I've been meaning to post a review of my own bike for a while. I ride a 2005 Suzuki GS500F. It's one of the more commonly recommended beginner sport bikes. This doesn't mean it is slow by car standards; I used to have a C4 Corvette, and the GS500F was a bit faster up to any legal speeds. I'd say that it is still suitable for most people as a first time bike, if you've scored well on the exams at the MSF class. If you're feeling uncertain after the class, though, something like a Ninja 250 or Buell Blast might be a better choice as they are a bit easier to ride.
The GS500 has been around since the late '80s, but Suzuki gave it a major styling update in 2004 to make the GS500F. Without the decals, you'd have a difficult time telling a GS500F from a GSX-R600 unless you look at it closely enough to spot the difference in handlebars or manage to catch a glimpse of the cooling fins under the bodywork. It seems that F may stand for "fairing," but the naked (that is, no plastic bodywork) version was called the GS500E, and I'm not entirely sure what, if anything, the E stood for.
Power comes from an air cooled parallel twin, with two valves per cylinder. It slots in between the Ninja 250 and Ninja 500 for overall power, making somewhere in the vicinity of 50 hp. It redlines at 11,000 RPM and is quite happy cruising at around 5,000. Like I said earlier, the power to weight ratio is a little bit higher than an '80s era Corvette. It is enough power to get you in trouble if you don't respect it... but unlike a 600 cc supersport, you need to show it some pretty blatant disrespect. It typically gets around 50 to 60 miles to the gallon.
The one point where it can be a bit unforgiving is the rear brake. It has a single hydraulic disc at each end, and if you panic and stomp on the brake pedal, it can lock the rear wheel. You'll want to make a point of using the front brake a lot more heavily than the rear.
Handling is pretty agile without being twitchy. It's certainly a fun bike to attack twisty roads with. If pushed to the limit, it's not as sophisticated as a supersport or a more expensive sport-standard like a Buell Lightining, but it's still a lot of fun. It's also quite stable in crosswinds, even though it's not a particularly heavy bike. Heavy is relative here, though - it feels a bit heavier than a Ninja 250, Buell Blast, or most of your common MSF range bikes. It's lighter than the CX500 I used to ride, and about the same weight as a 600 cc supersport.
The one area I'd want to improve on is comfort. It's not too bad to ride about town, but ride it for an hour or more and you'll start wanting a better seat. Kawasaki arguably does a better job with their factory seats on the Ninja, and unlike Ninjas, there are few aftermarket seats available for a GS500F. I'm also 6'2" tall and my legs start feeling a little bit cramped on a very long ride, though I could probably ignore that if it wasn't for the seat. I've got to wonder why the aftermarket hasn't stepped up, as there's quite a few of these bikes out there and it's definitely an item that owners could use. The riding position itself is quite comfortable; it's fairly upright with a little bit of forward lean. I modified the handlebar mounts on mine to make it friendlier for a tall rider.
There is one weird "gotcha" about owning a GS500F. For some reason, many of the parts books list the wrong oil filter. Don't let them sell you a spin on filter like the one you'd put on a car; the correct filter is a cartridge that sits inside the engine and looks more like a miniature automotive air filter.
Here's how I would sum this bike up.
Good points:
- Enough power to be fun without getting out of hand for the beginning rider
- Contemporary sportbike styling
- Sporty handling
Bad points:
- Really needs a better seat
