Canadian Motorcycle Newbie

[Jere]

Hi all. I'm Jeremiah from Thunder Bay, Ontario. Just bought my first motorcycle after years of wanting one (i'm 30); a 1999 GZ250. While 10 years old, it's in mint condition and only has 9000 km (about 5600 mi)

I've never ridden a motorcycle before and can't wait to get it on the road. I'll be taking the "Gearing Up Traing Course" in Aug. It's frustrating but the course is so booked up that's the earliest I could get in.

I'm glad I found this forum. I've gotten lots of information out of the Beginner's section!

I'll get a better picture soon. That's my dads yet-to-be-completed '49 Fargo pickup in the top corner.

[alantf]

Originally Posted by Jere

and only has 9000 km

Hi there,
Mine's just over 2 years old, with just over 11,000 km on the clock. The mileages are roughly the same, so if my engine is anything to go by, yours should just be coming up to "just around nicely run in"

Just one thing, though - at 9000 km it's very likely that the tires are original. If they've been on the bike for 10 years they may be showing signs of aging (is that how you spell it?) You might think about getting them checked before you do any riding.

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by alantf

Just one thing, though - at 9000 km it's very likely that the tires are original. If they've been on the bike for 10 years............

One should never ride on 10 year old motorcycle tires.......unless it is an antique bike and you are just taking it on and off a trailer. :shocked:

Regardless of what those 10 year old tires LOOK like, they will have lost most of their grip and the tread will be stiff and hard. Likely won't ride good, won't handle good and won't have much grip left.

[Jere]

The back tire is a Dunlop and the front is a BF Goodrich. Do you think they only replaced the front?

[bonehead]

As with auto and truck tires, m/c tires should have a manufactured date on the side wall somewhere. I'd look for that and determine how old the tires are and go from there.

[alanmcorcoran]

I'm impressd with how good that bike still looks after 10 years!

[kaput]

Looks great! I don't think I could wait so long to ride. I rode mine as soon as I got it running (illegally on back streets). Never did get around to that safety course.

Have fun!

[Jere]

I was riding it around my residential neighbourhood until it started acting funny on me. It kept stalling and was hard to start (and it wasn't my shifting!) lol

Looks like I'll be starting the fine art of motorcycle maintenance. I'm no mechanic, but i've worked on cars a fair bit and am not afraid to give it a go. I'll start with the basics: change spark plug, clean/replace air filter, check fuel lines and filter. If that doesn't work, i'll try my hand at cleaning the carb (i downloaded the service manual.) I guess i should test the battery too.

When I bought it, it only had a few litres of gas in the reserve tank and the owner said he hadn't ridden it all year so I'm thinking they didn't winterize it properly.

[Water Warrior 2]

Jere, drain the old gas out and put in some new stuff. Also add some type of fuel system cleaner. You get bad deposits from gas sitting un-used for an extended time. Change oil and filter if you haven't already. Check the air filter from the inside not the outside appearance. With new gas, oil and a plug it should probably run decent providing everything else is intact. The bike was running so just some TLC may be all that is needed.

[alantf]

Originally Posted by Jere

it only had a few litres of gas in the reserve tank

Actually, there is no "reserve tank". All the fuel is in the same tank. The petcock has two pipes - one on "run", & a shorter one on "reserve". When the fuel level drops below the top of the long(er) pipe in the "run" position, no more fuel can flow down the pipe, so switching to "reserve" lets fuel flow into the shorter pipe. From this you can see that the system is just a way of alerting you to the fact that fuel is low, & you need to fill up as soon as possible.