Best oils, fuels and aftermarket accessories

[AltonaGreeny]

Hey everyone Im new to bikes and am buying a new 07 GPX250 in a few weeks and was wondering what the best oil and filter combo is for them.

Also I read the fuels thread and was wanting to know whats wrong with V-Power. I use it all the time in my car but does it have a negative effect on bikes?

Was also interested in getting an aftermarket exhaust and wanted to know what the best brand is for the GPX.

Cheers everyone

[mick_dundee]

Oil everyone swears by Motul 5100. Petrol, well Optimax used to get the crap bagged out of it, is V Power the same stuff with a new badge? Dunno, need a chemist to probably come up with a definitive answer really. Aftermarket pipes.. your call but why would you want to on a 250? In fact given that LAMS in Vic are around 9 months away, why would you buy a brand new 250 honestly unless you're happy riding a 250 for 3 years or so...

Further to the above, even without LAMS on the horizon, unless you wanna ride a 250 for 3 years or so, i'd save teh $ and get yourself a used one, plenty of GPX/Z's out there and the ZZR250 which has the same motor is yet another option for you.

Again your call, noone elses but some food for thought..

[Neka79]

yea i wouldnt buy a brand new 250.... u will be over it within a month of having an unrestricted license (18mth or so??) ... plus they are expensive to fix if u drop it (u prob will..we ALL do it)..then the resale value will be SHIT now LAMS is coming out....

if u do go for a new gpx, put what ever oil the factory recommends in it..if they dont, then go motul (its great)...(5100 as mick says is good)..filter will be standard- no benefit to spending huge $$ on a filter, unless its a re-usable stainless type....

as for exhuasts...a gpx 250 has abt 25hp...putting cans on it will cost u about $600+ and get u maybe 2hp...ur better off going on a diet and lossing 5kg!!

start saving for a 600...u kno u will want one 1st time u ride one...

[Ratmick]

I did the same thing, bought a brand-new GPX250R, thought "no worries, this'll do me for a few years, it'll have plenty of power".

I bought the GPX in August, sold it in December 16 months later with 10,000km on the clock (4 months on L's, 12 months to the day on P's and it still looked brand new) and I lost $2500 on the purchase price. Too slow, 1st gear is a joke, the seat has teeth and the OEM tyres are shite. Great learners' bike though, I'll give it that...just don't think it'll do you for 3 years. It did get 90mpg, but took all day to get through the 90 miles .

No point spending money trying to get extra HP out of a GPX, if you spend approx $2000-3000 and a lot of time and effort you may get another 15HP of it it, but you'll still be blown away by a bog-stock air-cooled 500.

If you're still keen look here: http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/Main_Page

Mick

[AltonaGreeny]

Fair enough looks like im in the market for a second hander than
Thanks for the advice you saved me alot of money
Basically i just want a 250 to start with cuz I don't have any xp riding and wanted to start small and live.

anyways looks like its time to look for a good second hander

[Birdman]

yep anything Motul is just the shit, i have tried many brands, stuck with Repsol for a while but now its nothing but Motul 5100 and factory line chain lube and brake fluid, motul coolant and motul dry wash and wax

jeez maybe i should be a Motul Rep

[Ratmick]

I forgot to mention that at 110km/h on the freeway the GPX250 was revving its arse out at ~10,500RPM and the vibrations made my hands go numb.

Did I mention the seat was shite...that was an understatement, the seat was really shite. I did a GOR run on it, did 450-odd km and couldn't sit down for 3 days afterwards (and I went by myself thanks guys ).

Good on you for going 2nd hand, it'll save you some dough.

Mick

[Neka79]

yep anything Motul is just the shit, i have tried many brands, stuck with Repsol for a while but now its nothing but Motul 5100 and factory line chain lube and brake fluid, motul coolant and motul dry wash and wax

jeez maybe i should be a Motul Rep

for a minute i thought u said "motul mouthwash" ...lol

yea id buy a cheapish decent 2nd hander- less $$ to lose on resale...

[MiG]

I forgot to mention that at 110km/h on the freeway the GPX250 was revving its arse out at ~10,500RPM and the vibrations made my hands go numb.

Did I mention the seat was shite...that was an understatement, the seat was really shite. I did a GOR run on it, did 450-odd km and couldn't sit down for 3 days afterwards (and I went by myself thanks guys ).

For the record, the GPX has 38 hp / 28 kW (according to the manual) and mine sits at 8,000 RPM at 100 (real speed), so 8,800 at 110. That's with stock gearing, I have checked both sprockets. I have no problem with the seat even though I don't have much natural padding on my arse. I haven't done 450 km in a day, but I assume that I would at least start noticing seat issues when doing 260 km in a day.

Last Thu I hired a GSX-R 600 at Phillip Island, so my perception of performance has been seriously recalibrated (err, 265 km/h at PI, OMG), but I still have respect for my GPX and I will probably take it to Broadford again (PI corners are too fast for my GPXs top speed of ~155).

I use Shell Rimula Super (ya, a diesel oil) 15W-40.

[aggerz]

As per your intro thread i stand by that its a waste of money to buy a new 250cc bike, .. so I'm glad to see you've come around..

Oils..I don't know i like to shuffle around a bit and try a few different oils, never struck any loyalty to any particular brand. It's more about how regular u change it than what type you use.

but as for fuel I'd just go with normal unleaded, farting around with optimax and things like that is really pointless on a carb bike unless you have the time, interest and money to go get it all rejetted to suit the higher octane fuel. without that all its really going to do is cost you more.

Also fuels like Optimax/V Power 'go off' quicker, their quality deteriorates much faster. If you leave the bike sitting around for long periods (weeks at a time) you are far better off to have just regular unleaded in there than having all this high octane stuff with all its additives which will go off in the carbs while its sitting and potentially start gumming up jets.

A fuel injected bike is different, their fuel system is sealed so fuel can stay fresh longer and things like knock sensors can make the the little adjustments required to get the extra from those fuels.. but even still the benefits are fairly minimal unless you shell out for an aftermarket tune.

Choice is yours but personally I wouldn't bother.

I had a ZZR250 as my L's bike, great bike, bought it cheap, rode it for 9,000km and then sold it for a profit, think the better fairings (vs GPX) made it better on the freeway also, enough power to keep me happy on my L's. They are an extremely average sounding bike though.

[Neka79]

Oils..I don't know i like to shuffle around a bit and try a few different oils, never struck any loyalty to any particular brand. It's more about how regular u change it than what type you use.

theres an argument that says when u find an oil, stick to it (in each bike), that changing oils can cause the bike to not run as well...that mixing oil aint so good...

[mick_dundee]

I had a ZZR250 as my L's bike, great bike, bought it cheap, rode it for 9,000km and then sold it for a profit, think the better fairings (vs GPX) made it better on the freeway also, enough power to keep me happy on my L's. They are an extremely average sounding bike though.

So is the ZZR600, even the 1100 doesn't sound that shit hot, nothing an aftermarket pipe doesn't fix though and the $ for a pipe are a lot more justifiable on a 600+ bike than on the 2 fiddly.

[MiG]

I reckon more emphasis should be placed on enhancing intake sound. Loud exhausts piss almost everyone off (you don't get annoyed by sport bikes tooling around late at night?) and can't be turned off. Intake noise is highly dependent on throttle position, so you can be quiet if you want.

[aggerz]

theres an argument that says when u find an oil, stick to it (in each bike), that changing oils can cause the bike to not run as well...that mixing oil aint so good...

Yeah i agree with that, but what i probably should have said was i have tried different oils with different bikes i have not really shuffled around too much on any 1 bike.

I had a ZZR250 as my L's bike (cut) They are an extremely average sounding bike though.

So is the ZZR600, even the 1100 doesn't sound that shit hot, nothing an aftermarket pipe doesn't fix though and the $ for a pipe are a lot more justifiable on a 600+ bike than on the 2 fiddly.

Definitely, there was a ZZR1100 came past me this morning stock pipes it sounded awful but I have heard some with aftermaket pipes sound amazing; however I've heard aftermarket exhausts on the zzr250/gpx250s and really all it does is make the sound go from a lawnmower to a loud lawnmower.. Price should definitely be a factor and at the rate we in Aust generally turn over 250cc bikes I agree its not really worth the investment.

(you don't get annoyed by sport bikes tooling around late at night?)

Actually no, noway near as annoying as harleys at full throttle up the main road.

[Birdman]

I reckon more emphasis should be placed on enhancing intake sound. Loud exhausts piss almost everyone off (you don't get annoyed by sport bikes tooling around late at night?) and can't be turned off. Intake noise is highly dependent on throttle position, so you can be quiet if you want.

thats the only thing the new Gixxer got right, the induction noise is pure delight, almost as good as a VFR with a good pipe