How long is too long for the little 250?

[IndyKTM]

I bought my 04 last week and haven't ridden a street bike in 10 years or so. I race harescrambles on my dirt bike, so I am used to holding it wide open. I use my GZ for my daily commute to work, it's about 30 miles, 15 miles country roads, 15 miles freeway. IThe bike about 3600 miles on it. While driving on the freeway I get up to around 65 for about 10 minutes. That's not WOT but the bike wont do much more as I'm sure you guys know. Well how long can I maintain this speed of around 65 and feel comfy that I wont do damage to my bike? I saw someone on another site say they had a piece of the cylinder break off and enter the engine which was devastating. I don't want to replace my engine for about 20 years so....

15-30 miles freeway driving doesn't sound like it should kill any road bike but are these things just built like crap?
Anyways, I need an answer to my question about how long can I maintain 65 or so and feel comfortable I wont kill my engine.

[turbo chicken]

I ride my GZ hard... i commute about 25 miles all but 5 are highway. I rode yesterday morning w/no traffic 65-70 all the way. Sure she screamed a little but i was having a blast... if it breaks i'll fix it I suppose.

anyways i have nothing constructive to add sorry...

but 65 seems pretty smooth to me... much more above that she does whine a little.

[IndyKTM]

Thanks, but does anyone have anymore info on this issue?

[turbo chicken]

there's a little info in here that talks about top speed and driving fast on the bike... well fast for a GZ ...

i think general consensus is that 55-60 is the sweet spot for the GZ but 65 won't really hurt it either....

i've seen it mentioned somewhere on the forum that someone runs at 65 regularly and their bike is doing fine... can't find it though

http://www.gz250bike.com/viewtopic.php?t=560

[jonathan180iq]

I took a 5 hour road trip into the NC mountains about a year ago and held 65mph+/- for 75% of the trip. It won't hurt it.

There are a handful of people on here who have tachometers installed on their bikes. If you do a search and find their posts, you'll see that the 55-65 zone isn't really nearing the top of the rpm range. It's really a rather comfortable zone.

[Easy Rider]

Thanks, but does anyone have anymore info on this issue?

Like what exactly?
I don't think anybody here considers it an issue.
I think it is highly unlikely that you can do any damage regardless of what you do in 5th gear.......well, except maybe for screaming down a steep mountain road with a tail wind at 100 mpg!!

Don't abuse it in the lower gears and don't worry about it. :rawk:

PS With only 10 hours between this and your first inquiry, I suggest that a little patience would be in order. Some people only check in here every few days........and less often now that the weather is good (in some parts of the country).

[IndyKTM]

I don't think you should speak for ALL the members here.
We all have our own voice than you.

I do appreciate the help, but you may want to take it down a notch.

It may take some time to get used to a site that has very few members. I am a patient man, just not used to a forum with few people. I am sure with gas prices the way they are there will more and more members joining shortly. The Suzuki is a sweet ride.

[Easy Rider]

I don't think you should speak for ALL the members here.
We all have our own voice than you.

I do appreciate the help, but you may want to take it down a notch.



I don't claim to speak for everybody but having been here a year and a half, I think I have a pretty good feel for the territory.

Notice carefully what I actually said: "I don't think anybody here considers it an issue." Read what I said and not what you THINK I meant.

And yes, there are a LOT of people joining every week now. It's a jovial group, overall, but occasionally someone pops in and asks a question that is ......well.......difficult to come up with a good answer for. It is hard to respond to something like that without expressing an (unsubstantiated?) opinion.

Welcome to the group. I AM sorry if you took offense at my remarks.
I do have a tendency to be a little blunt at times. I'm working on it. :tup:

[MYPONY]

Hi. Found this post looking for people in Indiana (BTW where is The Ville, IN ?)

People have asked how Sparky does at higher speeds. Being a new rider it was a while before I went faster-got up to 70 once just for a minute & for the most part I don't excessively break the rules (haven't been on interstate yet). To me, I feel Sparky (08) can run 60-65mph all day long, easy. I ride for miles-hundreds, hwy-only slow for traffic and towns.

My opinion is, keep gas, oil & maint up to date the bike should perform to the standards it was designed for.

:) MYPONY

[GZ250]

GZ has a tough engine but you have to be careful with oil level and changing oil on time. At highter speeds 70 and above it is noisy and not a fun ride for me so I ride at 60-65 and going good. Mechanical problems can occur irrespective of at what speeds you drive but obviously if you drive more at 70 and above it will be a strain on the small engine. What will happen, no one can tell for sure........

[dannylightning]

I always kept my gz under 65mph, except every now and again i would push it up over 70mph for fun but did not drive that fast for long. around 60mph was my freeway speed on the gz , that is when the rpm's started to seem like they were getting up there a little so figured better safe than sorry

[JWR]

This is cut from Pat Henry's Alaska Ride Report.
Good food for thought about the GZ.


I've been attempting to get my bike, a Suzuki GZ250, in good working order for this trip. It has 35,000 miles, which is a lot of miles for a motorcycle of this kind. As with every vehicle I've owned, I do all my own maintenance.

After 9,000 miles.





And what experiences they were - riding a small 250 cc single cylinder motorcycle across this beautiful continent; I still don't know how the little thing held together running flat out for hundreds of miles at MAX RPM and MAX SPEED in 107 degree heat through Texas.

[5th_bike]

I did 65 mph in 4th gear, at 8,000 rpm (standard 15 tooth front sprocket). Going 65 in 5th gear sounds really calm, then.
Redline is at 9,000 rpm.
So, no worries. :)

PS again here is Jaime's table:


http://www.postimage.org/TshfRV9.png (http://www.postimage.org/)

As you see, in 5th gear, rpm is simply 100 times your speed in mph.

[Water Warrior 2]

This is cut from Pat Henry's Alaska Ride Report.
Good food for thought about the GZ.


I still don't know how the little thing held together running flat out for hundreds of miles at MAX RPM and MAX SPEED in 107 degree heat through Texas.


I think Patrick Henry was very lucky and had an exceptional GZ to live through that trip.

[music man]

This is cut from Pat Henry's Alaska Ride Report.
Good food for thought about the GZ.


I still don't know how the little thing held together running flat out for hundreds of miles at MAX RPM and MAX SPEED in 107 degree heat through Texas.


I think Patrick Henry was very lucky and had an exceptional GZ to live through that trip.


Not only did his GZ live through that, but consider this, If my memory serves me correctly, he already had somewhere in the neighborhood of 35,000 miles on his GZ when he started out on that trip, and it was LOADED to the gills with luggage.

[Water Warrior 2]

M M, your memory is correct. I know some people said Lynda was just plain nuts to ride her GZ half way across Canada and back but she did it and proved the nay sayers wrong. It is a tough little bike no doubt about it.

[alantf]

I don't think anybody here considers it an issue.


I think you've put a slightly incorrect interpretation to the word "issue". I believe you've interpreted it as "something bad", which is, indeed, one interpretation. The other meaning of "issue", however, - & the one that I believe he meant - is "the point in question". :)

[burkbuilds]

"15-30 miles freeway driving doesn't sound like it should kill any road bike but are these things just built like crap?
Anyways, I need an answer to my question about how long can I maintain 65 or so and feel comfortable I wont kill my engine."

I think running ANY motor WOT for hours on end is just asking for it, but you are definitely not running the GZ WOT to hit 65 mph and for the distances you are asking about I wouldn't have any concerns at all about it causing damage to the engine. I rode my GZ pretty much WOT to Atlanta and back one day, about a 4 -5 hour trip for me, and the only thing broken was my rear end and legs by the end of the day. I put 12,000 miles on my GZ in a year and she ran great and never gave me any problems, hope you get great service out of your bike as well. Although a few people have been known to blow an engine in their GZ's most of the ones I remember did stuff like run it WOT for a couple of hours each day for a bout 5-8 thousand miles before it blew up and one of those guys said he never even changed the oil or added any, so he got what he deserved in my opinion. The GZ is a great bike and not a "piece of crap", take care of it and you probably can drive it for 20 years!

[bonehead]

[Anyways, I need an answer to my question about how long can I maintain 65 or so and feel comfortable I wont kill my engine.[/quote]
Rode 185 mi @65 and no problems. If you ride yor bike that hard all of the time, You may be the one to answer your question..when it finally craps out.