Tuesday, 29 September 2015

Engine Oil

Nasty topic and different strokes for different users.

Conclusion
Stick as close as you can to the manual reccomendation.
Identify if the type of driving you do is severe. If so change your oil and filter more frequently.
Check and top up your oil frequently.
Do not overfill.
Do whatever makes you sleep better at night.

the bike manual recommendation?

Change oil every 10 000km and filter at 20 000km
Oil to use? 20w50 or 20w40. 20w50 is reccomended. Api Sf or Sg rated oils or newer.

My reccomendation?
Use 20w50 or 15w50 only.
Im still figuring out a right change interval but 10 000km is just a plain retarded crazy abuse on 1 L of engine oil.






Oil filter

Owning a rare bike has its challenges.

Even a simple oil filter replacement sucked.

Ebay and amazon isnt too ybr250 friendly.
Shows that it uses the same filter as a wr250.

I had to use the part number and bring it to the store and voila!
It was the same filter as the all common small 135cc yamaha spark lc135!
The dealership wanted $16sgd for the filter! I walked away.

Bought a thai made filter locally at $4(Which has a red paper filter element)
Bought a indonesian made filter in malaysia at $3.30 (Has a yellow filter element)
Both are similar with no difference in quality. But a yellow filter element has a kick to it as you can see the dirt more clearly.

I was considering a stainless steel oil filter.
But decided paper was the way to go. Toss the old one and pop a new one in. Manual says its good to go for 20 000km.

Reason for not using SS?
1. Downtime and mess from cleaning. Air compressor, kerosene, gloves, toothbrush.
2. Deterioration of gasket?
3. Drink from a paper filtered and a stainless steel mesh filtered coffee. You will have sediments with the metal filter.
4. Reputable SS oil filter are more expensive.

Upon removing of the right side clutch plate cover, there is actually a stainless steel oil filter mesh at the bottom of the sump. It had trapped nasty things in it which i removed with my bare hands and a cloth at the workshop while the mechanic was working on the clutch. 

Ybr250 2010 brake rebuild

I am rebuilding the brakes on this bike

I ran the reds a day or two after ownership.
The front seemed like it will slow down but not stop entirely.
Its dangerous.

I cleaned off the grease on the pads and disc. Starting with the cheapest, I first replaced the bent lever followed by the brake line and fluid change and a caliper service. Bike stops well now to many standards but I am unsatisfied. I bought a rotor as the old one was severely eaten.China made is entirely fine.I used it on my gsxr.

Brake pads are similar to the ybr 125 2010 model. The older models uses two different variations. Ebc part number is fa464. But even fa464 i noticed two different variants.

I bought a china made pad and a oem made thailand yamaha pad.

China pad had a bad finishing, was sintered and slightly less surface area.

Ill be bedding in and using the thailand made organic pad.

Balancing beads for tires

Many shops do not balance tires.

A balanced tire makes a world of difference in riding.

I added some balancing beads into the tire and what a difference!
Feels like a whole new bike!
Helps with the corners and at highway speeds, feels so much smoother!

Bought a 10oz bag for future use!

Do note that 10oz refers to weight and not volume.
1oz = 15ml of the beads.

ybr250 2010 clutch replacement

My gears were hard to shift once being stuck in traffic to a point i felt it was dangerous.
I first changed the level and then the cable.
Upon research, it could be the clutch basket being teethed or friction plate being warped or blued.
Using a better grade oil helped but it affected my concentration and to a certain point dangerous.

After downloading the parts catalog, the two clutch plates were similar to a fz16 which is a common motorcycle in singapore. It contains 6 clutch plates. Two of which are different. EBC replacement part is ck1217 which is the same as a cbx250. However, cbx 250 have 5 plates instead of six. This is rather confusing.

At the shop, he managed to dig up a used clutch plate. He insisted only the clutch plates had to be replaced and not anything else.

The clutch plate was all burned up and bone dry despite the oil being at the right level.
Clutch basket was a little teethed but he said it was ok. Friction disc were fine. The clutch cover was scuffed and he had to smoothen it out. He said it was because of clutch slip.

Bike is much better now but upon a long idle or slow moving traffic, i could feel a hint of difference in changing gears.

If need be, i would rebuild the entire clutch in the future.

Friday, 18 September 2015

Headlight bulb

Here is the normal bulb. Ba20d 35/35 W.
Took a plunge and bought myself a halogen from china to be able to write a review. Wow.. what a difference. It is many times brighter than the original! 
Many bikeshops have it. You do not have to look too far to find it.

Bulb shattered today from switching it on during a cold morning. Bulb lasted two weeks!