Templar X 250

[NCtemplar250]

Originally Posted by Hap

Hey Okierider. I’m embarrassed to ask. But where is the fuse box?

It’s not a box: the fuse is in-line in a tube connected to the positive line coming off the battery. Remove your seat and you will see it next to the battery.

[Texas Pete]

Front forks require regular oil changes and maintenance to keep them working well. Riding on different types of trails call for suspension clicker adjustments and fine-tuning the suspension to your liking.

One of the things many riders seem to neglect is to bleed the excessive air build-up inside the front forks. This air build-up can quickly affect the suspension performance as it slows down the front forks and can make the suspension feel harsh.

Fork bleeders are a game changer for quickly neutralizing excessive air pressure build-up inside the front forks. Fork bleeders are small hollow spring loaded air screws that replace the factory front fork air screws on top of the front fork caps. They enable a push button style quick release of the excessive air buildup inside the front forks.


The air space above the fork oil is actually functioning as an air spring in addition to the metal coil spring creates the overall feel and performance of a particular suspension tune for the forks.


In a nutshell this air pressure affects the compression and rebounding speed of the fork leg. Being able to bleed the air before a race, ride or when strapping down bikes for transportation allows the pressure to equalize to the outside air and in the latter case can help prevent transportation damage.


I was not planning on doing this early on, but I had a set of these from AliExpress in flight and it just so happened to beat my other AliExpress parts order from arriving so on with the install!


Before, you can see the air bleeder screw on top of the forks, its not good accessibility, not poor but having to keep a large flat bladed screw driver on hand to manually bleed the forks and equalize the pressure can be a pain if you need to always carry tools with you.

Before picture is viewing from the front of the bike.





New parts and the old screws removed side-by-side





And after, now just pushing down the valve with your finger will let the air pressure equalize.





One thing I noticed, is the screws uses a much wider o-ring for the seal. I held down the front brake and put all my weight on the front fork compressing them and listened and with the tiny o-rings I could hear a little bit of air burbling, so now I tried swapping the old o-rings on to the new air bleeder valves.


After picture is viewing from the back of the bike while seated.





Reinstalled the bleeders and put my weight back on the front forks compressing them. No more burbling! This job is done.


I will test ride them for a while before deciding to leave them on. I want to see how well their seals hold up over time with many compression cycles on the forks. If they still allow compressing with no air escape burbling noises then they can stay. If not I will try another style or go back the the screws.


You did remember to put your screws in the bag the valves came in and put them away in your parts drawer yes?

[NCtemplar250]

Originally Posted by Hap

Hey Okierider. I’m embarrassed to ask. But where is the fuse box?

Here she is:

[Okierider]

My only worry with those, and why I haven’t installed them, is the way the bars tend to bend when you are ejected from the bike. It looks like they would shear off.
So how do you drain the fork oil? Haven’t gotten there yet.

[Fast_Freddy]

I was wondering if anyone knows more details about the front sprocket and chain? Specifically, sprocket hole diameter, number of splines, bolt holes or what common bike uses the same size sprocket. For the 520 chain. how many links in the X/M chain? TIA

My initial focus on the Templar resource thread is to compile as much info as possible on the OEM parts, spec's, etc. so that someone needing a chain can easily lookup the oem spec. If they need a little shorter or longer for their application, they can work that out. Same for everything else. The biggest problem I've seen with resource guides over the years is that they usually end up full of dead links to parts and photos.

Please let me know if you have any other additions or suggestions for the guide. I apologize for how little info is there ATM but it's a well intentioned start. As soon as the weather gets a little warmer I'll be adding a lot more info on the base Templar. I will need to rely on you guys and Thumper for the X/M stuff. At least we have the same engine.

[SecretSquirrel]

Mobile mechanic came out to help me diagnose a vacuum leak… after plugging the hole in the top of the air box… no more vacuum leak… anyone else have issues with this?

[Texas Pete]

Originally Posted by Okierider

My only worry with those, and why I haven’t installed them, is the way the bars tend to bend when you are ejected from the bike. It looks like they would shear off.
So how do you drain the fork oil? Haven’t gotten there yet.

If you are going over the handle bars being ejected and you are bending the Fat Bars on the Templar X 250 you have some more problems to worry about than shearing off a $1.62 pair of air bleeder valves.


That said, if you are doing street riding on new forks and fork seals you are not going to find yourself often if at all needing to bleed air. But at $1.62 there are worth it as over-winter-nothing-else-to-do bling to test out. Come spring I'll know if I use them or not and go back to screws or just leave them on.



I think the fork oil question is separated? -- you are definitely not draining fork oil through the bleeder screws. You take the entire top of the fork off from the fork tube itself when servicing forks.

[Okierider]

My problems name is Cindy.
She’s a 2 year old black lab that loves to chase me and the bike through our trees.
She decided to race me down the driveway then cut across in front of me, ended up cranking it over so hard that I got dumped. Probably doing 15-20 mph.
Hurt like hell lol. But Cindy had fun.
The bars didn’t bend but the mounts for the bars allow (apparently by design) the bars to flex in such a way that anything protruding very much from the top of the forks could get shorn off.

[Okierider]

Just pulled the trigger on a spare -3A motor for my bike.
I need to see how much Joe Henner wants for a 300 kit

[Thumper]

So here is the OTOM 300cc kit that I got from a vendor on AliExpress. The parts appear to be high quality. OTOM actually makes their own 172FMM. What is it with the across the board patent violations? I guess their is no patent law in China. Anyway, it includes a set of rings, gudgeon pin and circlamps, lower gasket and head gasket, and a piston. The markings indicate 300cc on the cylinder, but I do not know if that is true. I get 74mm diameter on the cylinder... which calculates to a 265cc displacement (74mm x 61.4mm). The OEM 72mm cylinder calculates to 249.99cc on the same (Spicer's) engine displacement calculator.

Go figure. No really, Go figure!

Well, 15 extra cc is worth the trouble if I polish the head ports at the same time. That and an aftermarket exhaust or cat gut and muffler replacement would probably bump usable hp to 25 or so. All together, worthwhile. The kit looks good:





I think the thing to do is get a new 172FMM like okierider did, install this, work the head, and the exhaust and maybe go to a 30mm carb.

[Okierider]

Freaking A man, looks good!
I just contacted Joe Henner about a big bore kit, cam and head work. Will report back when I hear from him.

Mr. Henner is having trouble sourcing pistons.
His kit is a true 300-or rather 289cc kit. Last quote I got for it was $350. If he has any pistons left after filling his current orders I’ll grab one.
He also offers a cam to go with the kit ($165+core exchange) and cylinder head porting ($150+shipping).
I’ve asked about just shipping the whole motor to him and having him do the work, but we need to have pistons first.
In passing he mentioned that his big bore kit with supporting mods makes 3-4 more horse. That would put us around 23 horse. For that engine output the Mikuni manual charts say a 26mm carb is the sweet spot, but a 28(like the stock unit) would work.

[NCtemplar250]

That's awesome! I really look forward to updates on the big bore kit.

I just got my license plate in NC yesterday! The old lady at the DMV tried to turn my away because it is an "off road vehicle," but luckily the lady next to her confirmed that enduros are ok in NC. I was starting to worry a little bit, but thankfully it all went through ok.

[tknj99]

Good stuff Thumper! You are leading the charge in higher performance endeavors for our bike and its well appreciated! I look forward to hearing how it goes

[Thumper]

Originally Posted by Okierider

Freaking A man, looks good!
I just contacted Joe Henner about a big bore kit, cam and head work. Will report back when I hear from him.

Mr. Henner is having trouble sourcing pistons.
His kit is a true 300-or rather 289cc kit. Last quote I got for it was $350. If he has any pistons left after filling his current orders I’ll grab one.
He also offers a cam to go with the kit ($165+core exchange) and cylinder head porting ($150+shipping).
I’ve asked about just shipping the whole motor to him and having him do the work, but we need to have pistons first.
In passing he mentioned that his big bore kit with supporting mods makes 3-4 more horse. That would put us around 23 horse. For that engine output the Mikuni manual charts say a 26mm carb is the sweet spot, but a 28(like the stock unit) would work.

Only 3-4hp? I guess that is something anyway. The Zongshen NC300 (4 valve, liquid jacket) engine has 74mm x 64mm (279cc) and it is rated at ~25hp. That is stock, with not ported head. I guess the 4 valve head helps.

This suggest that my OTM 265 kit might make 2-3hp, but only if I get a cam and port the head. Hmmm.

289cc kit- $350
cam- $165
head porting- $150

That is about $700 with shipping.

[Okierider]

Originally Posted by Thumper

Only 3-4hp? I guess that is something anyway. The Zongshen NC300 (4 valve, liquid jacket) engine has 74mm x 64mm (279cc) and it is rated at ~25hp. That is stock, with not ported head. I guess the 4 valve head helps.

This suggest that my OTM 265 kit might make 2-3hp, but only if I get a cam and port the head. Hmmm.

289cc kit- $350
cam- $165
head porting- $150

That is about $700 with shipping.

I’m not sure you can compare water to air cooled engines. Drz400 and DR650 make about the same amount of power, just at different places on a graph, despite the 250cc difference. Efficiency is king.
That’s always the way of these things lol.
Bigger bores are great, but it’s only as good as the amount of air you can’t get into it.
I figure without better airflow in and out, a big bore kit is pointless.
But hey, what’s this? Tax returns….