My first bike - ZXR250

[Santa]

I'm finally kitted out (cheers quasi) and just the other day I got my hands on a beautiful 1990 zxr250. My first 100k's ticked over today and it was pretty exciting. I'll post some pics when the sun shows itself again. The bike has 15,000k's on the clock. It has had new brake pads, brake fluid, oil, oil filter, spark plugs, chain, sprockets, tyres and had the forks looked at and fork seals replaced all in the last 6 months so I'm very happy with my buy.

Only thing that needs doing is the clutch cable, as it stands the clutch only disengages when the lever is on the bar. The easy adjust dial is maxed out but I'll have a look and see if I can adjust it down below tomorrow.

I'm just wondering what I should look out for maintenance wise? When should I start worrying about the infamous cam chain/tensioner issues? Also what fuel do people use? My flatmate and another friend of mine both use 91 but I would have thought a compression ratio of 12:1 would mean I want higher octane?

[bull]

too much Santa, can still remember the day i got my bike, had the biggest smile on my face , then i rode it and the smile was even bigger still.

Enjoy, and ride safe.

[ninjac]

Welcome aboard Santa. I dig your new sleigh.
1990 ZXR250. That is the A1 with the round headlights right. What colour?
I had the green/blue/white one. Had 40,000Km on the clock when I traded in.
I had to replace the cam chain, normal wear and tear stuff.
The only problem was the chrome on the USD front shock would get scratched easily from stone chips and the fork seals would leak after a couple of months.
It was cheaper to source a second hand shock from a wrecker than to get them re-chromed. But the replacement shock had same problem.
You should use 95+ octane for the high compression. The extra cost of the premium fuel is bugger all and not worth worring about.

[Delphinus]

Welcome Santa,

I just got the same bike myself yesterday. 1990 ZXR250. They are a great eh!

Shocks - Make sure you wipe all the bugs and stuff off the shocks with a clean rag and some CRC that stops the seals leaking.

Might have to catch up for a ride one day :)