Loncin RE250 6 speed

[84convertablegt]

Just in case anyone wants to review a little more driving footage of the new combo. It was a nice day today. 55' and sunny. Probably the last day like this until spring. But you never know.

[pete]

Originally Posted by Wild Dog

I know exactly what you mean, i had the same feeling when i tried the motorcycle with the RE250. It's clearly better than a Stock cg230 but not enough.
Now i'm looking at this engine.
Attachment 19255

Attachment 19256
The motorcycle that use that engine, can cruise at 75 mph with a max speed 81 mph. That's stock

24 hp stock vs the 17,7 hp from the RE250. Even the 200 ohc i showed earlier is bit better than the RE250.

Looks a copy of the Honda CBR250 motor... same motor I had in my
Honda XR250 tornado...
Apart from the 1mm bigger dia wrist pin the CBR300 top end is a bolt on fit..
So you need to change the con rod....


.

[Megadan]

If you are hoping for solid 70mph performance then realistically no 250cc single is really going to make you happy, at least on any sort of dual sport bike. Sure, the high end bikes like the WR250, CRF250, etc. with their high compression liquid cooled motors CAN push that kind of speed, but realistically even for them the 70-75mph range is sort of a barrier and they have to be pushed pretty hard to get there. Can they go faster? Sure, I know a WR250 can hit 80 or more maxed out, but if you talk to those guys, anything beyond around 70 feels like they are pushing the bike really hard.

I know I say this when I have my own goal of being able to get my CG to be able to sustain 70mph, but even I understand that at a certain point I will be trading rideability and reliability for just power.

That land speed bike made by CCW is well known to many here, but it also uses a custom piston and a decked jug pushing around 12:1 compression with a custom cam grind and a 32mm carb. It makes 23 wheel hp at 9000rpm, but I can promise you that engine won't have a long service life. At the end of the day it is a race engine.

Also. keep in mind that the 95mph it achieved was on a bike with a lot less frontal area, and thus fought a lot less drag. Dual Sports are probably the least aerodynamic bikes you can get. Drop that same engine into one of our bikes and it might be lucky to hit 85 wide open.

[cycleway4]

Hi Dan....I wasn't suggesting that the CCW engine would work in a dual sport, or be a practical engine,...just thought the article was interesting.

For myself,...my motorcycle experience and ownership goes back to the late 60's,...having owned around 60 bikes,....and I'm VERY partial to Yamaha two stroke twins,..if I want to cruise at 70-75 on a 250 reliably,....I'll just go with a RZ250LC stock..36 hp.

[franque]

Originally Posted by pete

Looks a copy of the Honda CBR250 motor... same motor I had in my
Honda XR250 tornado...
Apart from the 1mm bigger dia wrist pin the CBR300 top end is a bolt on fit..
So you need to change the con rod....


.

it's not the same as the CBR 250, Google the motor, the casting has an unmachined boss for a kickstarter, while the CBR250/250L motor was designed from the start workout a kickstarter. (also, the difference between the CBR250 and 300 motor, in terms of displacement, is only stroke)

I could see it being a water cooled XR250 Tornado clone, but that's a different engine. Personally I'd rather the Zongshen NC250.

[Wild Dog]

Originally Posted by pete

Looks a copy of the Honda CBR250 motor... same motor I had in my
Honda XR250 tornado...
Apart from the 1mm bigger dia wrist pin the CBR300 top end is a bolt on fit..
So you need to change the con rod....


.

Indeed the motor is a clon of the engine that cames with the Tornado

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by cycleway4

Hi Dan....I wasn't suggesting that the CCW engine would work in a dual sport, or be a practical engine,...just thought the article was interesting.

For myself,...my motorcycle experience and ownership goes back to the late 60's,...having owned around 60 bikes,....and I'm VERY partial to Yamaha two stroke twins,..if I want to cruise at 70-75 on a 250 reliably,....I'll just go with a RZ250LC stock..36 hp.

The article is very interesting, I agree. It gave me some good insight on where to look when trying to get a bit more out of my own CG engine.

As far as your own weapon of choice, not bad. Comparing a 2 stroke twin to a 4 stroke single is a bit apples to oranges though when it comes to power capability. 2 strokes will always win that comparison.

[JerryHawk250]

One of my buddies had a 74 Yamaha RD350 (2 stroke parallel twin) . If I remember correctly it put out about 39hp. It was super quick. He was pretty rough on the bike and frame was garbage because it had been welded back together so many times from cracking. It wasn't safe to put back on the street. any more So he ended up putting the engine on a go cart. man was that thing scary.

[OneLeggedRider]

Apples to oranges indeed, with twice as many power strokes. My Scrambler 400 with the Aeon ported jug/head and high dome piston, extremely shaved flywheel, tuned clutch and UFO carb is an unpredictable emotional beast on a good day. Giving it wide open throttle at any given speed is a gamble. And it might stand up at a quarter throttle, or an eighth throttle if it's good and hot. But that's what has kept my interest for the last 6 years. And it's LOUD, folks know when I'm in the holler, sounds like a big chainsaw on crack.

[84convertablegt]

Quick question for the moto mechanic types. The old saying if it's not broke don't fix it definitely applies here but...... Today I was curious how the pin that I took out of the hawk and put in the loncin for the clutch activation was doing so I took the clutch cover off to inspect it. After putting the cover back on and going for a drive I noticed it didn't always want to downshift from 3rd to 2nd or second to first or 2nd to neutral, etc. I would have to really beat the shifter down a few times to get it to downshift. So I took it all back apart, inspected the shift fork mechanism and all seems normal. It upshifts great through all gears but when downshifting something in the mechanism is binding and not letting it downshift correctly only in the lower gears. And it doesn't do it every time, but most of the time. I went ahead and changed the oil just to be safe. Any ideas? I'm about to just sell this whole mess...... I'm so frustrated....

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by 84convertablegt

Quick question for the moto mechanic types. The old saying if it's not broke don't fix it definitely applies here but...... Today I was curious how the pin that I took out of the hawk and put in the loncin for the clutch activation was doing so I took the clutch cover off to inspect it. After putting the cover back on and going for a drive I noticed it didn't always want to downshift from 3rd to 2nd or second to first or 2nd to neutral, etc. I would have to really beat the shifter down a few times to get it to downshift. So I took it all back apart, inspected the shift fork mechanism and all seems normal. It upshifts great through all gears but when downshifting something in the mechanism is binding and not letting it downshift correctly only in the lower gears. And it doesn't do it every time, but most of the time. I went ahead and changed the oil just to be safe. Any ideas? I'm about to just sell this whole mess...... I'm so frustrated....

Is shifting from first to neutral easier than second to neutral when sitting still and the bike running? How about from neutral to second vs. neutral to first?

Does this change when cold. vs. hot?

[84convertablegt]

No change from cold to hot. Sitting still I can always upshifts from first to neutral or first to second no problem. Downshifting from second can be problematic. It feels like mush,. nothing is there. If I bang it pretty hard it will usually then bounch right through neutral and into first from second. It's like the mechanism isn't seating properly or aligning the way it should and banging it hard puts it in alignment. The forks are all just held down via spring pressure. I Inspected them and played with them and don't see a problem unless something somehow got slightly bent, which would not make any sense since I didn't even touch the shifting mechanism when I opened the case to inspect the clutch.

[OneLeggedRider]

Well let me start by saying I am not familiar with your engine at all, not even really familiar with my Hawk engine yet. But years of turning wrenches has taught me a few things. You had trouble with actuating the clutch when you got the motor, swapped out the arm/pin with the Hawk's, and it was shifting fine. You took it apart to look at the pin, and immediately after had trouble downshifting. That tells me the problem is on your clutch side.

You need to figure out why the stock pin didn't work, and the Hawk one kinda works. It might be as simple as putting a weld bead on the actuator and then grinding it down to the clearance you need. I however wouldn't ride it till you get it figured out, because if you're having to bang it into a lower gear you ARE gonna do damage on the shift side.

[84convertablegt]

No, its not a clutch issue. I believe its just a coincidence and the problem is the shifter. Here is a video from another person with a similar issue. I think it is the spring that keeps pressure on the shift actuator as seen in this video. I might swap it out with the one from the CG engine and see if that fixes it. The Hawk CG shifter and the one on the Loncin are almost identical.

[OneLeggedRider]

A brand new motor too. Doesn't seem like a good investment so far.