New GS Owner - Vancouver Island

[Guest]

Haven't quite figured it out yet, but after not riding for more then 20 years I decided to take a motorcycle course and get back to riding. Its been along time, and I am really glad I took the motorcycle course! But its coming back pretty quick and I am really enjoying myself. Last week I was pretty lucky to pick up a GS650G is pretty good condition. I will post photos in acouple of days, but I have looked the bike over and after adjusting every control on the bike, it seems to be pretty good. The only obvious things missing/wrong with it are the seat is dried out completely (Already ordered a new cover), and the fuel sender unit seems to have failed.
I have talked it over with the wife, and I think I am just going to enjoy riding the bike for the rest of this summer, and when the rain comes I am going to put the bike into the shop and tear it down to do a semi-restoration of the bike.

Anyways, just wanted to introduce myself quickly, and give you all and advance notice I might be picking your brains for your opinions and experiences fixing these motorcycles.

Cheers,
Shawn.

[SVSooke]

Welcome to GSR Shawn.Quite a few of us here on the lower Island.Did you pick up that 650G that was on UsedVic?There have been a couple of nice looking ones for sale recently.

[Gold01ca]

Welcome here!

[Gorminrider]

Hi, Shawn! yes, post a picture! and
Don't forget to click the "New Members Click Here" thread and goto BassCliff's site. sooo much there for you!

[trevor]

Hi Shawn, welcome to the forum.
As Greg (Svsooke) mentioned there is quite a few gs guys in the Victoria area. Where are you?
Cheers,
Trevor

[Charlie G]

Welcome!

[Shawn68z]

Welcome to GSR Shawn.Quite a few of us here on the lower Island.Did you pick up that 650G that was on UsedVic?There have been a couple of nice looking ones for sale recently.

Yes, UsedVic is exactly where I found it. I believe this bike was listed only for about 12 Hrs. I went and looked at 4 or 5 other listings on usedvic, and most of them were total junk. I like to tinker and work on stuff, but I wanted something that is ridable this year, and maybe work on it during the rainy season.

Shawn.

[azr]

Welcome to the site Shawn. Great bike you have there, a number of guys on here will attest to that. I remember the UsedVic ad for that bike, looked to be a good deal for someone. You'll probably run into a few of use around town, once you get one of these GSes you start to notice how many of them are around here. Welcome to the site.

[Shawn68z]

Hi Shawn, welcome to the forum.
As Greg (Svsooke) mentioned there is quite a few gs guys in the Victoria area. Where are you?
Cheers,
Trevor

I am in Langford, just outside Bear moutain (off of Florance lake Rd.)


Shawn.

[azr]

oh ya, if your 'fuel sender unit' aka petcock has failed be careful there's no fuel getting into your oil.

[bccap]

Hey Shawn. Welcome to the forum... But stay away from these two characters ! They're serious trouble !!

[mikerophone]

But its coming back pretty quick and I am really enjoying myself.

As they say "It's like riding a bike" right?

Plenty of support here for you in Canada from the looks of it!

[Shawn68z]

oh ya, if your 'fuel sender unit' aka petcock has failed be careful there's no fuel getting into your oil.

Sorry, I meant the Fuel Gauge sender unit, the petcock seems to be working fine. I pulled the tank and side panels to do some digging on the bike, and have found some misc. stuff missing (lots of rubber bushing/isolation mounts, etc), and acouple electrical wires just floating around. Pretty sure they are for the gauge, but I want to confirm that before hooking them up.

Cheers,
Shawn.

[BigD_83]

I've done a lot of digging into my 650G. It's turned out to be a great ride.

What year is yours?

When you say the fuel sending unit has failed, do you mean it is not showing the level of gas in the tank? The wires for those are black and green/yellow, if I remember correctly, and there should be matching bullets somewhere near your fuse box, or lower down at the bottom of the battery box.

One thing I'd definitely recommend, and it won't take much, is to check the valves before riding. It's about a 1/2h job to check the clearances, but make sure you have a valve cover gasket handy. If it's dried out, it's also likely adhered to at least one surface, and will tear when you try removing the cover.

Derrick

[Shawn68z]

One thing I'd definitely recommend, and it won't take much, is to check the valves before riding. It's about a 1/2h job to check the clearances, but make sure you have a valve cover gasket handy. If it's dried out, it's also likely adhered to at least one surface, and will tear when you try removing the cover.

Ok thanks for the advice. I just finished "aquiring" the owners manual, and service manual for the bike, and it has the procedure listed. Did some reading on the subject and it sounds like all sorts of issues can happen when the clearance is out of spec. Mine is a 1982.


Cheers,
Shawn.