saw a '89 GS500 w/ 16K Miles at a local shop today...selling for $1500..price seemed a little steep, i offered $1300 (still seems steep to me).  The shop said it was the first bike for some girl and that she put $1800 into the bike @ the shop (who knows for what, i'll ask him to pull up the service records to see exactly what was done to the bike).  

From the looks of it, it'll probably need a new brake lever and probably a few other minor works, but the one thing that worries me is that the throttle is pretty loose.  I can't really explain it but it sort of wiggles back and forth.  I need to twist a little to feel the resistance of the throttle and roll back more to actually get the throttle to do anything.  How can this be fixed? new throttle cable? new throttle? lol i dont know.  

Do you think this bike is worth buying or should i look elsewhere?

if its clean, and only has 16k on it then how did she put 1800$ into it? unless thats what she bought it for.  13-1500 isnt tooo terrible aslong as its clean. good maint records/intervals and its no more then 1500 out the door with your tag on it.

I'll leave the "buy / don't buy" decision up to you, but if the dealer has already squeezed $1800 out of that bike (poor lady!) it seems like they could afford to go a little lower yet.

YES, the throttle cable can be adjusted.  In fact, it can be adjusted in 2 places.

The easier and more convenient adjustment is done up near the throttle grip.  I don't have a "dedicated" photo for this yet   , so I'll have to make do with one from my Throttle Retainer page.  Ignore the screwdriver - the adjuster you want is in between my forefinger and the brass-colored screw.



If you can't take enough slack out using this adjuster then you should:

1) Add some of the slack back in (so you'll have room to adjust later).

2) Remove the seat and fuel tank.

3) Complete the adjustment at the other end of the throttle cable, where it connects to the carburetor assembly.  The procedure can be tricky to describe (harder than it is to DO) so let's wait and see if you need to do it.[/list:u]