New member New GS owner

[Guest]

I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Shannon and I will be picking up my first bike and first GS. It is an 82 GS850 I believe the L edition. I know for a fact it is not the G but an not100% sure if there is any other model it could be aside from the L. Anywho I pick her up Friday. did a basic inspection and test ride. I know the owner and most of the history of the bike therefore I am comfortable without having to do a serious inspection before I pick her up. I have done some research and read a lot of good threads on here. What id like to ask is what can I expect with this bike? The reliability, longevity of the engines, and all around ride ability. What information can I find on the bike to help me better understand its history? What are your guys thoughts? your are the experts. Again just wanted to introduce myself as I am new proud to own an unmolested original GS.

[Brendan W]

Hi Shannon and congratulations. It's almost a year to the day since I picked up my 850 to get back in the saddle after a long gap. It's a fantastic all round bike one or two up. The best advice I got was to take nothing for granted on a machine of that age. A few weeks in I realised that what the good folks here meant in reality was TAKE NOTHING FOR GRANTED. A subtle nuance you'll agree.
Start here

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/bikecliff/

You have a lot of reading in front of you.
The difference between the L and the others is the ratio of bees that hit the top of the helmet to bees that hit your neck
Pics would be great.

[Phred]

Congratulations on the new bike. I have an 81 850L that I rebuilt a few years ago. Ignore the L-haters on this site, there are a few of them. Those who have L,s love them. Hope you are mechanically inclined as you will need to be to keep the bike running. Taking it to a shop for work is expensive and there are not too many mechanics left that know the nuances of these old bikes. I was able to figure out everything about putting mine back together from this site, from carbs, to valves to electrical. Best of luck, you are in good hands here.

[78550GS]

Welcome to GSR! check out bassclif's site. Everything is mostly based on an 850, so it should be of use.

[eil]

Welcome!

Funny coincidence, my first bike and first GS (a 1980 GS850GL) was purchased from a guy named Shannon.

If it has a chrome rear fender and a stepped seat, you have an L.

The 850GL is a great all-around bike. Depending on your size and general aptitude, it may or may not be a great first bike for you. I didn't have any problems learning the ropes on mine, though. One thing about these 850 engines is that they are pretty much darn near bulletproof and will go 100k+ miles easy. But that said, it will never run right if you don't get all of the maintenance up to date. See my signature for a link to my 850GL thread for a preview of what you're about to get into.

Bit of advice: if yours has the horrible stock handlebars, get rid of them and buy Daytona handlebars instead.

Post some pics when you can!

[smcneish]

Yes I have thumbed through basscliffs information and I can say holy crap that is a mass of awesomeness assembled in one place. I will update this thread with pictures soon. the only ones I have are in low light. Friday when I pick her up I will toss a few up here. I am somewhat mechanically inclined as an ex professional diesel mechanic. current people mechanic...(medic). I am a bit nervous with the valve adjustment. I do wish there was some youtube videos on this as I better understand that way as opposed to reading. owell ill get it done. thanks for the warm welcomes

[BassCliff]

Greetings and Salutations!!

Hi Mr. smcneish,

As long as I'm in town......

If you are here you probably have a 30 year old motorcycle that needs about 20 years worth of maintenance. In the links below you'll find maintenance lists, documentation, wiring diagrams, "how to" guides, vendor links, tips, tricks, and a whole lot of GS goodness. This is your "mega-welcome". Let's get started.

Let me dump a TON of information on you and share some GS lovin'.

I just stopped by to welcome you to the forum in my own, special way.

If there's anything you'd like to know about the Suzuki GS model bikes, and most others actually, you've come to the right place. There's a lot of knowledge and experience here in the community. Come on in and let me say "HOoooowwwDY!"....

Here is your very own magical, mystical, mythical, mind-expanding "mega-welcome". Please take notice of the "Top 10 Common Issues", "Top 15 Tips For GS Happiness", the Carb Cleanup Series, and the Stator Papers. All of these tasks must be addressed in order to have a safe, reliable machine. This is what NOT to do: Top 10 Newbie Mistakes. Now let me roll out the welcome mat for you...



Please Click Here For Your Mega-Welcome, chock full of tips, suggestions, links to vendors, and other information. Then feel free to visit my little BikeCliff website where I've been collecting the wisdom of this generous community. Don't forget, we like pictures! Not you, your bike!

More links to helpful threads in the forum:
Help! Your Bike Won't Start
DON'T DO THESE THINGS
Help! Your Bike Won't Run Well
Oh God! Pods!


Thanks for joining us. Keep us informed.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[smcneish]

So I was told this was an 82 but per the vin it is an 81

[eil]

If you post a pic of the bike, someone here can probably tell you what you have.

The badge on the neck of the frame often has the month and year the bike was manufactured, but this is not to be confused with the production model year. My 1980 GS850GLT was manufactured in September 1979, for example. There's also an even chance that the year on the title is wrong too.

If you look in the service manual for your bike, there are supplementary sections toward the end for the GS850GLZ (1982) and GS850GLD (1983) with some so-so quality pics of the bikes. I don't see any obvious differences right away, other than maybe a different seat, but maybe you can compare with your bike to see if anything stands out. According to the service manual, the main difference between the two model years appears to be a switch from mechanical to electronic timing advance in '83.

[smcneish]

Thanks!! I did post a picture or at least I thought I did I will re try to post some pics again. I am new to the forum way and it may take some trail and err to get the pics to post properly!

[smcneish]

I don't know what im doing. I can see the picture in my post before. I cant seem to be able to post it any other way

[eil]

Post the URL to the picture and I'll see if I can help.

There's also BassCliff's guide to posting pictures with photobucket. You don't have to use photobucket, but the instructions might be of use anyway.

EDIT: I guess I probably should link to it as well! http://members.dslextreme.com/users/...t_pictures.pdf

[Phred]

The 81 model had round turn signal lights on the front and rear. The 82 model had rectangular signal lights. Mine were round and I swapped them for the rectangular ones that I got off an 82. I could be wrong on this as the 82 only came in 4 boxes, a motor and some other misc. parts. No frame, seat or tank. I was told it was an 82.

[Ghostgs1]

Congrats on the new GS, all are pretty much bullet proof. The one weak area seems to be the charging system. As you get into the no doubt lack of maintenance, you will find a lot of good info here. Look for postplayers threads on the charging system, he's done a great job helping us all there. There is a very nice tutorial on carb cleaning on the home page under in the garage I think. Someone recently did a very thorough and correct write up with step by step instructions with pics for adjusting the valves. I don't remember where that is, probably a quick search will yield results. Good luck and enjoy the new bike. Ray

[smcneish]

Thanks it def has the round lights. As I read the valve adj seem easy the bank of carbs is another story