My GS850G ongoing issues and maintenance.

[Grimly]

I just twist tie a piece of cardboard to the front of the cooler in winter. However, I can't say my 'thermostat' has any effect at all. The cooler itself made an almost unbelievable difference; from much too hot in summer to barely 200 f winter or summer, cardboard or none. Supposedly too cold to burn off condensation in the crank case.

Has anybody ever noticed any condensation or other problems from running too cold?

Water vapour will evaporate out way below boiling point, so a good long run of say an hour or two every so often will keep it clear. Only thing I've ever noticed about water contamination on some engines is a tendency for emulsion to form under the filler cap or rocker cover - when that happens you know it's time to address the issue (by not doing so many short runs).

[Grimly]

The voltage meter has been waggling around a lot when revs rise over 4k, then settling down. Charging has been unaffected, so I suspected a dirty connection either at the meter feed or even at the reg-rec (SH-775).
Stuck on another reg-rec and the voltage was fine, no waggling.
Put the original SH-775 back on and ditto.
OK, cleaned up the connectors at the 775, put it back together and that's it sorted, seemingly.

Since I'd got it hot, I checked compression figures...
1. 140+
2. 140+
3. 140+
4. 145+
That do for now.

[Grimly]

Well, that was an unexpected series of events.
Started off by simply changing the SU needle, then fitting a new-to-me Saddlemen seat. I finished off by checking the cold start and running and set up the idle, etc.
Then I noticed the oil cooler adapter (rather, the o-ring under the OP switch) was leaking a bit. Turns out, some idle sod who'd fitted it hadn't checked the proper fit of the o-ring and it was actually a size too big, so got squeezed out at one end. Stupid git.
That turned out to be an erse of a job, because the clutch cable runs directly across the top of the take-off point for the OP, and I thought I'd take the opportunity to fit a new clutch lever perch from a Dullville.
All together now, and bone dry, but my back is the regulator of how much I can do in awkward positions... flaming sore now.