Question about repair manuals

[Splittie]

Well, after reading many posts on cold starting(Or lack of starting) I have decided to tackle the repairs myself.
Since I am sure there will be other repairs to be done in the future, I want to get the best/most thorough repair manual I can.
My question to you is WHICH ONE SHOULD I BUY/or download??
Thanks for any info.
Patrick

[Steve]

First of all, WELCOME TO THE FORUM. \\/

Now to your question:
Few will argue that the best manual will be the Suzuki factory manual. Depending on what bike you have, yo might be able to download a copy. The factory manual also tends to cost a little more, but it's worth it.

Fow lower budgets, or, if you don't plan on doing every bit of repair, a Clymer or Haynes manual will certainly get you by. For the questions that are not answered by those books, the wealth of knowledge on this board can be tapped.

BassCliff, our (un)official greeter, will be along shortly with the official welcome, but, in the meantime, what bike do you have?
What part of the globe do you call "home"?

Since you say you have been reading the boards, you may have learned that cold starting issues are usually attributed to improper valve adjustment.
BassCliff has a nice tutorial on his website showing how to adjust the valves, if you have an 8-valve engine.


.

[Splittie]

Thanks for the welcome.
Got sent over here a little while back but couldnt get posting for awhile.
My bike is an '81 gs750L (Hey don't laugh at that big apehangeresque bars and BIG king and queen seat).
I picked the bike up for a whole $50 bucks (Kept the wife happy to not put out a bunch of $$$) and it is pretty much complete, but really hard to start.
If I shoot some starting fluid in and keep a batt charger near, I can get it to start. Then it runs fine. Should be valves out of adj. right?

[tone]

just my opinion but genuine suzuki manuals tend to give just the bare facts & figures & lots of good line drawings, fine for the experianced mechanic, haynes show more pictures & set out things in a more logical way which is better for a less confident mechanic

Not had much experiance with clymer manuals as they are very expensive over here but they seem to fall somewhere between the two

I usually buy a haynes & a genuine manual for any bike i intend to keep for a while

[Splittie]

I will probably keep the bike for awhile unless I come across an 1000 or 1100 that is in good condition.
This bike may get a hard tail/rigid do over, if I get the nerve up to do it. I have seen a few and they look pretty decent.
It has lo mileage and was owned by an older gent that drove it to and from work mainly.

[BassCliff]

Hey howdy hey!

Mr. Splittie,

Let it be known that on this day you are cordially and formally welcomed to the GSR Forum as a Junior Member in good standing with all the rights and privileges thereof. Further let it be known that good standing can be improved with pictures (not you, your bike)! :-D

I found a Suzuki Shop Manual for my bike on craigslist.com (only $10!). They can also be found on ebay. I also have a Clymer manual. I like referencing both before I attempt working on my bike. I've had it a little less than a year so I'm still learning how to wrench on it. To see what I've done so far you can, as Mr. Steve mentioned, visit my little BikeCliff website for pictorial maintenance guides. They are 850G-specific but can get you generally familiar with some of the tasks necessary for your bike. Disclaimer: Always consult your manual for procedures specific to your motorcycle. I just like to snap a few pictures while I work on my bike in the hopes that it will help other new owners.

Now, Mr. bwringer has some classy, detailed, instructional-type how-to's on his website. I recommend you visit there too. Check The Garage Section on this site for The Stator Papers and the Carburetor Rebuild Series. They are required reading for all GS owners. Mr. tfb has a lot of handy info about his restoration on his website also.

I should mention http://www.repairmanualclub.com . It's not run very well, but you might find a manual to download there.

This thread in the bikechat forum has a ton of links for manuals... http://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=41567

OK, that's about it. I'll shut up now. Thanks for joining us!

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
(The unofficial GSR greeter)

[chuckycheese]

Books

I prefer to refer to both Clymer and the 'Bible'. I have both for both of my bikes. The reason I think I need that is because some things seem very confusing to me and one of them seems to clear things up for the other...for whatever reason. Both are a worthy investment and inviting advice on the forum is absolutely essential!!:-D

[bwringer]

Get all the information you can -- buy ALL the manuals you can find (factory, Haynes, Clymer in that order), and print out or buy a microfiche with all the part numbers and assembly drawings.

All the manuals, including the factory manuals, suck in different ways, but by having different perspectives -- different angles of suckage, if you will -- you can get a better handle on problems and procedures.

Whenever there's a crucial measurement or spec, or something doesn't quite make sense, verify it in the other manuals. All of the manuals contain boneheaded errors that could be potentially very damaging, although the Suzuki manual is generally the cleanest in this regard.

There are also several "off-manual" procedures and fixes that the GSR Hive Mind has discovered and compiled over the years and through millions of tears, fears, and beers. BassCliff has supplied links above to most of these.

[spyug]

I agree with everything said here. Information and knowledge are like money in the bank, you can never have too much......round up whatever manuals you can find. As tone and some of the others mention, some like the factory manuals don't explain or illustrate as thoroughly as you would like and one of the others may provide more information or a better illustration. Case in point using my factory manual yesterday I was not able to find the location of the regulator/rectifier I needed to work on but the Haynes had a clear photo.

In addition to the manuals, many of us get in the habit of clipping articles from the bike mags and or downloading same from the Internet. I have a large binder full of stuff and an online reference list of over 1000 pages...all collected over 4 or 5 years.

Many times articles on completely different bikes can give you information on how to do a project on your own bike or give you suggestions for projects to do.

Information is all good so get as much as you can.

Good luck.
cheers,
Andy.