New member here - 82 gs450t

[LAB3]

Just a quick intro here, new to the forum but long time rider. Just picked up an 82 gs450t with only 7k miles from the original owner. He's a retiree and although the bike hasn't been ridden in ten years, I have little reason to dispute his "ran when parked" claim. The carbs where drained, the inside of the tank is clean with no rust so my hope is that it'll take little to get it going again. The plugs have already been pulled with a couple of squirts of oil shot into the cylinders to let it sit a bit before getting a battery for it. My guess is there's a good bit of old rubber that needs to be replaced (besides tires) but I'm a good month from doing any serious riding weather wise. A repair manual was included and it certainly appears that everything seems like it's pretty simple and straight forward but there's almost always questions along the way.

[RichDesmond]

Congrats, sounds like a nice find. Post some pics when you get a chance.

[GSXR7ED]

Congrats and welcome!

Once you upload pics, you could post your bike on this thread: https://www.thegsresources.com/_foru...nk)&highlight=

Ed

[dorkburger]

Welcome. Sounds like nice find. Nice that the PO had the foresight to drain the fuel. The carbs will likely still need some love, but being that the fuel was drained should make cleaning them much easier.

[John Park]

I have the same bike year/model with about 50,000 on it - my fave bike - so you've got a lot of future there. I like this year far better than the '83.

Yes, the fuel system - gas tap and carbs - usually get cranky by this age and you want to be really careful pulling the side panels off as the rubber grommets shrink down on the plastic stubs that go into them and break them off. If the auto fuel tap isn't shutting off properly the tank can flood the carbs and go down into the crankcase. If you're cranking the engine with the plugs out, make sure the plugs are in the caps and grounded [touching] the head so the spark has a place to go; less stress on the coils and ignition box.

Just a pitfall or three to avoid unneccessary 'what was I thinking' situations. It is Always faster in the long run to study whatever you are about to do Here before tearing into stuff. Welcome aboard.

[LAB3]

Thanks for the heads up on grounding the plugs. Sometime today I'll be ordering up a carb kit, a petcock rebuild kit along with caliper and master cylinder kits. Needless to say he fuel line will get replaced and my best bet is fork seals might be a good idea as well.

[Gorminrider]

I've never needed a "carb kit" through 9 old motorcycles, but I've had to take several apart to clean them and replace parts too...but I've got spare parts too. Lucky-because carb kits don't always have the exact parts I was needing- I'd just be careful to wait til you need stuff before you get it..... fork seals might even be fine too but a change of fork oil is a good thing. Petcocks often give trouble but again, not always and plenty of people here say the kits are useless that a replacement is the best....

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Ride it.

[LAB3]

There's a good bit of wisdom in the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" adage.

There's a lot of folks out there who'll take the advice they read on a website/magazine somewhere and hold on to it as gospel while overlooking the fact that the people giving that advice or their advertisers are trying to sell you something. Many times you end up with sub-standard one-size-fits-all crap in the process, if there isn't a well known issue coming out of the factory, then it probably doesn't need that sort of fix.

I've owned and have wrenching bikes since the 70's and have resurrected a good number of beaters over the years. When I was riding my shovelhead during my wild years I was the guy that never had a roadside breakdown when the other guys in the pack where holding us all up because they didn't pay attention to their preventative maintenance.

Being a young retiree I'm planning to hit the road sometime in late spring with a week's worth of clothes and a tent in my backpack. The bike is going to get dual sport tires to help out a bit on dirt roads and two tracks, when I camp I don't go to the campground! If I'm up along the shore of Lake Superior, above the tree line in the Rockies or along the Pacific coast with no cell service or parts house within walking distance, I want to be reasonably sure my bike is going to do what it needs to get me out of there. $100 and a few hours time is cheap insurance and although I'm in great shape for my age, walking for three days because of a weather checked O-Ring isn't my idea of fun.

[Gorminrider]

Well, Be careful whatever. Backcountry Biking alone is more dangerous than hiking alone so maybe a SPOT device would be a good investment.

[LAB3]

Never knew of SPOT but am familiar with eprb. The SPOT is for sure cheaper but then again, there's a monthly fee involved. Thanks for the heads up. I'm old school for sure, compass and maps for me! I'm not against GPS, here was the first one I ever used, serial number 6. https://www.ion.org/museum/item_view...&scid=9&iid=22

[Gorminrider]

Haha. time marches on.

...the required year's subscription is a bit expensive alright but SPOT isn't the only game in town. Here's something without all the features of SPOT

https://www.rei.com/product/815753/acr-electronics-resqlink-406-gps-personal-locator-beacon

[LAB3]

Saw that one earlier today. Yeah, the TI4100 was a beast, along with what is shown there was a 100' antenna cable, dual tape drive to record data, tripod for the antenna, two marine 12v batteries to power it and a tent to set it all up in. Humped one of them to many a mountain top all over the world back in the 80's.