2004 Suzuki GZ250

[user removed]

Saw this on craigs list, owner asking $750. I offered $650 and he accepted, picked it up Monday evening. Black with accessory engine guard and luggage rack-passenger backrest. It originally came with Metzler tires. 3300 miles, about half what it is worth in decent shape.

regards
Mech

[minimac]

Nice score! What's the plan?

[user removed]

Since the winter weather will put a damper on my riding, I'm going to transfer the tag from the GS500E to the GZ250 and ride it for a while to see what I can do for mileage without any mods right now. Next spring I think I'll put antique tags on the GS500E and use the GZ for most of my bike riding. I'd like to see 80+ MPG but that probably won't happen until it warms up again.
Been cleaning it up and taking care of some scuffs and scrapes.
Maybe some mods in 2014.

[alvaro84]

Sounds like a very good deal to me, nice looking bike!

Well, I don't have experience with our 250 at winter, but Teresa's FE surely drops a lot in freezing temps, 70s are typical when I can often do in the high 80's in the summer.

[renault_megane_dci]

Based on what I did with my GN 250 with a 16x39 replacing stock 15x43, you should see 80 pretty easily

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Air-cooling is nice because of its simple layout, but makes it harder to ensure a proper thermal control of the engine. BTW when dedicated-ethanol engines started to appear in Brazil, Volkswagen developed some thermostatically-controlled airflow restrictors to provide a quicker warm-up for its air-cooled dedicated-ethanol engines, so if you could work around a similar system for the bike it wouldn't decrease the winter mileage so much (if you would ever consider to ride it in the winter).

[renault_megane_dci]

Basically a thermostated choke ?

[sendler]

Low mileage used bikes can be found very cheap. People buy them and then only put a few hundred miles per year on them.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by renault_megane_dci

Basically a thermostated choke ?

Actually it had nothing to do with a choke, those restrictors were like a retractible fairing around the engine to restrict the air flow required for cooling, not the intake.

[sendler]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

Actually it had nothing to do with a choke, those restrictors were like a retractible fairing around the engine to restrict the air flow required for cooling, not the intake.

This is a concept I have been contemplating for use on my CBR250R after I put a full nose on it to control the engine bay temp and to harvest the waste heat into the air box when it is cold out. And also some further adjustable flaps to direct the air flow either down to the road or onto the rider as a heater system for comfort.