The 250 was finally ready for its second "maiden voyage" after I discovered it had a low charge condition. New charging system in place, I felt like it was good to test out on my local canyon route. It's about a 90 mile loop by the house that involves lots of twisty, technical, and potholed hillclimbs. I have been riding it for years now on my SV, but my riding buddy just got a Kawasaki 300SM which inspired me to ship this little 250 out here to Cali. After getting one really good ride in this past Friday, I can say it's my new favorite rig for this road. Stock gearing is great, 3rd through 5th works great and most can be done in 4th. So long as I can keep the rpms around 9k it pulls fantastically.
The suspension has proven to need all the upgrades. After my ride Friday I confirmed that everything will bottom out on this road and damping is slow, especially on the rear. When I got home, a new used shock from a Ninja 300 was sitting on my step so I fitted that up yesterday. New fork springs should be here this week, along with some sintered front pads to replace the paper-thin ones I have been running so far.
The big discovery after Friday's shakedown was a broken front fairing stay. By the end of the ride my front fairing was basically hinging due to this and shaking itself apart.
I'll weld this up so I can properly mount the fairing, but it got me thinking about what I want to use this bike for. I don't like how heavy the factory sealed beam is, and the front fairing has been through the ringer in its rough life. I like keeping things stock, but I'm going to run this as a naked for awhile. The weight loss will be good for where I ride, and it's not really an environment where I will make much use of the fairings wind protection. I did some thinking on a minimal mounting option for the gauges (I'll post pics when I get this worked out) and I plan to just run a cheapo ebay headlight to stay legal. I don't ride at night, so I'm not too concerned about quality there, keeping the front end light is my main concern. So she's sitting about like this now:
I think the suspension upgrades and lack of moving/falling off parts will improve the next test ride. Engine and trans-wise I was pretty happy though: it goes, it stops. It kinda turns, and it holds a line in a corner well. Carbs could idle better so I'll probably pull them again, but I'm nit-picking there. I like the idle at 1500 and it's about 1700 to keep it smooth. I would rather find a set of 32mm carbs to replace these with anyway.