2point5RS_Dan
HATER DAN
That's right. It's summer so some of us are getting the bikes out.
Here's the long crosspost about my bike from another forum:
Last summer I took the MSF weekend course and when school ended I got this beauty:
Skip to the bottom if you don't want to hear about my 2008 summer with the bike and want to see some hot valve action.
A 1988 Ninja 250 with a decent amount of miles. The previous owner put a new spring in the back and did the tail-light mod along with a double bubble windscreen and other misc stuff. I took that leg pad tank bra thing off as soon as I got the fairing off.
It's a great bike that was a lot of fun last summer. Also being from 1988 it has a lot of crap I've had to take care of on it. Being that I have NO experience turning a wrench this was a pretty new thing to me. Since then I've become slightly less inept!
First up was when I was coming back from getting the thing inspected and I suddenly didn't have a working speedometer. The cable had fallen out so I had to screw it back in. I have small hands but I couldn't get behind the fairing and gauge cluster so I learned to take the fairing off.
Second problem was the bike would run funky or not want to start some days. It sucked a lot being in the driveway leaving for work and the bike wouldn't start. Taking off the bike gear and getting in the car killed my day. This escalated into the bike barfing gas out the overflow tube one morning. I parked it until the weekend. My pops told me to pull it apart and dig out the carb. This was my first descent into carburetors.
Removing the fairing, gas tank, battery, other random stuff, and then the carb is a chore. Especially getting the carb out between the frame. After getting the thing out and cracking it open, we noticed a bit of a problem. One of the rubber diaphragm was completely torn. No wonder the bike didn't want to go as fast as other people had mentioned their 250s going.
I called around asking dealers how much the part was, and said hell no to paying 125 dollars. I ebay'd an entire carb for 70 dollars. Upon receiving it it looked like it had sat in a dirt pile for a few years. I just ripped out the diaphragm pin spring parts and threw it in the current carb. Put it the carb back in and it stared barfing gas again. I bought the parts to fix it, how could this have happened? Back to tearing it apart again. Pops and I managed to somehow tune the damn thing. I had been on ninja250.org reading everything I could and knew the metal tab you have to bend to a certain measurement. I still didn't understand how we managed to get it exactly perfect but we did.
Put it back together for the billionth time. Started it up and things were perfect. Took it down the lane real quick to make sure everything was as normal. I was used to the bike how it was, but after the tune up that thing flew, holy crap. It was a whole new bike.
I rode it the rest of the summer, parked it once school started. I came home for a weekend of autocross or something and I decided to take the bike out for one last spin.
This is where the story gets sad. I was exploring back roads enjoying being out and about. I passed a house and some jackass redneck pulls out in reverse onto the road by mashing his go fast pedal. Avoided the truck but didn't keep the bike up. Baby's first bike wreck.
I skidded face down on my chest with the bike pushing me. It sucked but I walked away from it. I was wearing kaki's though so I got torn up on my left leg.
The bike was in pretty bad shape too.
I've already got the foot pegs and shifter replaced. I just need to fix the fairing and buy a new windscreen. I have the ABS cement all ready to go for the fairing.
Here's pictures of the fairing:
I got some work done finally. I am also now employed for the summer so I spent less of my day job hunting and more in the garage. I can also buy a windscreen now.
This past weekend I had a friend over and we stripped the bike down on Saturday. All the plastic came off, carb out, radiator off. The plan was for valve clearance checking the next day.
Hello there Mr. Bent fairing mounts.
Sunday we took the valve cover off and started the measuring.
All the clearances were fine. The bike got mostly reassembled. New battery had the acid put in and got thrown on the charger.
Tonight I finally got around to putting in the charged battery and putting the tank back on. Go to start it and the bike starts barfing gas on the driveway. Something is messed with the carb. After taking it out and cleaning it, checking the floats, it was reinstalled. Bike fired up just fine. I took it up and down the road and realized how much I missed riding.
I have parts of the fairing sanded but I haven't started the repair too much yet. That's this weekends project, then off to get it inspected.
I'll update this OP with more pics as I work on the bike.
If you have questions about motorcycles, the MSF, gear, riding in general go ahead and ask. If you have a bike throw up some pictures.
Here's the long crosspost about my bike from another forum:
Last summer I took the MSF weekend course and when school ended I got this beauty:
Skip to the bottom if you don't want to hear about my 2008 summer with the bike and want to see some hot valve action.
A 1988 Ninja 250 with a decent amount of miles. The previous owner put a new spring in the back and did the tail-light mod along with a double bubble windscreen and other misc stuff. I took that leg pad tank bra thing off as soon as I got the fairing off.
It's a great bike that was a lot of fun last summer. Also being from 1988 it has a lot of crap I've had to take care of on it. Being that I have NO experience turning a wrench this was a pretty new thing to me. Since then I've become slightly less inept!
First up was when I was coming back from getting the thing inspected and I suddenly didn't have a working speedometer. The cable had fallen out so I had to screw it back in. I have small hands but I couldn't get behind the fairing and gauge cluster so I learned to take the fairing off.
Second problem was the bike would run funky or not want to start some days. It sucked a lot being in the driveway leaving for work and the bike wouldn't start. Taking off the bike gear and getting in the car killed my day. This escalated into the bike barfing gas out the overflow tube one morning. I parked it until the weekend. My pops told me to pull it apart and dig out the carb. This was my first descent into carburetors.
Removing the fairing, gas tank, battery, other random stuff, and then the carb is a chore. Especially getting the carb out between the frame. After getting the thing out and cracking it open, we noticed a bit of a problem. One of the rubber diaphragm was completely torn. No wonder the bike didn't want to go as fast as other people had mentioned their 250s going.
I called around asking dealers how much the part was, and said hell no to paying 125 dollars. I ebay'd an entire carb for 70 dollars. Upon receiving it it looked like it had sat in a dirt pile for a few years. I just ripped out the diaphragm pin spring parts and threw it in the current carb. Put it the carb back in and it stared barfing gas again. I bought the parts to fix it, how could this have happened? Back to tearing it apart again. Pops and I managed to somehow tune the damn thing. I had been on ninja250.org reading everything I could and knew the metal tab you have to bend to a certain measurement. I still didn't understand how we managed to get it exactly perfect but we did.
Put it back together for the billionth time. Started it up and things were perfect. Took it down the lane real quick to make sure everything was as normal. I was used to the bike how it was, but after the tune up that thing flew, holy crap. It was a whole new bike.
I rode it the rest of the summer, parked it once school started. I came home for a weekend of autocross or something and I decided to take the bike out for one last spin.
This is where the story gets sad. I was exploring back roads enjoying being out and about. I passed a house and some jackass redneck pulls out in reverse onto the road by mashing his go fast pedal. Avoided the truck but didn't keep the bike up. Baby's first bike wreck.
I skidded face down on my chest with the bike pushing me. It sucked but I walked away from it. I was wearing kaki's though so I got torn up on my left leg.
The bike was in pretty bad shape too.
- Front fairing cracked
- Windscreen completely trashed
- Broken footpeg
- Broken shift lever
- Dent in a muffler
I've already got the foot pegs and shifter replaced. I just need to fix the fairing and buy a new windscreen. I have the ABS cement all ready to go for the fairing.
Here's pictures of the fairing:
I got some work done finally. I am also now employed for the summer so I spent less of my day job hunting and more in the garage. I can also buy a windscreen now.
This past weekend I had a friend over and we stripped the bike down on Saturday. All the plastic came off, carb out, radiator off. The plan was for valve clearance checking the next day.
Hello there Mr. Bent fairing mounts.
Sunday we took the valve cover off and started the measuring.
All the clearances were fine. The bike got mostly reassembled. New battery had the acid put in and got thrown on the charger.
Tonight I finally got around to putting in the charged battery and putting the tank back on. Go to start it and the bike starts barfing gas on the driveway. Something is messed with the carb. After taking it out and cleaning it, checking the floats, it was reinstalled. Bike fired up just fine. I took it up and down the road and realized how much I missed riding.
I have parts of the fairing sanded but I haven't started the repair too much yet. That's this weekends project, then off to get it inspected.
I'll update this OP with more pics as I work on the bike.
If you have questions about motorcycles, the MSF, gear, riding in general go ahead and ask. If you have a bike throw up some pictures.
