Congrats on the new bike. Your coworkers are wise. You will go from small to big, then back to small. I've never had anything over a 650. I'm not a big fan of extended warranties. Like another poster said. Get your money back and save it for a rainy day. With a service manual, you can do some stuff yourself, if you like that sort of thing. I'll have a go at some stuff, but if I feel it's over my head. I take it in, but NOT to the dealer. There are a couple of independent shops in my town that know what they're about. I hope it's different in your town. Good luck.
If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the MSF rider safety course. http://online2.msf-usa.org/msf/Default.aspx Instead of the extended warranty, I suggest you get good, protective riding gear, and wear it all the time. If you have good riding gear, bank the warranty money for future maintenance, tires, gasoline, et cetera. Spud
I got a personal message reply from Jungleplant (Mike), the owner of ManRacks. He is working on a luggage rack for the CRF250L. Progress will go faster if someone in Southern California is willing to bring his bike over to Mike's shop. Spud
I was originally going to post this in the "other" CRF250L thread, but then thought to myself... what is an owner thread without machinery pics! My new 2013 complete with 451 KM and one thourough cleaning after offroading at Maclean Creek. Mods include: Changed countersprocket to a 13 tooth (1996-2004 XR250R fits perfect - JT Sprockets JTF1321.13) Removed seat strap Removed front and rear reflectors (rear where the licence plate is was a brick!) Replaced long seat bolts with Yamaha 6MM mushroom heads (P/N 90111-08053) UFO Hand guards Fly Racing Aluminum 3" Rise ATB bar (years of MTB have me liking tall and narrow-ish) Scorpion Racing Heavy Duty Aluminum Skid Plate (2004 - 2011 CRF250X - Slightly modded with one re-drill and a re-bend to the frame hanging plate) Will be thinking about exhaust and a fuel programmer in the future, but for now just enjoying playing with it as is.
A friend of mine will be dropping off his new crf250l with 2 miles on it tommorrow at Turbo city for 3 weeks. Tom will be fabbing up windsheilds,rack,etc I've been running there windsheilds and rack/saddle bag set up for 3 years now on my drz400 great stuff.
Just got the ok from Mrs to pick up one after the holiday season is over. Been looking at the other 250 d/s and sport offerings, this seems to be the one for me. Come on January! BTW, thanks for starting this thread. The "other one" was mired down with way too much hot air. Hope that won't be the case here.
Wow! welcome to the wonderful world of motorcycling. I'm about 5-10lbs heavier than you and the bike hauls me along at 120km/hr no problem, maybe a downshift on long steep hills. No tach with a new rider can be a pain, but go by the seat of your pants, the higher the frequency of the buzzing the higher the RPM. Once you have the bike broke in, after 300mi/500km per manual, try bouncing it off the rev limiter, while sitting on it, this will give you a good idea on the feel for the RPM when you're on the bike. This is the smallest bike and the first enduro I've owned, plus my first EFI bike, but I've been tinkering with old Japanese bikes for a while, mainly big inline fours though. If you are mechanically inclined and handy with a wrench then the extended warranty may be overkill, I bought it, just because I have no clue how EFI works and have never frigged with it, plus it includes all oil changes for five years. Like I said if your new to motorcycling and not very handy with a wrench then the warranty is a good idea. If the dealer is friendly then ask to "observe" the maintanence when you take it in for work, this will give you and idea of how it's put together and how to deal with it. I'd recommned getting an owners manual and service manual too for torque specs, tightening sequences, etc. BTW I'm a new ADV memebr and new CRF250L owner as well, Hi everybody.
Thank you for your reply. The owners manual recommends shifting to 6th at 37mph (60 km/h), I get up to 50mph (80 km/h) and feel like the bike is really working. I twist the throttle and it very slowly accelerates from there. I'm also concerned with winding out the motor too much. For me to hit 75 mph (120 km/h) the bike would be screaming. Is that the case? But w/o a tach I have no idea what it's doing. You mention "bouncing off the rev limiter", how do you define that? I probably do it all the time mistakenly if you mean to rev it up with the clutch in while shifting.... I need to get that under control. It feels like I'm working this bike very hard just to keep up with traffic. Not what I was expecting. But then again I have no point of comparison what so ever. So it could be me and this is how it is. Maybe more of a street tire would help. I'm dropping the extended warranty today because I may actually sell this bike in the coming months once I get my skill level up. Thanks
Well until you have it full broken in i wouldn't try bouncing it off the rev limiter. Engines have an inbuilt limiter that prevents them from reving beyond their safe RPM limit, what it will feel like is the bike dying, then coming back and dying again etc for as long as you keep the throttle pinned. What it is doing is hitting max RPM, then automatically dropping down for a preset amount of time, then going back to max RPM. It's the engines way of telling you to back off. Shifting to 6th at 37 mph is pretty conservative. I've maxed mine out once on the highway, that was in a full racing tuck, down hill and I hit 140km/h, I had the throttle pinned to the stops and never hit the rev limiter, I don't think I could on this bike, I think my weight and the wind ressitance I casue because of my size means that the bike is always working and won't hit the rev limiter. ONce you are well beyind the prescribed break in period, and after the first oil and filter change do a little experiment. Sit on the bike with it off the sidestand, in neutral and progressively increase throttle input, it can be scary but I;ve done it one 30 year old inline fours of questionable upkeep, this allows you to gauge the RPM limits with the seat of the pants meter. I certainly don;t recommmedn it on a brand new engine as the first 500-1000km is still the bedding in time fro all the moving bits, excessive RPm in this period can either cause them to not bed in properly or destroy themselves. After the break in period though it would take pretty poor vehicle operation to destroy a modern engine. Like Isaid they are made with automatic safeguards that will prevent you from blowing them up. I would imagine that an engine like this one, originally designed for the CBR250R, would have a pretty high RPM limit, not as high as an inline four mind you, but higher than you would think, they were originally designed for a diminutive race rep bike. I haebn't done any diggin yet but I imagine there is info on CBR250R owners boards as to RPM limits and when the rev limiter will kick in. They are still the same engine with the same dimensions and specs, changes to exhaust and intake have changed the power delivery and I imagien the rev limiter has been lowered, but it's the same engine and will have the same physical limits as the CBR engine.
In the beginning of this video, about the 30 sec mark, you can hear it hit the rev limiter then the wind noise gets to be too loud. You're being conservative on the RPM's which you should be until it's broken in. The motor isn't straining, it was designed to run at high RPM's. It can be disconcerting to a new rider but it's normal. It slowly accelerates in 6th @50mph because you're not on the powerband. When I'm on the highway I don't shift to 6th until about 60mph. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1ZVS_MkWKI
Wolfman is about 4 miles from our house, I can ride mine over and show him. Problem is that we are on the road on vacation and won't be back till the end of next week.....
Awesome video, very helpful. When I bought the bike the dealer sold me on the extended warranty by telling me I could over rev the engine, hence I was concerned about over reving the engine. But the description you guys have given me is much more useful. Thanks
If you over rev'd the engine, and the dealer could prove it, they most likely wouldn't pay on the warranty anyway. Most dealers will do what ever it takes, not to honor a warranty claim.
Hi everyone - I'm looking for a new DS bike to use in the US, and was wondering if anyone has ridden both the Yamaha WR250R and this new CRF250L and can make any useful comparisons - certainly the price is very competitive in the US, and I do like my Hondas! Looking forward to some insight, which knowing me I will comprehensively ignore - I like pretty, shiny things! Jxx
