ZXR Nooby advice

[mister.koz]

Greetings,

I have been a excited kid again learning to ride, i started with a slightly beaten GN250 and loved it to peices, got to 80k zones and wound it up then took it to 90 - 100k on the open road and realised the true definition of a "commuter"; good in town, not so good otherwise!

So i sold the suzi and bought a ZXR250, it scares the crap outa me but its strong and elegant.

The guy i bought it off dropped it a couple of years ago, damaging the fairings and he had it sitting for some time (2 years or more) with the registration on hold.

I the seals in the brakes and front shocks were buggered so i have replaced the brakes myself (with the help of my mechanic friend) under close inspection, i find that the shock shafts are pitted and the chrome is bad near the bottom, not near the seals but it annoys me somewhat so i want to get them fixed.

Can anyone offer any ideas? i am told they can be cleaned and re-chromed or replaced, i have decided to get someone who knows what they are doing to replace the seals.

The cam chain is a little noisy so i will probably get this done just to be sure.

After the front shocks are done i can get it on the road and slowly fix up the cosmetic problems.

Any advice for a noobie?

[Mikkel]

Good on ya!

There's nothing to be scared about with the ZXR250. Keep it below 10,000 RPM and it's very docile. Power should be nice and linear with no abrupt peaks or surprises. Keep it above 12,000 RPM if you want to move. Ideal up-shift point is 18,000 RPM and it'll drop down to 14,000 RPM where the engine delivers peak torque.

Front brakes are important! Make sure no compromises are made on that part.

Regarding the forks - clean them, fill out the pitting with a small amount of nail polish and sand it down with fine 2000 grit sanding paper. That should help somewhat. If it's well and truly fucked someone might be able to direct you to someone in your area that can work magic in the chrome department.

When you do the fork seals, make sure to do both sides and do them consistently. This is important if you want good handling! If in doubt see a mechanic at least for advice - or give him the forks to do it for you. A word of warning - it's a two person job, it is a bit tricky and putting the forks back together again takes a bit of fiddling around. Whatever you do DO NOT force anything.

Regarding the camchain - here's my advice, ignore it at your own peril! Get this done by a bonafide mechanic. Use only genuine parts. Replace both camchain and camchain tensioner (it'll be the tensioner that is fucked). Make sure that the mechanic put the chain in without breaking it. It'll take longer because he needs to get the camshaft cover off and will cost you a couple of hours of work - but do not skimp on this...

Ride safe and enjoy. I can only say I have been very happy with my little ZXR250.

[n0regret5]

sell it, buy a cbr250rr..(now wait for skid mark to come along and harass me...:-D)

[mister.koz]

Excellent,

My mechanic friend is excellent with brakes, he helped me (well did it and i took credit) and afterwards he said they are perfect appart from the annodising being chipped.

I think the chrome might be a bit past it on the shocks and with your input i think i will take the shock arms into a shop to get them to do it, they have the tools, equipment, experience and extra pair of hands required!

As for the timing chain, i will get the same guys to check it out when i get the shocks back on and can ride it there.

I took her for a slow roll yesterday to test the brakes (at low speed) and its not as scary as it was last time i was riding, i think its just the fact that the throttle is more sensitive and the bike is allot more powerful than the GN. I can't wait to get it out on the open road where i know it will shine!

thanks for your input

and i think i like the ZXR's more than the CBR's

[Mikkel]

In case your camchain tensioner is shot bear in mind that you shouldn't really ride the bike. If it decides to skip a tooth you'll fuck your valves pretty quickly. And trust me, getting new valves takes a while - and it isn't cheap either.

[mister.koz]

not riding it anymore until the guys at speed-tech can tell me how it goes.

I have pretty much the whole bike in peices... thought having the shocks off was a good opportunity to clean everything, the guy i bought it off wasn't a clean freak like me


cheerz man

[mister.koz]

Just in case anyone's still watching.

Got some feedback on the chroming for the fork shafts, it has to be "hard-chromed' which is what they industrial hydraulic shafts need to be, its a hard waring thing with layers of other stuff.

there's a group in auckland (http://www.chromeplaters.co.nz/) who do it and the guy said a rough cost is $300 - $600 for both shafts depending on how much damage there is under the chrome, this includes grinding the existing chrome off, plating a whole pile more on and then precision machining it back to the required thickness.

The prices above are rough and based on me sending only the fork shafts to them. Had a look at their packaging strategy for freight back to the customer and its more that adequate.

anyways hope this helps somebody