I Got My Hands on One Of The New RXB250L's - Page 2

zero_dgz · 10-24-2021, 08:47 PM

Ever more fooling around with the bike. I have a few observations. I'm also trying inline images this time. If this blows your page up to a million pixels wide... well, sorry.

Tonight's project was to do something about the kickstand. It's too long, so when deployed the bike sits almost totally vertical. With the suspension compressed, i.e. sitting on it, it's more than vertical. You have to lean it over to the right to get the tip of the stand to even clear the pavement to swing it up. I fear that with any kind of luggage on the back it won't stand up if left unattended.

I discovered why the kickstand itself was so damn heavy. It's not a tube. It's solid!

I hacked about an inch and a half off of it and welded a wider foot on since the factory one is also teeny tiny and I foresee it driving itself into the dirt like a tent stake. I just used some scrap thick bar stock I had lying around for a foot. Better hope Apple doesn't see this or they might sue me over that "rounded rectangle" patent they have.

Did you miss the part where I said I was any good at welding? Couldn't be. I would have remembered if I ever said anything like that.

Whatever. It ain't going anywhere. Now that I added a little more gangster to my lean the thing sits at a more reasonable angle. If I had to do it all over again I maybe would have cut off a tad less. Maybe just under an inch instead? Now instead of the bike being almost totally vertical the stand itself is almost totally vertical. If you trim yours down, definitely don't make it any shorter than I did.

Putting a slight bend in it is an interesting idea but that's either going to take a lot of heat or a lot of violence. I guess I could put my forge back together, but that's a lot of work for just one thing.

I got the carb off.

I don't know if there is such a thing as a "genuine" or a clone Nibbi since as I understand it even the real thing is some kind of Chinese franken-carb? Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the float bowl screws were just screws and not any kind of tamper-proof BS.

The jets appear to be the same as the "Mikuni" clone jets we all know and love, which are actually Keihin CVK style jets... We take all this for granted, but it's enough to make your head spin if you actually stop and think about it. Whatever, as luck would have it I have... a few... of those to work with.

I found a 130 main jet and 40 pilot jet in it from the factory. I upped the pilot to a 42 and gave it a burl. Seems like it idles better when cold now. I still think that may be a little small all things considered and I'll see if it feels like it needs a 45 later.

It is theoretically possible to remove the carb out the side just by removing the right side rear plastic panel. Functionally, however, it is far less of a hassle if you also pull the tank and especially the airbox. I did figure out how to get the airbox loose which unfortunately does require removing both left and right rear plastics. At that rate you may as well just strip the whole thing because it's easier to remove the front side plastics and then the rear ones, then the tank, then the airbox, then the carb. I do appreciate that the frame is considerably more comprehensive than, say, the Hawk or my Bashan Enforcer. This gives me some confidence that I will not fold the thing in half like a taco the moment I take it off road. However, there's a reinforcing spar is right in the way of removing the carb. So unlike the Hawk-Alikes, you can't just drop the carb out of the side without having to remove anything at all. (If you want to take it for a test spin without putting it all back together, you can totally ride it around just fine with no plastics. You can just mount up the tank and, if you're a wimp, the seat without any other bodywork required.)

Just in case you were wondering, here's what it looks like nekkid:

China Rider 27 · 10-24-2021, 09:16 PM

Wow! Great pix there! That Nibbi carb looks suspect to me, I have never owned one but that Nibbi cast in I have never seen before. Look see if the needle has any numbers on it?

Does the carb to airbox have any angle in it or does it go straight back?

What does the intake look like?

Ursa_Adv · 10-25-2021, 12:59 PM

Love the kickstand mod. I can't count the times I either nearly dropped the bike due to the kickstand when trying to park on a slightly angled surface.

Quote:

I don't know if there is such a thing as a "genuine" or a clone Nibbi since as I understand it even the real thing is some kind of Chinese franken-carb? Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the float bowl screws were just screws and not any kind of tamper-proof BS

What size is that carb? The old upgrade that Orion sold as an addon was a 26mm. Interested to know if they went bigger on the new carb.

zero_dgz · 10-25-2021, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ursa_Adv

What size is that carb? The old upgrade that Orion sold as an addon was a 26mm. Interested to know if they went bigger on the new carb.

The product spec page claims it is 30mm. I did not measure it. Next time I have it apart (which may be soon, depending on how it runs with the 42 pilot) I will measure the throat and also check for any markings and numbers per China Rider 27's request. There definitely were a bunch of numbers on the side of it which I definitely did not take note of...

China Rider 27 · 10-25-2021, 10:44 PM

Most likely it is manufactured by NIBBI probably a production line model without all the bling. The needle on the store bought PE30 version I have seen listed as a J6ZG so if you see that should confirm its manufacture and wonder if it is adjustable.

zero_dgz · 10-26-2021, 07:05 PM

I have now gained the knowledge, via the expedient of Fooling With It, to remove the rear swingarm and have a look at the rear wheel bearings and brake. (The rear wheel came premounted and previously I had not messed with it.)

I skipped greasing the swingarm bolt on my initial setup and went to do so now. I found that it came pre-greased from the factory with the same blue grease as the headstock. Removing the main swingarm bolt requires getting a fair few other things out of the way including the stop adjustment screw for the rear brake pedal and two plastic panels on the left and right sides of the frame. Both the swingarm bolt nut and the axle nut were on ridiculously tight. I can usually bust loose just about anything with my cheater bar but I could not get either of these to budge. I had to resort to my impact gun, which is rare.

The rear axle nut is a whopping 32mm. The rear axle and all of its bushings were also not greased from the factory but curiously the rear wheel bearings are.

I gave some incorrect information previously when I said there was no working gear position indicator. There is, but the plug for this got separated from the others somehow and lost farther down the wiring loom. I fished it out and plugged it in to the mystery connector left over on my gauge cluster and lo: The gear position readout now produces numbers.

My only remaining electrically related issue is that the headlight even in its highest position aims way too low. It illuminates a patch of ground about 15 feet in front of the bike and that's all you get. It does have an adjustment screw with the provision to aim it even lower, but that doesn't help me much. I may wind up fabricating a little aluminum extender to hook up to its adjustment screw hole and see if I can get it pointed a little higher. I suppose the caveman solution might also be to pack out the lower two fender mount bolts with a couple of washers to aim the entire fender and headlight assembly up a little bit.

zero_dgz · 11-03-2021, 05:14 PM

I'm back.

Going with linked images again. Embedding them is annoying since I have to resize everything or use ImgBB or something. I think y'all will manage.

I had some time to do some messing around with the RXB some more. I get the impression a 42 pilot jet is still a little small for my altitude and the current weather so I took the carb out and, while I was at it, gathered some more pictures and information I didn't last time because I wasn't planning ahead. I could not find a 45 pilot amongst my magic stones (I suspect both of mine are installed in that piece of shit Shadow 700 in the background of my last full bike pic) so I installed a 48 instead. That improved the idle considerably. The tailpipe smells a little rich, but not too bad. Beats the alternative. I was getting quite a lot of popping while coasting previously, so I'll be interested to see if I made any progress against that as well.

The side of the carb has laser etched in it "N30CITBAI." With the "PE" cast in it above I thus assume this is a Nibbi PE30 (or similar). The other side reads "Motorcycle Race Use Only." Well, I have some bad news for whoever built that into the mold.

The face of the slide says "40, 9FC" with a Nibbi logo. The needle is held in with a rather stiff retaining spring, and has engraved in it "J6 ZG". It has the usual five adjustment notches for the C-clip, which came from the factory in the 2nd position from the top as you see. Mid range and high end throttle response feel pretty okay to me so I left it alone for now.

I used my Machinist's Approximator to measure the outlet bore of the carb at 30mm ID, and the inlet side is 40mm OD with a short velocity increasing bugle cast into it.

While I had all the bodywork I took a moment to remove the airbox and have a look at what was going on with the filter situation. Then another moment, and then several more. Removing the airbox is a pain in the ass.

If you have the side plastics off you can dismount the airbox with just three bolts and it has enough room to rattle around in its position, enough to make removing and reinstalling the carb much easier. Actually getting the entire thing out, though: 17 bolts, all throughout the rear half of the bike. You have to remove, in no particular order: The upper rear plastic (below where the rack goes), rear fender liner, subframe reinforcement plate, the tool tube on the left side of the bike, the right passenger footpeg bracket, and the exhaust and muffler from the midpipe clamp back.

After that you can finagle the air box out the right side and this is what you get.

Earlier I commented that the filter appears to be some kind of pleated paper arrangement. It is. You can remove it by undoing the four screws in the corner of the center hatch. This reveals that the hatch is part of the proprietary (?) filter assembly. The top mounting piece and the bottom endcap are glued or molded or otherwise bonded to the filter element and cannot be removed without destroying it. The endcap is required because it rests on four standoffs inside the airbox.

I do not like it, Sam I Am. I do not like it one bit. Older RXB's appeared to have the usual dirt bike style cleanable oiled foam filter that was fairly easily removable out the right hand side of the bike. I have absolutely no idea if this filter is a design nicked from some other brand name bike for which replacements are available, of if it's bespoke to Orion ('s OEM) and we'll be beholden to them forever for replacements. If so, I am not playing that game. Never in my life have I seen a more worthwhile candidate to just be replaced with a Uni pod filter -- and I'm not even a big fan of pod filters.

Plan B might be to see if some manner of aftermarket cylindrical filter cartridge is available with roughly the same dimensions, and the mounting flange and endcap could be broken off of the filter element and reused. Plan C might be to see if the older RXB's entire airbox will fit in the frame of the new one, although I think that will require yet more kit bashing since I think the carb inlet OD's are different.

The carb inlet is very close to the rear shock, so if I'm going to use a pod filter I'll have to put it on the end of some kind of curved neck to get around that, and land it where the airbox would go. I know you can get them with a curved inlet boot also, but I don't think that plus the filter will clear the bodywork.

I haven't tried it yet, but by all appearances it looks like you can pop the filter element assembly out the top of the airbox while the box is in place if you remove the cradle the battery sits in, which is just two bolts (plus the battery cables). I think that's how you're "supposed" to do it.

While we have things apart, here's the head in relation to the frame. Things are a little cramped in there and I think the Zongshen CB engine may be a little deeper than the CG's? The front inspection cover is basically completely inaccessible without removing the plastic air deflector on that side. I did adjust the valves a while back, and doing so requires a very sharply angled feeler gauge. Next time I do it I may just remove the valve cover wholesale, as that actually looks like less of a hassle to get out of there. (Also note the unused upper engine mounting point. One wonders what you could do with that, if anything.)

On the topic of things I don't like, I've already stripped the threads off of three of the bike's Chineseium body mounting bolts just in the course of doing regular assembly and tuning. Thus far the bolts it came with appear to be softer than what they screw into. Luckily they're almost all M6, with the exception of the two frontmost bolts that attach the side plastics to the tank which are M5. I ordered a pack of fifty M6x1.0, 10mm stainless button head screws. That ought to hold me.

I never have great confidence in the metallurgy of these Chinese bikes. Luckily it appears that most of the critical load bearing attachment points consist of a bolt that goes all the way through with a nut on the other end, so if either becomes stripped you can just replace them with commonly available substitutes. Exceptions are most of the bodywork mounting points which are mostly nuts welded to the backside of brackets on the frame, or inserts sunk into the fuel tank. Most of these are accessible from the other side even when assembled so in a pinch you could probably chisel the stripped portion off and just replace it with a regular nut without even having to weld it back on. And a suitably motivated individual could probably dig out and replace the threaded inserts in the tank. The exception appears to be the seat mounting points which I've mentioned before. These appear to be tapped straight into a section of the frame. Mine are still holding on, but if either of them strip out I'll drill all the way through that section and replace the entire ensemble with one really long bolt and a nut on the other side.

Warranty notes...

Orion completely ignored my request for a replacement foot peg spring. They did eventually respond to my request on the front fender (which took about 3 days), but as expected they're throwing up unreasonable obstacles to fulfillment. They insist that I must send the old one back for them to "inspect," and then "determine" if it meets warranty criteria. If it does not (I predict it won't, just because) they plan to charge me the cost of having it shipped back. In the meantime I can't ride the thing, of course, since the fender also holds up the headlight. (You can see why I don't want to have to order filters from them.) To this I say no thanks: It'll cost me $15 to ship the damn thing and another $15 or so to have it sent back, whereas I can by an Acerbis KTM EXC250 replacement fender online for $22 if I have to, and it appears it will be a direct fit. So thanks for nothing, losers. As ever, don't expect anything in the way of after care on one of these.

On the bright side, allegedly my MCO shipped this afternoon so I might soon be able to actually ride down to the DMV for my inevitable argument with them. In the meantime, I fabbed up a couple of cheap brackets for rear side, rear below plate, and front side reflectors which the RXB does not have from the factory. Actually, it has NO reflectors, which as I understand it are required by the DOT and also most state governments to pass inspection. I thought about making some wrap-around brackets for the front forks but I decided screw it, and just drilled some mounting holes through the fork covers. I supplemented my DOT approved plastic reflectors with copious reflective tape which I predict will last longer vs. brush, tree branches, etc. and while very effective is not kosher for inspection around here even if the stuff itself meets DOT requirements. Go figure.

ExMxer · 11-03-2021, 06:09 PM

Your bike is supposedly built by the same folks who produce the GPX FSE 250S. Nicot Motorcycle I believe they’re called. Anyway, my understanding was that GPX having an upgraded air filter in the works, since your bike and theirs appear to use the same air filter/box setup. Worse case would be, GPX could keep you in supply of stock replacement filters. The two bikes are very much alike. If I were in your shoes, I’d just say to hell with Orion in general, you appear more than capable of fixing what needs fixed. Plus, they obviously could give two shits about helping out with much of anything. Save on future frustrations/let downs…….

zero_dgz · 11-03-2021, 06:13 PM

Hey, so on that front. I did what any self respecting denizen of 2021 would do, and started trolling Google Image Search and nosing around on Alibaba, etc. It seems that this style of thing is not altogether unheard of in the Asian motorcycle world. See also, this Zongshen "RA2" air filter assembly:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002592387333.html

ExMxer · 11-03-2021, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zero_dgz

Hey, so on that front. I did what any self respecting denizen of 2021 would do, and started trolling Google Image Search and nosing around on Alibaba, etc. It seems that this style of thing is not altogether unheard of in the Asian motorcycle world. See also, this Zongshen "RA2" air filter assembly:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002592387333.html

Hmmm…. I’ll be damned

China Rider 27 · 11-03-2021, 10:42 PM

Excellent, detailed analysis of some unusual fitment. As for the air box and carb issues, been there with the Magician, a PIA. Eventually I modified it all so getting the carb out could be done by just removing the gas tank and pulling it out the top.

I am a big fan of keeping the air box in some form. Me I would keep it all and modify the filter to work. One issue you need to check out is that outer top fitting section screwed on the air box, does it leak air. The HAWK is made like that but has no rubber seal and leaks fine dust. I like foam filters you can oil, I think they work the best. I would find a way to use the stock filter hard parts and attach a foam pod to the end to go down inside the air box. (cut out the paper and substitute oil-able foam.) Can the filter be taken out easily?

Got a "Racing carb there" should put some power on.

I see it has a rack. Looks a lot like a CRF 230 hook up. I wonder if CRF pannier racks would fit? Just thinking out loud.

Nice looking ride! CB strong, ride hard!

zero_dgz · 11-04-2021, 08:35 AM

There is a RAV4 in the household and anyone who knows anything about that will understand why I have a surplus of large diameter O-rings. I'll bet you one of those will fit under the mounting plate/hatch on the filter pretty well. I'll check next time I have occasion to take it apart. There definitely was not any kind of gasket on it from the factory.

I also had the dangle-a-pod-in-it idea for replacing the filter. You could plastic weld a short neck onto the inside of it, maybe. I'm not sure on how well an oilable pod filter will work backards, i.e. with the coarse foam on the outside, since those are normally meant to have air pulled through the outside and through the neck rather than through the neck and out the circumference. Can't possibly be any worse than the factory filter, though. I suspect I'll have a while before I need to mess with it much. I won't be doing much if any off road riding until the spring anyhow.

zero_dgz · 12-05-2021, 07:49 PM

I'm back again. Did some noodling around with the RXB which someone might find interesting. I certainly did, anyway.

So, the thing does not come with a kill switch which is a little weird. No big deal. I was quite certain I identified where it should be, which is this conspicuously jumpered connection in the cluster behind the headlight. It came that way from the factory with that little double bullet plug arrangement. I got a cheapo kill switch online for a couple of bucks and it plugged right in...

...And does nothing.

I, uh, now officially have no idea what that little jumpered connection is for, or why it needs to be there. No function of the bike is affected in any capacity whatsoever as far as I can tell whether it's connected or not. All the lights work, it cranks, it sparks, it runs, and it does not shut off if you disconnect it. Plugged in, not plugged in, switch on, switch off, jumper in, jumper out. Doesn't do a damn thing.

Now that I've gotten this bee in my bonnet I suppose I'll have to chase down to the plug on the CDI and wire the kill switch in there instead. I'll bet you I'll find it missing one of its ground/kill wires.

As you can see, while I was at it I got those Tusk foldable "dual sport" mirrors to replace the absolutely craptastic mirrors the bike came with. The stalks on them are a little short and the bar becomes quite cluttered especially on the right hand side with that big doofy throttle assembly the thing came with. I might do something about that later. But they vibrate a damn sight less than the stock mirrors and certainly feel sturdier. They can also fold out of the way on their ball sockets when you're off-roading. They were $12 and some change each, so not a bad little arrangement if you've got a small bike that needs mirrors to, e.g. pass inspection or something.

Hunnicutt · 12-06-2021, 11:28 AM

zero_dgz: THANK YOU for your comprehensive and informative posts! I'm learning a lot from each of them. :-)

JerryHawk250: Can you please make this thread a sticky? Anyone interested in buying this bike needs to know this information!!!

zero_dgz · 12-06-2021, 06:02 PM

I figgered it out. The jumpered connection is for a clutch safety switch, but the perch on the RXB does not have a switch in it so it's bypassed from the factory. I did not try starting it in gear until today. When in gear, it will crank with my switch on, and will not with it off. So if you feel the need to add a perch that's got a safety switch in it, there you go.

10-24-2021, 08:47 PM	#16
zero_dgz Join Date: Jan 2020 Posts: 258	Ever more fooling around with the bike. I have a few observations. I'm also trying inline images this time. If this blows your page up to a million pixels wide... well, sorry. Tonight's project was to do something about the kickstand. It's too long, so when deployed the bike sits almost totally vertical. With the suspension compressed, i.e. sitting on it, it's more than vertical. You have to lean it over to the right to get the tip of the stand to even clear the pavement to swing it up. I fear that with any kind of luggage on the back it won't stand up if left unattended. I discovered why the kickstand itself was so damn heavy. It's not a tube. It's solid! I hacked about an inch and a half off of it and welded a wider foot on since the factory one is also teeny tiny and I foresee it driving itself into the dirt like a tent stake. I just used some scrap thick bar stock I had lying around for a foot. Better hope Apple doesn't see this or they might sue me over that "rounded rectangle" patent they have. Did you miss the part where I said I was any good at welding? Couldn't be. I would have remembered if I ever said anything like that. Whatever. It ain't going anywhere. Now that I added a little more gangster to my lean the thing sits at a more reasonable angle. If I had to do it all over again I maybe would have cut off a tad less. Maybe just under an inch instead? Now instead of the bike being almost totally vertical the stand itself is almost totally vertical. If you trim yours down, definitely don't make it any shorter than I did. Putting a slight bend in it is an interesting idea but that's either going to take a lot of heat or a lot of violence. I guess I could put my forge back together, but that's a lot of work for just one thing. I got the carb off. I don't know if there is such a thing as a "genuine" or a clone Nibbi since as I understand it even the real thing is some kind of Chinese franken-carb? Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the float bowl screws were just screws and not any kind of tamper-proof BS. The jets appear to be the same as the "Mikuni" clone jets we all know and love, which are actually Keihin CVK style jets... We take all this for granted, but it's enough to make your head spin if you actually stop and think about it. Whatever, as luck would have it I have... a few... of those to work with. I found a 130 main jet and 40 pilot jet in it from the factory. I upped the pilot to a 42 and gave it a burl. Seems like it idles better when cold now. I still think that may be a little small all things considered and I'll see if it feels like it needs a 45 later. It is theoretically possible to remove the carb out the side just by removing the right side rear plastic panel. Functionally, however, it is far less of a hassle if you also pull the tank and especially the airbox. I did figure out how to get the airbox loose which unfortunately does require removing both left and right rear plastics. At that rate you may as well just strip the whole thing because it's easier to remove the front side plastics and then the rear ones, then the tank, then the airbox, then the carb. I do appreciate that the frame is considerably more comprehensive than, say, the Hawk or my Bashan Enforcer. This gives me some confidence that I will not fold the thing in half like a taco the moment I take it off road. However, there's a reinforcing spar is right in the way of removing the carb. So unlike the Hawk-Alikes, you can't just drop the carb out of the side without having to remove anything at all. (If you want to take it for a test spin without putting it all back together, you can totally ride it around just fine with no plastics. You can just mount up the tank and, if you're a wimp, the seat without any other bodywork required.) Just in case you were wondering, here's what it looks like nekkid: Last edited by zero_dgz; 10-24-2021 at 08:49 PM. Reason: Links
	2

11-03-2021, 05:14 PM	#22
zero_dgz Join Date: Jan 2020 Posts: 258	I'm back. Going with linked images again. Embedding them is annoying since I have to resize everything or use ImgBB or something. I think y'all will manage. I had some time to do some messing around with the RXB some more. I get the impression a 42 pilot jet is still a little small for my altitude and the current weather so I took the carb out and, while I was at it, gathered some more pictures and information I didn't last time because I wasn't planning ahead. I could not find a 45 pilot amongst my magic stones (I suspect both of mine are installed in that piece of shit Shadow 700 in the background of my last full bike pic) so I installed a 48 instead. That improved the idle considerably. The tailpipe smells a little rich, but not too bad. Beats the alternative. I was getting quite a lot of popping while coasting previously, so I'll be interested to see if I made any progress against that as well. The side of the carb has laser etched in it "N30CITBAI." With the "PE" cast in it above I thus assume this is a Nibbi PE30 (or similar). The other side reads "Motorcycle Race Use Only." Well, I have some bad news for whoever built that into the mold. The face of the slide says "40, 9FC" with a Nibbi logo. The needle is held in with a rather stiff retaining spring, and has engraved in it "J6 ZG". It has the usual five adjustment notches for the C-clip, which came from the factory in the 2nd position from the top as you see. Mid range and high end throttle response feel pretty okay to me so I left it alone for now. I used my Machinist's Approximator to measure the outlet bore of the carb at 30mm ID, and the inlet side is 40mm OD with a short velocity increasing bugle cast into it. While I had all the bodywork I took a moment to remove the airbox and have a look at what was going on with the filter situation. Then another moment, and then several more. Removing the airbox is a pain in the ass. If you have the side plastics off you can dismount the airbox with just three bolts and it has enough room to rattle around in its position, enough to make removing and reinstalling the carb much easier. Actually getting the entire thing out, though: 17 bolts, all throughout the rear half of the bike. You have to remove, in no particular order: The upper rear plastic (below where the rack goes), rear fender liner, subframe reinforcement plate, the tool tube on the left side of the bike, the right passenger footpeg bracket, and the exhaust and muffler from the midpipe clamp back. After that you can finagle the air box out the right side and this is what you get. Earlier I commented that the filter appears to be some kind of pleated paper arrangement. It is. You can remove it by undoing the four screws in the corner of the center hatch. This reveals that the hatch is part of the proprietary (?) filter assembly. The top mounting piece and the bottom endcap are glued or molded or otherwise bonded to the filter element and cannot be removed without destroying it. The endcap is required because it rests on four standoffs inside the airbox. I do not like it, Sam I Am. I do not like it one bit. Older RXB's appeared to have the usual dirt bike style cleanable oiled foam filter that was fairly easily removable out the right hand side of the bike. I have absolutely no idea if this filter is a design nicked from some other brand name bike for which replacements are available, of if it's bespoke to Orion ('s OEM) and we'll be beholden to them forever for replacements. If so, I am not playing that game. Never in my life have I seen a more worthwhile candidate to just be replaced with a Uni pod filter -- and I'm not even a big fan of pod filters. Plan B might be to see if some manner of aftermarket cylindrical filter cartridge is available with roughly the same dimensions, and the mounting flange and endcap could be broken off of the filter element and reused. Plan C might be to see if the older RXB's entire airbox will fit in the frame of the new one, although I think that will require yet more kit bashing since I think the carb inlet OD's are different. The carb inlet is very close to the rear shock, so if I'm going to use a pod filter I'll have to put it on the end of some kind of curved neck to get around that, and land it where the airbox would go. I know you can get them with a curved inlet boot also, but I don't think that plus the filter will clear the bodywork. I haven't tried it yet, but by all appearances it looks like you can pop the filter element assembly out the top of the airbox while the box is in place if you remove the cradle the battery sits in, which is just two bolts (plus the battery cables). I think that's how you're "supposed" to do it. While we have things apart, here's the head in relation to the frame. Things are a little cramped in there and I think the Zongshen CB engine may be a little deeper than the CG's? The front inspection cover is basically completely inaccessible without removing the plastic air deflector on that side. I did adjust the valves a while back, and doing so requires a very sharply angled feeler gauge. Next time I do it I may just remove the valve cover wholesale, as that actually looks like less of a hassle to get out of there. (Also note the unused upper engine mounting point. One wonders what you could do with that, if anything.) On the topic of things I don't like, I've already stripped the threads off of three of the bike's Chineseium body mounting bolts just in the course of doing regular assembly and tuning. Thus far the bolts it came with appear to be softer than what they screw into. Luckily they're almost all M6, with the exception of the two frontmost bolts that attach the side plastics to the tank which are M5. I ordered a pack of fifty M6x1.0, 10mm stainless button head screws. That ought to hold me. I never have great confidence in the metallurgy of these Chinese bikes. Luckily it appears that most of the critical load bearing attachment points consist of a bolt that goes all the way through with a nut on the other end, so if either becomes stripped you can just replace them with commonly available substitutes. Exceptions are most of the bodywork mounting points which are mostly nuts welded to the backside of brackets on the frame, or inserts sunk into the fuel tank. Most of these are accessible from the other side even when assembled so in a pinch you could probably chisel the stripped portion off and just replace it with a regular nut without even having to weld it back on. And a suitably motivated individual could probably dig out and replace the threaded inserts in the tank. The exception appears to be the seat mounting points which I've mentioned before. These appear to be tapped straight into a section of the frame. Mine are still holding on, but if either of them strip out I'll drill all the way through that section and replace the entire ensemble with one really long bolt and a nut on the other side. Warranty notes... Orion completely ignored my request for a replacement foot peg spring. They did eventually respond to my request on the front fender (which took about 3 days), but as expected they're throwing up unreasonable obstacles to fulfillment. They insist that I must send the old one back for them to "inspect," and then "determine" if it meets warranty criteria. If it does not (I predict it won't, just because) they plan to charge me the cost of having it shipped back. In the meantime I can't ride the thing, of course, since the fender also holds up the headlight. (You can see why I don't want to have to order filters from them.) To this I say no thanks: It'll cost me $15 to ship the damn thing and another $15 or so to have it sent back, whereas I can by an Acerbis KTM EXC250 replacement fender online for $22 if I have to, and it appears it will be a direct fit. So thanks for nothing, losers. As ever, don't expect anything in the way of after care on one of these. On the bright side, allegedly my MCO shipped this afternoon so I might soon be able to actually ride down to the DMV for my inevitable argument with them. In the meantime, I fabbed up a couple of cheap brackets for rear side, rear below plate, and front side reflectors which the RXB does not have from the factory. Actually, it has NO reflectors, which as I understand it are required by the DOT and also most state governments to pass inspection. I thought about making some wrap-around brackets for the front forks but I decided screw it, and just drilled some mounting holes through the fork covers. I supplemented my DOT approved plastic reflectors with copious reflective tape which I predict will last longer vs. brush, tree branches, etc. and while very effective is not kosher for inspection around here even if the stuff itself meets DOT requirements. Go figure. Last edited by zero_dgz; 11-04-2021 at 02:01 PM. Reason: Forgot one link.
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12-06-2021, 11:28 AM	#29
Hunnicutt Join Date: Apr 2021 Location: Central Florida Posts: 103	zero_dgz: THANK YOU for your comprehensive and informative posts! I'm learning a lot from each of them. :-) JerryHawk250: Can you please make this thread a sticky? Anyone interested in buying this bike needs to know this information!!! __________________ ___________________________________ 2021 CSC TT250 - Silver (Mine) "Buzz" 2021 CSC TT250 - White (Wife's) "Seymour" 2021 CSC TT250 - White (Daughter's) "Gemini"
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10-24-2021, 09:16 PM	#17
China Rider 27 Join Date: Dec 2018 Location: PNW Posts: 982	Wow! Great pix there! That Nibbi carb looks suspect to me, I have never owned one but that Nibbi cast in I have never seen before. Look see if the needle has any numbers on it? Does the carb to airbox have any angle in it or does it go straight back? What does the intake look like?
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10-25-2021, 10:44 PM	#20
China Rider 27 Join Date: Dec 2018 Location: PNW Posts: 982	Most likely it is manufactured by NIBBI probably a production line model without all the bling. The needle on the store bought PE30 version I have seen listed as a J6ZG so if you see that should confirm its manufacture and wonder if it is adjustable.
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10-26-2021, 07:05 PM	#21
zero_dgz Join Date: Jan 2020 Posts: 258	I have now gained the knowledge, via the expedient of Fooling With It, to remove the rear swingarm and have a look at the rear wheel bearings and brake. (The rear wheel came premounted and previously I had not messed with it.) I skipped greasing the swingarm bolt on my initial setup and went to do so now. I found that it came pre-greased from the factory with the same blue grease as the headstock. Removing the main swingarm bolt requires getting a fair few other things out of the way including the stop adjustment screw for the rear brake pedal and two plastic panels on the left and right sides of the frame. Both the swingarm bolt nut and the axle nut were on ridiculously tight. I can usually bust loose just about anything with my cheater bar but I could not get either of these to budge. I had to resort to my impact gun, which is rare. The rear axle nut is a whopping 32mm. The rear axle and all of its bushings were also not greased from the factory but curiously the rear wheel bearings are. I gave some incorrect information previously when I said there was no working gear position indicator. There is, but the plug for this got separated from the others somehow and lost farther down the wiring loom. I fished it out and plugged it in to the mystery connector left over on my gauge cluster and lo: The gear position readout now produces numbers. My only remaining electrically related issue is that the headlight even in its highest position aims way too low. It illuminates a patch of ground about 15 feet in front of the bike and that's all you get. It does have an adjustment screw with the provision to aim it even lower, but that doesn't help me much. I may wind up fabricating a little aluminum extender to hook up to its adjustment screw hole and see if I can get it pointed a little higher. I suppose the caveman solution might also be to pack out the lower two fender mount bolts with a couple of washers to aim the entire fender and headlight assembly up a little bit.
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11-03-2021, 06:09 PM	#23
ExMxer Join Date: Jun 2021 Location: Earth, USA Posts: 196	Your bike is supposedly built by the same folks who produce the GPX FSE 250S. Nicot Motorcycle I believe they’re called. Anyway, my understanding was that GPX having an upgraded air filter in the works, since your bike and theirs appear to use the same air filter/box setup. Worse case would be, GPX could keep you in supply of stock replacement filters. The two bikes are very much alike. If I were in your shoes, I’d just say to hell with Orion in general, you appear more than capable of fixing what needs fixed. Plus, they obviously could give two shits about helping out with much of anything. Save on future frustrations/let downs…….
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11-03-2021, 06:13 PM	#24
zero_dgz Join Date: Jan 2020 Posts: 258	Hey, so on that front. I did what any self respecting denizen of 2021 would do, and started trolling Google Image Search and nosing around on Alibaba, etc. It seems that this style of thing is not altogether unheard of in the Asian motorcycle world. See also, this Zongshen "RA2" air filter assembly: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002592387333.html
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11-03-2021, 10:42 PM	#26
China Rider 27 Join Date: Dec 2018 Location: PNW Posts: 982	Excellent, detailed analysis of some unusual fitment. As for the air box and carb issues, been there with the Magician, a PIA. Eventually I modified it all so getting the carb out could be done by just removing the gas tank and pulling it out the top. I am a big fan of keeping the air box in some form. Me I would keep it all and modify the filter to work. One issue you need to check out is that outer top fitting section screwed on the air box, does it leak air. The HAWK is made like that but has no rubber seal and leaks fine dust. I like foam filters you can oil, I think they work the best. I would find a way to use the stock filter hard parts and attach a foam pod to the end to go down inside the air box. (cut out the paper and substitute oil-able foam.) Can the filter be taken out easily? Got a "Racing carb there" should put some power on. I see it has a rack. Looks a lot like a CRF 230 hook up. I wonder if CRF pannier racks would fit? Just thinking out loud. Nice looking ride! CB strong, ride hard!
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11-04-2021, 08:35 AM	#27
zero_dgz Join Date: Jan 2020 Posts: 258	There is a RAV4 in the household and anyone who knows anything about that will understand why I have a surplus of large diameter O-rings. I'll bet you one of those will fit under the mounting plate/hatch on the filter pretty well. I'll check next time I have occasion to take it apart. There definitely was not any kind of gasket on it from the factory. I also had the dangle-a-pod-in-it idea for replacing the filter. You could plastic weld a short neck onto the inside of it, maybe. I'm not sure on how well an oilable pod filter will work backards, i.e. with the coarse foam on the outside, since those are normally meant to have air pulled through the outside and through the neck rather than through the neck and out the circumference. Can't possibly be any worse than the factory filter, though. I suspect I'll have a while before I need to mess with it much. I won't be doing much if any off road riding until the spring anyhow.
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12-05-2021, 07:49 PM	#28
zero_dgz Join Date: Jan 2020 Posts: 258	I'm back again. Did some noodling around with the RXB which someone might find interesting. I certainly did, anyway. So, the thing does not come with a kill switch which is a little weird. No big deal. I was quite certain I identified where it should be, which is this conspicuously jumpered connection in the cluster behind the headlight. It came that way from the factory with that little double bullet plug arrangement. I got a cheapo kill switch online for a couple of bucks and it plugged right in... ...And does nothing. I, uh, now officially have no idea what that little jumpered connection is for, or why it needs to be there. No function of the bike is affected in any capacity whatsoever as far as I can tell whether it's connected or not. All the lights work, it cranks, it sparks, it runs, and it does not shut off if you disconnect it. Plugged in, not plugged in, switch on, switch off, jumper in, jumper out. Doesn't do a damn thing. Now that I've gotten this bee in my bonnet I suppose I'll have to chase down to the plug on the CDI and wire the kill switch in there instead. I'll bet you I'll find it missing one of its ground/kill wires. As you can see, while I was at it I got those Tusk foldable "dual sport" mirrors to replace the absolutely craptastic mirrors the bike came with. The stalks on them are a little short and the bar becomes quite cluttered especially on the right hand side with that big doofy throttle assembly the thing came with. I might do something about that later. But they vibrate a damn sight less than the stock mirrors and certainly feel sturdier. They can also fold out of the way on their ball sockets when you're off-roading. They were $12 and some change each, so not a bad little arrangement if you've got a small bike that needs mirrors to, e.g. pass inspection or something.
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12-06-2021, 06:02 PM	#30
zero_dgz Join Date: Jan 2020 Posts: 258	I figgered it out. The jumpered connection is for a clutch safety switch, but the perch on the RXB does not have a switch in it so it's bypassed from the factory. I did not try starting it in gear until today. When in gear, it will crank with my switch on, and will not with it off. So if you feel the need to add a perch that's got a safety switch in it, there you go.
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