Wanted: more and faster....

[texmo]

Just a few questions out there for the CBR guys....
My front end is a bit soft how can I make it a bit harder? I want my bike to be a bit louder, as a courier I want to be heard, I have been told its not worth taking the baffels out the the muffler I should just get an aftermarket one. Brighter head lights again with being a courier and being on the road all day long I want to do what I can to be seen Are there any bulbs out there to give my bike and extra bit of shine? How often do you oil your chain? What fuel do you use, currently I am useing BP's 98 or what ever it is.
Thanks ya'll

[Brian d marge]

I can answer the first one ,,,lot of questions there .......Unladen and laden sag ..is the answer .....1st thing in setting the suspension is to make sure the spring rate is correct for you wieght ,,,( loose wieght ,,or get stiffer springs ) ,, Go to www.racetech or do a goofle search on how to use sag to find the spring rate
you can change the viscosity of the fork oil but that will speedup/slowdown the fork rate ...ie make it bouncy or dead feeling ... you can run slightly more preload ,,but remember preload stores energy in the spring , so when the spring is unloading ,,,that stored energy will come back to haunt u might feel a bit kicky over ripples ....So you use a heavier fork oil ,,,which slows the fork rate ,,,feels firmer but is making the next softest link in the chain work ,,tyre wall say .....all the while you are masking the real prob of incorrect spring rate

For my MX bike ,,,I run the max honda spring rate I could get ,,( cheaper than racetech just meant I had to lose a few kilo !! then I use ATF Viscosity ok ... cheap as ,,,...then run the least compression rebound damping I can get away with ,,,,,( earlier and cheaper suspension only controls LOW shafts speeds , relying on shims and oil for those big ole pot hole ..high shaft speeds)

Tyre pressures also play a part ,,,,,,

Finally ,,,you can increase the spring rate by removing a few coils ,,,but it wont be by much ,,,( 3,6kg/mm to 4.1 needed 1/4 of the spring to go ) so i bit the bullet and bought the correct rate!!!!!

Stephen

[N4CR]

I want my bike to be a bit louder, as a courier I want to be heard, I have been told its not worth taking the baffels out the the muffler I should just get an aftermarket one.

Just knock the fricken things out with a long sharp metal pole (edit: puncture so it's not tooo loud) (like the re-bar ones for concrete) saves you $300 for some ripoff can. Or be like me and goto wreckers and g(h)et(to) a cheap perf-tube race can.

Run the lowest fuel grade you can run properly on (eg no stuttering). I can't run 91 as it runs too hot and rarely preignites.

Get some of the xenon (blue) lamps off trademe if they are still there, dunno if they fit buy try pulling your headlamp assembly to bits and see what they look like. On the zxr's you have to bend the mounting pins to fit in properly.

Crank the suspension up a bit, but not that much if you are commuting/couring/long hours/high kms etc as you do want to have a bone structure left

Mine is on roughly 60-70% hardness but if it is too soft it can be a little worrying in corners with corrugations :|

[Coyote]

Here's some bling. Park lights would be good for everyday riding
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Mo...n-39594593.htm
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Mo...n-39411916.htm
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Mo...n-39430918.htm

Not really much help, buy hey

[kro]

My front end is a bit soft how can I make it a bit harder?
Thanks ya'll

Viagra my good man.

[HDTboy]

Before you fuck around with the front suspension, change the fork oil, you'll be surprised how much of a difference it makes. Try a 10 weight first, I'm runnin 15 weight oil, but it's a bit too stiff in the front

I run my bike on 91 perfectly fine

You'll have fun making any aftermarket bulbs fit, the ones Honda blessed us with are an odd size, and they're about $50 each IIRC

[Brian d marge]

Umm I didnt post the lobg winded explaination ,,,just for the hell of it ,....if you want the front suspension to behave ,,,,,read and become informed,,,then make a decision.... and if you think mine is a load of cobblers ,,,get a second opinion,,,,

Stephen

[transformerboy]

for a cbr 250 2 sound way louder get a drill and drill 3 holes evenly spaced in the metal around the center hole within the tip of the can. you wont be able to see any mods to the can and it will incease the noise be atleast double. it wont have any effect on ur baffls and means no problems with wof. all ur doing is increasing the area for fumes to escape.

if ur worried about rust, dont be i drilled mine over a year ago and no problems! and if ur worried about meatal filings falling into the can first time u start it poof all gone!

[sAsLEX]

Just a few questions out there for the CBR guys....
My front end is a bit soft how can I make it a bit harder?

Brighter head lights again with being a courier and being on the road all day long I want to do what I can to be seen Are there any bulbs out there to give my bike and extra bit of shine?

Any old car H4 bulbs will do, can get the brighter whiter ones for 50 bucks odd for two from repco just need some bending of the tabs to fit in, did this on mine and they were fine till it got nicked!

How often do you oil your chain?

When it looks dry is always a good option, couriering prob once a week maybe more if the weather is wet, and give it a good clean with a tooth brush and some kero quit often, I do it every time I wax my chain

What fuel do you use, currently I am useing BP's 98 or what ever it is.
Thanks ya'll

I used 98 96 whatever the whole time i had mine


oh and the noise front some air horns would be the go, you have a big enough boot on the ciby to easily fit the compressor and horns in there and still have space left over!

[Gremlin]

Just be careful with following tristan's advice on baffles OK??

He fucked with his, and I mean really fucked with it, pulled the baffle out violently, and then the tip ended up falling off... Could hear him coming for about a k or more away... seriously.

IIRC, he even had problems using earplugs and it still being loud. Sounded really mint, but he made boy racers sound like try hards...

[John]

Just be careful with following tristan's advice on baffles OK??

He fucked with his, and I mean really fucked with it, pulled the baffle out violently, and then the tip ended up falling off... Could hear him coming for about a k or more away... seriously.

IIRC, he even had problems using earplugs and it still being loud. Sounded really mint, but he made boy racers sound like try hards...

wheres the problem?

But seriously, dont the cbr's have rebound and compression adjustment?? Told you to just get the kawa ya twit.

[Mooch]

Before you fuck around with the front suspension, change the fork oil, you'll be surprised how much of a difference it makes. Try a 10 weight first, I'm runnin 15 weight oil, but it's a bit too stiff in the front

I run my bike on 91 perfectly fine

You'll have fun making any aftermarket bulbs fit, the ones Honda blessed us with are an odd size, and they're about $50 each IIRC

HDTboy is spot on with changing the fork oil , couldn't beleive the difference it made on my older Kr1 250. Stopped a lot of the front end dive under brakes.

[Brian d marge]

I give up ...........Has any one figured out why its so damn hard to suck a Mac shack through a straw .....the same with your forks ....when you turn the little screw it move either a drum with 2 holes lining up Or a wedge moves past a hole (or in the rear moves a rod which closes a hole see photo,,,effectivly making the hole smaller ...ie using a smaller straw...OF course it will stiffen the front end up

... it will STOP working as the good lord intended ,,,,,ie you will be effectivly sitting on one of those bouncy ride kids play on .it will be good at the big shock/holes ...but over the ripples it will crap ,,AS was pointed out in another post... ..........If you still dont believe me I got some footage some where where I tried just that ,,,the forks front and rear dont react ,,,,,,,, THE SPRING controls the LOAD the OIL controls the SPEED at which the load is controlled , PERIOD .......there IS no other way of saying this ...............

stephen
Been Reading other peoples posts since I was a lad .......

[bugjuice]

we should have a CBR sound off with some of the bikes on here..

Go with HDT on the forks - first up, change the oil in there. That'll help heaps. Probably solve most of the issues. If not, then change the springs in there too.

If the bulbs work, you're not going to get much more brightness out of them without spending a heap, and possibly melting shit cos it's getting too hot. Just stick the full beam on, and fuck everyone else..

As for yer muff, taking the baffles out isn't the best noise or move in the world. Sounds tinny and isn't so flash. Makes a hell of a racket tho, so if noise is what you want, then so be it. Else, there's a whole barge of pipes that you can get. Just pop to a couple of shops and ask for pricing. Shame you can't really hear any before you buy, but the shop should have an idea. If you've got the Honda stock pipe on there (can't remember), then it's fairly safe to say that any aftermarket pipe will be louder than your Honda one..

[TwoSeven]

Dont fook with the oil in the cibby 250. All you will do is make the suspention too solid and the bike will just skip over bumps. Its problem is that the stock spring is too soft, this needs to be changed to one that matches the bike rate and rider weight. Its a standard 37mm fork from memory, so you just need somone up on suspension to cut a replacement spring. Also on those bikes, at the bottom of the damper rod there is a teflon coated bronze bush, these sometimes need to be replaced. The bike doesnt have compression/rebound adjustment, so you have to take special care rebuilding the forks.

You'll find that the bike with the correct spring will work nicely with 5-7 weight oil in it. Just make sure the air gap is correct because they blow seals easily if they are over filled (you'll get leakage on heavy use as well due to forks being spindely).

The post on spring rate/sag etc above is correct. Ideally you want to be running about 35mm front/ 30mm rear laden sag for plush road riding, maybe 5mm either way depending on preference.

Dont fook with the zorst if you are dispatching. Making it louder will just give you industrial deafness after a week and wont solve the bad riding problem causing the car avoidence issue. Learn to dispatch properly and you wont have the problem with the cars

If you remove the baffle/mod the airbox you will completely fook over the cibby. It needs the good back pressure the standard zorst gives for maximum milage which is what you want for dispatching. You dont want speed.

Use 91 octane fuel and probably an CR8/cr9 in the bike, since your speed will be roughly 50kmph. You only need to go to the 98 if you are running over 10k rpm for sustained periods - because of engine heat. I think the CR9 was standard, but I ran an 8 in mine for town driving. You'd probably get away with 95 as well - I've not tried this.

For brighter bulbs you need to go to those fancy argon ones (the really expensive ones) - but you need to match them perfectly otherwise the will go bang (mine was always the left rear taillight bulb).