Michelin Pilot Activ review

I'm going to keep this short because the last thing the Internet needs is another fawning Michelin review - these tyres are great. I bought a 100/90-18 V rated example for the front of my K100 for a mere £59, I knew it'd probably be pretty good because it seems you can't go wrong with Michelin but by golly it really was the best tyre I've had on there. Firstly you get lots of tread, as witnessed on my dad's GS750 (he bought them after I wouldn't shut up about mine!):

This may have contributed to a slight twitchiness when new but that soon disappeared leaving a tyre with great dry grip and I never had a moment's concern in the wet either. My only reservations about it were that Michelin say it can't take much more weight than it might see with me (85kg with kit maybe?) and the K100 (264kg but how much on the front wheel I don't know) but at 38 PSI it coped just fine, not even wearing strangely. I also thought that there was no way that such a soft grippy tyre could last well but it just kept going and going until I finally gave in at 8196 miles which is way beyond the 5500-6000 that I normally get on the K. Even then it was far from the cords, only touching the occasional wear marker:

Only once heavily worn did the front end wobble come back during engine braking from 60-50MPH which was so very prevalent with a pair of worn ContiGo!s and with a Metzeler Lastertec. For a bias ply tyre they Activ is fantastic, I would consider it to be the same kind of revolution that the Pilot Road 3 brought to the radial market.

10/10 superb, even though they're now quite a lot more expensive.

Kawasaki Z250SL 3 year review

A short while ago my Kawasaki became 3 years old and needed its first MOT. I haven't seen any long term ownership reviews of the bike written by anyone else and there may also be renewed interest in this model since the Z125SL has now been released in the UK so I thought I'd write one myself. I'll start from the front and work my way along, for reference the mileage at the time of these pictures was 19169..

Front wheel - too small, too twitchy, always feels like the bike is looking for somewhere to crash. Hate it. Poor tyre choice in 100/80-17 too though pretty sure 110/70 would fit which allows proper modern radials to be fitted.

Front brake - works okay until it gums up, which is at least annually and if you really want to keep it working then you'll be cleaning out the seal grooves before winter and again after winter. Worse than anything else I've owned in this respect. Also seems to eat brake pads compared to anything else I've had, if a set last 15K they've done very well.

Front suspension - hateful, incredibly soft below 15MPH and then solid with hydraulic lock above 25MPH, little wonder YSS and even Ohlins supply upgrade kits for the internals. Don't appear to rebound to follow road imperfections, just rattles over everything providing little mechanical grip. Also the paint flakes off after a couple of winters and the chrome really suffers too.

I've never seen anything quite like this.

Headlight - can't say, I've never experienced the original.

Front mudguard - too small, obviously. Works after a fashion.

Steering head bearings - notchy by about 12K, not yet replaced.

Koso DB-02R dash - not standard fitment (obviously) but actually really impressive, perfectly reliable and it hasn't even fogged up inside. Well done Koso.

Mirrors - can't see a lot out of them, my elbows are in the way. They also fill up with water in the rain which then pisses out all over my hands when I pull the bars straight. No joke.

Horn - perfectly average, no particular qualms.

Frame - Seems stiff enough, does really threaten to speed wobble at 80MPH or above but hasn't quite gone through with it just yet. This might be due to the notchy head bearings. Could use more rake on the front I suspect. Also the bike already had rust on the welds when I bought it at one year old and 3200 miles, which obviously didn't get any better:

The styling of the whole chassis means nothing can be carried so the bike is useless for anything more than days out or commuting. The Asian version of this bike (and the Z125SL) have rear footpeg hangers that bolt on so you can fit decent luggage racks at those bolt locations, the Z250SL has them welded to the frame so no such luck. The right side hanger on my bike has also been bent in two crashes on that side where the exhaust has pushed it inwards, technically the bike is probably scrap now. Never mind!

Engine - punchy in the midrange, gasping at the upper end of the revs and frankly I don't believe Kawasaki when they suggest peak torque is at about 8K RPM, I think it's better at 6K. Perfectly reliable so far though the valve clearances have closed up. After reading about Yamaha MT-07 riders having coolant pipes burst and other such problems this seems like a fine unit. Very little vibration but what there is seems very busy, likely due to being scattered by the balancer - I prefer a straight uppy downy vibration rather than all around like this. It can also have a really good go at shaking the chain off the sprockets as you would expect from an injected 250 4 stroke single with a compression ratio of 11.3:1 and a rear wheel that doesn't have any cush rubbers. No really, it doesn't. This bike is cheap. Also the alloy furs up in a way I have never seen before:

It reminds me of one of those "grow your own crystal" kits. Pathetic.

Gearbox - crunchy and heavy but that may be due to my insistence on using cheap car oil. Hasn't missed a change or slipped out of gear yet. 6 of them is too many when there is no power band to stay in (though I understand they have to follow fashion), combined with the crunchiness I actually find it a bit of a hindrance to fast town work and it's a nightmare to try and change down from top to first in a hurry. The change becomes particularly bad when the chain is dry or loose, which happens quite often with an open chain.

Clutch - light, linear bite, no hint of wear or slippage so far. No drag, no overheating, nothing bad to say about it.

Fuelling - snatchy at low revs, feels very slightly lean the rest of the time but when the bike does 85MPH and averages 85MPG then I'll live with it. The lack of cush rubbers is probably the real reason it seems so bad. Also the engine braking becomes significantly less below 3K RPM when the injector comes back in which is quite annoying because you then have to brake harder to stop where you were expecting to stop.

Fuel tank - 11L is too small though the bike will do about 180 miles before needing to be filled up. No signs of rust anywhere yet which is a pleasant surprise when compared to the state of the rest of the machine.

Seat - Not as uncomfortable as it looks, which isn't saying a lot. Grippy, works okay I guess. Purgatory after ~120 miles but what seat isn't?

Side stand - pretty much perfect, the prong is in exactly the right place where I can find it even in the dark and the angle is fine, very secure.

Centre stand - non-existent, a ridiculous omission for a road going motorcycle. It's going to make the steering head bearing job a lot more difficult than it needed to be.

Rear suspension - hateful, barely sags under my 70kg and again is solid with hydraulic lock above about 20MPH. Doesn't rebound to follow road imperfections, doesn't do much of anything. Has barely softened so far. I keep it on the third/middle setting for preload because I can't adjust it while the shock is attached to the bike, even with the special tools that Kawasaki provide in the tool kit - pathetic design. Also had to free up the linkage at ~7400 miles as every bush was absolutely solid. Currently amazed the whole lot doesn't slop about already. On the plus side, no leaks yet!

Swingarm - seems okay so far, no bearing demise to report though I bet there's sod all grease on them from the factory. No rust problems that I am aware of. An interesting design quirk of this machine is that there is no separate torque arm, just a nub on the inside of the swingarm which holds the brake carrier in place. This works a treat on the CBX250RS with a rear drum brake because the plate stays in the centre of the wheel, but with a disc brake you have to line up the brake carrier, get the caliper over the disc and keep the spacer in the wheel while slotting the whole lot onto the nub. Rear wheel installation is incredibly difficult and awkward on this bike.

Rear wheel - no cush rubbers!! The sprocket just bolts straight into the wheel. 'Nuff said.

Exhaust - rotten after 2 years, falling off after 2.5 years so had to replace it for the MOT. The downpipe to the can is stainless which is excellent, shame the actual muffler is so quick rot. Quite like the sound of the original setup though.

Rear mudguard - I'd love one, so fed up of getting a wet back from all the spray off the rear wheel. Honestly come on Kawasaki.

Rear brake - mushy and vague, likely because the footpegs are rubber mounted so the whole lot moves about. A ridiculous design decision, you surely wouldn't rubber mount the front brake lever. Also gums up quite quickly but not as bad as the front brake, figure a yearly clean out.

Number plate hanger - probably the worst bit of the bike, flapped around a lot when I first bought the bike and has only become looser with time. I've tried shimming out the fittings but it just doesn't work very well as a design. Try harder next time please.

Overall fittings and finishings - atrocious quality.

Electrics - totally reliable except that one time a wire almost rotted off the ignition switch, once soldered up everything has been fine even through constant wet conditions including fording rather deep floods. Probably the best thing about the bike after the motor. I suppose I did have to replace the front brake light switch as the original was full of verdigris, again the cost cutting went a little too far but the fix was easy - fit a proper Nissin switch.

So, overall you're probably thinking I hate this bike but that isn't true. It's nowhere near the modern CBX250RS I was hoping for but it is quite useful and has given sterling service for the past 2 years getting me to work and back with no major hassles and nothing has outright failed or fallen off. Reliability counts a lot for something that needs to work and the 250SL has it. Overall I prefer my old CB250 though, I could bungee stuff to the rack or carry a big top box or strap a dry bag to the rear half of the seat, and yet it also got me to work every day just the same. Sure it tops out at 70MPH and only does 80MPG but it has better comfort, better brakes, much nicer suspension and doesn't feel like it's always looking for the nearest ditch for a nice lie down along with far superior quality of materials and finish. If Kawasaki had the imagination to put this motor into a useful chassis I think they'd be on to a winner but I bet actually no one would buy it then either. Ho hum!

Maintenance log since purchase:

3200 miles - bought the thing.

4507 miles - the original chain and front sprocket were absolutely worn out (!). Replaced.

5917 miles - replaced front brake light switch with another I had sitting around.

7173 miles - wire very nearly rotted off the ignition switch. Bodged back together.

7374 miles - original rear TT900 nearly down to the cords, replaced with Mitas MC25 (horrible).

7374 miles - unseized and rebuilt rear suspension linkage.

8095 miles - clean out front caliper, tried to get away without doing a full strip. Didn't work.

8159 miles - new front brake pads, EBC pads worn out and cracking.

8293 miles - clean out and rebuild rear brake caliper.

8470 miles - valve clearance check, all in spec.

10128 miles - clean out and rebuild front caliper again.

10174 miles - clean out and rebuild rear caliper. Again.

10353 miles - new front sprocket. It really eats them.

13124 miles - another rear tyre, Avon Streetrunner this time. It has quite an appetite for rear tyres.

14507 miles - new chain. It seems to eat these as well.

15140 miles - finally fitted a new front tyre, original TT900F finished.

15280 miles - clean out and rebuild the front caliper yet again.

18574 miles - new exhaust muffler, original literally falling off due to rot.

18809 miles - yet another rear tyre, this time a Michelin Pilot Street Radial. Hopefully this one lasts.

18809 miles - new rear brake pads, originals rotting and friction material falling off.

19473 miles - valve clearance check, all four valves need re-shimming.

CB250 rebuild part 9

**30/3/2019**

This entry is all about the oval holes in the motor and my struggle with them.

**13/4/2019**

It is also about gasket scraping and cleaning. Honda appear to use an adhesive called "shellac" (or something very similar) which sticks the gaskets in place and also leaves behind an incredibly hard/durable brown varnish-y layer that is really difficult to scrape off. The steel plate around the alternator wasn't so bad though.

Thank goodness for power tools.

**23/4/2019**

After a lot of thinking/pondering/outright wonderment I decided that the best course of action was to drill out the existing holes from 10mm to 12mm and then sleeve them down. Some googling revealed I could buy 1mm thick steel cylinders that I could fit into the new enlarged holes:

https://simplybearings.co.uk/shop/Bearings-Wrapped-Steel-Bushes-Plain-Wrapped-Steel-Bushes-Plain-Wrapped-Steel-Bearing-Bushes/c3_4701_4702_4542/index.html

https://simplybearings.co.uk/shop/Bearings-Wrapped-Steel-Bushes-Flanged-Wrapped-Steel-Bushes/c3_4701_4703/index.html

The holes for the dowel pins are already 10mm and are not destroyed (even at the front!) because the dowels are steel and also in the middle so avoided the worst of the movement around the mounting bolts:

While not seeming too bad the holes at the rear of the motor must also be oval, if they weren't then the engine wouldn't be allowed to move about!

However not all the mounting holes have dowels in them, such as the lower front mounting point which is basically destroyed:

It turns out that this hole is 12mm anyway and just has a small/short taper in it which goes down to 8mm - such a tiny contact patch and yet the engine is a stressed member of the frame!? I think if I drill the dowel one first I can then use the front mounting bracket to semi-accurately gauge where to drill through the lower mount. All is not lost.

Full of enthusiasm I purchased 10mm, 11mm and 12mm drill bits from Screwfix (£19.50!!) to ensure they were sharp and straight. The 10mm bit fitted nicely into the new sleeves, which would mean I could line the hole up with the drill until it easily slid up and down and I would know I was drilling in the centre. Once it was lined up I could go up to 11mm and then 12mm as long as everything stayed in place.

Right, let's get to it! The pillar drill is a bit smaller/shonkier than I remembered..

So, knock the sleeve/bush/dowel into the hole for the usual dowel (this was a tight fit):

Check that the drill still fits and the sleeve hasn't been crushed together..

This is where things started to fall apart. The tiny little platform of the tiny little drill was too small to hold the case in a position where I could drill the hole. So I tried to use the base instead which also didn't work.

I tried an alternative setup to try and get the case flat but it was no good.

So I gave it up as a bad job and went back to pondering.

In the middle of May I realised we have a bunch of trained mechanical engineers and a hefty pillar drill at work! I explained to the apprentice (in his late 20s!) what I wanted and that it was of critical importance that he NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES ruin the holes that the dowels fit into. I could see this wasn't going in. I could see he wasn't listening, and even if he did listen he would never understand. As soon as my back was turned he got the 12mm and, by eye, attacked the rear dowel-hole. The case was immediately scrap. He also then insisted on cleaning it which washed a lot of grit into all the bearings and then left them all dry so they're gone too. The only saving grace is that this was the left case and it is the right case that has the engine number on it. Still a shame though.

I later found out from a much more experienced engineer that the drill is knackered anyway and has a decent wobble on it so the hole was never going to be exact. I'm now mulling over buying another left case and a pillar drill so I can do the work myself, as it should be done - properly and with care. At the time of writing (12/11/19) the frame is sat outside under a cover being engulfed by cobwebs and snail poo while the engine parts are sat in a box. What a waste.

CB250 rebuild part 8

**16/3/2019**

If you've been following this then you're most probably wondering what I did about the alternator because I haven't mentioned it yet. Fact is I thought I'd be clever and that hopefully it wouldn't need to come off, I really hoped the cam chain would slip past the middle bearing carrier thing on the crank and I could slip on a new one while leaving most of the left case in situ. This didn't work out.

There is no room around the carrier and the stud for the nut at the top of it is always going to be in the way. This was a bit of a downer. So now I had to wrestle with the flywheel bolt and taper while the crank can freely rotate because I can't use a penny in the primary gears to stop it.. First remove the alternator cover:

The chain is driven by the start motor (yuck), here is the sprocket that sits on the end of the motor:

Refitting this to the motor would have been impossible with the alternator cover in place anyway so this all turned out to be not so much of a loss as I thought. So, oil filter chain wrench doodad:

Special clacker at the ready again..

 

Turn the chain wrench thing around so you can tighten and start with the special flywheel puller tool (bolt).

You might need a little extra help to stop the crank turning. These pistons are dead anyway because I'll be buying new barrels and probably pistons so I had no qualms about this.

After what seemed like sheer brutality (tighten the bolt, hammer, tighten, hammer, tighten, hammer) there was success!

Everything should be easy now. I don't know why the steel plate spacer thing is so rusty though.

The rollers for the starter clutch promptly fell out, except for one which was stuck in place. These will no doubt be a very good game of fun-ness to put back. Also red rust!

Thankfully the flywheel is magnetic so can serve its true purpose of a way to not lose things.

Since I apparently have to remove the crank from the case to fit a new cam chain I had to remove the other piston so that the con rod would fit between the studs. I didn't lose any circlips this time!

Another look at the carrier. Them bob weights are massive ain't they? I actually had to use the clacker to undo the bolts around it, using a normal wrench proved too difficult because I couldn't get the case to stay still.

Remove the bolts (and one nut for some reason) and let Thor do his work..

Thor actually causes me a problem later on from this, it turns out the middle bearing can move around in the carrier and this moves it so that the old chain won't come off. That takes me a while to figure out. Anyway, store the crank somewhere clean. If you can.

And admire the now emptier crank case!

There is a main bearing, a seal and some kind of gasket behind that plate. I don't want to see them if I can help it.

**9/4/2019**

I really wanted to replace the cam chain because "people in the know" know that the chain will be super slack by the time 93K is up. Here's how my original chain (bottom) compares to a brand new chain (top):

Hardly worth bothering with. Perhaps it's the 2000 mile oil changes I religiously do, or perhaps it's because the motor is so mild that the cam merely caresses the valves but this doesn't seem in dire need of replacement to me. Anyway, the trouble I had with the bearing carrier - it was because the stud that the tensioner sits on didn't seem to be far enough away from the crank weight:

But it turned out the carrier with the stud on it actually quite freely moves side to side and must've been dislodged by Thor. Oh how I laughed.