arrggg!!!! dropped it

[georgedubyabush]

hi, im new to the board. 89 zxr250 bought from redbaron. just passed my restricted.

Well my bike fell over yesterday while I was at work, and was not discovered till i drove home late in the afternoon. so it was on its side all day in the rain. last time I park with the sidestand on gravel. lesson learned.
It fell against the corner of the house but luckily the pack rack bore the brunt of it. One crack in the fairing running down below the left front indicator.
also, wouldnt run. only on choke, throttle just stalled it. eventually overcame the throttle problem after about 15minutes of playing round with it?
today took the opportunity to take it to bits and try to learn a bit more about it. by now youve probably guessed im pretty clueless.

So the 'Ramair' tube thingies dont actually do anything? they only cool that finned dohickey? for some reason the word ignitor comes to mind? are they just for show on the 250?

Cheers to whoever it was with the soldering iron trick on the cracked fairing, worked a treat.

[Marmoot]

DOn't worry about the throttle.
Any bike that just been dropped will have difficulty in starting.
(except probably the fuel-injected ones?)

[MikeL]

Another chagrined neophyte comes face to face with the pitiless laws of physics. Been there, done that. Just make sure you heed the lesson. I didn't. My bike fell over one windy night because the side-stand gradually dug itself a hole in what I had thought was hard, solid ground. It wasn't. Incredibly, no damage whatsoever. Breathed a sigh of relief. Parked the bike on a harder, more solid piece of ground. It wasn't. Came back to find the bike again on its side, this time with the mirror mount broken off, clutch lever and choke at a strange angle. Serious inconvenience, not to mention expense. Kick myself??
What did I learn? First, that all it takes is for that side stand to sink a couple of centimetres, and the bike will topple as surely as the Titanic was doomed to sink. Second, that if it happened once, it wasn't a freak. Expect the laws of nature to operate on a repeat basis.
(nd don't expect that a centre stand is necessarily better. If it's not dead level...)

[Ur Most Wanted]

i dropped my zxr250 '91 the other day going around a right hand corner in cambridge. just broke indicator lens and small cracks in fairing

(P.S this is KK using his PC, hah when he gets back and sees i posted about his off im gunna get beats :P laters all, but for this i will plastic-weld his fairing, nice eh )

[georgedubyabush]

chagrined neophite? is that like a nymphite? nymphomaniac? i should be so lucky. in the dogbox, busted looking at the porn on this site. "whats that site your looking at?" ..."oh this, oh nothing, just another bike site, see..."

here's another qustion from a newbie:
should someone who knows nothing about brakes be playing round with them? silly question?
i was reading somewhere on here about oxidised calipers not returning off the rotors properly and thought this might explain why when i push my bike around, engine off, I hear a slight rubbing sound from the front?
anyway, took the caliper off it's bracket and one pad kind of well 'fell' out. yikes. they just kind of sit in there? i put it back together, pumped the lever and its seems to work.
"ahey , where are the drums like der old XL185 pa?"
now before i go off and ride, is impending death waiting me at the first corner?
I need reassurance that i haven't done something stupid to the brakes. I didnt touch any fluid lines etc so they shouldnt need bleeding right? least i know how to change the brake pads now.

Ok, maybe a workshop manual would be a good idea. im guessing it would be easier to learn japanese than find a nonexistent english zxr250 manual. alternatively can someone recommend a general tech type book on the modern sportbike. do they exist? is a zxr250a a modern sportbike? maybe I should just keep paying a workshop? my last service was $750. damn that was a shock. new clutch, valve shims had to be ground down as correct one's couldnt be found. that couldve been a nice new jacket.

[Kwaka-Kid]

george - i say temper all you like, its fun and you learn

and yes, the brake pad should be fine, they literally "hang" in there, me being only 17 only found this out a few years ago and man was i worried! i was like, shit aint they gunna fall out! it didnt take much for me to make them fall out.. but the system works so i dont ask questions

and yeah mate go the XL's eh, i had a 78 XL125 :P drum both ends.. used to jump that thing hard even started to crack the frame @ the rear end most likly from constant bottoming out, lol!  wish i had the big beast of a 185 lol

[georgedubyabush]

yeah, i learnd to stay upright on an xl100, my first bike.
the xl185s has been up some pretty steep and treacherous tracks, and been dropped and bent countless times. never left me stranded. im sure sick of buying brake/clutch levers though. need to rig up some sort of homemade barkbusters.

[Kwaka-Kid]

ahh no way mate, you can never get sick of it, ive gone thru dozens over the time on the XL SL, XL250, XR200, but everytime i break a brake/blutch lever i am happy, and think "god damn that was fun, and look it cost me all of $7.50 for a lever" whereas on a street bike id b cursing and going nutz i used to carry minimum stock of 3x leavers and 1x lever+clamp (very rarely broke it at the clamp-onto-bar bit, usually just break the lever @ the pivot.

[babyB]

manuals..Hyans put out a good one bout $60-70 from motermail (sorry bout the spelling)

how bout carring  block of wood/metal  with rubber glued on both sides under the seat..very handy in times of need

[georgedubyabush]

for the zxr250a? Rin engrish? i got 1 for the xl. $8 secondhand bookshop

[Coldkiwi]

1) those tubes are not ram air... teh air intake is down by your left foot! if you read the decals, you'll see K-CAS... Kawasaki Cool Air System... they're for cooling the engine, although they go right to the airbox so its hard to understand why they didn't connect them!

2) I've still got a real nice condition ZXR250 (all shiny and black) if you want one

3) I find getting those pads back in (especially new ones) a real pain in the ass to do without damaging the surface (tape up the end of a screwdriver and get a mate to help hold push it all back)

4) plenty of books around on general motorcycle maintenance... go searching online and read some reviews to make sure its a worthwhile read. You shouldn't have tooo much trouble, the 89 ZXR 250A is the most common model I think.

[georgedubyabush]

oh, ok.
mine doesnt have the original decals as red baron repainted it just before I bought it. yeah, i bought it from a dealer so I paid out my a$$ for it. but it's pretty much perfect with an alleged 14000kms when I got it. And the tarmac-ripping 39kw dyno graph.
It now has zx2r decals, a couple of big Ninja ones on the lower fairings (all black) and that's about it. The paint job couldnt get much greener than it is.

[Coldkiwi]

Originally posted by georgedubyabush
The paint job couldnt get much greener than it is.

as an unshaven man once said 'Good on ya mate!'

I'm considering getting my wheels resprayed green (don't really like the scuffed up purple look). The pink decals and purple wheels are still a bit much for me to be really happy with it.

 

 

[georgedubyabush]

ive thought about paintstripper and brasso on my wheels, boyracer style. looked quite good on a us gpx250 site anyway.
probably have to polish them every couple of weeks though, and would just make my overenthuesiastic chain lubing stick out even more. or the mud I ride through on a daily basis. aka Northland roads.

I suspect the green is what holds these kawas together.

[Redstar]

those somewhat ugly hoses are important for ram air induction to the air filter box. I replaced my rotton ones with some flexi hose used for electrical conduit. got some left if you want it?
easy to fit with some jubily clamps. got them too!
its not until your really humping that the ram air really makes a difference but without it wont carb cleanly on song.