Crossed to the dark side… ninja 250 content

I'd order tires. That gives me a chill down my spine. 

GPR-300 are the tires you want. I am 90% certain then make a Ninja 250 OEM size for front and rear. 

In reply to wearymicrobe :

Unfortunately, the pre gen (as kawi calls them) only came with very narrow 16" rims. Didn't get the 17" till 08 new gens for better tire selection. 
But Diablo sports are not too expensive in this size, and the corner carvers seem to like 'em. For us old fuddy duddys, the Kenda 671s seem to wear well, and corner predictably - though not quite as sticky. Either (along with some more expensive model dunlops) are supposed to be huge improvements over the stock Dunlop oem tires. Honestly, I have proved that years and thousands of miles on choppers seems to have disabled my butt dyno. I've never felt a difference between one brand and the next... only tire I ever felt a difference was my 82 shovel fxr, and we mounted a free brand new continental - that had been on the shelf for 20 + years! Hard as a BrickBat, and felt slick as a baby's bottom!!!

BTW flat track style power sliding a big old FXR is a TON of fun

In reply to Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) :

Not sure how I lived through my younger days, but them stories would really send chills. Honestly, the 13 date does not concern me at all in a tire issue problem. I know the older rubber would be fine as far as failure. Zero sun damage - sidewall and tread block valleys are perfect. But lack of traction from the rubber being hard, could prove problematic to a guy that no longer has the reflexes I had in them days 

I have no clue how a bike this light and nimble would react to traction loss, and am no longer (quite) psycho enough to find out on purpose

Had plans on getting the battery charged up enough to fire it up last night, but 58 miles to work, 10 1/2 hours and 58 miles back, and I didn't do much. And a outlet I've needed to upgrade/replace for a while, was finally important enough to turn that breaker off and change... since my wife wanted to plug some Christmas lights into it! 
Maybe tonight...

wearymicrobe said:

Something about being able to fully wring the neck of a sporty street bike and not die was so much fun.

Yes.  The most fun about the 250 was wringing it out.  It didn't feel like a chore at all.  It was fun, yet also necessary if you wanted to move quickly.

Finally took the time to look for a simple cause... no pinched lines, no open vacuum ports or lines, and petcock is working correctly. Checked air filter, and it fell apart in my hand! Not a good thing. Have to pull some of the tupperware and part of the rear fender to get the air box out of the frame to remove all the dust (literally disintegrated) , so...

I pulled everything for a good deep clean!  

little messy on my work area, but I did keep the Beemer parts away from the ricer parts... don't want to know what would happen if they intermixed!!!

This is the first time I've ever worked on a super low mileage, garage kept, non abused bike ; nice to be able to take stuff apart with out PB Blaster and destructive measures! 
No rusty bolts brackets or screws, no chewed up heads from ham fisted #€}}>>, or hacked up wire by same. Quite pleasant. 

Tomorrow's plan is to roil it out for a good cleaning, and go through the carbs while it's drying. Hopefully I can remember where all the puzzle pieces go back together!

wearymicrobe said:

I just sold my MT03 and holy tar do I miss it. Something about being able to fully wring the neck of a sporty street bike and not die was so much fun. Do the same thing on my SuperSport and you would be in jail in 2nd gear. 

 

FYI I really wish that the United states for high spec, high rev, low CC bikes. I have been hunting for a RC390 now to go crazy on and put Ohlins on both side and just go out and have fun at low speed.

This. So much this! I love my two Suzuki 350 singles. I almost always enjoy the opportunities I get to ride any sort of 250/350. Can't wait to get my JDM GSX-R250 four cylinder up and riding! I also love the effortless speed of something bigger (with the appropriate mindset and level of caution) and so far a VFR800 has been the perfect counterpoint to my fleet of the "fun-stuff" small-bore tiddlers.

I'm digging this Ninja 250 project. I actually like the looks of the subtle color, and it seems like a nice example. Who can argue with full-gas, rev-to-redline riding and insane MPG at the same time? Looking forward to updates.

In reply to ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks. The kinda plain has definitely grown on me... didn't even know they came in a nice mild paint. My wife is liking the looks of it as well. 
The air box is such a bulky pain, I really want to buy some pods, and ditch it! But then I gotta re jet it, and reshaped needles - might as well open up the exhaust then too...

I think I'll try to pretend I'm an adult, and just ride it!!!

You really can't get any more horsepower out of the origami Ninjas. Guys have spent cubic dollars for 2 peaky hp. I wouldn't bother.

In reply to Appleseed :

Yea, with that little 250 already getting 30 HP, I would imagine there ain't a lot of low hanging  fruit there!

I just love the K&N individual pod filter look, and hate bulky ugly air boxes. 
Any engine likes to breathe a bit easier, but that ain't gonna be much HP gains on a Ninjette. And pods don't have enough plenum volume, so they really only move the little bit of power gain from the mid range, to the top. And that's the opposite of what that little bike needs!

Good news... I found the smokin' gun! As I disassembled the carbs, it looks like he did clean them correctly. However, the idle mixture screws, as I tried to count the turns in, I found them seated already!

I did a full tear down and clean, just in case, and the sync. screw had been adjusted incorrectly. (Pro tip... 99 % of the time, if bike carbs on a gang are out of sync, it's something besides the sync adj. Unless it had been turned for some reason since new! - probably by someone that shouldn't be messing with it!)

Did a deep clean on the bike, and will start putting her back together after some drying time. 

A mate showed me how to wash the underside well... this is A LOT easier to pick back up than his 84 stripped dresser was!

I don't like pods. They make your jetting too unpredicable and your MPG goes way down if you have to put in huge mainjets for the pods to keep it from going too lean. And you don't really pick up any ponies on an even remotely stock engine.

Pods are such a pain to jet for. DONT DO IT

Y'all need to read what I actually SAID about pods! 
I clearly stated I would not be running pods on this bike (and the reasons why) even though I've used them many times in the past!

Carb jetting difficulty's is not one of the reasons, though. Working on my own and friends used bikes in the 80s, I got quite good at it. Couldn't afford new bikes, and the 70s and 80s stuff responded well to better air in and out... factory's left a lot of low hanging fruit in those days! (Pro tip: if you allow more air in, and provide a path for more air out, you WILL have to change the jetting with a carb ) This 250, already in the high 20s for HP - not so much HP to gain 
As to the difficulty, for folks raised on EFI, carbs apparently seem like black magic, but I'd been wrenching' on carbs for almost  10 years before I owned a car with fuel injection. And the early 80s fi left a lot to be desired!

Never got better than mediocre at tuning in a single carb an a big ol' V8, but for some reason the tunability of one small carb for each cylinder clicked for me, and I got quite good. And that was before I ever heard of an O2 sensor and meter for exhaust analysis. I have still never used one... too expensive, since I'm not tuning for racing. 

In reply to GCrites80s :

Yes, pods do not allow enough air volume in the air intake to work well with the tiny CV carbs. (One of the reasons I stated I will not be putting pods on this bike )

There are others that can explain a CV carbs function and needs better than me, but yes, they can tend to be somewhat erratic with the smaller volume  And modern air boxes are designed WAY better than the old days.

But I'm old enough to remember when most motorcycles did not come with CV carbs. 
Modern bikes are jetted (and tuned, on fi) way lean from the factory, to meet emissions standards. Most bikes (not all, and the Ninjette is probably one of the exceptions) will actually get BETTER mpg with the PROPER increase in low and mid range jetting. Just randomly tossing in a huge main jet in NOT the proper way to do that, even though most internet lore brags that it is!

Same way SO many people used to brag about how fast their stock cam, poor flowing 350 was after throwing a 750 "double pumper" on it. 

I was merely stating that I don't like pods

As someone who was into dirt bikes and quads long before street bikes, what I need sold on is the benefits of CV carbs since they are no good in serious dirt.

In reply to GCrites80s :

Back when the huge 400 and 550 street bikes Japan started sending to the US came out, pods were great! Now, not so much. But a 64 Falcon is not a good looking (or driving) car by today's standards - yet still my favorite! My tastes developed in a different time 

I have friends that have always been into dirt bikes, but I've never ridden one aside from around the yard. And never worked on 'em. But I can see why a CV carb would not be a great choice!

Was home for a short weekend, and finally got new gas in the Ninjette's tank, and with carbs installed and it's new air filter (and oil) it did fire up and rev well. Carb adjustments are WAY out - enough so that I'll deal with it another weekend. Did find a decent front tire for it NOS on way through Atlanta. Still a lot of shelf time, but not as old as the "new" tire in it, and a better tire.