She's just passed!

Why worry? Excellent learner bike.

And fancies an RR bike? Lovely 17-y-o I must say! ;-)

Heh, well done.

 

No, I meant my little runabout being used as a 'hack' ;-(

Mind you, she did help me clean it up recently so I think she's due
some use out of it. ;-)

It's strange, it seems that martial arts and / or bikes / playing
music seem to be part of this Arbory game! That and alternative sports
.... she was (proper) axe throwing the other day! ;-)

The thing is she has not yet been interested in money or the
traditional things that motivate many teenagers these days. Give her
20 quid and she'll come back with some real good gear (clothes <g>)
from the charity shop. She always seems to find the bargains and
*prefers* decent vfm stuff over labeled stuff.

She sold us the 250R on similar logic.

"It's economical, light, good handling (so safe), comfortable riding
position, can easily do 70 mph so could keep up with fast moving
traffic. It's very well liked by anyone who rides it and very popular
with ladies."

She also added that because she really loves the looks she will be
more likely to want to take it out and use it.

However she also realises it's quite a lot of money (for us). Whilst
we could find the funds for her it would be a real bummer (for all of
us) should she drop it (as I guess she'll only get TPFT on it).

So I think it's gonna be summat cheaper, if only for the winter (as
suggested). She's also been given this old 1.1 Fiesta, probably more
practical for carrying her Mattock and Maul?

All the best ..

T i m

 

Quite. 33bhp from a 250 is just gay. That's only marginally more than
an RS125.

 

Er, Dagos say "compare apples to apples and pears to pears". The 250R is a
twin, GP-like powered sports 1000's are four cylinders...

In 2002 Ducati 998 came in [1] "three states of tune: 123 bhp for the 998,
136 for the 998S and a claimed 139 bhp for the limited edition customer
racer, the 998R." Plus, Ducati 1098 today offers 160bhp, that is 145bhp per
litre, just 10% more of what the 250R is offering. But I guess that the
buying and running costs of such twins are larger than for the 250R. Not to
mention that there is that beginners' legal limit of 33bhp/25kW.

[1] http://www.motorcycle.com/manufacturer/ducati/2002-ducati-998-14404.html

 

Update, the bike they have in their 'to be done sometime' heap is a
GPX250R and that is the engine he was referring to as not being
particularly 'good' (as in reliability, so my bad re the GPZ250R
reference although I think they use the same engine [1]). I was
therefore going to ask if that engine has any connection with the
engine in the 2008 GPZ250R (but I think you said it was a new engine
in any case so I guess the answer is 'no')?

If the GPX is a different kettle of badgers, I note it shows ~45hp so
will have to be restricted for her, but looks light enough at 142kg
(wet).

It also seems to share a similar 'square cut' styling of the new 250R
so she might even like it! ;-)

Is the ride position more sports than tour and would the insurance be
high (for a 17yr old)?

All the best ..

T i m

[1] Mechanic mate said he's probably worked on 45+ of those engines
over the period they were Kawasaki dealers.

p.s. The shop owner is going to drag it out and sort it for us for a
test ride ... oh, and he added "don't worry, it will be cheap" ;-)

 

Do you have an expression about "una avispa en tu cabeza" ?

 

er, yes. If only your fruit recognition skills were better.

Comparing a 250 twin with a 1000+cc twin for relative power is idiocy.
The mean piston speed on two such motors is enormously different.

The 250 twin has two cylinders of 125cc. To compare it with a 1000,
we'd need a V8 (yum). Perhaps a better comparison would be with a
sports 600, which has four cylinders of 150cc each. Modern 600s make
a quoted 120bhp, which is 200bhp/litre. The 250R is only claiming
132bhp/litre, and from slightly smaller cylinders. It is massively
understressed compared to a 600.

 

Never heard. In English?

 

What utter bollocks. The Ninja 250R makes a shade under 33bhp to make
it road legal for certain licence holders in UK, which is pitiful
really and hardly stressing the engine at all.

 

They didn't sell 45 of them in Europe.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Lozzo

So he's worked on one 45 times.

<sucks teeth>

There's your problem, right there....

 

EX/ZZR/ZX/GPZ etc?

And who mentioned anything about where they were sold into hence came
from? It wasn't unknown for them to go out to the States and bring
back a couple of container loads (double stacked) of bikes. Who is to
say that there weren't a few of those engine/models in amongst them?

If he hadn't seen many of that model, that's what he would say and he
has done so in the past when I've mentioned other bikes that although
look fairly common are an import / grey version etc.

All the best ..

T i m

 

Well he didn't say they were *that* unreliable but ... ;-)

I guess as with many similar things it all depends of how many of each
you see. A mate runs a PC shop and if asked, would probably say
Packard Bell PC's weren't particularly reliable and often fail (PSU /
Mobo) just after a year. I wonder if that could be to do with PCW and
the like selling them with a printer as a bundle pretty cheap so there
are actually many more of them out there than say Compaq's or Toshes.

Similar with hard drives. The cheapest drive is commonly found in
'cheap' machines so the numbers he sees compared with other makes
might be very high. So he has a pile of Maxtor 40G drives suggesting
they were less reliable than any other but it might simply be stats.

Just for interest, other bikes we have bought because mechanic mate
suggests they are pretty bomb proof included the Yamaha B-Whiz, CG-125
(Brazil) XV535/750 (apart from "starter motor issues"), XT-350 and
even a REB 350 (because they knew I knew how to treat / fettle it. In
fact I did little to it in 5000 faultless miles).

Even on this Wuyang they leant us, they have sold over 100 of them so
far and he's not had one back with engine problems. Batteries, alarms,
cheese bolts falling off yes, engine issues, no. He suggests he's seen
quite a few SR-125's with dropped valves (more so than any other make
/ model) and I believe he's seen a lot of them in his time (they are
well placed to deal with the London commuter trade). Similar with MZ's
and their gearshift return springs (like mine), CX500's with their cam
chains, Square 4's with overheating rear cylinders, Superdreams with
generator issues and my old BM with it's cracked coils.

All the best ..

T i m

 

And the older GPX250R's are ~45 hp?

Apparently they tweaked the new one down to make the mid range riding
better.

All the best ..

T i m

 

They designed the new engine with 33bhp to make it comply with EU regs
for new licence holders. It's not a detuned strangled GPX/GPZ engine.

 

I haven't gone looking recently. I'd go somewhere that does grey
imports, because that's what they are. Try to go for the FZR250RR 3LN
model with the EXUP system like it's bigger brother. The 3LN also has
cooler looking headlights than the older 2KR model.

 

Ah, and is that where the '33hp' is referenced from for A2 bikes Mark?

Ta.

All the best ..

T i m

 

Ok ta.

I've just quickly shown Daughter my new GPz550 ... she said "It looks
like an MZ .." :-(

All the best ..

T i m

 

Heh..

 

He means a UK A2 motorcycle licence, which is restricted to 33bhp. As
opposed to an A licence which is unlimited.