Where Are The Pegs?

Been spending a lot of time on really tight mountain roads and I've noticed something.  This bike is narrow.  So narrow in fact that if you are dragging a peg, you've just crashed.  I've leaned the bike over all the way to the edge of the tread regularly and haven't dragged anything, no pegs, no pipes, no engine cases, etc.  Cornering clearance will never be a problem.  So feel free to lean it over, there's room.  :-)

Do You Talk To Your Plugs???

You should.  It is really a lost art that a lot of people don't seem to do anymore.  Even I need a refresher.  Nothing gives you direct information of what is going on inside the cylinder like your spark plug.  Aside from telling you if you have the right plug in there all together it will let you know of your mixture quality, and if something fishy is going on inside the motor.

Did you know that the spark plug your manufacturer recommends may not be the best plug for your engine?  Depending on how and where you drive can change the needs of your spark plug.  If you tend to ride hard and really push the engine most of the time you may find the manufacturers recommendation too hot.  Too hot a plug can cause damage to the plug hurting maximum engine performance and can cause a hot spot and pre-ignition in extreme cases.  On the other hand if you tend to just loaf the engine and just cruise everywhere and never open it up, you may find the spark plug your manufacturer recommends to be too cold.  Too cold a plug wont be able to burn deposits off and will reduce your spark energy which will have an effect on performance.

Do you have a carbureted bike, or a custom computer to tune your fuel injection?  Have you changed the induction design (i.e. removed air box) or changed your exhaust system?  Is your tune correct?  The spark plugs can tell you.  Reading the plugs will let you know if you need to step up to that richer main jet or bump your fuel injection timings.

So take a few minutes and learn to talk to your plugs, your bike will thank you for it.

Crowd Pleaser

Do you like attention?  This bike brings it.  I have had this bike 3 1/2 weeks now and more people come up to talk to me and comment on this bike than any other vehicle I've owned.  I've been followed into restaurants, located in a bowling alley, stopped in a parking lot, and queried at traffic lights.  Everyone wants to know what it is.  Several people have commented that it looks like a vintage Triumph.  Everyone seems to like it.  It really is the motorcycle nobody makes anymore.  Sure, there are some other standard style motorcycles out there, but they just aren't as standard as they used to be.  The standard, or Universal Japaneese Motorcycle, was great because it could be used as it was or transformed easily into just about anything else you wanted.  It could be a stripped down cafe racer (where mine is headed), a tourer, a dual purpose bike, pretty much anything you needed.  Now days most of the standards are still very complex machines, and even though they are wearing naked bodywork, the bodywork all is tightly integrated with eachother leaving customization to other needs difficult.  The Suzuki TU is simple, and you can see that simplicity from a mile away.  There are no gizmos or LCD screens.  No extra needles, just one for the speedo thank you very much.  A few simple "idiot" lights to let you know what you need to know, otherwise nothing to distract you from the joy of riding.  I've had that joy for 1730 miles now.  :-)  Enjoy your ride.

Bikemaster Clubman Handlebars

     These have always been favorite set of handlebars, and I just happen to have a set in my garage.  I pulled them out, dusted them off and installed them.  They definately give the bike a more agressive feel, gives it that 60's cafe racer look, and for big guys like me (I'm 6' 4") it makes the bike feel a little larger.  It also put a noticable transfer of weight to the front tire which helps keep the front tire from getting light while running aggressive throttle. 
     I did make another run up my favorite mountain today to check out the feel and it definately inspired confidence.  I rode harder and faster than I ever have.  It may have inspired too much confidence as one corner in particular always seem to catch me out and since I was running harder than normal, I did have an off pavement excursion.  After hitting a hell of a bump coming back onto the tarmac and enduring a quick knee slapper I did get her back under control.  Definately more excitement than I bargained for and after letting my heart settle and feeling out the bike for the next mile or so I ramped the speed back up and was able to really wheel the bike down the rest of the mountain.
     So if you like a more aggressive feel to your bike and like the cafe racer look, pick yourself up a set.

840 miles 2-up in 56 hours on a 250, would you do it?

I did!!!  It is possible.  The route went from Phoenix, Az. to San Diego, Ca. via I-8, then up the coast through La Jolla (for a stop on the beach), Carlsbad (more beach), Dana Point and back to Phoenix via SR-74 and I-10. 

     The Good.  Secondary highways, 347 and 238 from Phoenix to Gila Bend, Az., highway 101 along the beach from La Jolla to Oceanside, Ca., and SR 74 from Dana Point, through Lake Elsinore, to Palm Desert was wonderful.  Power never seemed an issue here and flipping through the mountain curves was a blast.  One advantage I found of an underpowered bike, you can ride it as hard as you can but since you aren't going to eat up the straightaways with the same vigor as a more powerful bike you don't catch cars as quickly.  This for me increased the fun time since I would stop and wait for the cars to catch up and then take off and blast off until I catch up to the cars ahead of me again, then stop and wait for those behind again.  On a faster bike I would have had to stop a lot more often, and the lack of power is meaningless in the curves, so I had a blast.  :-)  Also the driver seat is wonderful, I could have rode full fuel range the whole trip. 

     The Bad.  Freeways.  Make sure your tire pressures are right and maybe a little on the high end.  I was lazy and didn't adjust the pressures at first for 2 riders.  After adjusting I was able to maintain the speed a lot better.  But even at that I was at GVWR and no vehicle performs well there.  Brakes and handling were great, but climbing hills becomes a problem.  I could maintain 70 after increasing the tire pressure, but in AZ 18 wheelers are allowed to go 75, so watching out for approaching trucks is a little unnearving.  The last of the bad is the pillion (passenger) seat.  It is a plain rectange.  At the begining of the trip we had to make pit stops every hour to get off the bike for 10 minutes, by the time the trip ended we were down to 30 minutes.  I do plan on buying another driver seat and retrofitting it to the pillion and I'll write up a full report when I do. 

     Still absolutly jazzed with the bike.  My expectations for a 250 were low, and it still has exceeded all expectations.

1616 miles.

First Oil Change - Suzuki's Not-So-Nice Surprise

So if you are like me, you perform your own maintainence.  Well, I rode this bike so much that my break-in maintainence got here before my shop manual.  No worries, how exciting is an oil change, heck, the bike even has "OIL FILTER" embossed on the cover where the filter goes.  Well, when you look underneath, you will find what appears to be TWO oil drain plugs.  Interesting.  One is toward the rear of the engine and directly in the case, and the other is more towards the front in a plate attached to the case.  Well, I decided the one directly in the case (towards the rear) was my choice and pulled it...  (insert your favorite curse word here)!!!  Not only did the plug and oil come out, but so did a spring and a plunger too!!!  WRONG PLUG!!!  At first I thought maybe an oil pressure relief valve or something, but after a quick search of the internet I found one comment on a forum where someone did the same thing.  He said it was the shifter detent assembly and sure enough my shifter no longer had detents.  Now, how does it go back together, well if you play with the plunger you will notice that the skinny shank will go right in the spring.  This would be WRONG, if you reassemble (as I did the first time) it will go together but your shifter will still have no detents.  The proper assembly is plunger first (rounded stem up) then the spring then the plug.  After reassembly you should have your shift detents back.  Also, if you drained your oil from that plug still pull the proper front plug, more oil will come out.  My bike now has 770 miles on it and is about to embark on an 1000+ mile road trip this weekend.  I hope you are enjoying your bike.  :-)

Cheap and Cheerful

I used to watch a british show called Top Gear, if you haven't seen it, watch it.  It is a show about cars done by guys who are entertaining and have a passion for cars.  Anyway, when the economy tanked several years ago they did a show where their goal was to find a brand new car that was cheap (I think it was supposed to be < 8000 pounds) and a joy to drive.  I remeber at the time thinking that this was an impossible task, and I am not sure they really hit the mark.  But, try and do that with a motorcycle and the equation changes a bit.  The TU defines cheap and cheerful.  Start with price, at $4000 this is a cheap motorcycle to buy, you can finance it for less than $100 a month, that's easy to live with.  Then fuel mileage, I have seen the advertised 79 MPG with city and twisty mountain road riding (very twisty, < 50 MPH kinda twisty), you will give up some mileage for freeway driving at 75-80 MPH, I've seen it drop to 60 MPG with all freeway driving.  But even at 60 MPG this bike is easy to feed.  Then you've got maintainence for the do it yourselfer, 1.4 quarts of oil, a small inexpensive oil filter, and rocker arm actuated valves that can be adjusted without buying shims or removing cams.  This makes maintainence a bargain.  And finally the cheerful part, I can't wait for a reason to get on this bike.  Any excuse to ride it and I am there.  I wish my commute was more than the 1 mile commute that it is.  This bike defines cheap and cheerful, if you need cheap transportation just get it.  :-)

Be a Racer!!!

So I had a little fun this afternoon.  Had to do a freeway trip across the city (Phoenix) today and we were having some decent gusty winds today.  With just me on the bike it could maintain 75-80 MPH and seemed pretty comfortable there.  But I decided to take a "racer crouch" on the bike with my chin nearly touching the speedo and my elbows tucked tight into my legs, riding like that I could easily accelerate from 75-85 and even 90 in some cases.  It was quite fun and I probably rode that way for a good 15 miles.  I read somewhere in a review that tucked in like this you could use the front turn signals as convex mirrors and sure enough they work quite well.  :-)  You can't see directly behind yourself with them so you will have to pop your head up from time to time to check that noone is driving up your tailpipe.  With today's journey she's now showing 632 miles on the clock.

The Chink In The Armor

Now don't get me wrong, I still absolutly love this bike...  but we all knew that power would be an issue at some point.  Today I took a 350 mile ride with my girl.  The tight twisty roads were great and the bike performed admiribly, but climbing hills at highway speed presents a problem.  Depending on the grade you will have to drop a cog or two.  I do believe this problem may be correctable by opening up the exhaust to help her breathe on the top end (I am not advocating you defeat your emissions system).  The bike got excellent gas milage, and on the flat with no head wind was able to run a good 80-85 MPH.  I found the driver saddle adequate for an all day ride, but initial reports on the rear seat were not favorable.  It is only her 3rd ride, so it may be something she grows through, but I dont think so.  The seat is split front and rear and I am thinking that I may try to order a second driver saddle and mount it in place of the pillion saddle, as she tried sitting on the driver saddle after the trip and thought it felt a lot better than the pillion saddle.  She has 557 miles now.  :-)

Second mountain ride (solo ride)

So I enjoyed my first mountain ride so much I had to do it again the next day.  :-)  Everything I loved about the bike the previous ride was even better, it flicks back and forth without even trying, braking was excellent, and she never got out of shape.  The rear suspension still showed the underdamping issue but I can live with it for now, maybe down the road I'll replace them.  I love this bike.  198 miles.

First mountain ride...

I have had the bike for 7 days and it was time to take my girl for a ride to South Mountain.  Might be expecting the little 250 engine to be overtaxed by a 2-up ride in the mountains, but I didn't feel it was.  Just for reference I rode an 1100cc bike for 10 years so I do know how big bore bikes feel and I wasn't disappointed by the little 250.  One advantage of the small bike over the big bore bike is that the bike is super light.  At 320 lbs. soaking wet the little TU is extremely light weight and the side to side transitions are effortless.  The only complaint I have about the bike is that the rear suspension is underdamped so it doesn't settle as quickly after a bump as I would like.  That is it though, I could really keep the bikes momentum up and it flew up and down the mountain.  On the downward run of the mountain the brakes never complained or faded.  I've seen some complaints about the rear drum brake but I really don't see the problem, it never over heated or faded either and works just fine.  152 miles on the bike.

The first ride...

So the first real ride happened the first night I owned the bike.  I had to take a friend about 40 miles across town so it was a chance to do a 2-up ride, and it was almost all freeway.  I was able to easily maintain 75MPH 2-up and it was a very comfortable ride.  On hills you will need a downshift to keep it up to speed.  Once the engine is broke in it will be easier to maintain speed.  One thing is that Suzuki doesn't publish the redline of the motorcycle and if you are going to do any sporting riding you will need to know.  Since I am still breaking the motor I have not found a rev limiter, but a magazine article I found showed the power curves for the bike and they stopped at 10,000 RPM, so for now I am assuming that as the redline.  Using 10,000 RPM as the redline, redline in each gear is as follows...  1st - 30 MPH, 2nd - 50 MPH, 3rd - 70 MPH, 4th - 85 MPH, 5th - 101 MPH.  After this trip, 82 miles on the bike.  :-)

Why the Suzuki TU250X

Well, to tell you the truth I have never considered a modern bike until recently.  Frankly I'm not fond of modern motorcycle looks and was saving up and looking for a 60's era Triumph.  That was until I discovered the TU250X!  What a beautiful classic looking bike.  I read over 30 reviews about the bike and could not find anything negative about the bike.  It reminded me of my old Suzuki GS450t.  I decided to go look at one and fell in love, it felt like home.  I was pretty sure I was going to buy it, and when my trucks transmission broke and left me with no reliable transportation that same night, I bought it the next day.  :-)