Bloody 250's

[aff-man]

Well went for a ride today as you do. Going over the hill just passed kopu station and back again. When on the way back i realise that the bike isn't going over 140 along the maranda staights. When we pull over for other reasons i can hear the coolant bubbling and boiling in the reserve tank. Now over the kopu hill i was getting down nice and low reaching the edge of the rear tyre and making (for me anyway) a decent pace. But due to the nature of a 250 to get the speed and power i needed to get through the corners i had to ring the bloody hell out of it. So if anyone has any suggestions (apart from a bigger bike) of cornering with more pace yet not having to ring the neck out of the bike to get pull through and leaving the corner. :weep:

[Two Smoker]

Find tighter roads, like Twilight road just off Clevdon, or scenic drive in the waitakeres, there's a few around,just stay off the main highways and you will find them, Hunua Road is also a good one

[Firefight]

Well went for a ride today as you do. Going over the hill just passed kopu station and back again. When on the way back i realise that the bike isn't going over 140 along the maranda staights. When we pull over for other reasons i can hear the coolant bubbling and boiling in the reserve tank. Now over the kopu hill i was getting down nice and low reaching the edge of the rear tyre and making (for me anyway) a decent pace. But due to the nature of a 250 to get the speed and power i needed to get through the corners i had to ring the bloody hell out of it. So if anyone has any suggestions (apart from a bigger bike) of cornering with more pace yet not having to ring the neck out of the bike to get pull through and leaving the corner. :weep:


Hey Aff, don;t be too hard on yourself, I guess you were ridein with CK, so no way you would keep up, anyway, practice, practice, practice, on thursday if its fine I,ll show you a bit of road that you will enjoy, heaps of twisties, you will get a good pace on.

Firefight.

[Yamahamaman]

Hey Aff, don;t be too hard on yourself, I guess you were ridein with CK, so no way you would keep up, anyway, practice, practice, practice, on thursday if its fine I,ll show you a bit of road that you will enjoy, heaps of twisties, you will get a good pace on.

Firefight.
This sounds interesting - might be worth some TOIL (time off in lieu). Mind you I am pre-empting any form of invitation. :whistle:

[merv]

Still your engine shouldn't be boiling no matter how hard you push it.

[Andrew]

Yea might pay to get your cooling system checked out. I did the very same bit of road as you did yesterday. I kept the rev's well above 16k for most of the time. Is your fan coming on when its getting hot?

[Andrew]

If you want to take my bike out for a little ring out and compare power wise you can. Let me know.

[Two Smoker]

Also forgot Old North Road just before Kumeu...

[MikeL]

Aff-man does your bike have a temp gauge? Even flat out if your cooling system is in good condition you shouldn't go above normal while it's moving. If you have a long fast run and then stop quickly and idle, the temp can rise quickly but it shouldn't boil unless your fan is not working.

[aff-man]

well here goes a bit more detail. Yes my bike does have a temp gauge and it was passed the red line when we stopped. After waiting for like 10 mins it went down to about 2/3 hot and it stayed there or a little above all the way home(not pushing the bike over 120) . As for the fan well i think it's working fine because on any given day the bike doesn't overheat so i really done know. My carbs are making my engine run a bit rich could that be having an affect on increasing bike temp???
As for riding well it's not the speed at which i take the corner it's the total lake of power available to me going through and out of the corner, i even went so far as to try change down a gear in a corner (not my brightest moment ever and definatley a bit of a heart pounder) but i still rode like above 16k revs the whole time which is bloody annoying.

Yes two smoker i know that road well i rode it both on saturday and sunday and except for the blimmin classic cars that take up most of the road in a tight corner it was pretty good. But still needed the higher revs so as not to get that power laking drone when leaving a corner.

BTW the route we took was twighlight road, hanua, miranda then over the hill and back. Melon buyer's zxr overheated as well but after more coolant was purchaced and placed in it ran fine so i might try that as well.

Yes FF it would be good to get into some manageable corners but i was thinking of doing the coromandel loop. How long does it take???

[aff-man]

P.S. thanks for the offer andrew but i think that your bike may have more power being new and all but should be pretty close to mine. You might have to come out on thursday to have a little "test" ride :bleh: :laugh:

[riffer]

If I were you aff-man I'd do a full drain of your coolant and check out what colour it is.

If its overheating like that it could be maybe you're low on coolant - could also be you've used just water instead of coolant in the past and got rusty muddy gunk all through your radiator and head, causing it not to cool properly. Of course, you could also have a stuffed head gasket too, but let's not think of that at the moment...

You definitely need to clean out that radiator anyway. Check the colour of the fluid coming out. If it's got oil in it, your head gasket's gone. If it's orangey you've got rust and gunk in the coolant. If it's green, that's good - chances are you've either not got enough of it (leak?) or your fans not working.

If you run it too hot for too long you will stuff the bike. My bike went a lot better after a full dump, flush and replace of the coolant. Never gets hot now.

[aff-man]

Did the whole coolant refill thing a couple of weeks ago and it was all green and dandy the only other thing i have done recentley is an oil and filter check . Noticed that the plug bolt was leaking a bit but i fixed that and refilled so it shouldn't be a problem might go talk to the mechanics anyway. Which is probably gonna mean more money spent :brick:

[Racey Rider]

My carbs are making my engine run a bit rich could that be having an affect on increasing bike temp???

Running rich does not cause a hotter engine.
Running lean will cause a hotter engine

If your engine is running rich, I would think that on a 250, that would cause a drop in power. What do others think?

Could be the water pump packed up?

[bungbung]

The whole time I owned my ZXR, I never noticed the radiator fan switch on while in traffic compared with my previous suzook. I checked the wiring and bridged the temp. switch to force the fan on and the fan worked fine so I stopped worrying about it.

However it never ever got close to the hot end of the temp gauge.

Did you bleed the air out of the system when you changed coolant?
Did the bike accept the correct volume of coolant when you filled it?

[aff-man]

tip bled air out till there was none left . And it was like a top up and check of the origional stuff and so the bike took whatever i gave. I dunno will get mechanics to have a look if i am limited by size then i want as much performance as posssible

[k14]

That sounds really strange. With my cbr, which is fairly similar to the zxr. I have never had the temp over 2/3 and that was when i was riding round town on a really hot day. It is normally at about 1/3.

As for having to keep it over 16k rpm, well that is strange aswell. I can get good power all the way from about 12k up and normally enter a corner when i am going hard at about 12k and just accelerate up from there changing at about 16 or so. The peak power of the 250 I4's is made at about 16500 or so rpm anyway, it tails off quite quickly after that.

You should definately get it checked out.

[aff-man]

yip i know this but cornering the way i was made it very difficult to change gear in the corner due to being off the bike.

[Two Smoker]

yip i know this but cornering the way i was made it very difficult to change gear in the corner due to being off the bike.
Just have stick with it till you get a bigger bike, i notice that too when riding with KK, i can stay in the corner with him but lack the punch out of the corners:doh:

[White trash]

yip i know this but cornering the way i was made it very difficult to change gear in the corner due to being off the bike.

Turn your shift pattern up the other way. Only takes a couple of days to come to grips with it, then laugh at all your mates trying to take off in 2nd when you swap bikes :yes:

[Solarwind]

Turn your shift pattern up the other way. Only takes a couple of days to come to grips with it, then laugh at all your mates trying to take off in 2nd when you swap bikes :yes:

My GPX250R had no trouble taking off in 2nd :shifty:

[slob]

I'd say try working on your 250's trump card - corner speed. It's one of the reasons why I went down from a TL1000S to an FZR400. Andy1's got a cbr250 as well and I'd be buggered if I've ever seen him brake in the hunuas as he's passing everyone! :yes:

[White trash]

Give it a shot on a ZXR. I can smell the clutch burning from here :D

After I'd switched the shift on the Gixxer, one of the mechanics from WMCC took it for a ride after a service. Got halfway up Marjoribanks St at about 80kph and shifts "up" to 1st. Woohoo! :doobey:

[k14]

HAHA, nice one.

Got tricked on my mates cbr250 when i rode it. Took off down the street fairly sedately, change up into 1st. Nearly got thrown off the front.

[Andrew]

You definatly know when the fan comes one. For one you will hear it come on. And for another you will feel it blowing the hot air onto your legs.

[andy1]

maybe u need a cbr250 aff-man? i dont seem to have any problems with the power, sometimes i scare myself how fast this little thing can go!
does wheelies at 180k aswell! if ya want more speed enter the corner at 150-160k NO braking!!! very important, no braking!!! thats what i do, works a treat :) ciao

[Motoracer]

does wheelies at 180k aswell! if ya want more speed enter the corner at 150-160k NO braking!!! very important, no braking!!! thats what i do, works a treat :) ciao

He ain't bullshitting either:crazy:. Some of us suspect he's got a 6hundy engine hidden under his 250 :shifty:

[k14]

You have to be joking. Your CBR250 can do wheelies at 180kph???

I've had mine up to 170, but i dont think i would have wanted to attempt a wheelie at that speed.

[aff-man]

Well it looks like i might be doing the hill again sometime so think andy might be right. At first i was changing down gears trying to go into the corner not to hot but at a resonable pace, i guess i'll just have to go faster. As to pulling a wheelie at 180k well my bike just manages to go 180k and how to pull a wheelie from there is beyond me. Methinks motoracer might be onto something :2thumbsup

[georgedubyabush]

I can get little hops over some bridges and stuff, but I have to yank the bars so damn hard I land a little crossed up usually and wobble the front.

[Coldkiwi]

geez andy, have you fitted canards to your cbr or something??

[Wenier]

maybe u need a cbr250 aff-man? i dont seem to have any problems with the power, sometimes i scare myself how fast this little thing can go!
does wheelies at 180k aswell! if ya want more speed enter the corner at 150-160k NO braking!!! very important, no braking!!! thats what i do, works a treat :) ciao


yea andy is right if u dont brake and carry the speed you can go pretty damn quickly. One way to trick urself into a false sense of security is to damb the rear brake to make u think u have braked for the corner whereas u aint done shit wit that brake. And my zxr also gets high on the temp in traffic on hot days the fans dont come on till it is on the start of the red area. :)

[aff-man]

Yip i got that one saved up for getting pulled over "yes officer i had to lane split to stop the bike overheating". if it is overheating check the reserve radiator tank. Mine was half full when hot but empty when cold :gob:

[Wenier]

true ill have to check that one out.