Help an Old Man out with advice....

[macmusick]

I looked at an 82 GL500 today with 26K on the odo. I took it for a short ride. I was underwhelmed by what seemed to me like a serious lack of power. I currently ride a GL1100 have owned two Valkyries and a GL 1800. I was not comparing the 500 to those bikes but I have also recently owned a 450 Rebel that seemed much faster.

What did I do wrong? I did notice the redline at 10K, should I have been winding it up to high revs.

Otherwise the bike seems to run well. It looked pretty darn good with only a little apparent oil leaking at one of the valve covers.

The guy is asking $775. The bike needs new tires and a new tailight. I was thinking I would offer $500. Would that be an insult?

[Rat]

The engine's less than 1/2 the size, won't dislocate your shoulders.

Try $500, go to 6 if you have to.

Gord

[ramprat]

I looked at an 82 GL500 today with 26K on the odo. I took it for a short ride. I was underwhelmed by what seemed to me like a serious lack of power. I currently ride a GL1100 have owned two Valkyries and a GL 1800. I was not comparing the 500 to those bikes but I have also recently owned a 450 Rebel that seemed much faster.

What did I do wrong? I did notice the redline at 10K, should I have been winding it up to high revs.

Otherwise the bike seems to run well. It looked pretty darn good with only a little apparent oil leaking at one of the valve covers.

The guy is asking $775. The bike needs new tires and a new tailight. I was thinking I would offer $500. Would that be an insult?

As mentioned, the 500 GL won't compare in many ways to what you've had, and they weren't designed to be beasts in a racer mode. They are a great little cruiser that will not let you down when maintained, which is pretty easy to do. If it is dressed SilverWing Interstate, it will suffer some in sparkyness, but still get you very comfortably where you need to go/be.
Tossing a few $$ at tires and some gaskets, and some basic tune up things should get you in decent shape pretty quick if it's in good shape.

There is a lot more information available at cx500forum.com for these bikes than is here, so feel free to drop by.
Joel in the Couve