[hawx]

I have recently joined this forum. I am from India specifically Pune, Maharashtra. Techie by profession.
I got a preowned 2011 C-ABS CBR250R that has done 36k KMs.
I call her "Red Queen".
The decision to buy this bike was an impromptu one more like heart over mind. I will be using this thread to post regular updates on red queen.

The previous owner had done the basic service of oil, oil filter, disc pads and coolant topup before handing it over to me.

I rode the bike almost 125miles or 200kms to my place. The bike accelerated with two people on-board as expected and I was able to maintain decent speeds 80-90kmph. It returns somewhere around 32-35kmpl fuel economy.

There were some initial observations/issues/niggles as below,

1. Front brake response is not quite upto the mark. May be the new pads need to bed in or it can be issue with master cylinder.
2. The radiator fan does not starts on its own causing the bike to heat up in bumper to bumper traffic. At cruising speed the temp hardly rises above 3 bars.
3. The ignition lock has got some free play and rotates a full 360 degree if you just insert the key slightly and try to rotate it. It works as expected on full key insertion.
4. The seats have hardened. Might need cover or cushion replacement.
5. Tyres needs to be upgraded.
6. Will be putting in stock indicators/blinkers back on. The rear one are broken and front is some aftermarket flush sitting one which I dont like.
7. Some cone set issues are there.
8. Rapid downshift from higher gears sometimes does not happens. I have to step down gears sequentially. Like "6th gear down-clutch release-clutch in-5th gear down-clutch release-...". There are no issues in upshifting though.
9. False neutral might occur sometime.
10. A broken body panel. (The one between tank and the big fairing)

The bike is with my mechanic to sort out above issues. Main issues that are being targeted are Radiator Fan - Front Braking - Downshifting. The mech is pretty confident that these are minor niggles and can be sorted out easily. I will post more updates tomorrow once I hear back from him.

 

[hawx]

So the word just came in from mechanic.

1. The relay for fan has went kaput plus the fan has slipped from bolt. We have ordered a new motor with fan to be on safer side. Coolant will be changed along with fan.
2. Fork oil has been changed.
3. The downshifting issue I talked earlier, mech told he finds it okay however he will still go ahead and check and adjust the clutch once.
4. Threads on front wheel axis hav worn out, it will be threaded.
5. All the fairing bolts and any bolts that have been rusted will be replaced with new one's.

Apart from that the inputs that were highlighted above have been notified to the mech. He told me he will take care of those as well.

So correct me if I am wrong, if I am in 6th gear and now I need to downshift to 4th, then I have to go sequentially to 4th instead of clutch in downshift twice then release clutch?

Also the video above says that its okay if you skip down twice. However if that is the case in my case this skipping down twice does not happens sometimes.

 

[hawx]

The bike is back from mechanic and oh boy its now butter smooth. All the niggles have been sorted out. However it seems the handle is little inwards from left side. The weird thing is while the bike is stationary the handle seems perfect but once you start riding it seems the handle bar is little inwards towards fuel tank. I am not sure whether this is my imagination or my OCD but it seems it is what it is. Any tips on checking and correcting the same?

 

[hawx]

Update:

Got the handle bend corrected. The issue was with the handle tree or T. It was bent. The mech got it sorted out. Plus have changed the rear tyre to Apollo H1 150/60 R17. Changed the front tyre to stock size from Apollo as well.
The cornering and grip has improved phenomenally from the earlier contigo tyres. The earlier tyres use to skid a bit on cornering.

Time to put some miles on it now.

 

[hawx]

Have you replaced the radiator fan as well. What I heard from part supplier that, CBR250R fan get damaged from center (where it was attached to Fan motor), due to which fan stuck to back side of radiator.

Same thing happened to me, i was getting the voltage (after removing the coolant sensor), so i asked for radiator fan assembly but then spare parts person told me the above story.

Yes the fan issue was sorted with the initial service itself. You are right with observation, the fan was worn out at axis(center part which mates with the motor shaft). So the motor was running but fan was not spinning. I wanted to replace the motor and fan as a unit but then motor was not available however fan was available and for time being fixed the fan blades. The fan is operational as expected.

 

[hawx]

@Tamir for the tail issue, I have ordered the complete set of tail body parts. Once arrived will fix them.

 

[hawx]

Update time. So i upgraded the bike with aux lights. They are HJG make, cost around 4.5k INR, output around 60W each light, and has three light modes(constant, blinking, alternate blinking). These are single mode beams that is just one beam throw pattern which is low beam.
Attaching some pics for reference. I will update with more detail pics later on. Note: camera s10+, auto mode, stock settings.

Top view and front view. I have welded a horizontal bar on number plate on which I have mounted the lights. These two pics are with camera flash on .

Stock bulb high beam and low beam.

High beam plus aux light, low beam plus aux, only aux.

 

[hawx]

In relation to the main bulb, there is a significant addition of light
I probably did not install such a rod (In Israel we do not require a front license number).

• 60W refers to the light intensity, or the electrical power?
• Did you use a relay and the voltage comes directly from the battery?
• An addition of 120W (60WX2) is quite significant, will the electrical system withstand it for a long time?

Apology, there is a correction. The power output is not 60w. 45w power is for each individual fog, combined output of 90w. 4500 lumens is the light output.
The lights came with their own harness and switch. This harness is connected to battery. One more thing the lights do not power on unless your bikes engine is running.

 

[hawx]

It is clear to me that the electrical system can be loaded more than the manufacturer loads in the original state, and it happens that riders load all kinds of electrical gadgets. In my opinion the most common electrical gadget is a mobile phone charger. And loading 90W is not like 120W. It is strange that the manufacturer does not provide us an official Max W figure for electrical accessories.
For ref: For the excess weight that can be loaded on the motorcycle, the manufacturer does bother to provide an official figure.

I had read the alternator output to be 340W at 5k rpm? If that is the case then I guess it should be able to handle the aux lights. Plus the aux will only come into play during highway night rides.

 

[hawx]

The HJG brand that you mentioned is probably only sold in India?
But maybe you can bring us a link here so we can see what its mechanical dimensions are, and the rest of the specifications.
I checked a few options on Amazon and this is what I found:

Here you go. HJG Transformers White/Yellow LED Fog Lights With Harness/Clamps (rideindiaride.in). I have not ordered it from this site. I have a seller who sells this via whatsapp. The packaging also does not mentions any details. I will see if I can get the picture of the LED power unit/driver.
This is all I could find about them. I think they are being imported as generics and then rebranded and sold? Also since the make of them is Chinese I would not take the electrical readings as exact.

 

[hawx]

Folks, I want to calculate fuel efficiency for CBR. Now as per manual when the last bar starts blinking it means you hav hit reserve capacity and now have approx 2.2 to 2.5 litres of fuel. In my case however the last bar does not blinks continuously atleast for some time. Like if I am waiting at signal the bar stops blinking however once I start riding the bar starts to blink again. Now the bar does blink continuously after few kms or so but its no consistent. So my question is how to reliably to kno that you have indeed hit the reserve?

 

[hawx]

Hi
YES, The fuel gauge in our model is very inaccurate.
The manufacturer calibrated the fuel gauge according to the "extreme condition".
At urban riding ("extreme condition"), I reached a fuel consumption of about 21 kilometers per liter, and only then, when the last line starts flashing, only then the fuel gauge approach to the stated figure, which is less than 2 liters left in the fuel tank.
At highways riding, when the fuel consumption is 34 kilometers per liter, when the last line starts flashing, there are still about 8 liters of fuel in the fuel tank.

it is what it is.

My recommendation: When riding on highways, keep track of the number of kilometers, and based on that estimate the amount of fuel left in the tank. But those who want to go on the safe side fill up long before the last line start to flash (After all, in any case we make stops to refresh). Getting stuck with the motorcycle because the fuel ran out is the dumbest thing a rider can do to himself (this is from personal experience🤕).

Whats the actual usable capacity? Some folks say out of the 13 litre capacity only 11 litre is usable, the rest is dead storage. Is it the case? So can i safely assume that when the last fuel bar line starts blinking I have max 21 to 25kms to find fuel station before it runs empty?

Anyhow I have habit to fill fuel as soon as the bar starts blinking.