New Rider

[Bammer07]

Hey all,

New rider here (with no real riding yet). Bought my first motorcycle this year as a winter project to wrench on - an 1982 Suzuki GS650GL. Bike came with a manual and some extra parts, but many stock parts are missing (i.e. side panels, handlebars). Bike runs and drives, but needs some tinkering so I'm well down the rabbit hole of doing that and running testing to identify potential issues. Looking forward to getting the work done and fine tuning it, and also seeing some photos of other bikes wiring so I can get this one figured (instrument cluster was in the parts box)!

Safe riding everybody!

 

[Rob S.]

Welcome to the site and the lifestyle. Alberta? Hasn't the season ended there?

 

[rphillips]

First WELCOME, then sounds like a plan. Great bike for a winter project. Manual for a bunch of info., and here's the place for most any GS question. You said bike runs and drives, also said handlebars missing. I'd bet that is a challenge... Just poking fun, you should be happy the "L" handlebars are missing... Welcome and get going, spring will be here before you know it.

 

[Nessism]

In the back of the factory manual, there are diagrams showing how things like the cables and electrical harness routes. That should help get you started.

https://gsarchive.bwringer.com/mtsac/~cliff/storage/gs/GS650GManual.pdf

A lot of people replace the buckhorn L handlebars, with something lower. If you go that way, installing cables from an E model bike may be helpful. And new cables are a thing of beauty (so smooth) regardless of what bars you install.

 

[Bammer07]

Oh it's definitely too cold to ride now! First snow of the year today and a balmy 32 degrees as the high.

The new handlebars are lower, but they still exist! They just don't leave room for the tach, speedo, and cluster..so that'll be a problem for future me. I'll have to take some pics to show what it looks like. Looking forward to springtime and getting an MSF to get myself safely on the road, but thank you for the welcome!

The wires sound like a good idea, I just have to wrap my head around where some of these random wires go. Already busted the ground to the frame from the r/r by accident, so I have to get a new connector on there. I have 2-3 harnesses from the tach that I'm not sure what to mate with either, so there's some research to be done still. But once I figure that out, I'll have the bike telling me a lot more useful info I'd imagine.

Definitely appreciate the heads up on Blackfoot. I'll keep that in mind if any of these need replacing. Finding parts for these old bikes seems like quite the challenge! I like the idea of the reliability and hopefully being able to MacGuyver a solution should a problem arise. Things now are too complicated to fix, but good ol' fashioned mechanical engineering seems more up my alley.