Breaking in the CR250!

welcome back to the channel guys so with the 250 all wrapped up and all the little bugs worked out it is time to break it in so I'm going to set up the suspension first set the sag and then break in the engine the engine is completely fresh from top to bottom and so we're gonna need to run it through some heat cycles and I'm gonna walk you guys through that and also I do have a couple little things to bolt on the bike as well so let's get started now the very first thing I'll check when getting a bike ready to ride is the tire pressure so I run 12 in the rear 14 up front and I'm using about the most basic tire gauge here now on the suspension I haven't done any spring or about loving changes yet so it's completely stock internally but I am going to set all the clickers to the standard position so when the forks up top is the compression stock is 15 clicks out from all the way in and the rebound is down here on the bottom and that is going to be 15 clicks out as well so I'm going all the way in on the clicker until it stops right there and 50 now then gonna do the same on the other side then we've got the rebound on the bottom for the shock we have three different adjustments here we have high and low speed compression so high speed is gonna be the big nut low speed is going to be the clicker and then down here is the rebound right there so we're gonna set the high speed compression at two turns out from all the way and low speed compression is gonna be eight clicks out and four rebound that is gonna be set at six clicks out so we're all the way in we're going to go to full turns out right about there is two kind of a bummer this hole in the side plate isn't quite centered on the shock that's one thing I don't like about this restyle kit and then for the low-speed dampening this is gonna be eight klicks out from all the way in now I'm going to take a quick minute and explain you guys the very basics of compression and rebound when you're riding the bike so compression on the fork or shock is how soft or hard the shock compresses or for compresses or shortens and then rebound is how fast it rebounds or lengthens for the shock I explained how we have a high speed and low speed compression so that relates to the speed of the shock or how fast the shock shaft is actually traveling not the speed of the motorcycle so an example of an high-speed incident would be a braking bump or really hard landing the shock is gonna compress quickly and then an example of a low-speed compression would be going off a smooth jump face or say going through like a roller section and then if you're going to be making adjustments only do one or two clicks at a time and only make changes to one component at a time so don't make changes to your Forks and your shock at the same time just keep it really simple and while we're on the subject of suspension I do need to set the SAG on this shock that's very crucial to having a good balance bike and I've got a new tool to try out for setting the SAG this is a sag checker from DRC available at Rocky Mountain so I'm excited to test this thing out so basically how this works is you have this piece of slides in the axial pop it up onto the swing arm tighten down that screw to lock it onto the swing arm now we're stuck on us we aren't pretty good and this piece comes all the way up to the fender so you're gonna want to go directly straight up to the fender you want that to be vertical and then this piece just clamps right on to the fender now before I set the sag I'm gonna briefly explain what exactly the sag is so sag is how much the rear end compresses when your weight is on the bike and that's very important for having a well handling bike for example if you have too much sag your bike is going to be choppered out like the rear ends gonna be low and the bike is not going to turn very well and if you have not enough sag the rear ends gonna be kind of high kind of like a stinkbug and it's gonna be really unstable on high speed sections now to start off we're gonna take the marker bring it all the way down to the bottom of the tool you got to make a hundred percent sure that the wheels off the ground when you do that then we're gonna pull the bike off the stand throw on some boots a helmet basically you want all of the weight on the bike as if you're going riding you also want to make sure the bike is topped off with fluids and then we're ready to check the sag man it's been a long long time since I've worn boots kind of forget how stiff they are now hopefully from here on out this will be a pretty regular occurrence buckling up some boots so I'm gonna pull the bike off the stand nice and easy traffic Chuck too much I'm gonna roll it over to the cabinet I wear something that leaned up against and then sit on the bike in the neutral position and try not to rock it too much the right about there pretty settled in get off the bike slowly and that's it now the distance from the marker to the tool is gonna be the amount of sag we have and the number we're looking for on this bike is gonna be a hundred and three millimeters and go ahead and bust out the micrometer z' for this so we are at a hundred and sixteen millimeters what is that like 13 millimeters too much yeah looks like I'm a little too fat for this bike now to tighten up the SAG I'll need to tighten down the shock spring a little bit this plastic kit makes a little bit harder to get to the spring I don't know if you guys can see this in here but the top lock nut on the spring is gonna have to be loose and then we can tighten down that spring a little bit so to tighten the spring I'm gonna spin it clockwise so I'm gonna keep checking the SAG and adjust in the spring until I have a hundred three millimeters on the SAG checker after a few adjustments got the sag down to 103 millimeters right where I want it so and now it's time to tighten up that lock nut and we can call it good actually there's one more measurement I'm gonna do here and that is the static sag so the static stag is how much the bike compresses or sags under its own weight so I can check the static sag with this tool as well I'm gonna push the marker all the way down pull the bike off the stand and let it compress under its own weight so after I recorded this I realize there's a better way to go about it then I showed in the video you're gonna want to pull the bike off the stand push the back of the bike down and then let it slowly return this will eliminate all this diction in the suspension and then once the bike has settled push that marker on the side checker down to the bottom put the bike back on the stand and then measure it as shown in the video now the number we're looking for here is 30 to 40 millimeters and this number will tell us if spring on a spike is too light or too stiff for my weight we are at 35 millimeters so that's within the range it's a little on the higher end now if the static sag was more than 40 millimeters that would indicate the spring on this bike is too stiff for my weight and I would need to go to a softer spring and vice versa if the static side was less than 30 millimeters the spring would be too soft now my thoughts on the DRC sag checker tool works pretty good for setting the sag yourself I would definitely use it again super easy to use I'll drop a link down below to where you can get them now for you guys that don't have the tool or you want to set your sag manually I do have a free article available that I wrote up for you guys so I will drop that down below as well now let's bring this beauty outside and start breaking in the engine this is where it gets fun so I'm gonna break her in using a series of heat cycles now I've already started the bike a couple times but I'm gonna act like I'm going from the very GetGo just to show you guys the entire process for the first heat cycle I'm gonna fire it up and run it slightly above idle kind of revving it up and down a little bit until the coolant temperature starts to go up slightly so luckily I've got this coolant temperature gage I'm gonna watch that closely until it starts to creep up and then I'll shut the bike off I saw that gage moved just a little bit so now I'm gonna let the engine cool for about five to ten minutes and then run a second heat cycle for the second one I'm gonna bring that temp up a bit more and then let the engine cool for another five to ten minutes and then we're ready for the third cycle I was able to get the temp a little over a hundred degrees this time now I'm gonna let it cool for about 10 minutes now if you don't have a temp gauge on your radiator cap you can always use an infrared heat gun let's go ahead and check the cylinder head we are right around 100 so it looks like that gauge works pretty good so I'm gonna let it cool down to about 70 or 80 and then run the third heat cycle I love playing with this thing it's fun to see what temps are at cases at 70 degrees 77 see what the pipe is that put the heck I think those must cool down pretty quick forty-seven am I reading this right see what this side of the engine is 67 what about the fuel yeah I guess it is around 55 60 degrees out here now what about the silencer 50 yeah this thing cools down pretty quick now one thing you can do while you are waiting for the engine to cool down is go through check some of the bolts especially on a two-stroke things like to vibrate loose I already noticed the master cylinder bolts were coming loose up here how to tighten those up so I went through checked all the plastics seat the engine covers here so yeah Paes this thing on top of those things as everything starts to break in it's amazing how well the sing idols and just how responsive it is yeah those electronic carbs are no joke dude they fricking run Chris let's go ahead and check these cylinder head again 1:30 so normal operating tempest around 200 I'm gonna bring up to 180 and call it good so I was able to get her up to 180 I'm gonna let it cool down completely check all the fluids retorque the head and then tomorrow morning I'll be able to go rip it around and do the final heat cycle before I take this thing for a burn should probably check the spark plug honestly I should have checked it after a few of those heat cycles just to make sure but pretty confident this thing is run good kind of hard to tell for sure we don't have a ton of time on this plug you can see a little bit of brown or bronze coming through on the inside of that plug so I would say we are golden literally now one thing I did talk about is the fuel mixture I'm running 32 to one which is what I would typically run but say if you're running 40 to 1 or leaner I would use 32 to 1 mixture for the first tank so while the fluids checked out fine i retorque the head to the factory spec and at this point we are ready for the fourth heat cycle so we're gonna go ride the bike around for about five minutes you can actually ride the bike normally at this point the engine is pretty well broken in but the only thing you want to stay away from is lugging it that actually puts more wear and tear on the engine parts than just riding it formally all right think she's all warmed up and ready to rip I'm just gonna punch it around for a few minutes and I actually need the bed in the brake shoes as well for the brake pads so to do that heart stop you got about five time that should be good I'm also trying to break it myself - I haven't been on a full-size bike like June of last year so good solid 15 months or something so far it feels really tight everything seems good pop on the tip like track and cruise around a little bit a little really cross trap that's fun I'm already getting arm pump though alright I'll show you guys the big bike track I have out here it's all weeded in right now I haven't ridden it in probably two years oh crap I can barely see where the chop is anymore I think earlier things began as a distraction just completely grown in Oh hops back in over here my bikes can be full of weeds after this oh my gosh so it goes over the sole female kind of dips down into this hole here go back over another single got a right-hander that goes into this pretty fun little double this jump was a ton of fun and this like is running clean I'm I'm loving it yeah I can't either tell her the shock is anymore this is all just basically left memory right now all right so this is where I'm gonna whines back toward the front of the fire we have a huge huge sweeper I think it makes the whole 360-degree turn here yeah and then we get into another little double here this one's fun well any jump is fun isn't it I can't see where I'm going holy crap yeah I would not hit that with all those weeds and we go back into the tabletop so yeah the track is about I'm gonna say like a mile I'm gonna get a dozer out here pretty soon and clean it up and I'm going to shorten the track a little bit just because it's so I don't know that I haven't something a ton of maintenance or something I have to maintain a little bit but yeah should be a fun little track I think I'm finally feeling strong enough to hang on to a full-size bike now so we'll be back in business pretty soon here I should actually go do a couple little starts out in the field just so I can kind of ring it back a little bit I miss doing search it's so much fun I'm probably gonna loop out though probably shouldn't Deeks myself get up in a second oh my god I just booked out big time not might have been 30 year alright I feel good I think this bike might be geared a little too to blow to be doing second gear starts oh yeah you think it's wetter than awesome good little break-in session well boys pretty excited with how this thing is running out on the track you should probably let it cool down for a little bit though I was really given it the berries on those starts probably not the best idea with a completely fresh bike but you know what couldn't resist from having a little fun but I wonder what we got the temp up to let's say around 150 that's pretty good not overheated or anything so at this point I'm going to let it cool down completely do a compression test check the plug again check all the fluids and then we're pretty much all broken in so we're all cooled down time to do a compression test so we're gonna be looking for around 150 to 200 psi and all that depends on how well it's broken in and also the gauge itself spark plug still looks pretty good I was barely able to get that gauge host stuffed up in there didn't have to pull the tank off luckily now what we're gonna do is hold the throttle wide open and push down the kill switch and see where we end up so we ended up right at 150 and that would indicate the engine it's not quite broken in all the way I'm gonna do a couple more rides come back and test it again and hopefully we see around 175 so every gauge is gonna read different some of the cheaper gauges might read a little bit low but as long as you're within that 150 to 200 range I would say you're fine and looking at the spark plug a little bit more it's not really showing a ton of color which could indicate a lean condition now the bike actually runs really good it's not showing any signs of it being mean it's not bogging out not idling high and it does produce a good amount of smoke and there's a little bit of spooge coming out down here so I won't say it's super lean but just to be on a safe side I am going to pull the slide out and adjust the metering rod here on the electron so got the slide out of the carburetor and this right here is the metering rod and how you adjust it is by turning it turning it in richens the mixture and turn it out leans it so usually you want to go let's say a quarter or half a turn at a time I'm gonna richen it up half a turn this time just to be safe and then read the plug see where it's at and go from there on a side note these stands and works connection are super nice never really appreciated having a parts tray until now keeps everything off the ground and prevents you from kicking it around these things are also super stable really heavy-duty a nice rubber pad on top I'll drop a link down below to where you can get them and I've got a solid discount code for you guys as well to save 20% use the code cam 20 now to adjust the metering rod you physically have to turn it now electron sells a tool to do that now I don't have one but in a pinch you can use a towel wrapped around the rod and a set of pliers the rod is actually made of some pretty hard steel so you're not gonna damage it and you want to make sure the rod is fully extended you don't want it pushed in like this that's not gonna do anything so you've got it all the way extended gonna give it a half a turn in just like that now the flat portion of the rod needs to be facing the intake of the engine push the rod in twist it around set it back in make sure it's fully extended and we're ready to put the slide back in just went for a quick burn pull the plug out and I'll show you what it looks like side by side with a new plug you can see the inside of the plug on the left definitely has a lot more color it's got that tan shade to it so I would say it's running pretty solid and you can tell the difference when you're out riding too definitely feels a little bit more crispy now as far as breaking the bike in I think we're all set I'm gonna do another compression test in a few weeks once I ride the bike a little bit more and see how that looks I think it'll jump up a little bit but yeah pretty pumped how everything is looking now the next thing I'm going to work on is I am going to trim off this little piece here on the Shroud stand back yeah I think it looks kind of dorky on there honestly I think of a flow better this whole piece will actually line up with a side plate and I really don't know why they put that on there and another plus to trim that off is you'll be able to see the carbon tank underneath a little bit better now to get this thing smoothed out I ended up using a file and then finished it up with 320 grit sandpaper probably wasn't the best idea to use a hotknife on this thing left a lot of rough edges and I'm gonna do a ton of filing to get it all smoothed out so on the next route I think I'm gonna use that saw so the saw actually ended up working out pretty good especially once I torched the blade cut right through that plastic so yeah pretty excited with how these came out let's move that pretty nice now that actually looks pretty good you can see that carbon poking through right there we're gonna be digging that and I think the whole shroud just flows better with the side plate and in my opinion I think it looks more factory now the only thing I'm worried about is your pants catching right here on this edge a little bit of a sharp angle could smooth it out a little better but honestly when you're riding your legs are more rubbing right here where the air box is but overall I think it was a success thought I'd give you guys the heads up on a few new products I'm releasing got a few new shirt designs this one you can obviously tell pretty stoked on got the logo on the neck there nice subtle addition but these things are super soft you guys will love them so got a few other new designs on the website as well at primum XCOM and I've also got these black shock bumpers too when I was building the shock for this bike couldn't find anything that wasn't yellow or brown and so I pulled some strings and now I've got some available for you guys I'll show you what they look like on the bike it's a nice black shock bumper down there you know that brown or yellow nastiness you know go grab a stock bumper to show you guys how ugly they are so this is a new OEM bumper got like a yellow color to it but as soon as they start getting dirty they turn brown yuck and these black bumpers are actually colored all the way through I've got one here that's cut in half you can see that color goes all the way through and it's not gonna fade not gonna chip off or discolor so these things are the ticket for a good lookin Chuck so I've got black chalk bumpers for cr125 in 250 so2 207 as well as CRF 250 s and 450 s all the way up to 2020 so pretty cool deal I'll drop a link down below to the bumpers as well as the new shirts now the very last thing we're working on for today is pretty freakin cool we've got a case of titanium hardware from tusk so we've got a few different colors here and sizes these are the kind of factory color they call it it's got the rainbow color a couple different sizes there and the ones in the case they don't spill them are black and then all these bolts got some real nice head on them they're all drilled out for safety wire looking pretty trick absolutely love the look of this stuff now let's figure out where we're gonna put all this bling and I've heard this number before I don't know if it's completely true or not but if you swap out every piece of hardware every bolt on the bike for titanium you'll save about 6 or 7 pounds so pretty impressive got the ignition side done looks pretty good I'm gonna do all the case bolts as well I'll have to buy the right sizes for that but sadly I didn't have the right size bolts for the clutch cover and water pump those bolts pretty long so I'll have to order these specific bolts for that but overall really dig in how much these bolts spruce up the bike so that's gonna be it for this video thank you so much for watching hope you guys enjoyed it and I will see you all in the next one I've got a really interesting video coming your way so stay tuned

Channel: Cameron Niemela

Views: 698,761

Rating: 4.9312258 out of 5

Keywords: Honda, CR250, Honda CR250, Dirt Bike, Motorcycle, 2 Stroke, Two Stroke, Dirt Bike Build, Cameron Niemela, Niemela, CR250 Project, 2003 CR250, CR250 Rebuild, Dirt Bike Repair, Two Stroke Build, CR250 Build, Two Stroke Rebuild, Dirt Bike Rebuild, Two Stroke CR250, Dirt Bike Project, Honda Two Stroke, Fix CR250, Niemela CR250, Cameron Niemela CR250, 2020 CR250, 2019 CR250, CR250 2 Stroke, CR 250, Breaking in the CR250, CR250 First Ride, Riding my CR250, Riding my 2 stroke

Id: cCNuT-7Dkis

Length: 32min 9sec (1929 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 29 2019