Whoaaa fantastic

A newsgroup on classic bikes, wonderful!!

I have an 86 RD500, which is in pretty good nick, and I just bought a Suzi
GT250 to restore (a back to my yoof thing!).

Never restored a bike before so I'll probably be the new group nuisance
(every group has one or more) with dumb questions every now and then.

Nice to meet you all!!

Peter,

PS anyone got a GT250 out there??

 

I like 'em, even if dynamically they're not that great.

I had one and hated it

Not any more ;-)

 

asfdgsgse came up with the following;:

Heheheh, you say that now, but give it a minute ...

Not now. Godawful noise ..

 

There's a guy out East London way who's been riding the same one since I
was a whippersnapper on a c50. Skull & crossbones on his pisspot, a
walking stick strapped to the pillion and a homemade sign on the bottom
of the number plate that runs something like:
"If I had to explain why I ride a bike, you wouldn't understand".

 

Indeed I wouldn't....

 

Hi Peter

I've got a '77 GT250B, (and a Honda CJ250T, '76). It's actually my partners
bike, but she never rides it. The bike is totally standard apart from a rear
rack, and she's only the second registered keeper...so it's fairly nice and
un-messed with, 13k miles.

It's good fun to ride, but the BIG gap between first and second gears makes
it a pain around town.

Regards
Ross

 

Thus spake asfdgsgse unto the assembled multitudes:

I once had the use of a T250 Hustler for a few months while I saved up to
fix my Tiger 650. It was quite fun but had a tiny tank range (especially
at full bore up the M1). It wore out a crank within 20,000 miles, as
did a mate's GT250 and another mate's GT350.

 

I'd forgotten that. Bloody thing did about 12mph in first, and then
dropped right out of the power band.... Another reason why I really
hated it. That was a B model I had, IIRC, and I think earlier ones
weren't so peaky.

 

TOG@Toil says...

I had a very good condition GT250A for about a week, I got it very
cheap with the intention of running it for a while then flogging it on
for a decent profit. It was shit when put against something like a
similar aged RD, so I sold it for what I paid for it just to be shot of
the damn thing. Later on I bought a decent looking and sounding
GT250X7. After a couple of days of riding that I was hankering after
another RD and I was actually relieved when it was stolen from outside
my house. Suzuki made shit 2-strokes.

 

Horrid little thing the X7, spindly nasty suspension too. In a straight
line it was nippy though. It was just around the time the RD250E came
out IIRC? a truly lovely bike especially in the white/red speed blocks

'Hog

 

'Hog says...

My first RD was a brand new 1979 RD250F in white/red with red wheels. I
traded it in very soon after passing my test for a very low mileage
white/red 1978 T plate RD400E with black wheels, on which I removed the
400 sidepanel stickers and fitted 250 ones. It took my parents about 3
months before they realised I'd swopped bikes. It took one of my mates
about 10 seconds of being passed by me down the A421 before he'd sussed
it.

 

The 400E is a truly truly fantastic bike, one of the best ever. *So*
surprisingly torquey. I never liked the LC's so much until the failed
YPVS even though I'm sure they are faster. I recall that Fharon<sp?)
made a water-cooled jacket for the 400 which was always lusted after.

'Hog

 

Glad to see there's a bit of GT250 experience out there, tho most of seems
bad, cant understand why, I mean theres the handling which was erm.....yeah
ok, there was the power which was.......erm, moving on, there was the
awesome looks (I do wear glasses)...and that noise...yeah ok wasn' t the
best thing ever.

When I got it, I was 17 and it was my passport to freedom, well a lot
further than my SS50 anyway , RD's were just coming out then as I recall,
there were a few YDS7's?? about and the odd KH250, and some daft buggers on
Honda CB200's (why?).

Later on I had a beautiful RD400, first model with Alloy wheels, loved it,
although first crack of the throttle in the morning I never knew if it was
going to bog down or wheelie, made for an interesting start to the day!!

Hehehe Just bought another GT 250 engine on Ebay, ya can never have enough
of em!

Peter

 

[snip]

A 250T, oh you have my sympathies

 

<small voice>

I had one as well

</sv>

Crap it was. Utter total crap. A really crappy cheap, uninspiring nasty
little Honda.

*perk*

Wonder where I can find another?

 

You haven't quite sussed this motorcycling lark yet have you.

 

<VVBG> They were always cheap, which is why they sold so many. Oh, and
the speedometers were wonderfully optimistic, so they were an ego
boost.

I've owned a few CB200s. They were cheap to buy, cheap to tax and
insure, and they had a 'leccy starter, which most 250s of the era
didn't, and which was therefore Kewl.

Ummmmm.... yeah, right. Mind you, you're talking to the man who had
three Honda CB500T engines knocking about his premises not so very long
ago.

You know, my garage is just about as crammed as I can get it. I *must*
take a picture of it and stick it up on my webspace. It reminds me of
those shots of the hangars on aircraft carriers, with all the planes
jammed together.

 

Remember how people thought, after the lovely CB250K1/2 etc, that Honda
could not make the G5 worse? and then they came up with the 250T. A
truly nasty POS

'Hog

 

On 12 May 2005 04:36:14 -0700, "TOG@Toil

Christ yeah - when I was in the sixth form my mate leant me his one
lunchtime when my Z200 was off the road. It did an indicated 100mph
down the dual carriageway.

Then it holed a piston.

 

Yours was a bad one then? I know plenty of people slag them off, but
compared with what else was available at the time, I really don't think they
were that bad....certainly not great.....but not that bad.

I enjoy pottering around the lanes of Kent on my CJ, it does the job
fine...as does the GT250.

Regards
Ross