Picking up the DZ on the weekend.. :2tup:

I needed someting light and economical around the house and to follow my lovely on her (Piaggio Fly 150) scooter so I choose the DZ250. At 6' high (32" insedam) and 180 pounds the bike shopuld be enough for the off-the-freeway roads. Presently own a VFR800 which I use for daily commute here ion Southern Californi to fight traffic on the freeways as lane-splitting is allowed here and the VFR doas the commuter job (comute is about 40 miles one way with about 36 of those miles on the frweeway). I also have two 14 yoear old (young) boys who I am sure will enjoy to learn or hate the beauty of the motorcycle riding.

No mods or additions are planned but seeing the price of saddle bags and brackes (together less than 150 ) I may just add them to the mix ... will see ;)

Anyhow I am here now for I do not know how long but already learned a lot about the bike and hope to learn more as I use it.

[Easy Rider]

I needed someting light and economical around the house


A lot of folks enjoy riding their GZ for short trips but I think you are the first who claims to ride it "around the house" !! :roll: :)


Welcome. Don't be a stranger.

I just saw that I mentined DZ in sme places.. sorry it is a GZ250.

When I say around the house it is more likely around the town. I do not beleive that this bike could (without seriouse strailn) tackle the LA freeways where if traffic flows it is about 80 and if it is "stop-and-go" you need something what can get out of it's own way. I do have the VFR anytime my travel takes me on the freeway.

Again the main reason is to be able to follow around my lovely on her 150 scooter until she feels confortable, and have something what the kid can learn on without being intimidated by the pover of a 600 or 1000cc engine.

I am sure that many people take this bike to short trips and it is probaly doable, I my do it but will see. I also saw that somebody did and Iron But run on a reblel .... well I was planning on last year but I had a bycicle accident which left me with a broken clavicle now have a plate and 6 screws. However when I planned I planned on the VFR as that bike is designed to be sport touring bike.

[jonathan180iq]

If I remember correctly, the Fly is a pretty sweet little scooter. I've never ridden one but I really wanted to test some of Piaggio's stuff back when I was shopping. Is the Fly the scooter with a gear shifter located down in the floor board?

[davidc83]

Whynot?
The gz250 is capable of doing more than short trips. Patrick Henry in Nashville, TN (http://home.comcast.net/~pat1776/AlaskaStory/index.html) did a 10,000 mile trip in 19 days a couple of years ago, most of it on the freeway. I just did a 2500 mile bike trip, over half was interstate riding (70-75 mph). At this speed though, you dont have much passing power, if any. Have fun and be careful

If I remember correctly, the Fly is a pretty sweet little scooter. I've never ridden one but I really wanted to test some of Piaggio's stuff back when I was shopping. Is the Fly the scooter with a gear shifter located down in the floor board?

The FLy 150 from Piaggio is a fully automated scooter and I was able to get her up to 55 mph when tested. So far she put about 87 miles on the bike we will need to change that as now I will be able to have some fun and follow her around while she is trying to get herself up to speed...... The long story here is that she had a Suzuki Burgman 400 which she crashed with .. no injuries as we are always ATGATT (all the gear all the time) but she never got the nervs to get back to it. One of the reasons was that the Burgman was big and intimidating the Fly is almos 1/3 of cc lot lighter and smaller. I can see that she likes the scooter but needs somebody to be next to her to keep her company and be there in case of.... someting happens- look at it more like an insurance which she never needs to use.

I tried this with the VFR800 but going slow with a for cyclinder angine at firts second gear it heated the engine very fast so that is when I got the idea of getting someting comparable with her engine. So this is the "behind the scene" story of getting the bike. The other reason is that after giving up the Burgman I missed a small machine to just get a helmet a jacket and jump on it to go to the bank, post office, pick up my 10 year old daughter. The VFR is 551 pounds while the GZ is 300+ so lot easier to handle for quick errands. Now if maybe I fell in love with the GZ and keep up with the traffic and can be easyily used for commute than certianly ythe VFR will become exclusively a long ditance 1 or 2 up touring bike or convert it to a track bike and use it toget my "speed medicine" when needed in a controlled environment.

This all will be judged as the bike gets broken in and see what cand do.....I certaily like the price tag and the low cost maintenace and maybe this will be my experimt bike to get into wrenching starting with oli change, electrical gadget addition and so on.... One thing I can tell you, I can barely wait to pick it up and take it for a spin.

[Easy Rider]

Whynot?
The gz250 is capable of doing more than short trips.

Sure it is. The other side of that story is the guy (on here, I think) who has put 17,000 miles on his in a year and a half with most of it being WFO freeway miles around 75-80 and wonders why he threw a rod (or maybe I should say THE rod, since there is only one).

Not to berate the 250 thumper, mind you, but at that speed it is sure to be near red line and I suspect that most ANY bike ridden for 17,000 miles at red-line would be prone to failure.

I was watching my speed /rpm coming home today on the 5, 405, 118 freeway (northwest of LA) . On the freeway I was aroun 5500 rpm in 6th gear and doing and indicated 90 but really aroun 82 (based on the GPS). This still gave me enopugh power to overatke a bus which came in the carpool lane (Ca) and went around him getting in the VTEC zone and pushuing it o 8000 rpm getting to about 100mplh indicated than slowing back to 90 indicated (82 GPS) If annybody vondering waht VTEC is the honda VFR800 has 4 cylinder with 4 valves /cyclynder. When RPM gets above 6400 rpm all 16 valves kick in othervise only 8 valve es in economy mode still getting on averaqge 42 mpg.

The firts thing what I will do when pick up the GZ250 I will install my Garmin GSMap60CS GPS with a bycle handlebar moun (eay 3 minute install) and I can get all the vital signs as real speed , real distance highest speed and certainly routing info.

I use the Zumo 550 with my VFR and have an extra motorcycel monut so maybe later that will be installed and will switch the GPS between cycles as use.... but for the start wil just use the portable GPS povered by two AA batteries....

[jonathan180iq]

I guess I'm not thinking of the Fly. Piaggio makes a manual transmission scooter that's a 150cc. That would be pretty fun to scoot around on.

Bike was picked up today and rode it home.. I added a couple of accesories, Garmin GPSMap60Cs using a bicycle mount, cortech sports saddlebags (connect under tha passager seat). The tailbag can be attched to saddle bags and all looks like a mini touring bike or not and a passager can ride if needed (more so one of my kids). I had a sheapsckeen which I bough for the DL (DL sold ) .. as my vife said all the stuff I had home and bought for other bikes is now on the 250 bike . :rawk: ... loosk cool .. pictures will follow in the morning or later tomorrow... :2tup:

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Pictures were added at the picture thread http://www.gz250bike.com/viewtopic.php?t=599