New Member, Storm on layaway.
 

I'd like to start off thanking everyone at China Riders here in the forums for all of your priceless information and experience, I'm looking at a chain upgrade, Rotella T, and a speedo upgrade before the bike arrives thanks to all of you here.

How I got here!
I'm 49 yrs old and at a point where I can spend more time playing than raising kids, I seen a guy fix up an old the Honda Ruckus, I thought that might be fun if I put a rack to hold a tackle box and some rod holders, I know from years of experience that most say they wanna go fishing but I seem to do most of it by myself. I decided to mix two of my favorite things and a Enduro could get me across town and right to the waters edge.

The cost of a ruckus for what it was didn't suite me, I knew I could get more power for that cash and then I ran into the Hawk250 on Craigslist, Wow... Is that right, A New 229cc Honda clone for $1400? So after much studying and trolling this Forum I decided on the Storm For the simple reasons of the Counterbalanced engine for a smoother ride and height. I'm 5'10 with a 32 inseam, I really don't feel like tippy toeing a lot like in the past and thought the smaller tires might remedy this a little. Also I'm not interested in tearing it all up anymore, I just wanna get there!

Bike History,
Not much to speak of lately but as a younger guy I had a KX250, KDX200, A Suzuki TS250 enduro which was always being broke down, and a 74 Suzuki CCI250.

At this point.
I decided at Christmas I'd put some money down toward the bike as a late gift to myself, $600 down out of a $1365.00 total for a 90 day layaway leaving some cash to spoil the Kids and Wife. I'll pay the rest in a week or two, I can tell you this thing has me giddy like a kid on Christmas morning, I hope it's as fun when I was a young.

Congrats on the purchase and welcome to the forum! I think you will be more than satisfied with the Storm for your intended purposes, and I think even comes with a little tail rack for that tacklebox.

The best part about these bikes is the minimal investment to start, and the cheap repairs. The second best part is the information that can be found here on this forum.

The CG250 enigne is a great little mill with plenty of mid range grunt to pull my big butt around.

Welcome to the insanity!...ARH

where are you buying yours from cravin?

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone, da4design I purchased from Don at APSCUSA in Kentucky, The guy was stellar as far as customer service, we talked on multiple occasions with a lot of it having nothing to do with the purchase, Saying that.. If you live in Texas the people they use to finance with cannot finance due to not being in the state, I really wasn't planning on financing, I just wanted to lock in the price and he offered a finance with a one time pay off so it could ship immediately.

Welcome, The Bashan Bikes are great. Please post pics of your Storm when you get it! The Storm doesn't get much love these days, but she still is a Great looking machine!

I'm looking at chains right now and I don't really see a downside to going with a 520 chain, It may cost a bit more with the extra expense of new sprockets but I think I could get more longevity on a O-ring chain with decent sprockets...I know this has been covered but 428 seems small for the bike size and I've experienced trashed rear sprockets due to weak stretched chains. Maybe a middle of the road 520 would be better that the best 428? If I were to do that what sprocket combo would you suggest for 70 % street 30% dirt?

Congrats!
 

Welcome to the forum! MotoCheez did a video on taking his Hawk fishing! I’m 6 ft and I have a 32 inch inseam also. I have no problem planting both feet on the ground, of course I have 210 lbs helping! 😮 I’m sure you will have a blast on your new bike! Like everyone else said or will say, “Show us the Pictures”!

Have a great day!

Just going off of memory and some info I found on the stock sprockets for the Storm. If anybody sees an error, then feel free to correct me!

The stock Storm sprockets are 17 front and 45 or 46 rear (found both numbers searching. This is the sprocket combination that many of us Hawk owners love to use for road use with some trail riding but the Hawk also has a larger diameter wheel which alters the final drive by making it 7.5% lower/shorter than the Hawk by comparison. So if you were wanting to match the same overall gearing of a Hawk with 17/45 sprockets you would need to run a 42 tooth rear sprocket on your bike. So with that in mind, lets move on.

If you want to convert to 520 chain, the Storm uses the same sprockets as the Hawk, so you will basically be using the same sprockets I did.

Front Sprocket: JTF328 - 12 or 13 tooth, the 14 exists, but will likely be too big when combined with the taller 520 chain. https://www.ebay.com/itm/JT-Sprocket...m4383.l4275.c1

Rear Sprocket: JTR279 - 30 to 40 teeth counts avail.
https://www.amazon.com/JT-Sprockets-.../dp/B001AVON92

To dead on match a Hawk with 17/45 sprockets on your bike, you will want a 13 front and 32 tooth rear. This should give your bike decent enough torque for light off roading, and give the bike the ability to run at 60mph around 6300rpm - or about 500rpm lower than your stock gearing.

To roughly match your stock gearing you can run a 34 or 35 tooth sprocket. neither is exactly the same, each being around 1% or so taller/shorter.

If you want to go for the best road gearing, then you would need a 30 tooth rear, this would put you almost at exactly the same final drive as my bike with 13/31 - which is the same as a 17/43 on a stock Hawk. This is still capable of light trail riding, but amazing for road duty. Myself, JerryHawk, and a couple of others use and love this combination.

As far as what chain to use. I used this chain. 120 links will require you to cut it down to the length you need, but at least you know you won't come up short. Pricey, yes, but not as expensive as many other 520 O-ring style chains out there, and a darn good brand. I actually managed to find mine on sale for about 50 bucks, so shop around! The X-ring style O-rings do make a big difference in the resistance of the chain, so I find it worth it. https://www.amazon.com/520VX2-120-X-...WJYFCM94VAF7ZR

If you are feeling a little more thrifty, this is a good standard O-ring chain for about 10 bucks less, which is about what I paid for my 428 O-ring EK SROZ O-ring chain. Scroll through the different link counts and see if any are cheaper, you will notice the 120 link chain is actually a bit less than the 110-118 link chains lol. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007A8OSKS...006O85Q74?th=1

JT Brand 520 X ring chain for $49, this might be right up your alley. https://www.amazon.com/JT-Sprockets-...ords=520+chain

My only last bit of advice. If you don't want to spend quite that much on a chain then don't buy a cheaper O-ring chain. Stick with a good quality brand standard chain, such as a Unibear or DID.

Anyway, I will stop rambling. Hope some of this helps lol

Megadan, I wasn't expecting that for a response but I must thank you big time! I will go with either the 13/32 or 13/30 and I don't even need to search the products thanks to your experience. In my searches I found the D.I.D and JT chains but hadn't got to the sprockets.

I've been reading a lot of the threads here and I decided to take care of potential issues upon assembly, I got Rotella T6 5W/40, 2 NGK plugs, a new tube of loctite,and looking into teflon spray, spoke tightener.

I'll evaluate the carburator, shifting lever and chain guide when the bike arrives.

Thanks again!

Sorry for the big response. I am very detail oriented, so my technical responses tend to be long winded lol

As far as your choice of oil, while not a bad one, I would probably put that T6 on a shelf for now and run regular T4 15w40 in the motor for at least the first few hundred miles for break in purposes.

D.i.d. Is the main suplier for yamaha. They know how to make a chan. And jt is one of the best manufactured sprockets on the market.. don’t cheep out on chains. Well worth the money.

So you guys went to a 520 because of a wide range of sprockets available?? And the 13 tooth front is as big as you can go to clear the case? I'm taking notes here.

Main reason is mainly strengrh. 520 chain has a higher tensile strength than 428H chain. There is nothing really wrong with a 428H chain on these bikes, but it is borderline a bit too small for this type of bike for harder use.or taller gearing. That is the reason even the CRF230 comes stock with a 520 chain. The 428H chain just has that chance of wearing out a bit faster due to the strain.

Whenever it comes time to change out my sprockets due to wear I'll be switching over to 520 sprockets and chain.