KAWASAKI GPZ500S
Our former art editor (he helped make the mag look good) has flown the nest, but – thankfully – joined the biking fraternity with a little help from CMM legend Pip Higham
Justin Blackamore buys a classic Kwak twin
Hello, Justin here. If I’m being completely honest, I know very little about the world of second-hand bikes and no idea what I even wanted as my first ride. Luckily for me, I worked with a lot of people that know their stuff. So, I had to narrow things down a bit. Regular readers may recall I enjoyed my first time on a bike at the Honda Ron Haslam School back in 2014. Then in 2018 I did my CBT and passed my test. I’ve finally become a biker: but what bike to buy? Firstly, I had a budget of about a grand and I needed to get a year’s insurance and tax with that, too. I needed a commuter bike, in good condition and easy to maintain; something that would be a fair match to my lack of experience in the workshop. I also wanted something a little sporty. Nothing too big, either (I don’t want to be out my depth), but it needed to be fast enough, something I could learn on and it had to suit my stature, as I’m quite a tall lad. With all that in mind, I was open to suggestions. A number of bikes came close that we found in the reader ad pages of CMM. A Suzuki SV650, Honda CB500 and Kawasaki ER-5 were all well thought of. However, a re-occurring suggestion was the GPZ500S, which came highly recommended by my editor mate Bertie and a number of other journos. With a few of us searching for suitable bikes, Bertie and I spotted a few such machines being sold by one guy – Dylan, on ebay. Bertie then chatted to Dylan and got our CMM friend/contributor Pip Higham to go and check out the bike that I eventually bought. Pip, over to you! Thanks Justin! Dylan is from Warrington, which is just a short hop down the M62 from me. I soon realised that Dylan knows a thing or two about the little GPZ and its siblings as he had a few for sale. I’d called Dylan the previous evening to ask him not to run the bike before I arrived. I wanted to see, hear and feel it crack up from cold, and here are a few buying pointers (for more in-depth tips, see our buying supplement this month). First impressions are important: I’d expect it to be clean. So, are there any mis-matched panels? Does the air-box fit correctly? Do the brackets and rubbers fit snugly? If not, walk away now as air-box problems are a really good indication of a front-end bump, resulting in a bent frame. Paperwork: Is the V5 present and is the bike registered to the bloke that you’re dealing with? Now have a look at engine and frame numbers for obvious signs of molestation, such as file or grind marks. Is the immediate area suspiciously low, indicating that it’s been shaved prior to re-stamping?
Now have a look at the mechanical health of the bike. Check the oil with fingers and then your nose, because you don’t want to be smelling barbecued clutch or unleaded petrol... both are bad! Keys in, lights on and press the red button. If the motor fires up with the lights on it indicates a healthy battery. After a short spell on choke the motor should settle to a regular idle. There may well be a bit of mechanical noise, but that’s normal. If there’s a centre stand, pop it in first and run it up and down through the gears a time or two (take precautions). This will allow you to look at the chain, rear sprocket and general wheel and tyre truth and concentricity. Get someone to sit on the pillion seat to unload the front wheel, grab it between your knees and tweak the bars. This will reveal tired wheel bearings, a loose mudguard, loose handlebars or a baggy wheel spindle or yoke. Now a quick spin of the wheel for a front end tyre, rim and disc inspection, quick squeeze of the front brake lever while looking at any brake hoses and connections. Check both tyres for bulges, cuts, orientation and tread depth. Pop the seat off and,if possible, the side panels. Run the motor again and go through all the electrical functions, lights, flashers, horn, the lot. Now turn the bars from lock to lock with lights and flashers on. It’s quite common for parts of the harness to harden over time. Check the rear brake linkage and lines as per the front. Fuel tank: Inspect the tank inside and out for signs of rust, because a fair few modern bikes extend the tank below the fuel tap and these spots can harbour rust. A good look inside the tank should give you an idea whether the ethanol stuff we buy at petrol stations has resulted in Water In Tank Syndrome, or ‘WITS’ as I now refer to it. If it’s bad, you may detect fuel seeping through a partially corroded steel tank. Even a small amount of moisture in the tank can result in big problems. The tank may need replacing, so budget at least £100 for that. This GPZ500S checked out really well. Ok, it had a crack in the screen and there was a reluctance to run sweetly off choke on one cylinder, which I put down to a partially blocked pilot jet or possibly a leaky inlet rubber (drawing air here leans out the mixture, the choke artificially compensates). Squirt a bit of WD40 round the inlet manifold with the engine running, and if the idle speeds up for a few seconds there’s a leak, so an easy fix. Otherwise it looked pretty good and certainly a lot of very usable bike for relatively little coin. I’d give it eight out of ten for effort!