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New here with my GS850GL!
Hi everybody! New here and I hope to learn a lot from you guys. Here's my story.
I'm currently 22 and live in Southern Maryland where I was born and raised. I've been riding for about 3 years now. My starter bike was a 2001 Yamaha Virago 250. It's a nice little bike. Lightweight, quiet, smooth, reliable... scratch that. She left me stranded once and I had to come back with a truck to get her, lol. Anyway, I've been riding that for a couple years and this past spring I figured I really need to move up to a bigger bike. So the search began.
I found a few nice deals, but one bike really stood out to me. It was this GS850GL. The previous owner did't know too much about engines, but yet he was trying to do all sorts of work to it. Needless to say, when I bought the bike, it was bought as a "project." He told me it just needed some carb work done, but I knew better than that. I didn't buy just the bike. He sold the bike, plus another bike and a half worth of parts along with it, including another engine. I wasn't looking for a project. I was looking for a reliable (and already running) bike to hit the roads with. But once I found this, I couldn't pass the deal up. He was selling everything he had for $1,000. Sold.
When I finally got her home and started working on her, I stripped off all the extra crap he had installed (windshield, side bags, sissy-bar/trunk) and then got to the engine. I took the carbs off and completely cleaned them. Not sure who did the work to them before, but there were a bunch of mix-matched parts. For example, 3 carbs had a 115 main jet, the other one was different. It looked to me like everything was apart, and in order to sell the bike, he just threw the s*** together. Whatever, I had a total of 8 carbs (1 broken), 3 sets of main jets, 2 sets of pilot air jets, etc. I knew I could make something work. I got her fired up that weekend, but she wasn't happy. Right off the bat, I heard a bad knock on the left-hand side (I think it was from the #2 exhaust), an exhaust leak, no power, no idle, etc. I knew I had some work ahead of me...
The next week I had a family emergency, so the GS got put on hold. The emergency involved 2 last minute rout-trip flights from the east coast to Hawaii. So once that was all said and done, I had to build my funds back up. The GS was on further hold. I finally started messing with it some more about a month or two ago.
I replaced a bad fuel petcock that kept draining the tank into cylinder #2's intake (through the vaccuum line), matched up all the parts in the carbs and reset the float levels. I kept tinkering with her, but she just wasn't having any of it. I feel like one or more cylinders just wasn't keeping compression. So I said screw it. I pulled the engine (call it and engine B) and swapped it with the other one I had (engine A). I "think" that engine A that's in there now was the original. The previous owner must have bought another GS for parts, so I "think" engine B was from that other bike. I had no idea why engine A wasn't in the bike to begin with, so I expected something to be wrong with it. I threw it in this past Sunday, and after priming the carbs, she fired right on up. She felt right. No knocks, no grinding. She ran smooth and revved up great.
So being my impatient self, I went to the MVA on Monday and got her a tag so I could go for a test ride to see how she ran. Now this is where I'm at now. She starts up quick (an indication of running rich, right?) and idles great. When I start going, she has power and torque on the low end, but there's no mid-range power (from ~3,000-6,000 rpm). If I push through the bogging and get her up to 7,000, she pulls like a champ. In 1st and 2nd at those rpms, shes almost trying to pick the front wheel up. Once I stop, she idles right around 1,000-1,500 no problems.
As an extra note, when I'm just cruising around 3,000 rpm (right on the upper edge of the low-end power band) she's got just enough power to hold my speed. If I pull the choke out 1/8 - 1/4 of the way, then she get's a little more power. At that point, I could accelerate a little bit.
I just realized that I wrote all that out in my intro post, but hey, now you guys know where I stand, haha.
I'm currently 22 and live in Southern Maryland where I was born and raised. I've been riding for about 3 years now. My starter bike was a 2001 Yamaha Virago 250. It's a nice little bike. Lightweight, quiet, smooth, reliable... scratch that. She left me stranded once and I had to come back with a truck to get her, lol. Anyway, I've been riding that for a couple years and this past spring I figured I really need to move up to a bigger bike. So the search began.
I found a few nice deals, but one bike really stood out to me. It was this GS850GL. The previous owner did't know too much about engines, but yet he was trying to do all sorts of work to it. Needless to say, when I bought the bike, it was bought as a "project." He told me it just needed some carb work done, but I knew better than that. I didn't buy just the bike. He sold the bike, plus another bike and a half worth of parts along with it, including another engine. I wasn't looking for a project. I was looking for a reliable (and already running) bike to hit the roads with. But once I found this, I couldn't pass the deal up. He was selling everything he had for $1,000. Sold.
When I finally got her home and started working on her, I stripped off all the extra crap he had installed (windshield, side bags, sissy-bar/trunk) and then got to the engine. I took the carbs off and completely cleaned them. Not sure who did the work to them before, but there were a bunch of mix-matched parts. For example, 3 carbs had a 115 main jet, the other one was different. It looked to me like everything was apart, and in order to sell the bike, he just threw the s*** together. Whatever, I had a total of 8 carbs (1 broken), 3 sets of main jets, 2 sets of pilot air jets, etc. I knew I could make something work. I got her fired up that weekend, but she wasn't happy. Right off the bat, I heard a bad knock on the left-hand side (I think it was from the #2 exhaust), an exhaust leak, no power, no idle, etc. I knew I had some work ahead of me...
The next week I had a family emergency, so the GS got put on hold. The emergency involved 2 last minute rout-trip flights from the east coast to Hawaii. So once that was all said and done, I had to build my funds back up. The GS was on further hold. I finally started messing with it some more about a month or two ago.
I replaced a bad fuel petcock that kept draining the tank into cylinder #2's intake (through the vaccuum line), matched up all the parts in the carbs and reset the float levels. I kept tinkering with her, but she just wasn't having any of it. I feel like one or more cylinders just wasn't keeping compression. So I said screw it. I pulled the engine (call it and engine B) and swapped it with the other one I had (engine A). I "think" that engine A that's in there now was the original. The previous owner must have bought another GS for parts, so I "think" engine B was from that other bike. I had no idea why engine A wasn't in the bike to begin with, so I expected something to be wrong with it. I threw it in this past Sunday, and after priming the carbs, she fired right on up. She felt right. No knocks, no grinding. She ran smooth and revved up great.
So being my impatient self, I went to the MVA on Monday and got her a tag so I could go for a test ride to see how she ran. Now this is where I'm at now. She starts up quick (an indication of running rich, right?) and idles great. When I start going, she has power and torque on the low end, but there's no mid-range power (from ~3,000-6,000 rpm). If I push through the bogging and get her up to 7,000, she pulls like a champ. In 1st and 2nd at those rpms, shes almost trying to pick the front wheel up. Once I stop, she idles right around 1,000-1,500 no problems.
As an extra note, when I'm just cruising around 3,000 rpm (right on the upper edge of the low-end power band) she's got just enough power to hold my speed. If I pull the choke out 1/8 - 1/4 of the way, then she get's a little more power. At that point, I could accelerate a little bit.
I just realized that I wrote all that out in my intro post, but hey, now you guys know where I stand, haha.
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