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View Full Version : Viva 250cc Preditor ride update


kelly5150
12-31-2007, 06:25 AM
Well, got a few miles on it finally, been snowing alot here, rather fun actually , makes good mud !
No complaints in the power department of this motor . No it isn't an RM250 but it never said it was either .
I put a pair of MSR Carbon Steel bars on it in black, a new in-airbox style No-Toil air filter ( Nice ) . I did not want to cut out my airbox and go with some filter that will get wet or dirty so I went with the No-Toil for a Kawi KX250, perfect fit . I am sure to submerge this bike up to the engine in water someday and I want it to not suck water in the carb . Hence the use of an airbox anyway on dirtbikes.
I also put a pair of Spider Grips on it in green and black , nice touch, litteraly .
Also put a nice 4" black rubber rear shock protector on between the swingarm and shock . It is tapped and attatched to the swingarm with stainless 1/4" bolts and attatched to the battery box in the same manner with more 1/4" bolts and nuts to easilly remove it whenever I want . This was a great upgrade and keeps all dirt , rocks, and water off the rear shock like on the nicer Japenese bikes . These rear shocks on this bike are so nicely built and so much annodized alluminum on htem I really wanted to protect it right . And it is now. This rear shock is easiily adjusted with a quick finger tight turn to the click adjuster. It has a great deal of adjustablity too without the need to adjust the spring itself . Although even after you reach full adjustment on the adjuster then you could even adjust the spring itself, which really makes this shock limitless either way, tightly srung or super soft ride .
The front shock are very nice that way too with external pre-load adjustments on the right side via an annodized knurled cap that is click adjustable and a soft and hard ride adjuster on the left cap that is equally click adjustable. Very nice front forks and adjustment system, can be done while your riding wihich makes it tooooo easy !
The bike handles great , now . My only complaint is with the Perimeter style frame and that it isn't easy enough to reach the idle screw . Will work on that problem next .
Have not had a problem with nuts and bolts coming loose, which surprised me a little on a China bike, but I aint knocking it !
The brakes are wonderfull, stops on a dime with the front and rear disks and doesn't get any worse when coated with mud and water and believe me it has been coated with mud ! I attribute this to the very aaggressive Rotors and that they self clean easilly . That and the Chinese disk pads are made of something that looks like Kevlar and Asbestos fibres, and are very aggressive too , nice cuts in them and styled to self clean also .
The stock handle bars are way too high for this bike for me that is , and way too narrow for a bike this big. I am used to Rm125's and 250's and Kawi KX's so I went with the low-rise KX bars for a 125cc bike 1996 style . Now these fit right, puts your hands comfortabley out in front, low to the tripple-trees where you have some control, plus being allot wider now you can actually turn this machine like you command it not like it commands you how they were with stock. Plus the nice Black Electrostatic plating on them gives it a nice quality touch to say the least . The stock bars were some sort of Chinese crappy nasty silver colr plated steel that was as rough as sandpaper . The MSR bars also come with a nice pad too, unlike the stock Viva pad .
I think the most imprresive thing about this bike is the quality in finish ? The amount fo nicely done alluminum and billet parts is exceptional to say the least for this amount of money. The annodizing is top notch , especially on the rims , a very nice bright green . Even the alluminum gas cap is annodozed green and nicely done too.
I am still breaking in the motor so have yet to peg the throttle all the way . This bike has ample power though throuout the power band I can see . It just wants to go and go fast . I look forward to hitting top speed sometime next moth if I can get enough hours on this bike to do that . With the air filter upgrade I easilly increased the Hp by 2HP easilly. It finally breathes right ! The stupid little air filter they had in here does next to nothing for performance, let alone protection to the motor from dirt .
I have only done little jumps but the suspension soaks them up nicely . It will easilly ride over 13" logs, I tried that so I know . No shortage of suspension travel here .
I took everything apart that had to do with anay sort of bearing, linkage , pivot point , axel bolts, etc and gave them a good coating of aircraft grade grease . Very smooth riding machine now. Lube was nearly non-exhistant stock from China, pitty shame that is on a bike this nicely built.
It is nice to have a grease fitting on the swingarm too, they were thinking a little when they did that .
Appears to have a pretty nice clutch, or at least nice plates . very smooth and exact. The gears are tight too but shift nicely and positively . Very nice shift lever , alluminum and jointed and springloaded to fold. The rear brake lever is solid steel with a removable annodized pad that is grated sharp and annodized in bright red. Nice touch !
The front forks have equal nice treatment on the adjusters and annodized one in red and one in blue, looks very aircrafty indeed .
All brake lines are clear coated poly over bright stainless steel, very high quality . You don't even see that treatment on most Japenese bikes for 5 times the price of these beasts .
What I like best about the brake Calipers on these bikes is the clear windows for fluid levels. This also goes for the Motor itself, it has a very nice window on the right side of the motor with oil level marks on it as well, low and high of course.
All in all this is a wonderful riding bike so far, and it looks equally as menacing and bad-A$% too . Very aggressive styleing .
For $1,300.00 to my doorstep, how can you go wrong !
Give it up to County Imports of California to provide the cheapest prices and best customer service ever too . What a deal, get yours today my friend you won't be dissapointed whatsoever . And NO I am not a salemen for them , just a very happy customer . Jus tmention my name to them, they will know me , god knows they actually answer there phones too !

Enjoy , now go out and get dirty like your mother warned you not to do ! :twisted:

Cheers, Kelly out !

oncedead
01-02-2008, 04:45 PM
Yea i agree the shocks suck !!!

panterra_rider
01-02-2008, 09:09 PM
nice write-up from someone who obviously knows their dirt machines. Check elsewhere in this forum for re-jet advice...would wake it up even more. Also, sounds like you're pleasantly surprised by the shifting quality - I was too on our 150s.

Cheers,
R.

tokarev
01-06-2008, 10:12 AM
Kelly
The splash guard you installed for the rear shock was this of your own making or did you buy it as a kit?
Thanks

kelly5150
01-06-2008, 02:10 PM
It is my own design and make.
I used a 4" wide peice of Black Rubber Industrial Baseboard Trim they use in commercial buildings mostly for trim over carpet on the wall that sits on the carpets .You can buy at any good Flooring shop . It was about $6.00 American money for a four foot peice . It took about 15 inches to make what I made . If it wasn't such a pain in the A$% I would post a pic, but this site is rediculous ( as I see it ) to post pics .
I attatched the peice where the Manufacturers metal nameplate was on the rear swing-arm , and then attatched it to the battery box under the seat. Works great ! Very flexible too . When I made the Mod I had my bike fully supported on my Jackstand to enable the bike to be at full extension rather than flexion so the rubber peice would never be stressed or over stressed that is when you jump . It is equally mounted to where it will not buckle or touch the rear shock either when you fully compress the suspension on a jump either .
When they don't make products for these bikes, you got to make stuff yourself, so get used to it on CHinese bikes. Too bad they don't come with it on this bike. I do notice that my DB-27 has one , but it doesn't flex or protect like my device. It will get one too since I have a couple few feet left of the rubber base .

Enjoy, and be creative . Now go out and play like your wife threatened to leave you for. Promises promises I always tell her.

Cheers, Kelly

oncedead
01-06-2008, 09:58 PM
IF you put your pictures on photobucket.com then copy and paste the image code, its pretty easy to post pics .

kelly5150
01-07-2008, 02:19 AM
Like I siad before, I aint no PC nerd, and this stuff comes hard for this redneck, okeedokkeee. I will work on it though .
My whining is because this is a hard way to post pics and I am stubborn enough to not do it because it is so silly compaired to better websites .
If it was easy, for me, I would post more stuff, but I work for a living too and trying to do all the PC stuff on top of whats already going on in life is tough for me to keep up with as it is. I will try Photobucket soon when I have time and see if it becomes easier.

Cheers, kelly out