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.

Gulf Tec Plus 10w40 semi synth - it works!

My interest was piqued when Euro Car Parts were selling oil at 50% off and I was nearly out of the super cheap Triple QX and Vetech stuff. Those super cheap oils have worked okay, nothing has worn out, but I figured a known brand may give a nicer gear change action and act as a treat if nothing else. So for a smidgen over £15 I had 5L of Gulf 10w40:

I have used this to top up the TRX during the last trip to Germany and the Z250SL is now also full of it, neither are showing any sign of clutch slip and the gear change is indeed nicer than on the super cheap stuff (though of course not as nice as new Motul..). The Gulf oil is also a bit thicker when cold, I know technically this means nothing but in my experience the really cheap oils are thin and get thinner while better oils start off a bit thicker.

So, Gulf Tec Plus 10w40 - okay for use in wet clutch motorcycles and seems good value at £3 a litre. Euro Car Parts even offer free delivery, bargain!

Avon AV56 Storm ST 2 Ultra review

The AV56 came to me because a bloke not too far away was selling it on gumtree for £50. I was helpless. Thankfully the venerable CB250 makes light work of carrying tyres because it's designed for the real world!

Initial inspection showed it had been fitted and run because there were a couple of deep gouges in it despite the seller proclaiming it to be new (although it did look new otherwise), and also that this tyre is of a very pliable construction - I felt I could almost turn it inside out with my bear bare hands! My experience suggests this is a good thing.

Only a year and a bit later it was fitted to the TRX..

And, filled to 36 PSI despite seeming so pliable, it was immediately pressed into service for a trip to Germany where it proved to be very good in the dry. Really very good. To the point where chicken strips felt like they just weren't a thing.

What definitely was a thing was tyre wear - the Germany trips average around 200 miles a day and every damn day the tyre showed visible signs of being a bit more worn down. It did however give an incredibly secure feeling through the bends, the bike cornering as if on rails - fantastic. Most days were very hot (over 30c) which probably didn't help tyre life but we did also unfortunately have one wet day which showed the Avon to offer a similar level of wet weather grip to the Maxxis M6029 on the front which, although serviceable, was disappointing - especially because the Storm range from Avon are marketed as being good in the wet.

At a mere 3840 miles most of the tyre was gone:

And at 3937 miles I had to get it changed because it was Germany time again and this thing had about 500 miles left in it (maybe!):

Unbelievable, the same lifespan as the Nankang Roadiac but from a much more premium manufacturer. I find this confusing because many reviews speak of long life from this tyre except for one bloke who reported only getting 4000 miles - sounds familiar!

So.. Lovely grip, great ride quality/comfort, great stability (no weaves or wobbles), bit skittish in the wet and short lived. At the time of writing I can only find these for sale at a few places, the AV56 having been superseded at least a couple of times, but if you do find some old stock floating about then basically I hope it's cheap because otherwise there's no real point in buying it. I did like it while it lasted though.

JT Z3 chain review

Back in December 2017 I fitted a 520 Z3 "Black Steel" chain made by JT, a company who are well regarded for their sprockets but not their chains. The Z3 looks to be an attempt to change that with JT boasting X rings and an average tensile strength of 4240kgf (41.6kN) which is very high for a 520 chain. The "Black Steel" version is the standard plain steel, you can also get "All Silver" which is nickel plated to combat corrosion and now "Gold & Silver" which is nickel inner plates and gold coloured outer plates. So, when first fitted it looked like any other standard chain:

As it was fitted in December it wasn't on for long before the bike stopped moving due to work shutting down for 2 weeks for Christmas. When I came back to it the half underneath the swingarm had corroded quite badly, leaving half the chain tight and half loose! Not a great start.

I carried on regardless, with the chain always a little on the loose side to accommodate the tighter half and after around 2000 miles it seemed to stop stretching and settled down, just like most chains. I was quite pleased with this as I'd paid £45 for the privilege of being JT's tester which is not far off decent D.I.D money. The chain also felt the full force of some unusual weather we received here in the UK, the so called "Beast From The East" which bought freezing temperatures and therefore huge amounts of salt on the roads for around a month. This did the chain no good at all but I wouldn't expect it to be wrecked, especially since the bike was used every day. At around 8000 miles it started to stretch a little more, until by 9500 it was stretching an unbelievable amount. At 9700 miles I tightened it again, and at 10,000 (exactly!) it was again hanging off the sprockets:

It had stretched so much I was starting to run out of adjuster.

JT also boast about the width of the side plates, as you can see they really are quite thick:

I don't doubt the chains are indeed very strong, but that apparently doesn't guarantee them a long life.

Upon splitting the chain the cause of demise became clear, no grease:

Given the way the plates had corroded it's little wonder the seals no longer worked well enough to hold the grease in, probably only helping hold water in there instead. As always, bend the chain sideways for a visual display of wear:

Not quite the full 180 degrees but not far off! For a chain that has done 10K I find this quite pathetic but it may be that the Kawasaki Z250SL destroys chains so I can't quite call it just yet.

So, thoughts - probably a really good chain in the coated versions, not so good in the basic Black Steel version because the steel JT have used is far too prone to rust and ruins the seals. Problem is, at the time of writing the coated versions are priced well into X-ring D.I.D territory so why bother?

Avon AV83 Streetrunner review

With the happy demise of the horrible Mitas MC25 I was in need of yet another 130/70-17 rear tyre. There's plenty of choice from the likes of Duro and Vee Rubber but I am now put off from third/fourth tier manufacturers somewhat and decided to treat myself to a European tyre. In fact to heck with it, I work in British manufacturing and should support it! Also there are precisely no reviews for this tyre from Avon so that'll be interesting. £55 later I had one in my possession, ahh feel the quality of this fine thing. "Made in England" it will surely say..

Oh, okay then. The Mitas/Sava was also made in Slovenia so alarm bells were ringing.. Loud alarm bells. The tyre is also really stiff to handle it I would put it on par with the Metzeler Sportec Klassik - if this tyre is for 125s then why make it this stiff? Turns out it does indeed have all the plies:

At least it shouldn't struggle to keep the bike in line. More pictures for your delectation, this is a review after all..

After some faff the tyre was fitted to my Z250SL:

And it seems to have quite a lot of tread depth, which is marvellous:

So, what's it like? First impressions are that it is indeed really very stiff, I wouldn't mind putting one on the back of my K100 let alone a 125. Letting the pressure down to 15PSI still didn't have the tyre squishing at all when I bounced up and down on the seat, it's almost like a run-flat.

At an initial pressure of 32PSI (as per Kawasaki's recommendation for the original Dunlop TT900) I set about testing and found it to be a great improvement over the Mitas, wet roads are no longer a test of Speedway skills and dry grip is even more plentiful. It has behaved impeccably on the frosty roads that we lucky Brits get to use in Winter and wet weather grip is perfectly adequate if not astounding - if really "making progress" on slightly wet roads the tyre can slide a bit on corners (particularly if you hit a polished surface at the same time), but stick to normal speeds and it's absolutely fine. In the first 500 miles it also seems to have softened up a touch, it's not as chattery now but I would still say it's a very stiff tyre.

Wear updates will of course come in time, stay posted.

**UPDATE**

I ended up running this tyre at 28PSI, it's so stiff that it still doesn't wobble all over the place at this pressure but it at least isn't too hard and chattery. As far as wear rate goes, well, at 3110 miles I can only describe it as disappointing..

You can also see how it has squared off, it wasn't bad at all until the tyre saw some motorway miles and after a few trips up and down, well..

I'm also sad to say that after around 2000 miles the tyre became really quite slippery in the wet and I can spin the rear up in 4th gear, yes it's better than that awful Mitas MC25 but not by a lot. Given the not-too-cheap price of these I'm really struggling to find any reason to recommend them to anyone right now. Further updates to come..

**FINAL UPDATE**

At last I can get rid of this thing, 5685 miles sees it down to the wear markers:

After around 4K it became really very slippery in the wet, the lack of grip actually starting to rival the Mitas MC25 - I really do suspect these tyres are closely related. It constantly threatened to let go if a damp patch of road was touched, full wet weather was very precarious indeed. Dry grip was always fine, the tyre was always incredibly stiff giving a harsh ride even though I ended up running it at about 26 PSI and even let it drop to 12 before feeling the need to blow it up again! Overall I couldn't wait to get rid of it, this tyre is a liability.

At the time of finishing this review these are selling for £70.50 on https://www.moto-tyres.co.uk/ which makes them more expensive than a Dunlop TT900 (£62.10, excellent and longer lived) or a Pirelli Angel City (£63.70 with glowing reviews from many real people) and even the Pirelli Diablo Rosso II (£67.80 sporty radial loved by Americans). Sadly I see no reason why you should bother with this Avon at all.

Fitting a Loobman to a Kawasaki 250SL

It's no secret that I like chain oilers, or that I'm too tight to spend out on a Scottoiler. I've had an old squeeze-and-go Loobman on my CBX250RS for many years, which impresses me with not only its simplicity but also its effective.. ness. The obvious answer was Loobman's new AB Dynamic, not as simple as the squeezy bottle but a similar price and supposedly it shouldn't cover the works car park in oil where I park up, which the squeezy one definitely does. On we go..

Time to unpack this neat little parcel!

The instructions are a bit too long and confusing, I think the squeezy version was slightly better in this regard but if you're of average intelligence like myself then you shouldn't go wrong too many times. First, thread a fat cable tie through the wirey snake thing like so:

Then inflict it upon the inside of your swingarm and secure in place, like so:

Simply snip the excess from the tie. Next bend the end of the wirey snake thing until it's kind of looking down at the sprocket, push the oil tube into the end of the delivery head and cable tie it all into place with a small cable tie.. Like so:

I chose to thread the tube underneath the cable tie that is holding the wire snake in place, if you've done it up too tight to squeeze the tube under then you'll have to think of another way! I also tied the reservoir to the pillion footpeg hanger, this gave me a nice short and vertical delivery which allows me to use gear oil (because it's thicker and doesn't fall down the tube so fast, y'see!).

The next step is to poke/burn a hole in the delivery tube - the length of tube after the hole will empty itself as you ride along, but the rest will stay in place due to the reservoir not letting any more flow out. This is what sets it apart from the squeezy bottle which was total loss once you'd sqozen the oil into the secondary reservoir. I gave up at this point and removed the chain guard, of course this being a modern bike that is manufactured in the cheapest way possible it's all one piece with the mudguard so off it all came..

With that out of the way it was easy. I used one of them oversized needle thingers, not sure what they're called. Some people use a soldering iron with a fine tip, whatever works for you.

With the tube successfully punctured just faff about a bit more putting all the muduard assembly back into place, fill it with oil and..

Success. After a few trips to work and back the chain looks lovely and oily:

Sure I have to remember to press the button on the reservoir before setting off but it's just part of the routine now. Hopefully this will cut down on all the rolling around on the floor, trying to tighten/oil my chain.

Oh by the way, Loobman themselves do state not to fill the reservoir to the top because oil will leak out the top - this is true! Not a terrible thing, but I'll just half fill it from now on..