GS Road Trip Reliability? 2000 Miles or more?

[Buffalo Bill]

Hey GS riders, I'd like to hear your stories about reliability and fails during your long distance 2000 miles plus, road trips.
GS bikes only, single road trips only. Long term ownership reviews and local rides not relevant.
It would be very useful to people preparing to use their GS bike on long road trip adventures to have a short list of spares.
Thanks a bunch!
BiL

[Cipher]

Mine has only died three times on the road all due to reg rect
oh and once for a broken clutch cable but i speed shoifted my way home running stop signs
plus 800 miles was longest trip but its a wee bike and hard on the butt and super annoying to fill up ever 120 mile or so

[RichDesmond]

Well, it was a long time ago (1983) but I rode a '79 GS1000E from Albuquerque to New Jersey and back. About 2000 miles each way. No "bike prep" to speak of, although I'm sure I did an oil change before I left. Bungeed a duffel bag to the rear rack and a backpack to the tank (I couldn't afford a real tank bag) and off I went. No spares, no credit cards, a few hundred dollars in my wallet. Worked out fine.

[Nessism]

The bike itself will be reliable if the person preparing it does their job. Said another way, you can't blame a 40 year old bike for poor reliability if the maintenance is not all done. Things like cleaning all the electrical connectors, fresh seals in the petcock and carbs, lubrication of cables and bearings, etc. Sadly, many people don't do preventive maintenance until their bikes starts to misbehave but you can't blame the bike for that.

[bccap]

I've only done a couple of trips that length but didn't have any issues.... The only major issue I ever had was when the bike was new with only 500 km on it. It blew up, and I mean blew up. The connecting rod was hanging outside the block. Apparently someone didn't tighten one of the rod bolts at the factory.... According to the Suzuki rep I'm the only one that has ever happened to.....

[salty_monk]

I have ridden GS's from Los Angeles to Eureka & almost to La Paz Mexico in the other direction. For years I did a trip (sometimes taking two of my gS's) every summer that was anywhere from 1500 to 2500 miles. Apart from the odd oil top up & a weird fuse box failure once I've never had any issues....

I carry cables (in the headlight bucket) and some spare bolts, clamps, a bit of tubing, some posi-tite connectors, a small electrical meter & some tape, fix it all leak stop stuff and usually a tube or flat kit & a small pump. All the basic tools and some tire levers.

I generally leave a box of spare parts out "easy access" in the garage so that a phone call to my wife could potentially result in a Fedex next day....

As Ed says = prep it well (in general for me this means change the oil & make sure I have enough tire... it's always well prepped) & you'll have no real issues.

Where are you riding?

[Sandy]

The bike itself will be reliable if the person preparing it does their job. Said another way, you can't blame a 40 year old bike for poor reliability if the maintenance is not all done. Things like cleaning all the electrical connectors, fresh seals in the petcock and carbs, lubrication of cables and bearings, etc. Sadly, many people don't do preventive maintenance until their bikes starts to misbehave but you can't blame the bike for that.

I've done many trips over the years and usually all over 2,000 miles. The bike doesn't get ridden much locally anymore so I rarely have the luxury of breaking down close to home so staying on top of it really matter to me. Like Ed says, do the job and keep on top of maintenance and repairs and these GS's will treat you well. I've never had any of my bikes fail while on a trip. Back in the day people toured all over the place on these things ...no reason to still not do it. Even with the 750 which I put back on the road after replacing a bunch of stuff because it sat for 17 years and after a couple of hundred miles took on it a 1,500 mile trip. These bikes really aren't that complicated.

[storm 64]

I did a 6,000 mile ride out west in 2017. I was riding my 1979 GS 1000e. I had two minor problems. First, it blew the main fuse. Popped a new fuse in, no more problems. I figured the bike got upset watching me have a icecream cone and decided to blow the fuse. Second problem, the speedometer gear on the front wheel stripped out going across Nebraska. Thankfully, ol buddy Larry let me use his for the rest of my trip. Other than them couple of things the motorcycle didn't skip a beat. I did have the motorcycle in rebuilt condition. Wheel bearings, clutch, sprockets... Would I do it again on a vintage motorcycle? You bet, it was one of the most fun trips I took on a motorcycle. Riding the older motorcycle was a ice breaker for conversation, I chatted with the most interesting people along the way. 👍

[Grimly]

Hmm... road trip.
Well, the bikes are a lot older than they were when I did the big miles on them, but sure, if I had a recently-built engine I'd have no hesitation in taking each of them out for another 150,000 mile spin.
All that ever went wrong on long trips were the occasional faulty connection, or short up by the headstock (vital to check that area for wear). A one-time throttle cable breakage (handily, on the push-pull '79 carbs, the other cable could be swapped over) and another one-time clutch cable. Generally, I found that problems that were likely to arise on the road could be forestalled by careful scrutiny at the weekend.
Even the Achilles Heel of the base gasket leak never happened all-at-once, there was always plenty of warning that it was there and getting worse, but it was a slow process.
A GS with modern electrics on the charging system and cleaned secure connections all over should go quite happily for a projected road trip of 2000 miles. Heck, I was regularly doing that twice a month, even with the older set-up.

[alke46]

Man, it must be winter time for this thread to get started. Several years ago I had an 82 850 that I rode all over the place. At that time, I didn't know any internet forums existed -- oh, they didn't. This was pre internet, only problem I ever had was the stator went South while on a trip from Omaha to Salt Lake city and on to Phoenix. I don't remember any R/R issues but it surely was the cause, even though it was never checked or replaced.

[Big T]

While I've been on a number of long trips on my GS 1000, the last being to Sandy's rally, I will remind long timers of Shiraz drum.

He rode a semi prepared 850 from Montana past the Arctic Circle, back down the West Coast to Tierra del Diego and back to Argentina, where it melted down.

When he stopped by, I rode the 850 around. It was horribly overloaded and undersprung. It was updated in CA.

So, he went 9,000 (?) Miles with only a few problems on his under prepared 850.

[Buffalo Bill]

My longest trip was only to a BC Rally and back. Mostly haven't got time for a 10 day trip.
I need a road trip soon. Considering a few ideas including riding my GS south scouting US Grant's battles.
The bike only needs a valve job, and a detailed prep. as suggested.
Another idea is trailer my GSX to Alabama for an early spring track day.
Thanks!

[Steve]

You wanted successes AND failures?

Last year, three of us attempted a little ride. Planned for about 7000 miles. About 600 miles in (in Iowa), we blew the ignitor on Mrs. Steve's bike. I rode about 400 miles to borrow one that was offered to us. Turned out it did not match, so we loaded up into a U-Haul truck to go home for repairs. The kid's bike was still working well, so he rode to Texas to visit friends. He came back home the following week, and the three of us took off again, but headed east. We did the length of Skyline Drive, Blue Ridge Parkway, Deal's Gap, then stayed on two-lane roads for the return home. That loop was about 1700 miles. Except for the interlude in the truck, that totals 2300 miles, but the kid did an additional 2000 or so.

Failures? Mrs. Steve's ignitor. My bike developed a base gasket leak. A few small problems with farkles, but nothing major.

Successes? Good time together as a family. A sense of adventure, taking off on three nearly-40-year-old bikes. Reliving some memories of past trips on BRP.

Would we do it again? Yep, it's already in the plans, but we might be doing New England next year, instead.

.

[LAB3]

Last year I did 8k miles after leaving home the weekend before Memorial Day. Dealt with a broken clutch cable at the Bedford rally and a toasted regulator later that summer along with chasing gremlins due to not quite having my carbs as clean as they should have been. All three of those issues where prep related, a punctured front tire was really the only unforeseen problem.

This year I left April 25th and have covered close to 16k miles. Replaced the chain and sprockets about a month in which I should have dealt with over the winter as well as a front tire which also should have been replaced as well. A broken master link was a bit of an embarrassment since I should have been packing another. Replaced my rear tire at 9k miles, had the seal where the clutch actuator pin goes into the case give out and my center stand broke which was welded back together. My stator went out about a month ago which I didn't think would happen with the SH775 installed.

I'm carrying a LOT of weight in tools, the three tire irons and 29mm socket for the front sprocket being probably half of it. Parts wise it's just some electrical crimps, a couple of spark plugs, valve cover gasket and a master link. There's a small baggie of screws, nuts, washers and bolts, a tube of RTV, electrical tape, zip ties, tube patch kit and good old duct tape just in case.

[trevor]

I have ridden my 1980 GS1000S to California and back twice in the last three years. Close to 4000 miles round trip. No issues other than this year I had a faulty spark plug cap crossing the Golden Gate Bridge...lol...found a bike shop just miles from the other side of the bridge and replaced the cap.
I have ridden my new BMW on the same trip...but you can't replace the feeling of riding a classic motorcycle across the country.
Just don't forget your credit card!