New Member New SRX250 owner

Hello from midwest USA Found this forum few weeks back after accidently finding an srx250 while hunting for parts for my other yamahas ( a pair of XT225s & several TW200s). The srx250 i found had been parked since the mid 90s by the original owner. Her son decided to keep her Seca instead of the SRX.
. Being far more interested in dual sports i ignored the increasing urge to pursue the SRX for nearly 2 weeks as it was 2 states & 300 miles away (500km for you Aussies?) But when a deal came up on a TW200 that was within 2 hours drive of the SRX my willpower caved in & I went to see them both & came home that day with an SRX ! (No worries, the TW was much closer so i told that seller i would return to retrieve it the next day, so 2 winter projects scored in one day !)
. My SRX is missing the front fairing, but does still wear its belly pan Still debating if I want the 80s square headlight & stock fairing, or if i will adapt a 7" round LED in its place...
It took about 3 weeks to get the parts here to get it running after a 1/4 century in a partly roofless garage (so yeah its got some corrosion spots here n there) but it cleaned up fairly good & looks great from about 5-10ft away LOL
. All it took to revive sleeping beauty was a good thorough cleaning of the carb (FULL of weirdly green syrupy goo, secondary slide was gummed shut & the secondary jet had to be cleaned in place, as the screw slot was too mangled to dare trying to remove) Also had to reseal the intake boots until XT350 ones came from Aliexpress (a great tip found on this site!) The chain & sprocket were rusty & seized BAD in spots so ordered a set from the UK. Gas tank petcock & lines had to be gone over as previous owner has (most) the parts in a bag from decades ago, presumably why it was parked. amazingly only a few small screws & a hose clamp were M.I.A. The hardest task was remaking the now rock hard fuel hoses that feed the petcock. Took an hour just to fish 2 feet of new hose into those spring sheilds, ugh ! Got new petcock & fuel strainer seals to stop all the drips (was SO close to running but then had to wait a week for the seals)
Brakes were shot so new pads & shoes (warning the SRX250 NICHE brand shoes available needed some serious sanding down to fit in the drum, poor quality control) I had to rebuild the front caliper & master cyl, a first for me, nothing but globs of crystalline gel in there, caliper seized tight. All told it took under $200 in parts to revive it after 25 yrs neglect in a shed, & my carb rebuild worked first try ! (rare for me LOL)
The only thing i have left to do (besides make the front end/headlight less ugly) is to source some tires as the originals have DEEP dry rot cracks several inches long. Of course now i find out at least the front tire size is Unobtanium here in the USA so may be spending an arm & a leg shipping from overseas. Its nearly winter here so i have time.
I have put about 12 miles on it so far, just around the block as i am leary to test the tires much. A few short bursts of throttle up to 60mph or so have been relatively disappointing in comparison to my bored piped & jetted xt225...
Not sure if my SRX250 truly is 17hp vs 30+ like some stats say. Or if the carb "seconday" that i had to free up is again inoperable ? I can get it to rev well up to 9k, just doesnt really pull very hard vs my xt225 thats rated at 20hp (& maybe juiced up to mid 20hp or so with mods). I do have a slight low rpm throttle bog on the srx when trying to idle around at 5-10mph so perhaps more carb work is in order, can you SRX guys "feel" the secondary kick in ???
Well, looks like i just wrote more of a build thread novel than an intro...so yeah, new member here with an SRX250 thats getting some love this winter & hello to my fellow forum members !

 

G'day Mate I love the fact we can be neighbors, Only possible now in this modern connected era ! funny enough after reading more posts here it looks like another member just an hour south of me has an SRX250, this forum sure goes global

 

Wow thanks for the warm welcome, its clear this is THE place to be for an SRX250 owner !
Not sure I can trust google info when it comes to a one year only model, so firsthand info is much appreciated
Tire sizes are 90/90/16 & 100/90/18. Front is really more a scooter/moped sized tire & scooters have never sold well here. Best i can find is to order a pirelli from France for about double (what I think) such a small tire should cost. Annoyingly theres a pair of rims on ebay with what appear to be good Avon tires on them, but seller refused to go into detail on tire condition saying tires are just a free addition to rims. If I understood motorcycles bizarre habit of listing tires in varied measurement standards (is a 2.75x16 or MT90b-16 the same as a 90/90/16 ? ugh pick one standard ! I understand metric from car tires but the other two just confuse me.
As for the fairing & graphics, I trust you guys know the truth, tho a site i order yamaha parts from often shows them available still (but once in cart say BACK ORDER ships in a few weeks, so who knows perhaps not) I am still torn on if i go fairing or not. I can go naked round LED headlight for under $100 or its $300+ for an OEM fairing & windsheild (IF available) There are several used on ebay to but all need windshields & have crack damage. I can plastic weld, i can paint (matching the OEM pearl may be hard tho) & I have already done PAINTED graphics by hand cutting a template in vinyl "mask" to then paint it on, so in theory for a few nights effort & $100 or so I can make a used one work (tho may still need to find a windsheild)
You guys seem to readily order from Japan but that is nothing I have experience with stateside. Funny enough the kid I bought the SRX from was telling me he occasionally orders stuff like JDM blinkers straight from Japan for his subaru wagon & we got along quite well so he maybe able to assist showing me how its done.
And don't sell yourself short 2Valve, i have read all 27 pages of Andych's srx build & its clear you guys know ALOT about these bikes ! It's because of guys like you all, with loads of helpful insight that I'm so thrilled to be here !

 

Sadly over the years I have also found russians to be difficult to conduct business with, from crooked nightclub security letting people in the backdoor at a friends party to absurdly shady scrapyard "customer service" on a junk turbo costing $700, i have learned to avoid it. Hate to lump all together as one, but some things are ingrained culture & i think capitalism & good business practice is a thing not fully understood by that society
I will have to take my time getting into the multi-step japan parts process.
Here in the states I prefer rocky mountain ATV for oem parts. Good prices, full oem parts diagrams & free shipping over $75. Really i need to browse SRX pics for a bit & decide what fairing i want to go with. I just got this fairing in the mail today from aliexpress for my TW200 cafe racer project, not sure i like it on my TW so maybe it will end up on the SRX.
I am in Wisconsin where its madness to ride for the next 6-7 months so i have plenty of time to try ideas out.
It seems like India is the land of all thingsmotorcycles nowadays. I do find one 90/90/16 tire available stateside, but its a bridgestone costing $260 without shipping, YIKES !
I really appreciate your help with info guys, i will see if i can get adtrue answer if the oem fairing is actually still available & kick around fairing ideas for a bit. And see if i can decipher the tire size interchange as i "think" there maybe some sizes that match the 90/90/16 in the inch/imperial standard, i just cannot stomach spending as much for one scooter tire as 4 tires would cost on my car ! I got a fair price on the SRX so perhaps i shouldn't care, but then spending as much on tires & a fairing as the entire bike cost just seems crazy. These motorcycle projects can be a slippery slope LOL
. I like Andych's idea of a 17" front as the 16 does look comically small in proportion, & if anyone knows what could fit its Andych. Who knows it may be just as cost effective to upgrade the front end vs a $250 scooter tire ]

 

I have a tiny thread of hope the fairing may still be available for the US model as the part diagram lists it as being factory pearl (maybe a USA only color scheme & therefore still some left since only one year of bikes sold here to buy them for ?) Might just be wishful thinking tho...at first i really liked the square headlight, very 80s retro to me, but the more i look at the semi naked bikes i do also like that look too. Without a fairing buffeting at speed could be an issue i'm sure. Theres a good chance it will end up a semi naked bike if the fairing is a real pain to find, i do have everything here to do a 7"round light test-fit, so in the coming months i will try fitting the setup off my TW cafe project on the SRX just to see how it looks & also see if I have the patience to try the JDM route. I talked to the seller & he used a site called buyee to order stuff for his subaru so worse case i have a helper with experience getting stuff from japan to the USA.
After devouring every bit of info in Andych's build thread i gotta ask, whats going on with that project these days ?

 

Digging further into tire size "interchange" & i think these sites are useful
https://www.denniskirk.com/learn/tire-sizes-explained

https://www.tacomaworld.com/tirecalc?tires=90-80r16-90-90r16

Still no luck finding a cost effective 90/90/16 but from what I can tell the closest size in inches would be something like a 2.75 or 3.00-16. Another close one in the other system could be MJ90-16.

If I/we can get away with a 10mm wider tire like you suggest, then the best option is a 100/80/16 I think. Would achieve a slightly lower profile (good for handling in cars, a touch firmer ride also, but i've no clue if a lower profile helps or hurts on a bike ? Would it be too twitchy and harsh on bumps ? )
100/80/16 stays within Just .25 mph at 70 so the speedo would read correct & give a bit less sidewall flex plus something like .4 percent shorter gearing to win those stoplight drag races LOL
The 100/90/16 you mention also comes very close, speedo would read about about 2mph or 4.5kmh LOW at 70mph/113kph, so a touch taller gearing with a taller sidewall too (which may cause the 10mm wider tread to flex enough to cause clearance issues on the forks, but not sure)

I maybe upsidedown and american (dont hold that against me but seriously the metric tire standard is SO MUCH EASIER to decipher ! Always used it on car tires so was always taught wider tread needs a lower sidewall to be close in overall size.
Bear with me here, imperial was how i was taught and aside from a short trip to italy as a teenager MPH is all i have ever known...i will try getting into metric km mode for you guys (and i promise i won't do that silly thing where we refer to things like football fields, school busses or empire state building as a weird form of measurement sometimes

 

I should probably start a tire size thread & maybe a seperate "build" thread so as not to bury any useful info in a new member intro, that may arise in me asking you guys questions ? Never did much other than lurk on forums over the years but i know some can be particular on methods of posting especially with a newbie. The facebook groups i am on have taught me little in the way of actual forum manners other than how divisive people can be at times & i would prefer to be a member in a constructive group like this where guys work together to solve problems, dont wanna be that guy cluttering info in all the wrong places thanks for the welcome & super useful knowledge guys, will see you out in the main forum, should i post mainly in the yamaha section ?