Couplea Questions...

[sneakercat]

Would like to borrow some advice from the Pool of Knowledge here...

How often do you add stabilizer to your gas? I got some today, the cycle store dude told me every other tankful or so. Is this about right?

Any tricks for keeping your bike clean? I live up a half mile of dirt road. Only way I can think to keep it clean is to not ride it- which isn't really in the plan. But should I be lubing the chain more often or anything?

And, as this is my first bike, I'm wondering what other bikes *feel* like. Does a bigger, heavier bike get pushed around in the wind less? I went over a few cleared hills near Lake Champlain and felt like I was in a hurricane! Is cornering harder? Or is it just one of those things that you have to adjust to? (I'm still "adjusting" to Ol' Bessie, my Geezer!)

Thanks for the info, advice, etc-

[Water Warrior 2]

Wind, mud, potholes, forest rats and other road hazards all add to the excitment of living on 2 wheels. Wind, just grip the tank with your legs/knees and keep your arms and hands a bit loose. It comes with pratice, just don't tense up and freeze solid behind the bars. Potholes, dodge them. If you can't then pull yourself forward and slightly up to take weight off the seat. Your back will thank you. On my Vstrom I just stand up but keep my legs slightly bent. works great. Rain grooves on the road: Stay loose. The bike will dance under you but it really won't fall down. Same with steel deck bridges. Search for different road surfaces for the experience and you won't get caught totally unprepared later on.
Forest rats(deer) and other mobile critters should be a voided. Practice your emergency stops. Remember do not hit anything that can not be eaten in one meal.

[JWR]

I have never added a stabilizer to my bike, but I do ride year round.

Polish the bike and it helps to clean with a water hose easier.

Look on the how to pages and build some wooden stands to get the rear tire off the ground, makes cleaning the chain easy.

My other bike is about 700 pounds, but it handles like a much lighter bike.

They all ride a little different.

Learn and enjoy...

Jerry

[blaine]

You only add stabilizer when the bike is going to be stored for winter.As you live on a dirt road,I would clean and lube chain every 500 miles.The G.Z can be a little unnerving in wind till you get used to it.

[burkbuilds]

If you ride your bike, it's gonna get dirty, if you live up a gravel/dirt road or driveway, even more so, get used to it. Definitely clean and lube your chain more often than someone who rides only on pavement. Kerosene works well to clean your chain if you have some handy and it's definitely a plus to get the tire off the ground when cleaning the chain. There's lots of opinions on what to clean with, do a search and you'll find them. Some like to lube with oil, some with teflon and a variety of other things. Mainly, if you clean your chain with something, and lube it with something, it will last a lot longer than letting it stay dirty and not lubing it. If you don't want to go to the trouble of making stands,or spend the money buying stands you can just put blocking under the kickstand and put a jack on the opposite side to lift the bike up, or you can also drop by somewhere like Harbor Freight and buy a little double roller platform for about $25 that will let you spin the wheel without moving the bike.

blaine is right, you only need to add stabilizer if you won't be riding for a while. Seafoam is a product a lot of people like to add every couple of tankfuls to keep the carb clean and happy.

High winds are very intimidating. The first week I owned my GZ I got caught in 30 mph winds gusting to 45mph and it scared me a lot, I was glad to get home without losing it. At one point I was probably leaning 10 degrees into a side wind just to go straight ahead. Gusts are the worst because you have to react when they hit you and react when they go away. Like WW advised, try not to get tense, that's the worst thing you can do on your bike. I'm not sure about a heavier bike handling the wind better, some folks swear it makes a big difference, but my 8,000 lb F-450 got blown around in strong winds too, it's just not as intimidating when you are sitting inside a cab and you don't feel the wind on your body like you do on a bike, plus in a car it may blow you sideways but you are still sitting verically, it doesn't make you lean when the wind hits you. Personally, I think a heavier bike probably doesn't make as much of a difference physically as it does mentally, people think they are more stable because they are on a bigger heavierbike, so they feel more stable. (I'll probably catch some flak for that statement).

WW's right about the grooved roads and bridges and stuff, just relax, the bike won't drop you, it's just a little unnerving to have the grooves in the road impact your chosen path that much. If you have to ride a lot of those and you don't like the "feel" try replacing your front tire with a tire that has a tread pattern that's not "circular" and you won't get that effect. My Vulcan's front tire doesn't have that "circular" pattern and grooved pavement doesn't mess with me much.

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by burkbuilds

Seafoam is a product a lot of people like to add every couple of tankfuls to keep the carb clean and happy.

So.....exactly which "stabilizer" brand did they "sell" you ??
Every other tankful is overkill, regardless of the product.
Once every 6 weeks or so is plenty.

[burkbuilds]

I personally don't add anything to my fuel, but I usually use non-ethanol Chevron with Techron when I fill up or until recently I could get Shell in non-ethanol with their fuel cleaner. I have added sea foam to my daughters Honda after it sat for an extended (and undetermined) period at a dealers before she bought it. It was running very rough and the sea foam seemed to help a lot after about 30 minutes of riding.

Depending on how much someone rides, every other tankful, might be every six weeks. In my case I fill up at least two to three times a week.

[blaine]

Just a heads up:STABILIZER is not a carb cleaner.A waste of money if not storing bike.

[dhgeyer]

I think the cycle store dude is confusing fuel stabilizer with fuel system cleaner. Stabilizer keeps fuel from gumming up if it sits for a few months, like Winter storage. Fuel system cleaners help degunk the fuel system (carb) while you ride. One known weak point of the GZ250 is the tendency of the fuel valve and carb to gunk up and have parts like the float valve stick, leading sometimes to the cylinder and airbox filling with fuel. The latter is a mess, and the former is known as hydra-lock, and immobilizes the engine till you get the cylinder clear of fuel. It happened to me once with the GZ right after I bought it. What a mess!

I run a few ounces of fuel system cleaner (I use Chevron Techron) through the bike every few tankfuls. Others here don't bother, and others use a different product. The product I use actually cleaned out the carb well enough after my disaster that I haven't had to take it apart and clean it out. That surprised me. I ran several tankfuls through it, and used about double the dose called for on the bottle. This stuff is available at auto supply stores. Sea Foam is another fuel system cleaner that some people swear by.

If I lived on a dirt road, I'd clean and relube my chain every 300 to 400 miles. They make special brushes that you can get at cycle shops that let you do a passable job without taking the chain off the bike, although taking it off and soaking it in kerosene is the best way really. For me, that's so much trouble that I'd rather use a specialized brush and kerosene and do the best I can, and if I have to replace the chain some number of thousands of miles sooner, so be it. I use chain wax. Others here use some synthetic product which I've been meaning to try, but haven't gotten around to it. Heavy oil is probably the least effective choice, as it doesn't stick to the chain as well as wax or synthetics, and also attracts and holds more abrasive dust.

I don't think weight is the most important factor in determining how susceptible a bike is to wind. I think it's more important how high it sits, and whether it has a lot of plastic (think sportbike) that presents a solid, sail like surface for a crosswind. My Kawasaki Concours weighed somewhere around 700 pounds set up as I had it, and I definitely felt the wind. The Connie is a high bike, and is fully faired, so the wind had a lot of surface to grab. The "naked" Beemer I'm riding now doesn't react much to crosswinds at all, and it's 200 pounds lighter. You do get used to it, and eventually react automatically without tensing up.

Same with irregular road surfaces, as mentioned above. But, if you're already used to riding on dirt, mesh bridges and grooved pavement shouldn't throw you as badly as a pavement-only rider.

Parking lot exercises are good, especially the swerving and quick stops. But, now that you have probably the best book ever written about safe, skillful riding, by all means read and reread that, and take what David Hough says to heart. You might also want to pick up the other two books he wrote: _More Proficient Motorcycling, Mastering the Ride_, and _Street Strategies_. Also, google "Hurt Report", and read the 50 odd summary findings concerning accident causation and countermeasures. It's a very old study, but it's still, as of now, the most comprehensive study on the subject ever done in this country.

[burkbuilds]

Hey, I'm just copying and pasting someone else's comments from another forum about the difference in Sta-bil and Seafoam here if you are interested:


"The thing is, I've read the Sta-bil directions/label and it, like
Gumout, STP treatment and Seafoam also works to clean carbs and the
fuel line of deposits and moisture.
One post I saw was from someone that uses both in the same tank with
an additional fuel additive year round.
In the research I've done, I aslo see that the makers of Sta-bil also
make a fuel line cleaner called HEET.
Taking into account that Sta-bil is in a plastic bottle and Seafoam
is apparently (I haven't been able to find any yet locally, by the
way, but was not in an auto supply store at the time when I got the
Sta-bil) in a metal container I accept that the Seafoam is stronger.
As one poster said, it's strong enough to melt the hand grips on
Craftsman tools. But also over use can wear down the rubber gasketts
of the fuel lines. So, yes, I want to take it slow at this point and
not over due it."


Personally, I never even thought about the possibility that sea foam might damage the seals. Anybody had a problem with that?