Buccaneer SRT250 Classic or Cafe Purchase

[ChopperCharles]

17” rim and Kenda big block tire, 130/80/17!

Charles.

[culcune]

Dirt roads and such?

[JohnSEnriquez]

Originally Posted by ChopperCharles

Have you ridden your Buccaneer until it's completely out of gas? If so, what was the total range?

Charles.

Hey Charles,

The Buck manual states a 91 Octane. However, have you tried a 87? If so, is there a noticeable difference? Will it ruin the engine in the long term?

John

[ChopperCharles]

While that's true, the US And Canada use a different octane rating system than the rest of the world. Our octane rating is an average (simple mean) of the RON and MON octane ratings, and generally results in a posted octane rating 4-6 points below what's listed for the exact same fuel in Europe, Asia, Australia, and pretty much everywhere else.

These bikes are designed for markets in india, malasyia, thailand, etc. They're not high performance machines designed for high performance fuel. They're budget machines designed for emerging markets, and also happen to be sold in the USA. I mean, the manual is so full of errors and omissions, I figured it highly likely they didn't convert the octane rating from the world standard to the US rating when printing it in the manual.

Testing very much seems to confirm this. Running the bike on 100 degree days at all speeds, up big hills and in all sorts of riding conditions never resulted in pinging or knocking. All 87 octane did was give me ever so slightly more power and fuel mileage.

Charles.

[ChopperCharles]

Also here is a pic of the bike with Kenda big blocks. My scrambler conversion is almost complete. I need to re gear the bike and fabricate longer front fender stays, and I’m done.

Charles.

[ChopperCharles]

Okay, to convert this bike to a 520 chain, you need a 16 tooth front sprocket for a 2017 Yamaha XV250, and a JTR-273.45 rear sprocket. You will have to special order or get this sprocket from eBay, as it's for a KTM125, which is not sold in the USA.

16/45 is the stock gearing, with a 114 link o-ring or x-ring chain. The saves almost three pounds over the stock sprockets with a 530 X-ring chain. You will need one extra 58mm washer from SSR, to go between the rear sprocket and the hub. (One under, one on top of the sprocket. This accounts for the difference in sprocket thickness). The center of the new sprocket may need to be sanded as well. The powder coat was too thick and mine wouldn't slide over my buccaneer's hub. I hit it with a drill-mounted flap wheel to take the powder coat off and it slid right over after.

To gear the bike a little lower, there aren't a lot of options. There are a few smaller JTR-273 sprockets, but none larger. To go with a little lower gearing you can try:

15T front sprocket, 44T rear: 4.1% increase in RPM for the same speed. 113 links.
15T front sprocket, 45T rear: 6.3% increase in RPM for the same speed. 114 links.

I recommend the 15/44 combo, as it will get you about 300 more rpm. That doesn't seem like much, but the extra torque available means you'll be able to hold speed better up hills and into a headwind. It won't appreciably lower your top speed, but it may end up a little buzzier, especially on the highway. My bike has gone 8000 miles ridden largely at WFO near redline, and is no worse for wear from it, so I really do suggest gearing down and enjoying some extra torque to maintain speed.

For someone like me who has gone to a 17" rear wheel, the 15/45 combo returns the gearing to stock gearing with a 130/80/17 rear tire. I'm likely going to try a 14/44 combo in the near future, however.

Charles.

[ChopperCharles]

Well I tried adjusting my speedometer today. Since I put a larger wheel and tire on the front, my speedo actually reads slow now. The initial setting is F05.7. The minimum setting is F00.0, which is unfortunately not enough to compensate for the larger tire. Not by a long shot.

EDIT - Ignore this. See post below!

Charles.

[ChopperCharles]

Okay, since I had a small break in the weather, I was able to test the adjustments.

Buccaneer, your initial post about getting into the programming mode was extremely useful. However, the speed adjustment part is wrong, as I've tested experimentally.

After putting in the "CCC123" code, I'm greeted with the Y2/1/F05.7 display, and Y2 was flashing. I long-pressed and it moved me to the 1. Then I long pressed again to get to F05.7.

I set it to F00.0, saved, and rode the bike. The speedometer was reading 50mph or so while I was doing under 20. I got back into the programming and saw that it was set to F02.0. Further experimentation brought out that this is the minimum value.

The value here is not a hexidecimal number. While it begins with "F", this is not part of the number, and indeed cannot be changed. Each digit can be 0-9, not 0-F, so this is an integer number with an "F" in front of it for some reason. (Just like Y2... why is there a Y in front of the number of cylinders? Maybe some Chinese romanization or technical nomenclature? - EDIT: Turns out "F" is for "Frequency", as per the manual I found online for this speedometer)

At any rate, this "F-Number" seems to be the ratio for the speedometer. 1:5.7 being the default ratio. Decreasing the number makes the speedometer read faster. Increasing it makes it read slower. Small changes are all that is needed. For my 19" rim, my speedometer was reading about 4% slow. By making the F number smaller, I increased the speed shown on the speedometer, and ended up with an F number of 5.3.

I came to this by using a speedometer app on my phone, and comparing the two values after maintaining and holding speed on flat, level ground without overhead tree canopy (which can slow the phone's response time). It took about 7 trail-and-error runs before I figured out what was going on, and then narrowed in on the correct number.

I'm sure I could come up with some maths to relate the ratio to the tire circumference and all that jazz, but if youv'e got a GPS or a phone and can mount it to the bike (even temporarily with duct tape or in a tank bag's map pouch), it should only take a few trail runs to get it dialed in perfectly. Experimentation certainly won the day for me! My speedo now reads within 1mph of my GPS display.

For a stock bike with a stock front tire, I'd start at 6.5 and go up or down from there. (likely up). Since the stock speedo reads 6% high, you'll be increasing the F-number to decrease the speed displayed.

Thanks again to Buccaneer for the initial post on entering programming mode, and what the Y02 and 1 are for.

Charles.

[JohnSEnriquez]

Hi Charles,

Do you recommend purchasing the extended warranty?

[ChopperCharles]

That depends. Are you the DIY type for service and repairs? Or do you take it to the dealer? For me personally, I wouldn't get the extended warranty. But I can fix things. If my turnsignals die again out of the warranty period, I'll replace them with aftermarket signals. I suppose it also depends on the kind of mileage you're planning to put on the bike. If you're only going to put a couple thousand a year on the bike, it doesn't make much sense to get the extended warranty. If you're planning on putting on 10k or more a year, then it makes more sense.

Charles.

[ChopperCharles]

Exhaust from the Italjet Caffeina fits the Buccaneer, and noticeably increases the low and midrange torque. It's not a massive increase, but it's noticeable. I got the headers and mufflers both without catalyst from Longjia. They're free-flowing, and louder than stock, but the sound is not objectionable by any means. It's deep and throaty, not raspy or tinny, and the volume is just right.

You have to remove one of the rear exhaust studs to get the adapter pipe into place, and then put the stud back in. If the stud doesn't come out easily, you'll have to unbolt the motor, jack up the back and tilt it forwards. Which is what I had to do. Not fun. I still ended up hacksawing off about 1/4" of the exhaust stud to get it to fit.

The breather vent routing is now a (minor) problem. The formed line wants to rest securely against the header. Replacing the breather line with a generic hose is a good fix. One with a braided stainless cover (for heat shielding) would be the best choice. This is a minor niggle.

Charles.

[ChopperCharles]

Charles.

[JerryHawk250]

Exhaust looks and sound great.

[JohnSEnriquez]

Just curious (or for giggles), can you convert the Buc into a kickstart? Or, add a kickstart while keeping the electric starter?

[JerryHawk250]

Originally Posted by JohnSEnriquez

Just curious (or for giggles), can you convert the Buc into a kickstart? Or, add a kickstart while keeping the electric starter?

The engine is a clone of the old Yamaha 250. It was never designed to have a kick start. I've owned one and had to push start it a few times because of a dead battery. It was easy to push start.