Brozz 250 Recon: 1000 mile Review

[tknj99]

Hi All,
As i was recently reached out to for my opinion on the Brozz 250 Recon from a prospective buyer, i figured it would be a great time to post my 1000 mile review of the bike for others that may be looking at it.

A bit of background...I bought the bike this past November and have been very happy with it.. Im 47, grew up riding dirtbikes back in the day (86 KX80 and 90 RM125) and later transitioned to street bikes from the 90's to present.. mostly cruisers and sport bikes.. this has been my first foray into dual sport/adv bikes and i love it. In fact, i bought my son a Tao DBX1 140cc pit bike last June for his birthday and that was my first introduction to Chinese bikes.. now i get to ride with him as well as solo rides on the road.
I'm loving the whole dual sport thing, its so fun to be able to ride on paved roads and then take a detour when you run across a windy gravel road, discovering where it goes and getting lost in the experience!
My last bike was a ZX14R which was ridiculously fast but also very heavy, i found that i mostly rode highways with it and that's not that fun. When i sold it i thought i would use the proceeds to buy a dual sport as well as an inexpensive cruiser for highway touring.. but so far the Brozz has been able to satisfy my need for a do everything bike.. with a few caveats.

Trail Riding:
I consider it more than apt on dirt roads and even challenging trails, i've climbed steep hills and all kinds of terrain and it was fine. Mind you, its not a bike to jump with as the suspension isn't good enough for that. You will have to be honest with yourself here and figure out what percentage you will wind up being.. ie.. mostly street with occasional dirt riding or the opposite or somewhere along that spectrum.. Mostly dirt and you are in the Orion RXB side of the spectrum, Mostly street or 50/50 i think the Brozz will be your better bet. The Hawk/TBR etc are all contenders in the 50% and up street side of things. For me it came down to either the Brozz or the Hawk and i posted this thread as an indepth comparison of criteria before ultimately going with the Recon: http://www.chinariders.net/showthread.php?p=348397

Street Riding:
The Brozz feels good on the street and shines on back roads and highways where the speed limit is 55mph.. I have highways near me that are 65mph and 70mph and although i can ride them it should be an infrequent thing and not fun as your sitting at the high end of the rev range pretty much the whole time and probably full throttle more often than not and you will lose speed with inclines in the road, and at those times, its nice to know that tractor trailers are in the same boat and you can just sit behind one going up a hill as you both struggle to maintain or not lose too much speed on the way to the top.. If you plan on doing a decent amount of street riding then a sprocket change makes a lot of sense. I researched the optimal ratio and kept the 17tooth front stock while changing the rear out to 42tooth (from 46 stock). This equates to the best reviewed ratio that Hawk riders have posted about for mixed riding.

Performance:
In stock form, the bike is really lacking. This vary of "lacking" will be subjective and based on your experience with other bikes.. for newbie riders, maybe it will feel fast in stock form. For me, it almost felt like a scooter at times. I would say that out of the box, the bike is fine for light trails and backroad riding. For me, it needed more power and some suspension work.
It was also way to quiet for me, it was like a whisper and i didn't care for that quiet of a voice especially on the street where i pair riding with hi-beams and a louder than stock exhaust as basic safety measures.. not all will agree with that assessment but its kept me shiny side up, knock on wood, for the past 30 years.

To get it at the right level to do gravel roads, dirt trails, light and hard, as well as infrequent highway riding i feel you will need to look into the performance mods i have listed in my signature. I like tinkering so its been fun doing most of this work myself with the exception of the head porting that i sent off to Joe Henner for that work. All of these mods, including air filter, full exhaust, porting the head and performance carb probably brought it from 15hp to around 20hp now and I feel these changes have gotten the bike to where it needs to be to hold its own on the dirt and street. Its no speed demon that is still true, but i don't feel stressed out at stop lights that the car behind me will be stuck on my a$$ as i struggle to accelerate to the speed limit.. i can now take most cars off the line without much fanfare. And i can now also ride the highways without all of the stress i had when she was in stock form.. i still will lose speed up inclines, but nowhere near as bad as before. It also sounds great and has a presence now, instead of being a butterfly with its wings fluttering quietly, its more like a pit-bull riding down the road lol

Suspension:
In stock form i bottomed out the front forks frequently. I researched on how to remedy this and changing to 15w fork oil as well as a higher quantity than was was removed definitely helped. I may still bottom out on occasion but nowhere near as bad as before. I weigh 175lbs for reference.
The rear suspension has been fine, perhaps bottoming out very rarely.

Electronics:
I like the LED signals on the bike and the headlight and tail light are fine.. i rarely ride at night so havent felt the need to change out the headlight but that is always an option if needed.
Most dont care for the alarm or the remote start. I ditched the alarm on day 1 as i felt i would never need it and didnt want it chirping everytime i started and stopped the bike which could be pretty annoying after a few times lol.
I did however keep the remote start and do actually enjoy using it. Its nice to be able to keep the keys in your pocket after being started. With other bikes ive had, i would once in a while turn the bike off, get unsituated from the bike and then walk away with the key still in the ignition before i had an oh s$it moment and turn back to get the keys.. this should never happen again with the remote start in my pocket.

Handling:
With the knobby tires, the bike felt squirmy around fast bends but ive found that after wearing in a bit, she feels much more planted than when new. At 1k miles, the knobbies are about 50% tread left so probably 2k is all a set of knobbies will provide. Ive read that 50/50 tires can last at least double that life and perform pretty well off road with the exception of loose sand and mud.. since there is no loose sand around and i dont like riding in mud, what a pain to clean up after, i plan to go with the 50/50 tire next go around. Another thing to mention is that since the bike is so light, 300lbs if i recall, it feels so light on its feel on the trails and road and can take windy roads with ease. In fact, oddly to say, i can probably take winding roads faster than i ever did on my ZX14R, since the bike is so light you can accelerate into the turn and lean over and back quickly and with ease.. ive also read of others who've commented about how fast dual spots and adventure bikes can be on twisties, and thats a pleasant surprise for sure.

Comfort:
The bike is very comfortable. The seat, especially, is very comfortable and i think is a memory foam blend possibly and feels good on longer rides. The seat and dual sport nature of the bike steered me away from bikes such as the Orion RXB-L that looked to have a more rigid style dirtbike seat and seem geared more towards hard off-road riding.
I didn't care for the grips very much so i added grip puppies on top of the existing grips and this has made it very comfortable and less overall vibration to my hands.
Another aspect of comfort which is critical and should not be overlooked is that this bike has the counter-balanced engine which makes it less vibration than the other CG250 bikes. I believe this aspect pushes the price and value higher than the competition and this is not something that can be added on later, you either get it or you dont. The less vibration also helps keeping the bolts from rattling loose, i havent had any issues with bolts getting loose but you should still blue locktite whatever you can as a preventative measure.

Maintenance:
Oil: This bike is simple, simple to work on. Oil change is an easy unscrew of the bolt and removal of the side cap where there is a spring and a screen that can be cleaned easily. I changes the oil at 20mi, 120mi, 500mi, 700mi and 1000mile marks. From this point onwards ill be changing every 1k miles and I use Rotella 15W40 for that.
Fork Oil: changed to 15W Maxima (see things ive learned along the way below for tips)
Brake Fluid: changed to Prestone DOT4 synthetic soon after purchase. Was a simple job using my oil extractor connected to the bleed nipple with suction while chasing the oil fluid by adding new fluid via the reservoirs.
Chain: I lubed the stock chain and made sure it was adjusted well when new but found that it was stretched after almost every ride. After i read of others complaining about it and at least one report of the chain snapping, i decided to upgrade it to a Niche 428 X-ring chain 128-link. I later removed 1 link to bring it to the beginning adjustment marker position. Since installing the chain in December at the 500mi mark, i have since put another 500 miles and have not adjusted the chain once.
Valves: again very easy. Remove the 3 10mm head bolts and carefully pull off from the throttle side of the bike. Adjust the valves to .05mm or .002 inches and you are all set. I've adjusted mine at 20mi, 500mi and 1000miles and plan to do this at every 1000mile mark onwards
Carb: the stock carb was dialed in pretty well for my 600' elevation. The pilot is a 34 and the main is a 105. if you want to adjust the carb you'll need a hacksaw to carefully notch the the screw tops so that you can remove with a flat-head afterwards. Motocheez has a great YT video on doing that as well as great info on how the carb works and how it can be adjusted.
I kept the stock carb as is but later added 2 washers under the needle when i removed the airbox snorkel and added the Stonemen exhaust. It performed ok but i upgraded the main to a 115 at that time to compensate for the changes made. After i had the head ported i decided to replace the stock carb so that i could further make adjustments to it easily.. the pilot jet is not easy to find and id rather have options.. For me the PE30 carb was what i needed and it has been great so far with the settings i have listed in my signature.

Issues:
The list of issues has been super short thus far:
1. when new i had an issue where if i started the bike with the key in the ignition, when i moved the key to the off position the bike would remain running. A quick call to Jeff who suggested i try disconnecting the remote start and reconnecting, and that issue never resurfaced. I also later removed the alarm so that probably fixed it as well.
2. A few times when new i noticed the speedometer would start bouncing around to high speed indications when it was being ridden slowly. Turning off the bike and restarting usually resolved it and this issue has been infrequent at best. I did speak with Jeff at Peace Sports about it and if it starts happening again he will send out a new digital dash.

Dealer Support:
This was one of the reasons I went with the Brozz as i kept reading about Jeff at Peace Sports and how great he and the company is at before, during and after sales support. I spoke with him a few times via email and phone before i made the decision and he always patiently answered all of my questions. I have no doubt that should i have a minor or major issue during the 1year warranty period that Jeff will make it right. He even mentioned to me how he sent an entire engine to someone who was having a recurring issue after throwing a couple parts at the issue. Thats amazing and you will not get that level of support with some of the other competitor bikes. To some that matter, and to others maybe it doesnt.. to me, it did matter and having a Chinese bike i'd rather be safe than sorry.
Case in point.. i bought my son's Tao DBX1 from the infamous guy who has a few different stores and email communication was lacking at best and when we had an issue with an oil leak from the kickstart seal the response was for me to figure out the part i needed and get him the part # from partskit and hope its the right part. Well, turns out the company didnt even know the part # and sent me the wrong one.. luckily i was able to resolve with some teflon tape, but the experience didn't inspire confidence should a much larger issue surface..

Things I've learned along the way, aka Oh *&%$ moments:
1. Do Not remove the bottom bolt on the inverted forks to drain the oil.. i made the mistake of watching a YT video that showed them being removed to drain the fork oil.. didnt realize that it was for non-inverted forks.. after removing the first bolt, it went fine until i tried to remove the second fork volt and it just kept spinning.. an impact gun saved the long day of trying to remove that bolt in the end.. skip ahead and learn from my mistake.. remove both fork legs and caps, flip upside down and then drain from the top overnite
2. If you go to do the 4 degree timing key mod, be careful not to strip out the flywheel threads.. I watched another YT video where the guy used a thinner bolt inside the flywheel (after flywheel bolt was removed) for the puller head to push against. I did that and the bolt wound up bending and getting lodged inside the flywheel.. oh #$#% i thought at that moment.. luckily was able to drill that bolt out but it was still a nightmare of a day and in the end i just wound up stripping the flywheel threads and giving up.. read up on this and be prepared as that flywheel doesnt want to come off without a fight.

Overall: I am very happy with the bike and i think it provides a great value at a price tag of $2k. You cant get into a big-4 DS for less than 4k last i checked and this bike is definitely more than 50% the capability and overall reliability level (from what i've read) of a big-4 DS in the same 250cc category.
With that being said, i've spent about $500 on the bike to get it where i find that it can more than hang with any other 250cc 4-stroke, with the exception being, its not a jumper. This bike is great for those who enjoy tinkering and making changes as its very easy to work on and quite forgiving. It's nice and light and if your strong enough, should never drop on you where you couldn't muscle her back upright when stationary or during a slow speed maneuver. Try saying the same for a 4-5-600 pound adventure bike lol.

I hope this review helps anyone who may be on the fence and i'm happy to answer any other questions should they arise.

[TripleD]

Thanks for the detailed review tknj99. I might be that "prospective buyer" that asked for your input. Either way, reading this further solidified that this is likely the bike for me. I have to admit that it has been many years since I messed with any Chinese type of bike and my experience was with 2 little crapper 110CC 4 wheelers that my kids had gotten from their grandparents at Christmas... They were trash, but I also think that they were the first shipment of such junk to cross the pond. I have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of positive information relating to many of these bikes and super happy to have stumbled onto this site. Again, thanks for the wealth of information!!

[tknj99]

My pleasure.. i believe probably all of the Chinese bikes have come a long way in the last several years. And another thing these CG250 clones have going for them is their simplicity and being an old Honda engine clone the consensus is that the engine will far outlast the bike.. With that being said, the Brozz from what i have researched previously is a step up in build quality than some competitors.. I hope that all holds true and i get to post a 10k, 20k etc review in the future as testament to that.

[cycleway4]

great review,...very thorough.....should answer any prospective buyers questions,..help them make a choice easier, and with greater confidence.

[toneloc6530]

Appreciate the review. Just ordered a recon today. Was having a hard time deciding between it and a DLX.

[Bill Hilly]

I have appreciated all the advice that you,and all the other owners of the Chinese bikes have given me. I have had two people walk over to my bike in a parking lot, and talk since I have had it. The first was an old man , that talked about a Suzuki he once had. I don't think he knew my bike was Chinese. The second time was yesterday . I just ran into Dollar Tree, and had just hung my helmet on my handlebars. I saw a guy walking around my bike as I was leaving the store. I was parked pretty far back because I had pulled into a slot that had no car in front of it. I hate to say it, but the thought crossed my mind that he was kinda waiting for the chance to grab my helmet. But when I walked up to him he asked about the bike, and said "That's Chinese ain't it ?" , and he was genuinely interested in it, and I could tell that he had been either talking to someone else that had a Chinese bike, or had read up on them online. He was telling me how they had " Honda motors", and he asked what I had to do to the carb. I told him that I really like it for the price. He didn't really know the difference between Chinese bikes, and said that the cheapest he had saw them for was about $900. I felt a little alkward telling him I paid $1950. He was really interested in how they ran on the interstate, and I told him they are not really designed for it. He may end up with one .

[Megadan]

Awesome and thorough review! I do want to make one correction.

Do not remove the bottom bolt on the forks, period, including standard forks. It holds the damping rod in place.