Hell

[highmileage]

I have had nothing but excellent service from everyone of my vintage bikes, especially my GSes. Paid $200 for the GS 1000GL, have less than $500 into her including new tires and an unknown number of hours of my labor. But I've now put over 30K miles on her. And she's ready for fresh tires once again!



I am wondering if much of the problems mentioned above have to do with titling errors - the manufacture date is marked on the steering head, but the model changeover is in August or September. So a bike that was built in September of 1980 is an 81 model, at least when you get parts for it. Who knows or cares what the DMV considers it.

And the difference between a '79 and an '80 is fairly significant since that was when they went from points ignition to electronic. So the wiring may have several differences.

 

[850 Combat]

That looks like an '80 or '81, I believe. '82 looks like a GS1100G. I personally don't like them as well. Not as comfortable, to me (I bnought one new back in the day) Your '80/81 is a nice ride.

Eric, I feel your pain. I bought my bike a couple years ago rom a good ole boy backyard Kentucky motorbike mechanic. It was titled as a 1982, but everything critical seems to only work from a 1981.
I've been in the car biz long enough to know that the comment about everything being replaced eventually making it almost new all over is only half the truth. The care and time you put into replacement is as important as the parts themselves, as has been said since old times, "it's the journey, not the ending, thats important."

 

[zehrmacht]

I know where you're comming from. I bought an 80 gs850gt. Rusted pipes. Barely ran with full choke. Tank was patched with roofing tar, horns rusted into silence, bad stator, bad regulator/rectifier, shocks shot seals and on and on..... The WORST part was not finding this site until a year or more after I started fixing things with just a clymers guide. This site blows any manual away! You got a head start on me already there. Just take it one step at a time and one problem at a time. Last week I felt the same after buying a few replacement parts....like $300 worth of seat covers, replacement mirros etc...mostly cosmetic stuff. After the orders came, I realized that my wires from the stator and RR were getting hot, zoinks scooby! Looks like I didn't follow the advice of many and clean my electrical contacts and grounds....there goes another $100 for a new regulator.
Trust these guys, I have yet to get any ill will or bad advice from anyone here.:clap: