New GS owner from Wyoming

[mikerophone]

Good call. Somewhat louder (within reason) bikes are ok IMO, but in a neighborhood, nobody likes "that" guy!

I keep low RPM's on any of my bikes that have anything other than stock pipes as a courtesy to my neighbors that might be sleeping when I get home from work at 11PM some nights.

[edgeofvamp]

I am more worried about the 6am crowd. I work nights and i start work as everyone is getting home from work, but i will be starting the bike to let it warm up before peoples alarms go off.

Now admittedly, other than turning it over a few times. I have not actually heard this bike running, so i lend my ears to you guys whether a 550 exhaust is as bad as a Harley exhaust or not? Especially at start up.

[edgeofvamp]

Well i hope these will work for the 550, not sure what it will do performance wise-just couldn't pass up on the opportunity.
Here is an example of what i got:
919004.jpg
The cans i got are off an '06 honda 919. No rust and no dents from what i can see.
So hopefully my $100 spur of the moment purchase proves to be worth while.........now if only i could get the bike unloaded.
I hate having days off that everyone i know works, makes getting helpers a bit of a pain.

[edgeofvamp]

So, i started the '85 gs550 for the first time since i bought the bike and it started with half choke on the 3 rotation of the starter.
I let it run for about a minute then saw the puddle of fuel under the bike, both carb gaskets failed.

On the positive side of things, without getting hot and test riding it, it was properly tuned(yay for a blind purchase).

Some new gaskets, some cleaning up from storage and the muffler tubes welded up. Then i will post some proper pics up.
I hope you will like them, till then keep leanin folks.

[Weapon]

nice score!
It looks like it has the bungs welded in the frame so you could bolt an es fairing on it without any trouble.

[edgeofvamp]

Weapon, I am not big on fairings-especially on a 550 I don't intend to take out of town very far.
Admittedly though, I might put a fairing on the 1100 for long rides and take it off for spirited runs. That is up in the air, since I like the semi-naked look of these bikes.

[edgeofvamp]

Well, i finally got a chance to delve further into the carbs. Come to find out, the reason the carb gaskets were leaking was simply a half azzed sealer job instead of actual gaskets and the screws were only finger tight.

The positive side, the dealership finally got my gaskets in yesterday and the inside of the carbs are in amazing shape. Very clean, like as if they had been cleaned last month. Granted there was no fuel inside since i bought the bike, so that helps. So, until i have reason to think otherwise. I am not going to mess with anything right now and just install the new gaskets.

Once i get the exhaust on and it running appropriately, then i will delve more into fine tuning. I am looking to get a solid baseline.

If any of you guys have any specific suggestions in the meantime, please say so. I am fairly new to this motor, but i am mechanically proficient. I am always looking forward to hearing advice and seeing what others have done to maintain/improve their riding experience.
So, please let me here what you got if anything in particular comes to mind.