New gz250's

[Goose51683]

I'll have to look into the S-40 you speak of Water Warrior. It would be nice to have a little more power but I do love my 250....well I did before it threw a valve and put me on a 3 weeks trip into insanity trying to fix it.

[Water Warrior 2]

Originally Posted by Goose51683

I'll have to look into the S-40 you speak of Water Warrior. It would be nice to have a little more power but I do love my 250....well I did before it threw a valve and put me on a 3 weeks trip into insanity trying to fix it.

The S-40 only weighs 60 lbs more with a much more powerful engine. Not arm stretching power but enough to tackle long grades and have some reserve left. One nice feature is the belt drive. No messy chain to deal with.

[Goose51683]

I would love to be able to comfortably get to around 75-80mph with a little power to spare, that would allow me to ride on the main highway here...not sure if I would really want to or not though. That road scares the crap out of me in my F-250 work truck.

[Water Warrior 2]

Originally Posted by Goose51683

I would love to be able to comfortably get to around 75-80mph with a little power to spare, that would allow me to ride on the main highway here...not sure if I would really want to or not though. That road scares the crap out of me in my F-250 work truck.

You might want to lurk on a couple S-40 forums to get a feel for the bike. They have quite a following with many informative folks. You can read the lines and between the lines for speed and power opinions.
The GZ and the S-40 are old technology bikes but come with a history of reliability and economy. The S-40 was known as a LS 650 back in the 1970's.

[Goose51683]

Ah okay, I've seen a lot of LS650's while I've been searching backwoods used parts dealers. Mainly because I refuse to pay new suzuki prices. I wish I had the tools to fix all of the pieces on my bike, unfortunately some of the electronics are made so that once they fail their is no fixing it.

Just curious but how did old bikes work without the electronic crap, and how can I got back to that. I'm all about the bobber style and being able to fix EVERYTHING on my bike goes along with that.

[Water Warrior 2]

Older bike ignition systems were like older cars. Points and condenser with all the pitfalls and lack of reliability. I'm old school at heart but absolutely love modern ignition systems. They work and work very well 99.9% of the time. Less downtime and more time on the road. When I was a youngster a car had to be tuned up once a year or you suffered the consequences. Now they are virtually maintenance free and run consistantly every day no matter what the weather conditions.
I had a 1978 GT 750 Suzuki with 3 sets of points. Thankfully a friend did all the fine tuning for me and it was a great running bike after that. An aftermarket transistor ignition would have been even better but I only kept the bike one year.