Minimalist Touring Thread (250cc and under)

[frog13]

No biggie!....just curious.

[larry31]

Originally Posted by nanox14

my Chinese EMPIRE TX200, nice road near my home town SAN CRISTOBAL, VENEZUELA
its actually steeper than it looks

That could be a pix of a back road here in New Hampshire, or Vermont, USA. Very nice country you have there.

[sandalscout]

Cool looking bike, I like the shape of the plastics.

[djchan]

I saw those in Ecuador as well. All kinds of great small bikes not seen in America.

[grubbie]

Originally Posted by Klay

Dream about it, I suppose.

Aw, Klay I thought you were a dual-sport-kinda-guy.......that thing doesn't look very off-roady!

[Klay]

Originally Posted by grubbie

Aw, Klay I thought you were a dual-sport-kinda-guy.......that thing doesn't look very off-roady!

It would be nice to have a pure street bike...don't have one right now. But I do think that dual-sports make great streetbikes.

[dfye55]

I have a 250 dual sport and 250 street. I enjoy them both for camp touring. I like the fuel economy of the street bike, and I like the dual sport when i've got some off road to enjoy.

[grubbie]

I have a big touring bike and I love it. But given the choice I would rather be on the dual sport. I am always trying to find a way to get from A to B (however far it may be) on nothing but trails and gravel roads. I get more smiles per mile that way. This year I put way more miles on the 250 than I did the Harley. During the Sturgis rally I was in the Black Hills, but it wasn't on pavement!

[Little Bike]

I took my xt250 out for my first dirt rides this week and had 3 water crossings - each successively deeper. The last one was about 2 to 21/2 feet deep. Any idea about what the limit would be? What happens if you dump your bike in a crossing? (besides pulling it out and cussing a lot)

[MentalGuru]

Originally Posted by Little Bike

I took my xt250 out for my first dirt rides this week and had 3 water crossings - each successively deeper. The last one was about 2 to 21/2 feet deep. Any idea about what the limit would be? What happens if you dump your bike in a crossing? (besides pulling it out and cussing a lot)

Too deep or a crash while running can equal a hydrolocked engine...

[MikeS]

Originally Posted by Little Bike

What happens if you dump your bike in a crossing? (besides pulling it out and cussing a lot)

I tried and failed to find a video about "How to un-drownd your motorcycle". The short: If water is in the engine, you need to get any water out before you turn it over! That's critical. Remove the plug, put it in gear and use the rear wheel to turn it over. Lay it on its side or upside down to encourage the water out. I'll use the starter after that point, to get more water out (plug removed).

Also, drain water from the fuel delivery system (carbs/throttle body) and from the air box. Check engine oil to see if water is there. Definitely change oil after a drowning. You may have electrical issues, wet connections that are grounded and prevent the bike from starting.

That's the short of it.

[richsuz]

OK, so I know what to do if my carburated bike drowns in a river. Been there, done that...

I have a F/I bike also, and never go into water deeper than 12 inches with that one. Would not know what to do with it in case I droped it. Anyone knows?

[MentalGuru]

Originally Posted by richsuz

OK, so I know what to do if my carburated bike drowns in a river. Been there, done that...

I have a F/I bike also, and never go into water deeper than 12 inches with that one. Would not know what to do with it in case I droped it. Anyone knows?

Hit the kill switch and stall it before it hits the water.

[MikeS]

Originally Posted by richsuz

OK, so I know what to do if my carburated bike drowns in a river. Been there, done that...

I have a F/I bike also, and never go into water deeper than 12 inches with that one. Would not know what to do with it in case I droped it. Anyone knows?

My F650 is FI, but I haven't drown it, yet. I've been in pretty deep water, below the air intake snorkel, but deep.

No float to drain, just the throttle body. I might do nothing more than drain the air box, tip the bike on its side or upside down to get water out of the throttle body, and of course remove the sparkplug and turn over the engine by hand to get water out of the combustion chamber. The electrics should be adequately protected, except the plug connections may be an issue, especially if the rubber covers are older and cracked. That kind of electrical issue can happen with any fuel delivery system.

Originally Posted by MentalGuru

Hit the kill switch and stall it before it hits the water.

Or, from my experience, quickly jump up out of the water and hit the kill switch before it takes in enough water to kill the engine.

[FreckledAvenger]

Originally Posted by richsuz

OK, so I know what to do if my carburated bike drowns in a river. Been there, done that...

I have a F/I bike also, and never go into water deeper than 12 inches with that one. Would not know what to do with it in case I droped it. Anyone knows?

Well I can answer this one - last year I actually fell off the side of a crossing into deeper water (the bike - a F/I WR250R - was basically floating). After recovering it with the help of others that were around the following was done:

* Dropped the oil immediately - it was pretty clear that I would have water in there, the water will come out first and probably will not be mixed in ...
* Removed the air filter - it needs to dry
* Stand the bike up on its rear wheel - hopefully it will get all the water out of the exhaust system and stop it moving back into the engine (see below)
* Remove header pipe - I have a stock exhaust system and it appears that water can not get out completely (one person I have spoken to believe it is because of the EXUP value on the WR)
* Remove the spark plug - this entailed removing the seat and fuel tank
* Once the spark plug is removed, turn it over - stand back as water will shoot out, keep doing this until it is clear
* I also had water in my fuel tank - as I had a Safari tank with a breather this merely meant that I would expel most of the water by holding it upside down and waiting for the water (which comes out first) stopped coming out from the breather hose
* Check your headlight to see if any water got in - I did not do this and I blew the bulb when I checked to make sure everything was working (it was - for about 10 seconds until the bulb blew)
* Put everything back together ...

At this point, there was likely to still be some water left in the engine based on the time it was submerged/floating. I was in a somewhat isolated place (Northern Western Australia) however I was only 50km from a town where I was able to get some oil (I think it was SJ rated oil for late model cars - no oil for bikes was available, I was just happy to have something). Fortunately a person nearby volunteered to drive me in otherwise it would have been a very long walk ...

As I had 6L of oil I did the following:

* Put in 1L of oil (the WR250R takes 1.3L)
* Turned on the engine for a short time - just let it idle, no revving, just enough for the crank case to start to get warm
* Turned the engine off and dropped the oil

If you have water in the oil, it will be milky white, you will get an idea based on how much water is left (in my case it seemed to be little).

In my case I repeated the process above with 1L of oil, confirmed that there was next to no water left (may have been a very slight wisp of milky white). As I had enough oil left, I did a couple of kms after filling it up fully with oil, and then did another change. I then did around 20km on the highway and then did one last change.

I got it to the nearest motocycle dealer (over 300kms away) who I decided to give it to so they could have a look at it. I needed to have the oil changed for proper motorcycle oil anyway. He confirmed that the process I followed would have been what he would have done in that situation. He also confirmed that the WR250R F/I system is designed to be able to pass water if there is some in the fuel (I was little worried about this).

Hope this is helpful and that you will *never* have to use these instructions ...

It is nice this topic come up in this thread. This thread gave me the idea to travel from Perth to Brisbane via Broome, Darwin and Cairns on a small bike (WR250R) - in the end I did 17000kms over 4.5 months. I was pretty freaked to have this happen to the bike 4000kms from home especially with more than half the trip left but it got me home without further problems ...

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread - I am already saving for another big trip (longer this time) in 2015 ...