Buccaneer SRT250 Classic or Cafe Purchase

[Buccaneer]

SSR/Italject Buccaneer 250i
Owner's Manual Corrections and Recommendations

The SSR Buccaneer 250i has a useful owner's manual that can be downloaded here: http://www.ssrmotorsports.com/store/ownersmanual/street/Buccaneer_Owner's_Manual.pdf.

However I have found a number of errors or omissions that I offer corrections for below. None of my recommendations should have any effect on warranty claims, I believe. Explanatory notes follow the recommendations. I may amend this document as needed, in which case I will note the changes.

I have written up these notes to help Charles and any other new purchasers of the Buccaneer. Previously they were mostly hand-written annotations for my own use.


1. Speedometer (p. 4)

Manual: No mention is made of the trip meter, or of changing between mph and kph.

Correction: trip meter and mph/kph settings are made with the single button on the back of the speedometer.

a. To switch between the odometer and the trip meter, give a short press to the button.

b. To reset the trip meter to zero, give a long press to the button when the trip meter is displayed.

c. To toggle the speedometer between miles per hour and kilometers per hour, give a long press to the button when the regular odometer is displayed.

2. Oil Change and Oil Level Check (p. 14)

Manual: Periodic cleaning of the oil strainer is described, calling the strainer a "filter," but the actual oil filter is not mentioned.

Recommendation: Replace the oil filter (not the strainer) at 200 miles, at 600 miles, and thereafter every 2400 miles (or twelve months). Use Yamaha Oil Filter number 5JX-13440-00-00. Torque the three screws to 7Nm. Clean the oil strainer (called the "filter" in the manual) at every oil change, according to the recommendations on p. 12 (namely, at 200, 400, 600, and thereafter every 1200 miles).

3. Spark Plug (p. 15)

Manual: "Do not over torque the spark plugs." No spark plug type given.

Recommendation: Spark plug torque 13Nm. [Edit: Use NGK CR6HSA spark plugs.]

4. Valve Clearance Adjustment (p. 12 for schedule only)

Manual: Adjustment is required at 600 miles, 2600 miles, 5000 miles, and 7600 miles, but no instructions are provided.

Recommendation: Follow the Buccaneer schedule above, using the procedure shown on the Valve Clearance Adjustment page in the Attached Images at the bottom of this post.

5. Tires (p. 18)

Manual: 36 psi front and rear.

Recommendation:

Weights
GVWR: 706 lbs.
Wet weight: 334 lbs.
Maximum load: 372 lbs.

Cold tire pressure Front Rear
Up to 200 lb. Load: 26 28
200 lb. to Max Load: 28 32
High Speed Riding: 28 32

(There is also a nicer-formatted version in the Attached Images section at the bottom of this post.)

Front/Rear Turn Signal Bulb Replacement (p. 24)

Manual: Instructions are given for replacing the incandescent turn signal bulbs.

Correction: The installed turn signals are LED, and the bulbs are not replaceable.

NOTES

1. Speedometer. Instructions were found from ebay listings of the same unit as a generic instrument, and confirmed to work by me.

2. Oil Filter. The Buccaneer's motor has both an oil filter and an oil strainer, just as in the Virago XV250. The oil filter, not mentioned in the owner's manual, is beneath the obvious round cover on the right side of the crankcase. The Buccaneer's filter turns out to be a perforated stainless steel filter of the same configuration as the fiber filter originally fitted to the Virago 250. Apparently the owner is not expected to check or clean this filter at all. Instead, the owner is given instructions for cleaning the strainer at the bottom of the engine, which is called a filter in the manual.

During my break-in period and afterwards I cleaned the strainer at the recommended intervals, and also cleaned the stainless filter. I invariably observed more metallic swarf at the filter, and almost none at the strainer. (The amount of swarf tapered off quickly in succeeding oil changes.) I also investigated the merits of stainless filters, and found that my cleaning method was probably not good enough. (I had wiped the surface off with a solvent.) I found no evidence that stainless filters do a better job of filtering than the fiber kind, so I reverted to the fiber filter specified for the Virago instead.

The strainer cleaning and oil change recommendations I made are those in the Buccaneer manual. My oil filter replacement interval is every other oil change, that is, every 2400 miles after break-in. (The torque recommendation is from the Virago manual.) The original Virago specification is much more lenient: oil changes at roughly 3500 mile intervals, and oil filter replacement at almost 7500 miles. The Virago manual does not seem to specify an interval for cleaning the oil strainer.

I regard the use of the perforated stainless steel strainer with suspicion, and worry that the author of the owner's manual may have recommended cleaning the strainer because he/she confused it with the usual filter. My recommendation completely satisfies the owner's manual requirement, I believe, and adds a replacement schedule for the fiber Yamaha filter.

3. Spark plug torque recommendation from Virago manual. [My motorcycle was delivered with NGK CR6HSA plugs, so I presume this is the correct type. Also, the Virago used the similar NGK C6HSA.]

4. Valve Clearance Adjustment. My page in the Attached Images section is based on pages 3-5 through 3-7 in the Yamaha Virago Service Manual. The recommendation of 0.08mm for intake and exhaust comes from the Buccaneer owner's manual (p. 25), while the intake settings of 0.08 - 0.12 mm and exhaust 0.10 - 0.14 mm come from the Virago manual. The steering stem of the Buccaneer has yet another set of recommendations: 0.07-0.12mm intake and exhaust, which I did not include on my page. Take your pick!

5. Tires. The owner's manual specifies 36 psi front and rear, but those are the maximum allowable pressures for the tires themselves, and are not suitable recommendations for the motorcycle. (For example, the rear tire alone is rated for a load of 661 lbs. at 36 psi, while the motorcycle's rear axle is rated much lower.) I followed 1980's Yamaha formatting to make up a recommended tire pressure table, as follows.

The Buccaneer has a plate at the steering head listing the Gross Axle Weight Ratings (GAWR) as 265 lb. front and 441 lb. rear, giving a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) of 706 lbs., which I recorded in my table. I then weighed the motorcycle (front and rear, with bathroom scales), to get 334 lbs. wet weight (i.e., with a full tank, etc.). Subtracting the wet weight from the GVWR gave a maximum load of 372 lbs. Both those figures went into the table.

I then examined the Yamaha Virago XV250 Service Manual and found the relevant specifications are very similar to the Buccaneer. First, the tires: the rear is the same, at 130/90-15, while the front is a slightly smaller cross section on a one-inch larger rim (3.00S-18 vs. 100/80-17). Second, the Virago's wet weight is 324 lbs., and the maximum load is 437 lbs., for an implied GVWR of 761 lbs., which is 55 lbs. more than the Buccaneer's. Top speed and performance are similar. I decided that the Virago 250 tire pressure specs were suitable for the Buccaneer, and copied them into my table, except for the lower-load front tire value, which I increased to 26 from 25 lbs., to be cautious since the tires are not the same. I retained the identical high-load and high-speed ratings from the Virago, noting that high speed is not really an issue with either bike. In short, my table is identical to the Virago one, except for the increase of 1 lb. of pressure just mentioned.

A standard method of determining appropriate tire pressures is to choose a cold setting that produces a 10% increase in pressure when the tire is up to temperature. This would also be appropriate, but I think the Virago recommendations should be good.