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34-597: The unfaired version of the GS500 was first sold in the UK in 1988 (model code GS500EJ) and the following year's model (code GS500EK) was released for sale in Europe and North America. It was equipped with an air-cooled parallel twin-cylinder engine derived from the earlier GS450 . In the motorcycle market, the GS500 occupied the low end of Suzuki's mid-sized range for over twenty years. Suzuki also produced GS500 models, identified by

68-632: A catalytic converter as well as pulsed secondary air injection to control emissions. The GS500F was dropped from the UK Suzuki range in 2007 and from the US range after 2009 model year, but was still available in Australia and Denmark. In January 2015 Cycle World added the GS500F to its roll of Best Used Bikes . In March 1992, Motorcyclist magazine, in an article titled "Budget Bullets," compared

102-484: A 'U' suffix, with engines restricted to satisfy the maximum power-to-weight ratio for use in countries where restrictive motorcycle licenses were issued (the GS500 meets current EU and UK licence level A2 conditions without restricting the engine) or for countries with a Learner Approved Motorcycle program (such as Australia and New Zealand ) enhancing its worldwide popularity. GS500 engineering lineage descends directly from Suzuki's first modern 4-stroke motorcycles. With

136-412: A closed circuit carrying liquid coolant through channels in the engine block and cylinder head. A fluid in these channels absorbs heat and then flows to a heat exchanger or radiator where the coolant releases heat into the air (or raw water , in the case of marine engines ). Thus, while they are not ultimately cooled by the liquid, as the heat is exchanged with some other fluid like air, because of

170-430: A fluid is a function of its capacity and the difference in input and output temperatures. As the boiling point of water is reduced with lower pressure, and the water could not be efficiently pumped as steam, radiators had to have enough cooling power to account for the loss in cooling power as the aircraft climbed. The resulting radiators were quite large and caused a significant amount of aerodynamic drag . This placed

204-486: A great percentage of the heat generated, around 44%, escapes through the exhaust. Another 8% or so ends up in the oil , which itself has to be cooled in an oil cooler . This means less than half of the heat has to be removed through other systems. In an air-cooled engine, only about 12% of the heat flows out through the metal fins. Air cooled engines usually run noisier, however it provides more simplicity which gives benefits when it comes to servicing and part replacement and

238-440: A horizontal fashion as a Flat engine , while vertical Straight-four engine have been used. Examples of past air-cooled road vehicles, in roughly chronological order, include: During the 1920s and 30s there was a great debate in the aviation industry about the merits of air-cooled vs. liquid-cooled designs. At the beginning of this period, the liquid used for cooling was water at ambient pressure. The amount of heat carried away by

272-482: A letter-and-number code: K1 for 2001, K2 for 2002, L0 for 2010 and so on. In 2002 the wheel color became black, and from 2004 the frame was also painted black. After 2002 Suzuki stopped producing the GS500E for the US market and did not release a GS500 for 2003. In 2007, Suzuki dropped the GS500 from its lineup in the UK and Spain, but it continued to be sold in some other countries. As of 2016, Suzuki Motor Corporation

306-528: A successor to the GS425, the GS450 twin, which had a new bottom-end design that used a one-piece 180° crankshaft running on plain bearings. A counterbalance shaft controlled engine vibrations. The 448 cubic centimetres (27.3 cu in) displacement of this twin grew to 487 cubic centimetres (29.7 cu in) in 1988 by means of a 3 mm larger bore, when it became the engine for the new GS500E. Although

340-573: Is producing the GS500 at its Latin American manufacturing subsidiary Suzuki Motor de Colombia S.A. for sale in Colombia and for export to Chile (where it is marketed as a retro model) as well as to Ecuador . In 2004, after a year hiatus, Suzuki came out with the GS500F to fill the void left (in the US market) by the GS500. In other countries the two models were sold side by side. This bike

374-418: Is usually cheaper to be maintained. Many motorcycles use air cooling for the sake of reducing weight and complexity. Few current production automobiles have air-cooled engines (such as Tatra 815 ), but historically it was common for many high-volume vehicles. The orientation of the engine cylinders is commonly found in either single-cylinder or coupled in groups of two, and cylinders are commonly oriented in

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408-692: The GS500E twin was developed from an existing design, for the 1988 GS500EJ model Suzuki came up with a brand new frame, running gear and bodywork aimed at urban riders, novice motorcyclists and those on a budget. Additionally, the GS500EJ debuted with carburetors from the Mikuni ‘Slingshot’ series, a design which was simultaneously being used on the Suzuki GSX-R750 racer-replica. Although it did not produce as much horsepower as comparable multivalve engines,

442-900: The Kawasaki EX500 , the Yamaha Seca II , the Honda Nighthawk CB750 , and the Suzuki GS500. The Seca II came in first, with the CB750, and the GS500 following in that order. In a February 1992 article titled "Bargain Blasters," Cycle World compared the GS500E to the Kawasaki EX500 , the Seca II and the Suzuki Bandit GSF400 . The GS500E finished last because it was relatively underpowered, but

476-627: The Royal Enfield Bullet Silver Classic 500 ES, Buell Blast , Suzuki LS650 Savage , Kawasaki KLR650 and MZ Skorpion Tour single-cylinder bikes, as well as the Kawasaki Vulcan 500 LTD , Honda VLX , Yamaha V-Star Custom and Kawasaki Ninja 500R twins. The GS500E narrowly beat the Ninja 500R for top honors "on the grounds of its $ 700 lower price tag." Air-cooled engine Air-cooled engines rely on

510-663: The 1900s. The first commercial production was by the New Way Motor Company of Lansing, Michigan, US. The company produced air-cooled engines in single and twin cylinders in both horizontal and vertical cylinder format. Subsequent to their initial production which was exported worldwide, other companies took up the advantages of this cooling method, especially in small portable engines. Applications include mowers, generators, outboard motors, pump sets, saw benches and auxiliary power plants and more. Suzuki Motor Corporation Too Many Requests If you report this error to

544-557: The 1976 debut of the GS750 air-cooled inline-four, as well as the GS400 parallel-twin, Suzuki was building 4-stroke engines despite having produced only 2-stroke motors for 20 years. The Suzuki GS series soon expanded into larger and smaller four-cylinder bikes, the GS1000 and GS550 respectively, while the twin-cylinder engine was bored-out to become the GS425 twin. All of these models preserved

578-690: The Light-Sport Aircraft ( LSA ) and ultralight aircraft market. Rotax uses a combination of air-cooled cylinders and liquid-cooled cylinder heads. Some small diesel engines, e.g. those made by Deutz AG and Lister Petter are air-cooled. Probably the only big Euro 5 truck air-cooled engine (V8 320 kW power 2100 N·m torque one) is being produced by Tatra . BOMAG part of the FAYAT group also utilizes an air cooled inline 6 cylinder motor, in many of their construction vehicles. Stationary or portable engines were commercially introduced early in

612-520: The Navy underwriting air-cooled engine development at Pratt & Whitney and Wright Aeronautical . Most other groups, especially in Europe where aircraft performance was rapidly improving, were more concerned with the issue of drag. While air-cooled designs were common on light aircraft and trainers, as well as some transport aircraft and bombers , liquid-cooled designs remained much more common for fighters and high-performance bombers. The drag issue

646-868: The circulation of air directly over heat dissipation fins or hot areas of the engine to cool them in order to keep the engine within operating temperatures. Air-cooled designs are far simpler than their liquid-cooled counterparts, which require a separate radiator , coolant reservoir, piping and pumps. Air-cooled engines are widely seen in applications where weight or simplicity is the primary goal. Their simplicity makes them suited for uses in small applications like chainsaws and lawn mowers , as well as small generators and similar roles. These qualities also make them highly suitable for aviation use, where they are widely used in general aviation aircraft and as auxiliary power units on larger aircraft. Their simplicity, in particular, also makes them common on motorcycles . Most modern internal combustion engines are cooled by

680-495: The earliest GS engine layout: double overhead cams, 2 shim -adjusted valves per cylinder and a roller-bearing crankshaft. The GS500E motorcycle appeared in 1979, powered by a sleeved-down version of the GS550 engine (with smaller carburetors). The GS500E four was manufactured for markets where its smaller displacement was suited to insurance or license regulations. Suzuki modified the original GS series engine layout to produce

714-407: The handlebars were raised to a more standard height. A California-specific model for 1990 had a reduced fuel capacity, 15.0 liters (3.3 imp gal; 4.0 U.S. gal) instead of 17 liters, to allow room under the tank for an evaporation canister. The GS500EN (1992) front suspension was improved by fitting spring preload adjusters to the forks. The painted wheels were changed in 1996 from

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748-575: The liquid-coolant circuit they are known as liquid-cooled . In contrast, heat generated by an air-cooled engine is released directly into the air. Typically this is facilitated with metal fins covering the outside of the Cylinder Head and cylinders which increase the surface area that air can act on. Air may be force fed with the use of a fan and shroud to achieve efficient cooling with high volumes of air or simply by natural air flow with well designed and angled fins. In all combustion engines,

782-506: The much smaller radiators and less fluid in the system, the weight and drag of these designs was well below contemporary air-cooled designs. On a weight basis, these liquid-cooled designs offered as much as 30% better performance. In the late- and post-war era, the high-performance field quickly moved to jet engines . This took away the primary market for late-model liquid-cooled engines. Those roles that remained with piston power were mostly slower designs and civilian aircraft. In these roles,

816-474: The original white color to dark grey, and the frame on some models. The engine was no longer painted black. New front brake calipers for the GS500EV in 1997 had two large pistons, replacing the previous unequally-sized pistons. Starting in 1998 (GS500EW) French models were fitted with Mikuni BSR 34mm carburetors with a three-circuit design (pilot jet, mid-main jet, main jet) for precise fuel metering throughout

850-481: The radiator size by 50% compared to water cooled designs. The experiments were extremely successful and by 1932 the company had switched all future designs to this coolant. At the time, Union Carbide held a monopoly on the industrial process to make glycol, so it was initially used only in the US, with Allison Engines picking it up soon after. It was not until the mid-1930s that Rolls-Royce adopted it as supplies improved, converting all of their engines to glycol. With

884-546: The rev range. In 2001 the GS500 was given new bodywork and a 20-liter fuel tank. Wheel rims were painted light gray. All markets got the Mikuni BSR 34mm carburetors that had been used only on French models. Pulsed secondary air injection was used to reduce emissions. In addition to dropping the 'E' designation for the GS500, all Suzuki motorcycles went from using a single letter code for the model year (e.g., 'X' for 1999) to

918-454: The simplicity and reduction in servicing needs is far more important than drag, and from the end of the war on almost all piston aviation engines have been air-cooled, with few exceptions. As of 2020 , most of the engines manufactured by Lycoming and Continental are used by major manufacturers of light aircraft Cirrus , Cessna and so on. Other engine manufactures using air-cooled engine technology are ULPower and Jabiru , more active in

952-458: The steam through tubes located just under the skin of the wings and fuselage, where the fast moving outside air condensed it back to water. While this concept was used on a number of record-setting aircraft in the late 1930s, it always proved impractical for production aircraft for a wide variety of reasons. In 1929, Curtiss began experiments replacing water with ethylene glycol in a Curtiss D-12 engine. Glycol could run up to 250 C and reduced

986-707: The testers praised its handling. In April 1994, in a follow-up article titled "Bargain Hunters," Cycle World compared the Kawasaki Ninja 500R (the EX500 renamed), the Yamaha FZR600 and Seca II , in addition to the Suzuki Katana 600 and GS500E, choosing the Ninja as the best deal overall. The GS500E fared better as part of a 2002 Cycle World comparison of ten mid-sized streetbikes, which included

1020-459: The two designs roughly equal in terms of power to drag, but the air-cooled designs were almost always lighter and simpler. In 1921, the US Navy , largely due to the efforts of Commander Bruce G. Leighton , decided that the simplicity of the air-cooled design would result in less maintenance workload, which was paramount given the limited working area of aircraft carriers . Leighton's efforts led to

1054-460: The two-valve GS500 engine had proportionally more torque at low speeds. As introduced in 1988 for the UK, and the GS500EK model in 1989 for Europe and North America, the bike came with a black painted engine mounted in a light grey frame and white wheels. These first GS500 bikes had low two-piece handlebars, giving the impression of clip-ons but were in fact mounted to the upper triple tree. In 1990

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1088-590: The volume of water required and the size of the radiator by as much as 30%, which opened the way to a new generation of high-powered, relatively low-drag liquid cooled inline engines such as the Rolls-Royce Merlin and Daimler-Benz DB601 , which had an advantage over the unpressurized early versions of the Jumo 211 . This also led to development work attempting to eliminate the radiator entirely using evaporative cooling , allowing it to turn to steam and running

1122-493: Was upset by the 1929 introduction of the NACA cowl , which greatly reduced the drag of air-cooled engines in spite of their larger frontal area, and the drag related to cooling was at this point largely even. In the late 1920s into the 1930s, a number of European companies introduced cooling system that kept the water under pressure allowed it to reach much higher temperatures without boiling, carrying away more heat and thus reducing

1156-403: Was very similar to the previous model, but came with a fully enclosed fairing , and the engine could be restricted for use in countries where restrictive motorcycle licenses are issued. The fairing offered a sportier, aggressive look and improved rider comfort by providing wind protection and better aerodynamics. An engine oil cooler was also added to improve reliability, and European models used

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