2000 Suzuki GS500E

[Chinampa]

Picked up this GS500 for an absolute steal this last weekend



19k miles with a few aesthetic mods but stock otherwise besides a drop in k&n filter
Previous owner installed short led turn signals and lopped off the lower half of the rear fender to clean it up a bit. Nothing I wouldn't have done anyways


Also has renthal bars which are a little too cruiser to be comfortable, but that's easily fixed

Me and my dad went up to pick it up from a shop where it was being kept and worked on, which is why the tank and seat are removed. The shop apparently "cleaned, rebuilt, and balanced the carbs" and couldn't figure out why it was still running poorly... turns out one of the main jets was clogged solid, one pilot jet screw was 1/2 a turn out, and the other was 2 turns out. Hard to balance carbs when one isn't getting fuel :roll:


Got it home and up on the lift and cleaned and balanced the carbs. Still is running lean and is touchy because of the k&n filter, will have to rejet for the filter. Gave it a good cleaning and adjusted the chain as well.


The next day we took the front forks off to add preload spacers and 15w fork oil to help remedy the wayyyyy soft front end these are notorious for.


Also gave polishing/waxing the tank a go, removed a lot of haze but theres still some swirls that I couldn't get out by hand.

The reflection in the tank makes it look like its got a giant scratch behind the fuel filler in that pic, I had to go back and check when I was looking at these pictures :lol:

I think it's been dropped at least once at some point, has a broken brake lever and just a few small scratches on the case.


Used the broken brake lever as an excuse to grab some chinesium adjustable brake and clutch levers. Same price as one suzuki oem brake lever so why not?


Lastly today I refinished the gauge cluster mount which was chipping and rusted. I had some wurth wheel paint and clear lying around from another project which matched the original finish almost perfectly. I'll probably end up using the same stuff to touch up some chips on the frame


I've got a new rear tire, new bars and grips, throttle cable, and jet kit for the k&n filter on order. Should be running 100% within the next week or so

[SlimKlim]

Looks great, these are awesome little bikes!

[Chinampa]

Looks great, these are awesome little bikes!

That's what everyone keeps saying, I'm super excited. All I've ever ridden before is dirt bikes and enduros so this is my first street bike, it's a whole different ball game

[Senor_Taylor]

Very nice! Madison Motorbikes is making a comeback!

[Chinampa]

Opinions on painting the wheels white? I like it but idk how I feel about cleaning the wheels every 5 minutes

[BLINGMW]

Excellent! White wheels sound scary to me, it was hard enough keeping mine cleanish black.

I have some unknown condition leftovers if you'd like them, for either pickup in Troutville or some future MM event, or cost of shipping + time + beer



windscreen (missing hardware, maybe I can find some), brake master, set of coils/wires, unlabled jets (good luck!), turn signal, set of pegs (rear? front?), set of brake pads (rear? front?), aftermarket mirrors that probably suck, some other little crap.

If the heavier oil and preload doesn't do it for you, I highly recommend sonic springs (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://sonicsprings.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=31_65">http://sonicsprings.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=31_65</a><!-- m -->) and the Katana rear shock/spring mod. It was a cheap and trackable setup.

[Chinampa]

I'll take it! Gotta start hoarding parts for this now. I may be down in that area before school starts so I'll let you know. I'm definitely going to get some different front springs eventually, I want to ride the bike for some time before then though (plus im broke)

I was looking at rear shock setups, found a katana 750 rear with the remote reservoir for 19 bucks! May have to spring on that.

[.RJ]

Opinions on painting the wheels white?]

Wrong.

Universal Gold or GTFO

[Chinampa]

Opinions on painting the wheels white?]

Wrong.

Universal Gold or GTFO

I'll probably end up plasti dipping them white when I get my new rear tire mounted. May switch it up to gold sometime down the line

[JPolen01]

Negative on the white. You will never keep them clean enough. I have experience in this department.

[CaptainHenreh]

These are the MM Motorcycle equivalent of an E36M3 or Miata.

[Chinampa]

These are the MM Motorcycle equivalent of an E36M3 or Miata.

Glad I could continue the MM tradition of only buying the same 3 vehicles

[Chinampa]

Got my rear tire in the mail so I did some more work

Started by removing the rear wheel


Pretty dirty but nothing too bad


Cleaned up the swing arm and the inner fender



What's a bead breaker?


Tire off


Tire on


Half an hour later of lots of soap and trying to seat the bead. Ready to balance.


Didn't need much in the way of balancing, took the old weights off and put two on.


While I had the rear apart I took the time to tuck the reflectors up closer to the fender


Also rounded the edges on the cut license plate mount so it looked more finished


Rear end done!


Still waiting on bars and a few other parts. Gonna go get plates tomorrow morning


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[Chinampa]

Little update:

Finally rode it, I'm in love. It was running super lean still though because I was still waiting on my jets to come in

Got the jets in yesterday and installed them and spaced the needles a tad.



The bike runs amazing now, it's a completely different bike. Pulls smoothly all the way to 10k without a hitch.

I should have my new bars in today and have them on tomorrow maybe


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[ScottyB]

10k sounds fun! how could you tell it was lean? smell, backfiring or something else? carbs are a mystery to me.

[Chinampa]

10k sounds fun! how could you tell it was lean? smell, backfiring or something else? carbs are a mystery to me.

It was running way too hot and smelled like it was lean, the pilot jets were undersized as well which transition the carb from low speed to high speed so it would bog down around 3k rpm


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[BLINGMW]

Nice work! :thumbup: I always thought it was a good sounding bike with the K&N pod filter intake and stock exhaust (aftermarket exhaust drowns out the cool intake noises).

[Chinampa]

Got my new bars mounted, so so so much better than the weird cruiser-ish bars that it had.



Ran out of gas 10 mins from home. Had a guy stop and help me out. He had passed me then gotten off the highway, turned around, and come back to help. Said it was just one rider helping another, didn't even accept the 20 I tried to give him.

People are pretty great sometimes


Got my napoleon bar end mirrors on to replace the giant antenna mirrors.


May run them under the bars, undecided on that





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[Chinampa]

So I crashed the bike. Just slid out from under me going around a corner about 15-20mph.

No major damage to me or the bike, only a few scrapes and a big bruise for me.







New bars got pretty bent, here they are compared to the new replacement ones





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[SlimKlim]

Glad you're ok! Loose gravel getcha?