that the previous owner messed up the front plastics? 13 years after the last model year, its getting pretty rare to see a GS500F that still has fairings that haven't been scratched/cracked from a drop or crash.

I didn't see a valve clearance check on your list. With the bike new to you at over 18,000 miles you definitely want to know where the valve clearances are at. Always good to check the valves before balancing the carbs on a bike that's new to you.

If you decide you like the bike and milk crate enough, there are a few good rear rack options to get that crate off your rear seat and straps off those plastics. Hepco & Becker, Renntec, SW-Motech, Ventura.

Awesome thread! Thank you for all the TLC you've given to a GS. Looks great and I'm glad you didn't keep the F style headlight without the fairings (not one of my favorite looks but I understand other people like it that way.)

Quote from: Bluesmudge on May 12, 2022, 09:10:20 AM
Good job keeping that GS on the road! It should have many miles of joy to give you after all that maintenance. The blue 2006 GS500F was my favorite color combo. Love that tank. Can I assume that the previous owner messed up the front plastics? 13 years after the last model year, its getting pretty rare to see a GS500F that still has fairings that haven't been scratched/cracked from a drop or crash.

I didn't see a valve clearance check on your list. With the bike new to you at over 18,000 miles you definitely want to know where the valve clearances are at. Always good to check the valves before balancing the carbs on a bike that's new to you.

If you decide you like the bike and milk crate enough, there are a few good rear rack options to get that crate off your rear seat and straps off those plastics. Hepco & Becker, Renntec, SW-Motech, Ventura.

Thanks! I hope so. I'm planning on keeping it for many years and miles I love the color! The dark blue looks really sharp. The front fairings are definitely messed up by the PO. One is cracked and the other is missing. I'm OK with that, I really like the naked look.

It's next on the list! I just ordered a new valve cover gasket and Motion Pro holding tool. I've already balanced the carbs. That's a good tip, I wouldn't have thought to check that. I'll check it again after doing the valves. It was pretty easy on this bike. I added a bit of extra vacuum tubing to the left carb to make it easier in the future.

I've been checking out the rack and luggage options. I like this crate a lot, I used it for years on my previous bike. It was looks like no one is making any side racks anymore. Sometime down the line, I'll have to build some. I like carrying stuff on my bike.

Quote from: ShowBizWolf on May 12, 2022, 03:59:48 PM
Awesome thread! Thank you for all the TLC you've given to a GS. Looks great and I'm glad you didn't keep the F style headlight without the fairings (not one of my favorite looks but I understand other people like it that way.)

Thanks! It was a lot of fun working on it. One of the reasons I got the GS500 is because of the old school design: air cooled, carbureted twin engine, minimal computers, no fancy components, etc. I like being able to do all my own work, so a simple bike is really appealing to me. It was a exactly what I was hoping for. After working on a 1985 CB450SC, everything on it felt pretty familiar.

Oof, yeah, I'm not a fan of that look. I like the naked, round headlight look it currently has.

It came to me with more modern looking turn signals. They were dim and ugly. I scoured ebay until I found some reasonably priced 1970's Suzuki units for the front. They really rounded out the 1980's UJM look I was going for.

I found a "before" picture of it here.

Oh, nice and that's the big milk crate too. Very nice. I welded to that grab bar to carry milk crate, then I'd put my riding suit in it when it was too warm in the evening. SFO summers were freezing in the morning and super warm and humid in the afternoon.

Cool.
Buddha.

Quote from: The Buddha on May 13, 2022, 05:29:48 AM
Oh, nice and that's the big milk crate too. Very nice. I welded to that grab bar to carry milk crate

Oh yeah! It's the double wide.

Quote from: Roofaloof on May 12, 2022, 09:47:43 PM
It was looks like no one is making any side racks anymore. Sometime down the line, I'll have to build some. I like carrying stuff on my bike.

Hepco & Becker will still make side carriers for your bike. I have them on my GS500F. Its a "we don't make it 'till your order it" situation for older bikes but if you order them from Motomachines.com in 4-6 weeks you will have a nice set of pannier racks that work with any of Hepco & Becker's nice side cases. I have the Junior 30 liter cases on mine.

They aren't cheap but they are very nice and made in Germany. I have one set of cases I swap between whichever bike I'm riding. You can often find used sets of cases on eBay and advrider.com. I've been using the same set of cases for 10 years, across many bikes and a few accidents/drops and they still look good.

Quote from: Bluesmudge on May 16, 2022, 10:11:40 AM

Quote from: Roofaloof on May 12, 2022, 09:47:43 PM
It was looks like no one is making any side racks anymore. Sometime down the line, I'll have to build some. I like carrying stuff on my bike.

Hepco & Becker will still make side carriers for your bike. I have them on my GS500F. Its a "we don't make it 'till your order it" situation for older bikes but if you order them from Motomachines.com in 4-6 weeks you will have a nice set of pannier racks that work with any of Hepco & Becker's nice side cases. I have the Junior 30 liter cases on mine.

They aren't cheap but they are very nice and made in Germany. I have one set of cases I swap between whichever bike I'm riding. You can often find used sets of cases on eBay and advrider.com. I've been using the same set of cases for 10 years, across many bikes and a few accidents/drops and they still look good.

Thanks for the tip, those racks look great!

Just finished adjusting the valves! I'm glad I did. Based on the shims I used, the exhaust valves were at 0.0mm and -0.02mm.

Before:
Left intake: 0.05mm, 258
Left Exhaust: <0.04mm, 272
Right intake: 0.05mm, 262
Right exhaust: <0.04mm, 262

After:
Left intake: 0.05mm, 258
Left Exhaust: 0.10mm, 262
Right intake: 0.05mm, 262
Right exhaust: 0.10mm, 250

Buttoned everything up and rebalanced the carbs. Ready to ride again!

My next project is to build some side racks. I don't have the budget right now for those nice German ones. I'm going to build some out of plywood and steel tube.

Getting ready for a few day long moto camping trip in July. There's a few things I need to take care of beforehand:
- Figure out charging system issue
- Build Luggage racks
- Better phone mount (optional)
- Make tank bag (optional)

I tackled the charging system today. The battery has been showing 13.2v @ 5000rpm. I used the excellent guide someone made here to diagnose.

All three of my stator output wires showed 1 ohm of resistance between them and 59VAC output. The rectifier shows 12v DC output. It's looking like a bad rectifier. I'm glad it's that, I wasn't looking forward to replacing the stator.

I ordered a new Electrosport R/R today. It should be here next week.

Now to build my luggage racks!

Got the new rectifier installed. 14.1v output at 4500rpm. I'm back in business!

The only issue was the new rectifier didn't have the correct output connector. No big deal, I cut the connector off the old one and soldered it on.

The luggage racks are slowly coming together. It's going to be a very low budget build. I'm trying to use as many parts I already have on hand as possible. Luckily I hoard materials, so there's plenty to choose from!

I made some cardboard mockups to find what size I wanted. After trying a few different ones, I settled on 12"x14" for the back boards. This will give about 12"x12" of usable space, as the bottom 2" will be taken up by some reinforceing ribs below the shelf.

The racks will be made of 3/4" plywood. The attachment brackets will be made of either 1/2" EMT (electrical conduit) or 1"x2" maple with 1/16" sheet metal. So far, the only things I'm going to have to buy are fasteners and d-rings.

I'm going to attach them to the luggage loops already installed on the bike from the factory and the passenger footpegs. I don't have a welder or the means to bend tubing, so I've had to design it with bolted connections and straight pieces of tube.

Bending and drilling holes in the EMT

Passenger footpeg attachment point. In the final version, it'll be bolted on with a fender washer and rubber washer on each side. This will make sure it grips well and provide some vibration isolation.

View behind the rack. EMT bracket to passenger footpeg and maple bracket to luggage rack visible.

There will be another maple bracket holding it onto the luggage rack and another EMT bracket attaching the two racks together.

Started working on the tank bag. This is a mockup made of paper. I got the basic size and shape I want m

Next, I'm going to make pattern pieces and sew up a test bag.

I applaud the DIY commitment and can't wait to see the results of these projects. But you know....you can just buy this stuff off the shelf. Especially tank bags.

Quote from: Bluesmudge on June 28, 2022, 12:32:39 PM
But you know....you can just buy this stuff off the shelf. Especially tank bags.

Wow! Really??? Please tell me more.

I like DIY stuff too and I'm pretty crafty... but I love my off the shelf tank bag.

If you can get them in your part of the world, look up what Nelson-Rigg has to offer... especially the magnetic ones.