Please help first bike & cant ride it!

[lexride]

Hey guys how are you? I just bought a suzuki gs500f. I thought I would ride it for the 2nd time today cause it was beutiful outside! it seemed a little low on oil so I added some. After I added the oil, I took it for a ride, after about 5 minutes it started missing & died. Now it will only run for a couple minutes & start to miss & die. Anyone please help, Im so frustated its my first bike & I cant even ride it! Did I do something wrong in adding oil? I just added it like I would in my truck. I'm not for sure what to check.

[KitKat]

first: check the simple things... have enough gas in tank? switch it to reserve? check the oil level. What do you mean it seemed like it needed more oil?

what oil did you use? and what was already in there? whenever i buy a bike, changing the oil entirely is one of the first things i do.

check to see if you have spark by taking the plugs out, connecting em to the coils and letting it rest on the cylinder head and crank it over.

Hope this helps

[slowpokezuki]

I don't know about your bike, but most have a window on the clutch cover that will tell you the oil level when the bike is sitting level. Usually, there needs to be about 3/4 of the window full...I sure someone will correct me if I am wrong.

[lexride]

I cannot find the window? I'm sorry guys I feel stupid, I cheecked the oil & it was low. I used 10w-40 thats what it called for, thanks guys for the quick help.

[Larry D]

Welcome !!

Let's back up some. This is the second ride on this bike ? How was the first ride ? Give us some background on you and the purchase of the bike, please.

Sure it's not out of gas ? How did you check the oil to make the desicion to add some ?

[TeamDar]

I cannot find the window? I'm sorry guys I feel stupid, I cheecked the oil & it was low. I used 10w-40 thats what it called for, thanks guys for the quick help.

The GS twins have a dip stick.

[lexride]

Welcome !!

Let's back up some. This is the second ride on this bike ? How was the first ride ? Give us some background on you and the purchase of the bike, please.

Sure it's not out of gas ? How did you check the oil to make the desicion to add some ?

The first ride was great, I just bought it last week of a add on craiglist. Proably my first mistake!

I first thought it was the gas as well, cause thats the way it was acting. But it has a half tank.

I dont think my bike has a window, I can only find the dipstick, & thats teh way I checked it. I dont know much about bikes, but I thought I could add oil without messing something up!LOL It proably has nothing to do with the oil, but it was running fine last week?

[crapwacker]

What year is the bike?

[mike_of_bbg]

Please bear in mind that, while it is a GS, those GS500Fs are not the same bikes as most of us are working with here. We have the older stuff

Yes, we're back to basics. You need three things to support combustion in an engine:

1. Air with compression
2. Fuel, in the correct proportion, and
3. Spark, at the right time

Lubrication isn't strictly necessary, but the motor won't last long without it. The fact that it will run for a few minutes tells us that they're all going well at some point, and then things go wrong. Generally speaking bike oil levels are checked when the bike itself is level. If you added oil while it was on the side stand or on a hill, you may have over-filled the oil. It probably won't be catastrophic if you only added a quart or so while it was full. You should check on the proper technique for checking the oil on your bike, and change it. Also please be careful about the type of oil you're putting in. Many modern auto oils have additives that don't play well with the wet clutches in motorcycles. Better to get a motorcycle-specific oil.

What are you doing with the choke? Bikes may need the choke when they're cold to start, but will run too rich when hot and the plugs will foul. You need to turn that off after a couple of minutes, if you're turning it on. The next time it dies, take the spark plugs out. Are they wet with fuel? As noted, if you hook the spark plug wire back, lay it on the head, and crank the motor, can you see a strong blue spark?

[supertech411]

Turn the petcock tab to "reserve" or "Prime" and see what happens. I know the petcock feed tube on my GS550 is about 2 1/2 inches tall so when I go on reserve it look like I have almost 1/2 a tank left.

[Larry D]

.........and find a manual for it.

Anything else happen while you were putting oil in it ? Did you investigate any other parts and pieces ?