Sym Voyager 250 GTS

[EJK]

Hi just a few quick questions here, whos got a Sym Voyager 250 GTS? Is it any good?

What's the difference between a 250 Berg and a GTS?
Is it made in China? Do you recommend it?

A brief review will be nice.

Thanks

[insane1]

ive had 2 250burgs and would buy another if i had the money ,good on fuel brakes good handles not bad ,dont buy the chinese crap if you can help it.

[EJK]

Whats the top speed of 250 Burg? Can it cruise at 100kph at ease?

[xwhatsit]

Whats the top speed of 250 Burg? Can it cruise at 100kph at ease?

Easy man. Faster than an FXR150 by a long shot Insane1 was right up mine and GiJoe1313's arse on a few rides

[retro asian]

Isn't SYM a Taiwanese brand?

Taiwan products' quality would usually rate a lot higher than Chinese... China is basically the new Taiwan for manufacturing.

They do also have a crapload of scooters in Taiwan, so maybe know a thing or two about them??

[Flange]

I've had a Sym Voyager for a couple of weeks now. It goes really well, happy at an indicated 110-120 two up. I haven't tapped it out yet (it's not quite run in) but did briefly see 130 while passing a car. It's only a 250 so acceleration is never going to excite anybody who has ridden a modern sports bike but it would probably run with most 250 motorbikes despite it's relatively high weight of 174kg. CVT transmission makes very good use of available power and facilitates quite excellent economy of 300km on 12ltrs of 91.

The biggest revelation is the handling. I've yet to take it for a run around the coast with my sportsbike mates but I think that through the twisties it will hold it's own at the speeds we normally travel at - not exactly shagging around. It tips into corners very easily, holds it's line pretty much perfectly on a smooth surface and has pretty reasonable ground clearance. The rear suspension (twin shocks, preload adjustable only) is pretty firm on it's middle setting while the front suspension is about right for The Eastern Bay's bumpy roads. Ya gotta remember though that it is a scooter with the engine and trans weight directly on the swingarm so it thumps into bumps pretty firmly, and is definitely more easily upset by bumps mid-corner than is a proper bike. This point more than anything would be most scooters' Achille's heel, but It's fair to say that I've ridden plenty of so called sports bikes which don't handle as well as the Sym.

The brakes are disks both ends with the left lever operating the rear plus two pistons in the front, the right operates the other two front pistons. Lever pressure is relatively high but the brakes are very progressive and very good. Squeeze the left lever firmly with three fingers and the bike just squats and slows very quickly, back tyre chirping. Then bring in the right lever and it stops bloody quickly indeed. Honda have been trying to foist linked brakes off on performance bikes for years and I think it's fair to say that not many serious riders would have a bar of them. On the scoot though with it's rearward weight bias I'm really happy with linked brakes and would highly recommend them.

Panel fit and finish is if a very high standard. My understanding is that Sym manufactured on behalf of Honda since the 60s - they've obviously learned a lot from Honda as I would rate the quality right up there.

If you do a bit of night time riding, you would be very happy on the Sym as the lights are real berm-burners. Phillips HID apparently, with a couple of what look like halogen "fog lights" outboard of the main lights.

Storage is great with the usual cavernous under-seat compartment plus another in front of the rider's knees and would you believe a couple of cup holders between the rider's feet ? Only from Asia.... Just the ticket if you are into riding and drinking at the same time though.

I'm a computer tech and bought the scoot with the idea of using it to do much of my work on. The available storage makes it quite suitable for the job, plus the protection offered by the bodywork and screen means that you don't show up at customers' premises looking too fly-splattered. As stated, excitement is not really what it's all about when there's a 130BHP missile parked in the garage beside it, but it's more practical than an SV1000s and a hell of a lot more enjoyable to use around the Eastern Bay's twisty roads than an L300 dropside. The name of the scooter game is fun and the Sym provides that.

Finally, if it's entertainment you're after, buy a Sym, open up the Owners Handbook at pretty much any page, and then piss yourself with laughter. For example, page 10 tells us "..main switch in the ON position, cuts according to this switch, four directions lantern festivals dodge extinguish do move.."

While the User Manual might be a joke, the Sym Voyager GTS 250 is anything but a joke. It is a very good machine indeed.

[The Baron]

Hi, My wife also has a SYM GTS 250. It only has about 1300 km on it but is a great bike and rides well with other 250 bikes. We also looked at Burg 250 but the Burg 250 is $5000 more so the SYM is a lot of bike for the money. I ride this bike often and it is a great fun machine.

[Slicksta]

Thanks for the info the manual is well worth a read

[Flange]

Two weeks on from my initial review and the Sym has now done about 1600km.

With new bikes I like to overkill the oil changes - the Sym got it's first at about 150km, then at 300, 800 and finally at 1500. As with previous bikes, the first oil change brought out bits of aluminium swarf, threads of silicon, some jelly-like gunge and fine metal particles. Subsequent changes brought out little. Overall the Sym seems reasonably clean internally compared to how my SV was when new for instance. It's now on synthetic oil in both the engine and final drive.

At 1000km I checked the air filter and found it badly blocked. The air filter is a pleated paper item and the intake snorkel for the airbox gets it's air from high under the seat. This is obviously an attempt to get the air from a relatively clean area but probably because I live at the end of a 200m unsesaled driveway it's still pretty dusty up there.

Rather than just replacing the filter (no doubt this would get pretty expensive if replaced every 1000km) I've cut out the pleated paper and replaced it with Twin Air foam filter as commonly used on offroad bikes, and treated the foam with K&N filter oil. At the same time I removed the fine mesh which goes behind the pleated paper. This serves as a flame trap, but so far the engine doesn't seem to backfire through the carb so I guess it's pretty safe to dispense with the flame trap and thereby remove a significant impediment to air flow.

The filter mod reduced fuel consumption (350km/12ltr vs 300 previously). This, along with a worsening of throttle response told me that the engine was now running lean. The carb appears to be a Keihin CVK and according to the service manual the main jet should be a 122. In fact it is a 112 - maybe a move to meet newer emission standards? To address the lean state I put a 1mm spacer under the needle. This greatly improved throttle response but I thought that it was still a bit lean and so courtesy of The Dude Murray at Whakatane Motorcycles (top people, highly recommended) I obtained an old 85 4mm jet out of something unknown and with the assistance of Murray's jet drills bored this wee thing out to 115 and fitted it. This seems to have brought the mixture about right and throttle response is now very good indeed, much better than when standard. A pox on emission control standards !

Now that the bike is pretty well run in I did a top speed run - 145 indicated. On a private road with a professional rider of course. The speedo is a bit optimistic so I guess the real top speed is probably closer 135 than 145. Still pretty good for a 250 single and probably fast enough for a scooter given the small wheels and the propensity to react to wind gusts as they do.

Now that I've had the opportunity to pull things apart a bit, I can report that under the plastic things are very tidy and well put together.

Next, my mind turns to the exhaust system. I believe these are fitted with catalytic converters which are heavy, and which fairly quickly become restrictive and so counter-productive. Maybe a nice lightweight aluminium can of some sort, although I'm fairly keen to keep it quiet...

Cheers
Flange

[The Baron]

It's great to read your progress report Flange. I am interested to see what difference the exhaust change will make. Well I had better go and check the air filter...

[cs363]

Thanks for the info the manual is well worth a read

Ah yes...very reminiscent of early Japanese manuals, lol

[Flange]

Does The Baron have a Voyager ?

[The Baron]

Hi Flange. Re GST250. Yes and no. It belongs to my wife but she does not do a lot of riding so I take it out from time to time. Its a great fun machine and is always good to see peoples faces as you over take them on a scoot.
We got it Jan 08. Its Black but in the daylight looks very dark blue and is not modified .. yet.. But I have thought about changing the exhust so I am keen to see how you get on.
The Baron.

[Flange]

Another progress report, now with 7000km up.

I haven't had the opportunity to do anything further in the way of mods, just ridden it. Everything is fine.

One nice feature which has shown up is that the bike has a warning light on the dash which comes up every 3000km to remind one to do one's engine oil changes. It took a bit to work out how to reset this light - initially I thought that it might reset automatically after doing the oil change courtesy of a float switch or similar but no. There doesn't appear to be anything in either of the manuals, but finally after much head scratching I noted a button on the dash labelled O/R and lo, this turns out to be Oil Reset. A good system though as it takes all the guesswork out of when to change the oil.

At 6,500 the original rear tyre was shagged. Just as well as it had been developing the dreaded flat-in-the-centre for quite a while and this had a rather adverse affect on the handling so I was quite pleased to fit a nice new Conti Twist and restore the handling to the standard it was. The front tyre is still good, maintaining a good shape and should last the life of the second rear.

On my SV (or any powerful sports bike) it is possible to maintain the shape of the rear tyre by gassing it up early when exiting corners and then rolling off as the bike comes upright. A 250 scooter is never going to have the power to do this so despite an impressively slim "chicken strip" around the rear tyre it looks like a flat patch in the centre is going to be a fact of life. I wonder if anybody makes a dual compound tyre in scooter size ?

When removing the rear wheel to change the tyre, one needs to first remove the exhaust system. The first thing I noticed upon doing so is how bloody hevy the standard exhaust is - 8.5kg would you believe ?

Having previously observed that the engine is mounted so that it's centre of mass is approximately over the swingarm pivot point, this got me thinking that the designers have cleverly minimised the effect of engine weight on the rear suspension. I would imagine that the amount of engine weight hanging over the front of the swingarm pivot would pretty much balance out that hanging over the back.

What must adversely affect suspension action though is the 8.5kg of exhaust weight centered about a metre behind the swingarm pivot. No doubt about it, the stock muffler has to go ! So, courtesy again of the nice folks at Whakatane Motorcycles I'm now the proud owner of a muffler from a mid-80s Honda VTR250. Nicely shaped, relatively light and hopefully not too restrictive. Now, to adapt it to fit. Watch this space for future developments.

Cheers
Flange

[MarkH]

At 6,500 the original rear tyre was shagged. Just as well as it had been developing the dreaded flat-in-the-centre for quite a while and this had a rather adverse affect on the handling so I was quite pleased to fit a nice new Conti Twist and restore the handling to the standard it was. The front tyre is still good, maintaining a good shape and should last the life of the second rear.

What is the size & price of the rear tyre? 6,500kms seems a little short runned, my Burg 400 has now done over 14,000kms on the original tyres and the rear looks to still have a few more thousand kms to go, the front looks even better.