The apple never falls far.....

[JA-Moo]

from the tree......

My 24 year old son lives 4 miles from me, but I never see him, unless we offer free food.....lol. So I left a cryptic text yesterday, "got a new bike". Guess who showed up today........ He showed up with a friend to check out the 250. they both thought it was pretty cool. The first thing out of his mouth was "when you going to start hopping it up?" (thus the title of the thread) I told him there wasn't actually a lot you can do without spending big bucks. I told him I would probably just jet the carbs a bit for the altitude here and the Two brothers slip on. He said "that sucks". He just knows I usually tune anything I have pretty hard, and expected the same with the 250. There are always jokes about GPS locators, flairs and such with I take my 500 2 stroke out......lol.

He also said "I never thought you would ever get a bike newer than from the 80's". I'm a vintage bike guy, and didn't think I would either. But I'm having a blast on the bike, but I think also a 15 or 16 tooth front sprocket will be on order soon, the stories about too low of gearing are totally true. For our short local road racing track I have a huge rear sprocket, but the 250 is still geared lower......

That's my story, for now........

[JustRidin]

Keep us posted on what modifications you do make to the bike!

[aShifty]

welcome...

what a nice son.

[Skid]

Welcome to the forum!

I love vintage bikes, but lack the time and know how to own one.

[Jiggles]

What you really need is a full area P with a dynojet kit and some intake mods. Or if you want to get real technical an EFI conversion

[kaiserz]

[Jiggles]

[choneofakind]

Originally Posted by kaiserz

mmmmmm! Hott AND smart
Posted via Mobile Device

[JA-Moo]

Originally Posted by Jiggles

What you really need is a full area P with a dynojet kit and some intake mods. Or if you want to get real technical an EFI conversion

Well, the slip-on came on the bike. So it will do fine for now. Being an old fart and vintage bike guy, I'm still trying to wrap what's left of my mind around the cost of performance parts for the newer bikes. And to be truthful, the hp/$ value is very low.

My "need more HP" years are behind me, My "20s" were in the "80s". Now I lean more towards handling and light weight, which the 250 does very well.

And I have my road racer for those wild grey hair days..........

[alex.s]

john, if you like riding the girl fast, check out some of the suspension upgrades. there's quite a variety of upgrades ranging from cheap and free to ...well you know. the stock springs and damping are set for soft and light road riding for a small asian girl, so if you push the bike at all you wind up bottoming out. for free you can add preload with some spacers. proper rated sonic springs are $80 for the forks or racetech springs for $100, fork oil is nice and cheap and you can throw on a resprung gsxr used shock on the rear for pretty cheap. or get a custom GS-3 from racetech thats designed for the bike (like $400). you can get dual-speed valve kits for the forks (they call them gold-valve emulators) for pretty cheap. about $150 i think. no external adjustment but once you get it set right you dont really need to change it unless you change something drastic. if you want to get really fancy they make ohlins dropin cartridge kits for about $800 or you could even swap to upside-down forks like the rs250 forks (fit fine with stock body work) or something like zx forks (require afteermarket or modified bodywork)

definitely play with the carbs, the bikes come lean from the factory for emissions.

[JA-Moo]

Originally Posted by alex.s

john, if you like riding the girl fast, check out some of the suspension upgrades. there's quite a variety of upgrades ranging from cheap and free to ...well you know. the stock springs and damping are set for soft and light road riding for a small asian girl, so if you push the bike at all you wind up bottoming out. for free you can add preload with some spacers. proper rated sonic springs are $80 for the forks or racetech springs for $100, fork oil is nice and cheap and you can throw on a resprung gsxr used shock on the rear for pretty cheap. or get a custom GS-3 from racetech thats designed for the bike (like $400). you can get dual-speed valve kits for the forks (they call them gold-valve emulators) for pretty cheap. about $150 i think. no external adjustment but once you get it set right you dont really need to change it unless you change something drastic. if you want to get really fancy they make ohlins dropin cartridge kits for about $800 or you could even swap to upside-down forks like the rs250 forks (fit fine with stock body work) or something like zx forks (require afteermarket or modified bodywork)

definitely play with the carbs, the bikes come lean from the factory for emissions.

Thanks for the reply Alex!

I have been reading through the performance sections. (so much to catch up on)

I'm 6'1" 195 so I know some suspension work will be necessary, the emulators are real popular with the vintage racers. Front springs will be an upgrade also. I had no idea the Gixxer shock was that semi-easy of an upgrade. That's why I love the boards, no re-inventing the wheel.

I really need to get her up on the mountain to get a baseline for what I will be needing. It's not a fast road, kinda like the Dragon. And I may do a track day, just to see how she works there, I'm thinking you can't push the stock tires that hard.

I am at 5000ft (which kills HP, but everyone has the same disadvantage) but richens things up, as I don't even need the choke to start up. But she does pop a lot on decel. The carbs haven't been touched, so I need to pull em and remove the fuel screw caps and fiddle a bit. I might even check and see about throwing on some VM's, I have a bunch in all sizes.

Anyone that has had a racing 2 stroke knows carbs, and how often you have to jet. I get a kick out of all the talk about FI, and how great it is, or would be to have. Being from the era of working on bikes, I don't see the need, as it's actually half the fun for me to wrench on bikes.

I'll throw on the GO PRO when I head up the mountain so you guys can see what it's like, and how a 250 runs (or doesn't) at almost 11,000 ft....lol.

[bfpower]

Originally Posted by JA-Moo

I get a kick out of all the talk about FI, and how great it is, or would be to have. Being from the era of working on bikes, I don't see the need, as it's actually half the fun for me to wrench on bikes.

Exactly. I may not be from the era, but I have always loved tinkering with anything I can get my hands on.

[alex.s]

yeah the stock tires are garbage. i honestly dont understand why people hate carbs so much. i would prefer something simple that if need be can be fixed on the side of the road instead of some fancy magical box that does everything for me and tells me what to do... what if its wrong? bad sensors? bad fail trips? what if your bike gets hit by lightning!!! lol ok maybe a bit of a stretch there, but seriously i love how cheap carbs are compared to efi

[JA-Moo]

Originally Posted by alex.s

yeah the stock tires are garbage. i honestly dont understand why people hate carbs so much. i would prefer something simple that if need be can be fixed on the side of the road instead of some fancy magical box that does everything for me and tells me what to do... what if its wrong? bad sensors? bad fail trips? what if your bike gets hit by lightning!!! lol ok maybe a bit of a stretch there, but seriously i love how cheap carbs are compared to efi

Us "old guys" (I'm 55) get a kick out of the younger generation, most "seem" to think checking the oil level is "wrenching"...... they go to the shop for an oil change, pipe fitment, jetting or even a tire change. Which to us older gen, is something one normally does themselves, without thinking about it.

In their defense, bikes have become super reliable so there is not a lot to do, or learn how to do. The olden days, we were just happy if we got home!.....lol. We were always fixing something.

the guys at the track just shake their heads as us vintage racers, as they come in, get off the bike, and hang out till the next race. We come in wipe the oil off the bike, pull plugs to read them, check and see what's about to fall off, what fell off, and then fix it. And maybe a jet change and timing adjustment in there too!

A few years ago at Deals Gap, a buddy had installed his transmission wrong and actually broke the shift drum in half. The "new bike" riders would walk by and look bewildered as there we were with the engine side covers off, tools and engine parts all over the ground. My buddy thought his riding week was over, but a local guy said I have a shift drum at home, (vintage bike riders always have stacks of spare parts) want me to get it? I said sure! So as he went to get it, we pulled the motor out, took it in the room and began to tear it to pieces. He showed up a hour later and we stuck in the new drum, stuck the motor back together and back in the frame in a couple of hours. The young guys couldn't believe we did it. And stuff like that happens every year, and every year we get the strangest looks.......lol.

[Jiggles]

I wish I knew how to do **** like that. I can jet and thats about it

[CZroe]

Welcome! You'll just have to make up for the lack of viable performance mods by doing some extreme farkling.

Originally Posted by choneofakind

mmmmmm! Hott AND smart
Posted via Mobile Device

And jail-bait.