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Old May 15th, 2017, 08:06 PM   #1
Demonik
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Name: Robert "Doc"
Location: Seattle Area, Washington
Join Date: May 2017

Motorcycle(s): '99 Buell X1, '09 Buell 1125CR,'10 Kaw EX250 (down to one), '13 MV Agusta F3

Posts: 43
Hi from the PNW, struggling with idle and RPM build on a new rescue 250 project

(Edit: Update on the repairs / project bike: All is finished! Carbs are done, boiled them out, circuits were filthy, slow jets were plugged, floats frozen, needles frozen, gas in crankcase, plugs bad, vacuum leak on crank breather and coaster enricher, runs like NEW after complete PM, filters, all fluids, plugs, chain wax, and pretty much a new PDI. Needles now tuned to 3 turns out, airbox and exhaust at stock setup, starts with NO choke, warms to riding temp in under 2 mins at idle, 48-52 mpg, NO problems zipping at 70-80 mph in Seattle traffic with 5'9" 150lb experienced rider on her at ALL. This is a nice city bike that I'm glad we added to our garage.)



Just thought I'd drop in here and actually get a membership now that I've been wrenching a lot on a Kawasaki again! No sense in lurking.

A little about me: I'm not super new to bikes, and I probably have a lot of gems I could leave here on the forums.

I'm a 20-year Marine Officer, pilot. (I served 4 Enlisted) I try to get out and ride a safety course every year, if I am in country. I've been to race school twice. I ride safely, but I still flush traffic. I keep racing on the track. Not a douche, not a know-it-all. Super down to Earth.

I've a few bikes, I've owned a few, I sold a few bikes.

I wrecked a moped once trying to pick up bitches in front of a party doing a stoppie, I got road rash from it.

I've had some BMW's and a Honda race bike, a few Ninja 600's for street and track, and briefly went through a r6/r1 stint.

I currently have 3 Buells, 97 S1W, 99 X1RS, 14 EBR. I ALSO have this fun little Kawi 250 Ex that my wonderful girl rides around on and I've given a few putts on (it's a lot of fun to hooligan on and rides nice!) and I was a tech for BMW and Honda before I joined the Marines, so I've done my share of riding and professionally trained wrench spinning.

Anyhow, I'm working on this semi-new purchase of a EX250 with only a few hundred miles (this is my first time working on this bike) sorting out a low-speed lean problem with it and I'll be in and out of the forum as I bring it from a long-term hibernation. Basically, we picked it up from a girl who lived down a road that had pea gravel and although the 250 is SUPER LIGHT, she had zero confidence in her riding and parked it for 6 years and never rode it again.

When I went to go see it, it had a dead battery, bad gas in the airbox, flooded low-side cylinder, stuck carb floats, the plugs looked like ****, the ethanol in the local Washington gasoline had destroyed the inside of the carbs until they were just green frozen blobs, so nothing moved or even has open passages and it just puked fuel from the overflow vent tube.

The carbs were pulled and boiled out, the plugs cleaned, everything was safety checked, oil was drained from bad gas floating in it, all the PM was done, battery replaced, blah blah, jets were replaced, and I can't get the idle to clean up, so it has to idle at 2.5k to have enough throttle response to pull from a stop without stalling. I'm really struggling to get more throttle response out of a long 10-15 second patient hold-and-wait-build from 1.5k to about 2.5k before she wants to have enough power to even think about starting to slip that clutch out to roll forward. We're not even really talking about forward motion until really 4k sometimes if we're on a tiny incline, and really, that's about when the CV seems like it's opening up.

Once the main jets/slides/needles open, you feel that vacuum slice those slides up and it really comes alive. It's a peppy little bike you can ride like a drunk prom date in the back seat and you can get really naughty with her too. Twist that throttle, snip her gears, pull the hair, get a little rough, it's ok, it's really forgiving! It's NOT a Buell and dual-personality scalpel-in-hand-murder-machine-f-18, I seriously doubt you'll get jacked up hammering down on this 250 or running twisties with her at 20 over the speed limit by my house and then barking the throttle or trying to push some more lean in there. The brakes were clean and the clutch cleaned right up too.

So, what am I missing here? I didn't think I would need to open the dang idle mixture screws and adjust them off of factory settings for a stock bike. I just can't believe this rescue project is so jacked up. Thanks for any thoughts.

I'm not looking to mod the heck out of this bike, I just need to clean up the idle situation and get more torque down there and speed up throttle response to about 3-4k.

Last futzed with by Demonik; June 13th, 2017 at 08:57 AM. Reason: Follow-up on repairs and status
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