Re: The story so far.. My Honda CBR 250R

Hi all,

this post will be slightly off-course due to recent developments that have taken place. So without waiting further, let us get on with the story.


RIDING GEAR UPGRADES

My ageing Scoyco JK17 riding jacket has served me well for the last 4 years. I am happy to report that not a single zip or stitch has failed since the day i got it. However, discolouration/fading of the jacket has slowly become very prominent understandably due to continuous usage over a period of time. So while i have been busy restoring my CBR 250R with utmost care, deep inside i knew time has come to also start looking into and investing on rider safety gears. Most of us in general purchase a helmet and may be gloves and then leave it to that as the cost of procuring good riding gears is definitely an expensive affair.

However, learning from the senior riders in xbhp and remembering the gyan shared by @abhimanyu31 one should never compromise on safety as far as possible coz god forbid if the unthinkable happens the actual road to recovery and the monetary expenses will be much more difficult to digest. As always, it was time to pester my friends and riding buddies to help me narrow down from the list of good riding jackets which i can wear almost 80% of the year in this part of the country. Due to the nature of changing seasons in the North East India, i chose to go for a textile mesh jacket which provides a good amount of air flow and the protective armours could be later upgraded as in when the budget permits. While having rounds of discussion with my fellow riders it was very clear to me that i wanted to go for a brand which is focused and specialises in making rider protective gear and has been in the market for a long time.

So it was pretty obvious that the choice was going to be one and only "Alpinestars". For those who may be interested the video link below will give a clear cut idea why it was the "one":



I would like to sincerely thank senior rider @gopakumar s pillai who took time and personally visited Planet DSG showroom, Pune and helped me to shortlist the jacket for me.





Pic No. 1,2 & 3: Alpinestars TGP Plus R Air Jacket imported and sold by Planet dsg (PlanetDSG : Motorcycle Riding Gear, Accessories, Apparel and..), Pune.

After going through a range of options offered by Planet DSG, it was decided to go for Alpinestars TGP Plus R Air Jacket with the colour pattern shown in the pics above as i felt this will offer high road visibility for oncoming traffic. I will opt for Nucleon KR-2i back and KR-ci chest protector upgrades at a later stage and take safety a notch higher.

Hopefully in sometime i will end up going for proper street riding boots either from Alpinestars (SMX-6, link: PlanetDSG : Motorcycle Riding Gear, Accessories, Apparel and..) or else TCX (S Sportour Evo: Buy Motorcycle Riding Boots in India | High Note Performance). Just trying to celebrate a second Christmas (confessions of a OCMD rider!! )

i Would personally like to advise all my fellow riders, as in when possible always invest on good riding gears. Safety should never be taken lightly. Anyways, the order has been placed. I am also in the process of getting some more farkle for my CBR 250R but more on that later...


Cheers,

Re: The story so far.. My Honda CBR 250R

Hi all,

been meaning to update the thread for a while but just so happens that work schedule has taken most of my time and the internet connection has been quite erratic in this part of the country. Regardless, time has come to get things rolling and i hope the following rants of an OCMD rider will add something more to this thread if you know what i am saying!

My riding has become limited to just 940 kms last month thanks to hectic schedule and periodic field visits. The 4th round of Rimula 4 HDEO oil has been holding up well. The engine oil has changed its colour of dark amber but so far the response, smoothness and gear shifts has been extremely sublime. I shall monitor the health of the engine for another 800 - 1000 kms (if time permits) and report my observations here. However, i would give a detailed update on that in another post. For now, let us carry on with the big one


INSTALLATION OF TAPERED ROLLER BEARINGS & SERVICING OF FRONT FORKS WITH CUSTOM PRELOAD

WARNING: The items i am about to describe and use are based on my discretion and my own need to experiment and learn. The products mentioned below are after-market in nature and i donot advocate any of them. It is merely to understand, learn, for the sheer joy of personalising my vehicle, sharing my experiences here as i clock more kms and review/post the net results for knowledge sharing. Should someone decide to follow my footsteps, know this: you are doing so with your own free will.


I have been delaying the process of replacing the worn out OEM steering bearings and the much needed fork oil change for a while thanks to the hectic work schedule and also due to the reluctance & in-experience of the local SVC mechanic. Understandably, CBR by nature is relatively trouble free and most of the owners don't harass their local SVC mechanics like i do!! Me and a bunch of OCMD riders belong to such a group: who are never satisfied with their respective steeds. Any noise, vibrations or even a minute deviation will send jitters down our spine... something a generic - everyday rider will never ever bother with...only to later realise that when we test ride a similar vehicle of a fellow rider: our respective steeds are in far better health, refined and well kept than theirs!! Well what can i say... it is a medical condition!!

So i finally managed to get hold of free time and decided it was wise to approach a bigger SVC with experienced mechanics who have at least carried out fork oil changes and complete rebuilds of accident vehicles. I came to know of a good mechanic through a referral of a common friend and then fixed my appointment with the SVC. Now i must be clear: given the choice i would any day go for a hydraulic set up to get the outer race and bearing installation done like it was carried out by Mr. Vikram & Vijay: Motozone Performance, Mumbai & Pune on @abhimanyu31 's Ninja san (thread link:http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/general-...ml#post1069542) as from any manner one looks at it: it is the right way to do things. Given the circumstances of me living in a remote location and due to unavailability of such services: add to that in-experienced hands, i had to make do with what i had. Bearing installation is not a hatchet job! So one can definitely understand the sheer reluctance to carry out the installation of the same with "chalta hain" attitude: as a result i had been stalling this, trying to find out alternative ways to get hold a custom hydraulic press shop or create some sort of custom jig to install the tapered roller bearings like it should be. However, after exhausting all options i consulted Mr. Vikram and @gopakumar s pillai and decided to go ahead with traditional method while keeping few safeguards. The good thing about the All Balls tapered roller bearings is that the manufacturer supplies the bearings with everything: outer races for CBR 250R and rubber dust seals for both the top and bottom bearings.

After i reached the SVC, the mechanic first dismantled the front fairing, MID instrument panel in order to gain easy access to the front forks and also in the due process have more free room to carry out the work easily.





Pic 1 & 2: Front fairing removed from my CBR 250R. The mechanic releasing the clamps and slowly removing the front forks from the fixtures/mounts and the clip ons.

Once, the front forks were removed from their given location, we then began dismantling the triple tree clamp: top lock nut and the holding nut for accessing the top and bottom steering bearings. Once the top cover was removed the top bearing was initially inspected to do a kind of autopsy behind the bearing failure and also assess the damage that has been done over a period of usage. As the pictures will suggest, both the top and bottom bearings were covered with a concoction of grease mixed with dust and dirt: understandably due to exposure to the elements with over 26,000 kms of usage. The outer race for the top bearing had visible damage and the inner part of the race had metal flaking off (not visible in the pics). The top bearing balls were also damaged, the bottom bearing was relatively in good shape though.







Pic 3, 4 & 5: The OEM bearings being removed. Post inspection the top bearing was found to have taken a severe beating along with the outer race. the bottom bearing was found to be relatively in good shape post 26,000 kms.

We then took out the OEM bearings and began with the process of removing the OEM outer races. Once, the outer races were removed we then started installing the supplied outer races by All Balls Racing for both top and bottom for the tapered roller bearings. I was monitoring the whole progress at all the time in order to ensure that the mechanic doesn't have a gala time hammering his way to the glory. The races were tapped uniformly from all sides to ensure that they seat properly. I then followed a method suggested by the vendor which made things easy for me. Once, the installation was done, we then measured to confirm that the seating has been done within the specs recommended by Honda. One good thing about these races were than they have been precision manufactured. If one notices the images below the outer races are angled compared to the OEM ones for the ball bearings. The fit was exceptionally snug and there was no play observed even when the final installation of the lower triple tree was done to the chassis.







Pic 6, 7 & 8: Outer races for both the top and bottom part getting installed onto the chassis. Note the angular nature of the races compared to the OEM ones. These have been precision machined specifically for this application by All Balls Racing.

For any readers who are on the lookout for an alternative bearing from another manufacturer do bear this in mind: getting hold of an outer race (for tapered bearings) designed to match the specs for a Honda CBR 250R will be the first priority as simply purchasing a matching tapered roller bearing from another manufacturer will be a worthless exercise. As far as i am aware of no other indian manufacturer (SKF/FAG etc.) provides outer race for similar application for motorcycles manufactured in India. If one can custom build it using a VMC/CNC machine then this will open up doors for a lot of riders who are on the lookout for an alternative bearing in place of the OEM one... just a thought!!

The next step literally made me sweat throughout the process as we were now progressing towards installation of bottom bearing onto the lower triple tree. Since, i didn't have any access to hydraulic press we had to route for the traditional "hammering" method. Thanks to Mr. Vikram & @gopakumar s pillai for giving me useful pointers on the same, the installation was relatively made easy though i was on the edge throughout.



Pic 9: installation of bottom bearing onto the lower triple tree

Once the installation was complete, i started looking for a good grease to lubricate the bearings. Thanks to a weekend, all the oil & lubricants selling shops were shut. I was very adamant and made it clear to the SVC mechanic that using dust & grime mixed lithium grease which was lying outside and used on other motorcycles & vehicles in their SVC will simply not do. The mechanic then suggested going for Honda supplied high grade, high temperature resistant & waterproof silicon grease. A mere 30 - 40 gms tube costs whopping 260 bucks! I then decided what the heck, let us go for the best and not compromise on such a critical component. So then we went ahead with smearing liberal gobs of silicon grease onto the bearing to ensure that it receives a good amount of lubrication and also forms a layer: creating a barrier for the bearing from interacting with the outside elements.





Pic 10 & 11: Honda High grade silicon grease. The silicon grease being liberally applied on the tapered bearing.

Both the top and bottom bearings were greased liberally and we also lubricated the outer races for the top and bottom bearing with the same Honda silicon grease. This was going to pinch my wallet a bit however, i didn't want to compromise on anything. Once, the lubrication work was completed we then installed the triple tree onto the chassis and the tightened the holding mechanism.

We then progressed onto dis-assembling and putting in fresh fork oil into the front forks. For those who are keen the learn a bit more about proper servicing/overhauling of front forks for Honda CBR 250R do check out the video link below:



Once, the front forks were disassembled, we then took out the fork spring, washers, preload OEM spacers from the fork and drained the old fork oil from the fork pipe. The old fork oil looked like dirty gutter water which was expected given non-preventive maintenance by the previous owner. The mechanic then started cleaning all the components using petrol. Since, the fork oil seal and the dust seal was in good health we didn't bother dis-assembling the whole fork unit and simply carried out the cleaning process of the innards of the fork tube using petrol. Once, all the components were cleaned and dried, the mechanic then poured the new fork oil into a measuring jug and the put in into the front forks.









Pic 12, 13, 14 & 15: The front fork components being removed and cleaned using petrol. The innards of the fork tube getting cleaned by pouring in petrol and then sloshing around, pumping the fork tube a couple of times and then draining the contents.

Once, the fork oil was put in the mechanic then started pumping the fork tube a number of times in order to ensure that any residual air remaining inside is removed completely. We then wen ahead with putting the fork spring, washers and the OEM spacer inside in the order we had taken them out. However, one more thing was added into the recipe. I had got hold of a 1" spacer in order to test out a high pre-load setting with the OEM forks. Honda CBR 250R has been traditionally softly sprung into order to provide a much more compliant ride. However, this same OEM set up is also the "achilles heel" for Honda as it doesn't provide confidence for any rider who wants to do a bit more of corner carving. Also with the OEM set up, the front forks have a tendency to dive in too much during hard braking which i felt at times lead to the front tire losing a bit of grip and also the feeling on the front brake lever was not consistent.









Pic 16, 17, 18 & 19: The mechanic pumping the forks to let out any residual air from inside. The 1" spacer getting installed for custom suspension set up test.

I wanted to try out a custom set up with 1" spacer and using 340 ml of fork oil instead of 331ml to see if this floats my boat. I will have to do some extensive runs on the moon cratered roads of the North East and then see if the set up feels more stiff then what other combinations can be tried out to get a set up of my preference. Once, the front forks were re-assembled, the mechanic then put them back onto the triple tree and then began re-assembling the fairing back on my CBR. Well then the money was paid off and the mechanic was tipped (quite well!!). The top locknut of the steering bearings have been kept slightly lose in order to see how much tightening will work best for my CBR. I wanted to be sure that the mechanic didn't end up over tightening the locknut which may damage the tapered bearings and prove to be an costly affair for me.

Anyways, i will provide an initial experience with the new set up in a separate post as due to time constraints i will have to wrap this one rather quick.

Till then watch out more on this space...


Cheers,

Re: The story so far.. My Honda CBR 250R

SHV 18....Another Very informative post with relevant Pictures...They say a Picture is worth a thousand words , and your posts with so many pictures are self explanatory and gives a better understanding of the process you undertake in fine tuning your CBR 250 to your taste and performance....

Do keep up the Good Work.
Good Luck
Ride Safe.

Re: The story so far.. My Honda CBR 250R

@shv18 sorry for taking up your thread. but since this is also a thread related to CBR250R thread I am replying to it.

Currently my bike is suffering from either of chain tensioner or shim or timing chain related issue. I am not able to figure it out. The sound can be best described as a stitching sound. So I went ahead and tried to diagnose the actual culprit.

While trying the DIY chain tensioner method carried out by maneesh a.ka. @sman999, I found that the current allen key bolt installed in the chain tensioner was already loose. Suspecting this could be the culprit in the stitching sound, I tightened it and then went on for a spin, for few moments the stitching sound did not bother me, it could be psychological effect. But after 2 km ride the sound came again. pissed off went home and did the DIY what maneesh has done and then again went on for a spin. the sound is still there. so it is confirmed that the shims are culprit here.

Spoke to Honda mech (Abdul from Vihaan Honda - thane) where I go for service, on call. Now the theory he is presenting about shim noise is that they cannot fit in shim with lesser clearance. I told him about the clearance values (Intake valve clearance: 0.16 +/- 0.03 mm, Exhaust valve clearance: 0.27 +/- 0.03 mm ). He said this is all right, but they purposely give a bit more clearance so that the vales don't get bent while running. Somebody please put some light on this, Fitting a bigger shim will put the valves at risk and at such a risk that they might get bent ?

I have taken an appointment to get the shims checked or replaced on 25th Feb as I am currently in pune and yet to find a decent SVC who can carry out this job here.

If somebody can point me to a competent SVC who can do this job in pune, I will be very much grateful.

Few insights on my riding style :

1. always shifting at around 4-5K rpm never exceeded that
2. Gradual acceleration and de-acceleration
3. Sudden acceleration once or twice in 50 times maybe, but it is rarest of the rare affair.
4. Servicing is done at proper intervals and proper time and at proper km clocking.
5. Engine oil used Shell Ultra advance 10W 40
6. anything else missed out please let me know.

I would also want to know few reasons on why the shims wear out so fast.

Cheers,
Sanjay

Re: The story so far.. My Honda CBR 250R

QUICK UPDATE:

Dear all, here is a quick update on the experience so far with tapered roller bearing and suspension tuning..


I had covered an initial distance of around 110 kms since, the installation of All Balls Tapered Roller bearings along with increasing fork spring pre-load and using 340 ml of fork oil. However, after the completion of the same a few things became very apparent:

1) There was a "khat" noise emanating from the front top triple tree.

2) The front tire was losing about 2 - 4 psi on an average making it difficult to gauge the current set up.

3) On filling up proper tire pressure, the front felt being to reactive/jumping around to feedback from the road conditions prevailing in and around my place.

So sighting the above i decided to take care of each issue step by step. First, i had to adjust & tighten the lock nut which sits on top of the steering bearings to get rid of the unwanted play that was detected. The readers may take note that initially me and the mechanic had intentionally kept the lock nut slightly lose in order to gauge the set up first and then make adjustments without going overboard with tightening of the same. The SVC mechanic did the needful and once, i was satisfied with the adjustments, the locknut was tightened properly as per the specs and the "Khat" noise vanished completely.

Secondly, the front tire losing quite a bit of tire pressure made it evident that either there was a puncture, the air fill in valve might be leaking or else there is air leakage from the side wall. So with the help of my base mechanic, we managed to take out the front tire. On further inspection, it was found that the front alloy had a minute but visible dent as shown in the pic below. However, there was no air leakage from that point. The tire guy then used a frothy concoction of water and shampoo in between the rim edge and the tire to see if there was any visible leakage/air bubbles forming. It was then discovered that quite a bit area of the alloy had air bubbles forming indicating a leak in between side walls and the alloy wheel. He then went ahead and dismantled the front tire form the rim to inspect the innards. Then the inner edge of the mag wheel were inspected and it became clear that quite a bit of the OEM paint on the inner part of the alloy wheel had started flaking off due to interaction with moisture and as a result there were minuscule pockets forming in between the tire wall and the alloy wall: resulting in an easy passage for the air to get away from. The tire shop guy, using an 80 grit sand paper then sanded off the flaking paint from the inner side of the alloy, applied Vaseline petroleum jelly, re-seated the front tire onto the alloy and then filled the front tire with air. After that, the tire was submerged under water to see if any bubbles or leakage was found again. Thankfully this time the tire wall mounted onto the alloy properly and there was no air leakage from the side wall. So the second issue was addressed as well.



Pic 1: Note the slight bend discovered on the front alloy wheel all thanks to the roads of the North East - India. No air was leaking from the bent side of the alloy rim.

Moving onto the third one, from the bouncy nature of the front suspension it was pretty clear that the current spacer along with higher amount of fork oil had made the set up too stiff for the road conditions prevailing here. So i had to take the either steps: a) reduce the fork oil to 331 ml on each side b) remove the custom spacers and see if the net result is satisfactory.

I decided to go with plan "b)" so again the services of the SVC mechanic was employed. He was very quick in removing the custom spacers without dis-assembling the whole front fork. I do like the desi jugaad method at times!!



Pic 2: Custom spacer getting removed from the front fork.

Once, everything was put back in i thanked the SVC guy, cleared my bills and went on to do a bit more run and see if this new set up works for me. I then covered a total of 246 kms since, the installation of the same.

OBSERVATIONS:

* The front suspension even though planted was far more firmer and the front dived much lesser when in comparison to OEM set up.
* The brake bite feel on the front lever was much more prominent.
* There has been a noticeable improvement on the front tire grip especially when dealing with dusty or wet surface. Earlier the front tire was a bit more skittish.
* The bike remains rock steady and there seems to be far lesser unwanted feedback coming from the front to the handlebar.

An interesting thing i did note that it seems to be the case that the theoretical info and possibilities of Radial and Co-Axial load bearing capacity of the Tapered Roller Bearings seems to be turning out true so far. There has been a noticeable improvement in cornering capabilities of my CBR 250R and on the bad roads i can happily glide over without feeling any unwanted feedback or the front steering torquing by itself to left or right without the input of the rider. The vehicle does feel more planted. But then again more observation is necessary to see what are net gains (if any) from installing/using this set up over OEM stock ball steering bearings. I will post my observations once, i cross 1,000 kms with this set up.

I would also like to point out to all my CBR owners that Honda does sell stickers/graphics on the tank or on the panels individually as shown in the parts catalogue. Though placing and order, rather to convince an SVC to place an order will be a herculean task as the arrival time is painstakingly quite long! But regardless, if one is resourceful this is possible.



Pic 3: parts catalogue indicating availability of stickers/graphics on a CBR250R. One can purchase theses items individually. The one above is for the Pearl Sunbeam White colour i believe.

The gears are still butter smooth and slick and no unwanted noise from the engine bay has been observed. I have covered roughly 1200 kms and so far things have been peachy with the 4th round of Shell Rimula R4 HDEO oil doing duty on my CBR 250R.

There is more to come as i continue logging kms.. till then watch out on this space..

Whenever i had technical queries or troubleshooting, the one person from whom i have always received satisfactory answer is Mr. Vikram, Motozone.


Cheers,

Re: The story so far.. My Honda CBR 250R

Shocked!! Really shocked to see Rimula manages only 3500 Km? Are you sure or did I misunderstand anything?

Shell 10W40 Ultra FS has lasted about 8000 Km for me with hard gear shifts as it surpasses 7K Km, not once, but I've tested it twice within a Lakh Km.

However one drawback is that, the oil level starts depleting (I usually fill 1600 ml+ for first time) after 4000 Km & after 6000 Km, it has to be topped every 1000 Km. Shell 10W40 FS is bang value for money for my kind of use, I'm already frustrated changing oil every 3-4 months & looking forward for some other superior engine oil that lasts 10,000 Km, if you find any...please ping me. Thanks

Re: The story so far.. My Honda CBR 250R

Saar do bear in mind Rimula R4 is a multigrade HDEO mineral oil. At the moment i am taking things slowly to ensure that i don't push my luck too far. The main factor behind this whole experiment was to ensure a gradual and mild clean up of the engine internals while giving it maximum protection with a higher ZDDP content oil.. whether it is able to last 3,500 kms or not is actually secondary for me. But if it does survive 3,500 kms+ then as mentioned earlier, it may be beneficial for some riders who clock very low mileage per month and want to keep maintenance cost on the lower side.

Abroad they use Shell Rotella T6 HDEO oil which is FS in nature and has given superior performance in comparison to standard motorcycle based engine oils. Some of the video logs/links:








Cheers,

Re: The story so far.. My Honda CBR 250R

Just an update to the HDEO treatment. I've done the second round of R4, changed back to FS now. Notable points are;

1. Engine is butter smooth even in higher rpms.
2. There is notable increase in midrange response (read stronger midrange)
3. Increase in FE, though marginal is more than welcome!

This time, the R4 lasted a whole 3.5K clicks. Yet to try the earth wire mod.

I've opted for the HDEO treatment of my own accord and am willing to live with failures if any! (touch wood)

Re: The story so far.. My Honda CBR 250R

Deleted duplicate post.

Re: The story so far.. My Honda CBR 250R

It was little tough to find Shell Rimula R4 in western suburbs of mumbai. But atlast found one shop which sells almost all veriety of shell oil.
For mumbai guys here is the address



On my first fill of rimula oil, i didnot observed any smoothness in bike vibs or in gear shifting. It is giving me the feeling that i never changed the oil. Just completed 100 kms on new oil, will observe for few kms more.
Lets hope for good...

Re: The story so far.. My Honda CBR 250R

QUICK UPDATE:

Dear all,

i have now covered around 1656 kms with the 4th round of Shell Rimula R4 HDEO oil and so far things are ticking absolutely fine. No sign of engine note getting harsher, no clutch slippage, gear sticking or any unwanted noise from the engine bay. The engine oil has now turned dark amber. So my guess is, this time i should be able to easily surpass the 2,000 kms mark without any hiccups. However, shall continue monitoring. This time the engine is definitely feeling better, even after crossing the 1600 kms mark. Can we consider this as a sure shot sign of positive recovery? I can only do a best guess that from the data collected so far and the behaviour shown by my motorcycle: things are looking better! Hopefully the net result will be what has always been the sole intent of this whole experiment: engine clean up and recovery using an HDEO oil with high content of detergent and ZDDP.


One more interesting thing i want to share with all the dear readers: My CBR has covered around 7, 200 kms since the date of ownership and so far the new chain has not been adjusted even once! Dedicated lubrication has been done as per recommended intervals mentioned in the service manual, using plain 'ol gearbox oil and the chain has been cleaned by simply using diesel and that's about it. No fancy chain spray or cleaning spray! So in my humble experience, unless one is gung-ho about keeping the rear alloy rim spic and span, don't bother going for chain sprays.. the "Sasta aur Sada" (plain & cheap) method of using SAE grade Gearbox oil available at any petrol pump will do just fine.

I have an interesting video for those who would like to learn a bit more about "O/X ring" chains and what things to look out for when lubricating it:



My bike has now covered around 550 kms with the All Balls tapered roller steering bearings and in the handling department i am happy to report that on potholes my CBR simply glides over without sending aftershocks to the clip ons. However, i will have to further tighten the locknut by just a little bit as on extremely bad roads the "khat" noise is prominent indicating a bit of tweaking required. Besides that, the tapered roller bearings does what has been advertised. I am hopeful that compared to standard ball bearings this one should easily last longer due to more surface area contact and better tolerance to radial & co-axial loads which, on the roads of North East India: it will receive in plenty.

Anyways, i decided to add one more toy to control my OCMD!! Got hold of a universal adjustable paddock stand for my CBR 250R from GA Engineering Auto Accessories (info courtesy @AK3D and vendor link: https://www.facebook.com/GA-Engineer...2078363388052/) The seller was exceptionally pro-active and kept monitoring the consignment till it was delivered at my doorstep, not something usually seen with other vendors providing similar items/accessories. It is very reasonably priced compared to the other branded competitors in the indian market and the build quality is pretty good.





Pic 1 & 2: Universal adjustable paddock stand from GA Engineering Auto Accessories. Decided to stick and All Balls Racing stickers on the paddock stand for cosmetic purpose. Note the side stand is not touching the surface (forgot to put it back in retracted position).

I decided to go for an adjustable one so that incase, i do strike gold in the near future and go for a higher CC range then this paddock stand will remain usable for the same. For those who want to get their hands on Honda SVC like paddock stand, GA Engineering is selling one for around Rs. 2,200/- (Shipping charges additional). This is indeed a worthy investment and i am happy with the purchase. Highly recommended for anyone getting tired of using desi jugaad to lube, inspect rear end of the vehicle and damaging the side stand in the process. This will save you the headache.

Moving on, the exhaust heat shield had quite a lot of scratch marks right from the day i had purchase the motorcycle. My best guess is, the previous owner had managed to scratch the heat shield while parking or taking out the vehicle from a crowded space. Since, the exhaust shield was relatively in good shape, i decided to try my own painting skills to spray 2 liberal coats of canned spray paint on it. Do pardon the poor workmanship but i guess for cosmetic job, it should do just fine. I will use dulling spray at a later stage to give the overall paint the matt black look. Total cost just 100 bucks/- and a simple DIY.



Pic 3: My horrible painting skills using a 100 bucks worth of spray paint. Will use dulling spray to give a matt finish at a later stage.

I am waiting for my other lot of consignment to arrive so that next set of exciting 'personalisation' can begin Until then... do watch out for more on this space..

Thanks for your periodic updates. It is due to the readers and active members like you we now have started pooling in proper data and experience on this thread which i am sure will help any person to analyse and understand that whatever experimental methods that have been discussed here: whether there is any truth behind it! At the end of the day it is the practical experience is what can be valid.. simply tall claims for any method or product without evidence is useless and not encouraged on this thread at all. Thanks again much appreciated!

Thank you for sharing. I hope you will post your experience on this thread as you start clocking kms with this oil. However, do bear in mind: to me this is simply an experiment! If you have made the decision to try it first hand after making an informed decision, i am glad that it is not just me who wishes to uncover the truth behind the +ves and -ves of using an HDEO oil in a motorcycle engine. All the best with your endeavour and thanks again.


Cheers,

Re: The story so far.. My Honda CBR 250R


You have no idea how jealous i am reading that. Here i am having to adjust it every 2k kms or less, even with proper lubing and cleaning.
Lots of sudden acceleration and deceleration does tend to have a factor i guess.

Cheers
Ride Safe
Krishna

Re: The story so far.. My Honda CBR 250R

Hi mate,

Definitely sudden hard acceleration and deceleration will load the drive chain quite a bit and will lead to its early demise. I hope you are keeping the cleaning and lubrication as per the recommended intervals as elongating time frame between the servicing does effect the life of the chain. If you are into heavy gear braking instead of rev matching/throttle blipping while downshifting that will also lead to a lot of stress and load being transferred to the engine and the drive chain, leading to quicker wearing out of the same.

For those readers who like to know a bit more about rev matching/throttle blipping & Gear Breaking while downshifting, the video link below should help you with that:



I feel that my practice of using rev matching has also reduced the wear and tear on the engine components and the drive chain with the end result being what has been mentioned above. Anyways thanks to the weather and the mud bath my bike takes every week, i have no choice but to keep the drive chain clean and lubricated more often. May be you can give it a try and see if you observe any changes with the life of the same. I don't baby my bike but at the same time i don't unnecessarily go for a twist of the wrist unless it is required. So no special treatment has been given except what has been recommended by the OEM and following a few riding techniques of the master "Keith Code".


Cheers,

Re: The story so far.. My Honda CBR 250R

QUICK UPDATE:

Hi all,

hectic work load has kept me away from long distance rides for a while so at the moment, the majority of my riding has been limited to regular commuting within the premises of my place of stay and to work. As of now i have managed to cover around 2,162 kms with the 4th round of Shell Rimula R4 HDEO engine oil (15W 40) and the engine is still running smooth with no unwanted vibrations, noises, notchy gears, no clutch slippage, power loss, loss in FE or anything!! My CBR is still running healthy and hasn't shown any signs of going weak on performance or on FE. The image below is the current condition of the engine oil which to my understanding shows a lot of particulate matter under suspension in the oil. The colour is blackish dark amber.



Pic 1: current engine oil colour @2162 kms with 4 round of Shell Rimula R4.

However, being an OCMD rider i have decided to chicken out from pushing this HDEO oil any further than 2500 kms and will put my bike up on the SVC paddock stand for a fresh batch of Shell Advanced Ultra FS 10W40 motorcycle engine oil. Once i do two rounds with regular motorcycle based engine oil (read approx 10,000 kms), i shall again do one more round of Shell Rimula R4 and see what is the max no. of kms this HDEO oil can be pushed to. I believe with the results achieved so far, it is safe to state that the Shell Rimula R4 HDEO mineral oil can be used upto 2500 kms easily on a Honda CBR 250R. For me beyond 2,500 kms is still an uncharted territory on this bike.

In terms of "proof in the pudding" consider this: as of now it takes the total distance covered with HDEO oil to 4328.7 + 2162 = 6490.7 kms (Refer to this post for last log with HDEO oil change: http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/general-...ml#post1197380). So far with the usage of this oil, nothing has blown up, leaked, no power loss nothing bad has happened!! I have never 'babied' my bike. Regular rides with normal speeds, a good dose of stop & go traffic and at times spirited riding has been done to give various kinds of loads to the CBR's engine and to the vehicle overall. Mind you the above total kms reading is also applicable for the Yamaha FZ engine oil filter which has been used throughout the duration of this experiment as an alternative engine oil filter to OEM one from Honda and till date nothing has gone wrong with the engine. So unless there is any counter data to prove it otherwise, in my books the cheap Yamaha FZ oil filter works!!

However having said that, i intend to do further tests: use this alternative FZ oil filter but now along with JASO recommended Shell advanced Ultra FS 10W 40 oil to see if my vehicle still remains healthy or any future untoward incident takes place. Let me push the usage of FZ's oil filter to another 10 - 20,000 kms which shall give us a concrete base line to confirm if this unapproved alternative engine oil filter which has been designed for a 150cc engine can work safely than OEM engine oil filter @3rd the cost. More tests are definitely warranted to confirm the theory whether better filtration and better flow due to more no. of pleats and larger surface area (refer to this post: http://www.xbhp.com/talkies/general-...ml#post1170005) is the net result of seamless functioning of my CBR till now and hopefully in the near future.

Let me stress on this again: i donot advocate the above mentioned experiment to anybody! It is purely a mere series of tests of theory done by an OCMD rider!! Should you decide to follow my footsteps.. you are doing so with your own free will!!

Now i wish to share an annoying recurrence of a problem with my CBR. The darn chain slider is failing rather quickly and comes off from its harness in less than 800 - 1000 kms. The last time i applied glue to hold the chain slider in its place, it stayed there for about 3,000 kms and then, the lower half came off!



Pic 2: Lower half of the chain slider currently dangling.

I intend to devise a permanent solution to this which hopefully should help me get rid of this problem once and for all.


Shall cover a detailed log of the next run with Shell Advanced Ultra FS oil with FZ oil filter combo in the upcoming post. Until then ciao...




Cheers,

Re: The story so far.. My Honda CBR 250R

I tried sourcing Rimula R4 from Chennai, but the shops I went to didn't have 10w30, only 20w40/15w40. About clutch slippage, I'm getting false neutrals in 5th gear with Honda Throttle FS 10w30, and also with Honda mineral 10w30. Is there anyway to prevent that?