Project Bumblebee - Gixxer250

I think it could be a bit more serious , 120,20,25 and 140. Will know more on Monday

 

Not this one frank, she has been at home for a long time, I am assuming it is like the zxr400 where the rings have bound up from sitting. I will get the motor apart on Monday and check the bore , If it is savable, then I might get BK performance to to bore it 1mm oversize and slip some Chinese pistons in. I’d like to get this one sorted for our next ride. If all else fails, I will find an across / bandit 250 engine and use the gsxr250 head on it like @Boydie77 did

 

The engine came apart very easily, it was puzzling as several of the cam retainer bolts were quite loose. The rings were not bound as first thought. The barrels do have wear are very very smooth, I have sent them off to BK performance to be checked and measured to determine if a simple hone or a re-bore is required. I am now pulling the head down to check the valves, I pulled the inlet valves from cylinder 1 and can only assume the previous owner pulled them down before I bought the bike, look how clean they are.

 

I received some feedback today that the outer 2 pots are just within spec but the inner 2 are out, so it is rebore time.

I am going to order a set of ahl 0.5 pistons from China

 

My chinesium pistons arrived from China about a week ago, they look the goods.

I dropped them down to BK Performance to they can be checked and the barrels bored to suit

Quite excited about the prospect of riding this bike, better order some gaskets !!!

 

I should get the barrels back on Friday , I’m itching for it too

 

well in anticipation of collecting the barrels, I turned my attention to the head, I had removed several valves to check the condition, I confirmed that someone has definitely been in there and tidied everything up, as per Murdo's advice, I did the fuel down the port test and they valves are sealing really well.

I went searched for new head and base gaskets, the base gasket was available from Suzuki Australia, but the head gasket was not able to be found. I googled the part number and found some in Japan , the pair delivered were nearly $200 , another google search found some at RGV spares Melbourne, I e-mailed Deet to confirm he had them and he responded right away saying yes he had them in stock.

genuine Suzuki base and head gasket including postage was $70 , +1 to Deet @ RGVspares.com.au

The tyres on this bike and well past their used by date, more money... bloody 18" rear

 

The stator cover is looking decidedly average , I have removed it , wet blasted it and have filled the gaps with devcon , will sand and paint on Monday

 

Went though my tyres this afternoon and found that I don’t have a 130/70 18 Tyre which is standard on the gsxr.

I did find a 17 “across wheel with a good Tyre and it got me thinking , will this fit ? The rear disk is 210mm on the gsxr and 250mm on the across , the bolt spacing is the same.

I pulled the gsxr rear wheel off the bike, the wheel itself is slightly skinnier than the across wheel however the sprocket carriers are different as well and even the spacing out. The axle on the gsxr is 20mm and the across axle is 17mm, so I used the across spacers , brake brace , axle and axle adjusters and the wheel fits nicely in the gsxr swingarm, the axle does
Seem to be 1cm shorter so I need to sort that out.

The across brake sits on top of the swing arm and the gsxr sits below, so I needed to find something else to use , I ended up using a bandit 250 brake caliper on the across brake bracket and it fits using the 250mm disk

I’m not a huge fan of changing from stock , but I may have found a cost effective way to use a 17” wheel which opens up my Tyre choices for this bike , I will
Slip the engine back in shortly to check the Chain alignment

Here are a few pics of the across wheel, I will check my bandit spares ,
I’m hoping the bandit axle is 17mm or I might even try a bandit rear wheel

 

I now have some tyres from the ZXR that I bought so I will be using them, they were almost new.

I actually fitted the pistons a few weeks back and was attempting to slide the barrels down over the pistons, I gave her a small tap and heard a chink ....... which was one of my rings snapping. Rookie error, so back to aliexpress for another set of rings, this time express posted to Brisbane.

They arrived this morning and I set about fitting them with some help from my mate Henry, we managed to get the barrels and the head fitted so the next step is check the clearances and fit her back into the bike and fire her up.

Just a little bit excited, I have had this bike for years, will be great to hear her run again.