Templar X 250

[Texas Pete]

Well so much for my coffee break. It kicked in and I felt like working some more.


I broke the thread locker on both axles and pulled the front wheel off.





Removed the front tire and pulled the rim lock out of the rim. It also on further inspection before reinstalling the tire into the rim had a foam pad as well so I pulled that and put it together with the rim lock itself.





Looking closely at the rim lock there is some details on it, even a 2017 patent





I have rubber rim lock plugs from Japan. It is a good 'n tight fit but I got one of them installed into the front tire rim. The plug stick out of the hole and the cap sits inside the rim matching the curved inner profile.

[Texas Pete]

Time to put the front wheel on the balancer tool and figure out how it looks prior to installing weights. The wheel without the rim lock was surprisingly in balance, nothing major, just a slow spin to the heaviest point, which of course was the valve stem.






I used two 1/2 ounce weights but it was still a tiny touch heavy. I cut one in half but that was too much. I cut that in half again and that was close enough to be good enough for government work. So all up 1 1/4 ounces. Gorilla tape is expensive but the best and its black and can serve duty helping the weights sticky back keep it on the rim.






Front wheel reinstalled. New threat locker applied to the axle threads and axle torqued to specifications. Then pinch bolts torqued to specifications.


Rear tire pulled next. I got it up on the wheel balancer early as it lets me spin and inspect the rim and tire and also lets me spin and wipe down the rotor front and back with a cloth sprayed with brake cleaner. It also lets me get some of the china chain grease that started to finally melt now that I am riding the bike off of the tips of the sprockets so there is less mess later on when pulling the tire.





This is also where I note that the spacers used on the rear wheel are asyncronously sized as compared with the front wheel. For photographic assisted memory and recall the taller spacer is from the sprocket side of the rear wheel while the shorter spacer is on the rotor side.





Looking at the sprocket for removal this is about the point in time where I realize two things.

1. I don't have any star point sockets.
2. I don't have any star point tools larger than T40 and the size used on the sprocket is a T45.

So off to the store I go. And now I am back, but the sun is setting, the air is getting even more annoyingly colder and I think I have had enough for a day well spent minus the faffing about getting missing tools.





I will have to as say leave the rest of the rear wheel work for another time. Until then...

[knwilson]

Originally Posted by Texas Pete

The hardware is all METRIC on this bike so make sure you get combo sets or at minimum metric sets:

• Decent Screwdriver set (although the ultra cheap amber one with rubber grips at the checkout stations has the perfect flat blade for adjusting the air pilot screw once you free the aluminum plug out of the carb to get access to it. But if doing carb work, bench vise, drill set, hacksaw with fresh blade, etc.)
• Decent selection Spanner/Wrench Set
• Decent selection Socket Set
• 32mm socket (Harbor Freight) - Rear Axle Nut and Triple T now pre-installed so not needed for assembly but will be for working on steering down the road
• 21mm socket (I got craftsman/black from Lowes) - Front Axle Nut
• motorcycle axle multi tool from eBay, Amazon, wherever if memory serves it is the 19mm hex key part on the tool that fits the front axle.
• Red and Blue thread locker (cheapest at Harbor Freight)
• Valve stem tool to remove and reinstall and make sure valve stems are securely installed from the factory -- my bike was not holding air and powersportsmax said to try removing and reinstalling the valve stem as the factory making the tubes might not be installing them tightly.

The rest will be misc tools, pliers with cutting teeth to quickly cut plastic zip ties, tie down wire from the crate etc.


If you want to go like me and go over all the bolts and get them torqued in properly:

• 1/2 inch Digital Torque Adapter (Harbor Freight)
• 1/2 inch Torque Bar (Harbor Freight)
• Adapters from 1/2" to all the other sizes, two daisy chained to get to 1/4" (Harbor Freight) - not sure if both needed, I got both the black and the chrome sets.
• Rubber mallet
• Chain breaker tool (cheapest for decent enough build quality at Harbor Freight)
• New Chain and New Rear Sprocket if intending to use the bike on the streets as well as off road but now we are starting to divert from simply tools.

I appreciate the detailed reply. Sounds like it might just be easier to bring it to the shop vs bringing the shop to it. Wish me luck - I'm going to get started on it this week...

[chinazuki]

Originally Posted by knwilson

I appreciate the detailed reply. Sounds like it might just be easier to bring it to the shop vs bringing the shop to it. Wish me luck - I'm going to get started on it this week...

NO!....only few tools are needed: allen wrenchs, 12 inch adjustable wrench,
a few other wrenches and sockets.

that will get you rolling

[Texas Pete]

Today was the day to work on the rear wheel. Cold, wet and rainy.


Old China Sprocket Removed











Side by side with the new sprocket for size comparison.









I removed the rear rim lock, close up detail.





And as expected, the inner tube is installed incorrectly. They put a nut beneath against the rim and one on top smashed down against the top of the rim. When I get new tires I will also get new tubes and install them correctly. For now I am skipping removing the innter nut and leaving it there as I expect it will only a short number of miles to wear out the factory knobbies rubber.





Fixed the Front Valve Stem using the compromise of backing the top nut out against the valve cap. This will allow 1/4" movement of the stem without ripping the stem out of the inner tube and is a compromise to the Michelin instructions for locking them together above the rim.




Yes I will be running higher pressures on the street than the lower pressures used on off-road use. But at least if I lack better judgement in future and don't check my tire pressure before riding I won't rip the stem out (lower probability).

[Texas Pete]

While I am at it, I am correcting the rear wheel valve stem. Honda has not shipped bikes with nuts for years, instead they just have a rubber cover to prevent grime getting in. As I am not riding off-road on sand and the stem hole is very tight tolerance, I don't think I'll get sand inside the rim to act like sand paper on the inner tube before I replace the tires and replace the inner tubes.






Comparing the metal, teeth, and machining on the Chinese Sprocket and the Japanese (now made in Thailand) sprocket. I did not the larger amount of material left on the China one, possibly due to increase wear speed. (EDIT: There is less than 20 miles on the China sprocket in this photograph.)






The sprocket bolts and nuts are consumables. Next time I get a new replacement sprocket I will throw away the sprocket bolts and nuts and get brand new ones to go with the brand new sprocket. For now I am just reusing the ones that came with the bike. They were filled with gray powdery crap, made me think of corrosion already. I spend time on the bench grinder and wire wheel and got them nice and clean. My method is to grease the non thread portions as I don't want corrosive welding to occur when it comes time to get them off again. Thread locker on the threads. I didn't have any torque specification written down so I went with my own, good 'n 'tight and then some came out to 26 foot pounds on the digital torque adapter.





Now its out to the wheel balancing stand. The natural balance point without the rim lock installed was between the valve stem and the yellow circle.






It took three and one quarter ounces of weights to bring the rear into balance.

[tknj99]

I'm curious what the balance of the wheels were before removing the rim locks.. on my bike with rim locks in i can feel a vibration between 40-60 mph which gets better overall the higher the tire pressure. I'm running 30psi in both and do a mix of gravel, dirt and street

[Texas Pete]

Before reinstalling the rear wheel I might as well get some measurements for record sake on the spacers. It looks like they took a standard sized wheel spacer and cut it down for the rotor side of the rear wheel and used the standard sized spacer as is on the sprocket side.





New Japanese chain installed and chain slack adjusted. Sparing amount of red thread locker on the rear axle and torqued to 65 foot pounds. Then adjusted the chain guide for the smaller sized sprocket.






Time to squeeze in two more jobs. Adjustment to the rear brake foot lever, going out a full turn on the adjustment to give it a bit more slack before engaging (no photo).


Then a rewire (third time) of the battery charger cable lead. I've gone into and out of the garage on the bike enough times to know that my habit will become just pulling it in at the end of a ride so it makes sense to have the lead on the side facing the wall socket.





And thats it. I'm done. Too tired and sore to take it for a test ride. Maybe tomorrow .

[Texas Pete]

Originally Posted by tknj99

I'm curious what the balance of the wheels were before removing the rim locks.. on my bike with rim locks in i can feel a vibration between 40-60 mph which gets better overall the higher the tire pressure. I'm running 30psi in both and do a mix of gravel, dirt and street

They are definitely out of balance. I was going to take photographs but decided against it as it wouldn't matter in the end. I've pulled my rim locks and if you use them then you get gigantic monster weights that can go around the spoke wires. Looks goofy and you probably cannot get them dialed in perfectly but you can take some wobble out at speed on the rim lock wheels.

[los1274]

When you got your MSO did it say Templar or did it say Zuumav X7

[Texas Pete]

Make: Zuma
Model: X7-CB250F
Description: Motorcycle

[Okierider]

Howdy all, how ya doing, been a while since I checked in.
So how’re the 6 speed Templars turning out? My old 5 speed still chugs along well, and now my wife is toying with wanting one. Thinking of grabbing a 6 speed for her.
Is there a 300 in the offing yet?

[tknj99]

Mine is chugging along - around 800 miles now

[Texas Pete]

Well today I took the Templar out for its first voyage on the new 40 tooth sprocket and RK Japanese O-ring chain.


Holy hell!




Zoom, zoom, straight to the moon!



What a transformation! Feels like a street bike now and still plenty of grunt to accelerate around my streets. I am glad I stuck with the optimal calculations for gearing and kept to the 40 tooth sprocket. It has all the pickup punch needed under 60 (still breaking in the engine at 31 miles on the bike now). But I can put along at 3,500 RPM around my local neighborhood estate streets all day long.



I have no plans to take this on the freeway, this is going to be 95% street oriented runabout town motorcycle and right now with the sprocket I am loving it.


Plenty of stretch in first. I can be in 2nd and switching to 3rd at the same speeds I was in 5th gear and pushing into 6th on my neighborhood estate streets. Very happy, should be a huge boost to the runabout fuel economy now.


Weeeee




Ok enough fun, I've shut her down for now and I have got photographs of the carry bag installation I need to sort out and post.






Edit: I got to put a lot of side to side steering changes in at multiple speeds going down the street, I am also loving the position as it is for the rake angle setting at 1 1/2 rings. I think I will keep it there.

[tknj99]

Wow, you must be light. I have the 42T in the rear with stock 13T and up slight inclines in 6th she starts slowing down. I guess im a heavy dud at 180