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I started this thread, and now I'm w-a-a-y off topic: wondering if you could comment on how your 350 2-stroke rode. When I say I'm fixing up a 74 2-stroke, everyone shakes their head at me in a less than complimentary way. Vibrations? they ask. Handling? More than 20 minutes before you're so uncomfortable you want to walk?
what can you tell me? Intend to ride the bejeebers out of this thing and have a two day trip to Montana laid on at the end of June. Am I crazy the way modern bike owners seem to think?
I rode the dickens out of a 74 DT250 high geared it for road travel and with street tires it wasn't half bad, your GT as street model would be a ok choice (depending on rider weight & tolerance of buzz) , ride the machine and get a feel for it, you could probably go up 1 or 2 teeth on the countershaft sprocket if you want highway speed most of these bikes were low geared for punch off the line and get bit busy/buzzy at speed
Joined: Nov 02, 2008 Posts: 1085 Location: New Zealand
Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 3:26 pm Post subject:
I rode 70's two stroke twins for several hours at a time.Vibration was never a problem when the bikes were running correctly.
I'd be a bit worried about going too high in gearing as its easy to overheat the top of a piston and hole it and plugs have been carefully specified for the loading on the motor.My rule of thumb based on experience rather than mechanical knowledge would be that at say 60 mph in top gear the bike, lightly loaded, on the flat, should accelerate crisply.
Keep in mind that bikes like the GT250 and RD350 were run flat out in 6 hr production racing and took it easily. If you gear up too much you may be more likely to do harm than by buzzing the thing.
There wasn't a lot wrong with the handling of the GT250 either.When Joe Eastmure won a 6 hr proddy race in Australia against all-comers on his T350(actually a factory hot-rodded T250) his advantages were two fold.
Firstly the brilliant gearing of the machine that allowed maximum use of its power characteristics and secondly that the ground clearance was only limited by the solid footpegs which he soon ground away in the race!He was able to ride around the outside of the bigger and faster bikes on corners!
There is always heaps of opinion out there. Some of it is not well based!
Joined: Nov 02, 2008 Posts: 1085 Location: New Zealand
Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 4:09 pm Post subject:
Jayel one of the bikes I did a lot of miles on and off road (before adventure riding became popular and trendy)on was a TS400J Suzuki single.A trail bike.I altered the gearing on mine to get a more relaxed top end while a friend just ran his stock and flat out most of the time.A year on it was true that his had burned a lot more gas than mine but otherwise his damn engine seemed to be lasting better than mine.
Joined: Jan 20, 2010 Posts: 59 Location: Georgetown, TX
Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 10:24 pm Post subject: Re: Chain questions
Horsmann wrote:
My 74 GT250 takes a 525/98 chain, as far as I can tell.
Finding such a beast is proving difficult.
Two questions:
1. May I use a 520 chain without harming the bike/sprockets? Any advantage or disadvantage to doing so?
2. I can find a 525 size chain longer than 98 links. How difficult is it to remove links and will I damage the chain in the process?
Many thanks, yet again.
Horsmann
To answer your original question, here are some pictures of how I shortened the chain on my T500 tonight. When I bought the bike the previous owner had installed a new rear sprocket and chain. That was nice but he installed a 40t sprocket for some reason (stock is 33t) so the highway cruising wasn't much fun over about 60 mph.
Today I received a new JT, 33t, sprocket that I ordered from my dealer. Here are some pictures showing the simple process.
The first thing I do is mark the pin I'm going to remove. Once, in the past, I looked at the link to be removed then turned around to grab a tool and came back to remove the link. In my haste, I ground off the wrong pin so now I always mark the link to be removed. In this case, I only needed to remove one full link.
Next take the grinder or dremel tool of your choice and grind the pin flush with the link plate.
Here is the chain breaking tool that I use. It's a Motion Pro tool and is great for removing the links and also for riveting the new pins if it's a pressed master link. In this case, my chain is a non-O ring type 520 chain and uses a master link so I didn't get any pictures of the "press plate" in action. You'll notice that one of the drive pins is broken. This is not due to any poor quality but quite the oposite, not using the tool properly. When I first got the tool someone told me you could press the pin out without grinding the pin flush. Well, maybe you can and maybe you can't. In my case I couldn't because it broke the drive pin. I haven't tried to order a replacement since I can still get the pin out with what I have.
Here is the tool in action. Out of the picture, I use a ratchet (or the supplied rod) to press the pin out.
Here is the pin pushed about 80% of the way out. If the drive pin wasn't broken it would have come out all the way. In this case I use a pair of pliesr and pull it off.
The single link in all it's glory waiting for the trash can. That's all there is to it.
_________________ Mike Nellis
CMRA #23 Expert
´04 Suzuki GSXR 1K
´68 Honda CL350
´70 Honda CB450
´75 Suzuki T500
´76 Honda GL1000
´00 Yamaha YZ426
´01 Yamaha Raptor 660
´85 Honda Big Red
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Joined: Jun 03, 2009 Posts: 90 Location: Central Washington State
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 10:38 am Post subject:
Fantastic on every count.
The comments about riding are very helpful and encouraging.
And the description plus photos of link removal etc: THANK YOU.
I'll be ebaying a chain tool soon.
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, ride the machine and get a feel for it, you could probably go up 1 or 2 teeth on the countershaft sprocket if you want highway speed most of these bikes were low geared for punch off the line and get bit busy/buzzy at speed
