Hi from Orlando - 2007 Baja / Zhejiang X250

[KirkN]

Hi, all,

I picked this bike up for $200 back in March. Had nearly zero time on it, but had begun to be cannibalized (missing carb, missing exhaust, etc). I bought a parts bike a month or two ago and combined 'em to make one. The fake radiator shrouds were a bit humble, and caused my knees to splay way out, so I've left 'em off.

It had it's maiden outing (under my ownership) this past weekend. What a hoot! Bike ran & performed great! Looks like I might have a fork seal leaking now, so maybe some maintenance there is in my future, but I'm looking forward to being here.

Thanks,

Kirk

*edit* well, sorry - I'm having issues with Photobucket. I'll have to upload the pix later today when I get off work. Sorry 'bout that. Still, I'm happy to be here.

[KirkN]

Here we go:

[Weldangrind]

Welcome, Kirk!

It looks like you're using that bike properly. In Canada, it was sold as a Gio, and it's a really nice bike. The pushrod motor needs virtually no maintenance, other than occasional valve adjustment and periodic oil changes. I think your model has a Mikuni carb and a stainless exhaust header.

Remove the front wheel and see if the leaking fork leg has any play between the upper and lower sections. I had one fork leg like that, and it was missing a bushing from the factory. I simply swapped it for another fork leg, since I had a spare. I don't know how difficult it would be to dig the bushing out.

The good news is that seal replacement is really easy, and it'll give you a chance to change the oil to something better. Spud turned us on to Valvoline Maxlife ATF, and I've used it in a few bikes now; cheap and effective.

[KirkN]

Thanks for the welcome.

I didn't even realize this WAS a pushrod motor. I just assumed it was OHC. But I went and looked at the parts manual that I have and sure enough - pushrods. No worries either way - it ran like a champ!

Yeah, I'll have a look at the fork legs. And I DO have spares from the parts bike, but the parts bike had rusty fork tubes. The kind of rust and pits that tear fork seals, so I won't be able to just do a straight swap. Maybe a mix'n'match deal.

This carb is a Keihin knock-off and it came off the parts bike. The jets even had the little stylized "K" on 'em. And yep, it's a stainless header. It came from ebay. The original bike didn't have the exhaust, and the parts bike had some slightly different style and wouldn't fit. So, this one was brand new off ebay for, like, $40. The muffler/spark arrestor came from the parts bike.

Still, it's a fun ride!

[Weldangrind]

I've switched to 30mm Mikuni carbs for every 200/230 pushrod/ohc that I've touched. The benefit is that jets are much easier to find for the Mikuni than the Keihin clones. I've seen a few different jet styles on Keihins, whereas the Mikuni has only one.

It's the slow jet that you'll struggle to find replacements for, since you can always drill out a main jet with a numbered drill bit index.

That said, I've got a spare 94 and spare 108 Keihin main jet, and they need a good home. I could also drill them out to whatever size you wish. LMK.

[SpudRider]

Welcome; we are glad you joined us.

What is the diameter of the inner fork tubes?

[katoranger]

Welcome. Looks like a good time.

[tokarev]

First thing I did on mine was to ditch the phony plastic shrouds. Like the way you built one bike from two.

[KirkN]

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

Yeah, the parts bike was a silver frame, silver motor, red plastics version of the one I had, which was black black and more black but otherwise identical. I kinda liked the look of the red fenders instead. It was a lotta black...

I checked the fork play, and there is indeed play between the lower tube and the upper slider on the one fork leg. Sigh.

I also discovered that there are air valves on the bottoms of these forks hidden under rubber plugs. Naturally, there was zero air pressure in 'em. I tried pumping them up to 6~8 psi, but I think something must be blocked. It would take next to no air and spike to 50+psi, but then one check with the gauge would be enough to bleed 'em back to 10psi, and the next check would be zero. It was acting like the volume being pumped up was tiny, rather than the large volume of the fork tube. We'll see...

Kirk

[Weldangrind]

I think the schrader valves are connected to tiny air bags, hence the low volume.

Bummer about the fork bushing. Perhaps you can try some surgery on one of the rusty for legs, and see if you can extract the bushing. The forks are really easy to dismantle.