The Recon

[Ina Ditch]

has been picked up by the trucking company and is waiting to leave Atlanta !!!

I wont start asking questions just yet as bad I would like to but I will leave some info for planned use so feel free to make suggestions.
My intent is for this bike to do 95% off road duty and even if I do decide to ride to work all but about 1.5 miles of it is on graded forest roads so I really have no need to be able to run 70 or 80 miles an hour, 60 MPH will get me everywhere I need to go with this bike since I live in the middle of a National Forest and wouldn't dare take into the big city. The only mod that I have my mind set on is to lower it front and rear and possibly shave the seat but I would rather not unless absolutely necessary. If there is any benefit at all I would also want to upgrade the exhaust and re-jet the carb.
OK, there she is so let me know what you think will benefit me for woods riding. Oh, I am probably around 100 feet above sea level, 9 months a year of high heat and humidity.
All.

[Megadan]

For what you want out of it, I would say get it, set the valve lash and maybe jet the carb as needed and call it a day.

[Ina Ditch]

Originally Posted by Megadan

For what you want out of it, I would say get it, set the valve lash and maybe jet the carb as needed and call it a day.

Thanks Dan, I am hoping it is geared like you or Jerry described your hawk, geared to climb a tree, I think that will be an advantage on the narrow little trails here close to home.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by Ina Ditch

Thanks Dan, I am hoping it is geared like you or Jerry described your hawk, geared to climb a tree, I think that will be an advantage on the narrow little trails here close to home.

The Hawks are tree climbers stock. Most of us hawk guys gear them down for better road manners and less tree climbing. A hawk comes with a 15 front and 50 rear. With the brozz having a smaller tire and I believe a 46 rear, you could install a 15 front and have a stump puller, but be aware that max top speed will be 58 to 60 tops with the rpms high up there as a trade.

[Ina Ditch]

[QUOTE=Megadan;336937]The Hawks are tree climbers stock. Most of us hawk guys gear them down for better road manners and less tree climbing. A hawk comes with a 15 front and 50 rear. With the brozz having a smaller tire and I believe a 46 rear, you could install a 15 front and have a stump puller, but be aware that max top speed will be 58 to 60 tops with the rpms high up there as a trade.[/QUOTE

I will give it a little while stock and see how she performs and go from there. I don't expect to be on highway very often and when I do it will be short stints of about a mile. It is twenty miles from the closest anything from where I live and all the shortest routes are by graded and ungraded dirt forest service roads which is most of my travel even by truck or car except for going to work. I used to travel to work through the woods but the roads just got to bad and it didn't save me time anymore only mileage, it cuts the mileage by about half.

[culcune]

All Bashans seem to come stock with 17/46 gearing which should be fine for the type of riding you intend. I had a bike when Chinariders first started which had 15/56 and screamed and vibrated at 55mph which was around its top speed. I then changed to a 44, and the bike still had a lot of the torque, and still only got to around 60mph, but was not screaming and vibrating. If I knew then what I know now, I would have gone to a 17.

[Ina Ditch]

Originally Posted by culcune

All Bashans seem to come stock with 17/46 gearing which should be fine for the type of riding you intend. I had a bike when Chinariders first started which had 15/56 and screamed and vibrated at 55mph which was around its top speed. I then changed to a 44, and the bike still had a lot of the torque, and still only got to around 60mph, but was not screaming and vibrating. If I knew then what I know now, I would have gone to a 17.

Thanks Culcune, I will be asking for you folks for your experience to guide me through this journey.

[China Rider 27]

Originally Posted by Ina Ditch

Thanks Dan, I am hoping it is geared like you or Jerry described your hawk, geared to climb a tree, I think that will be an advantage on the narrow little trails here close to home.

I would agree with Dan if you want to get by with no further investment. I have a low geared HAWK (3.0) with a PZ30b carburetor is all out a quick accelerator with that combination and a lot of fun to twist the grip on. I would suggest a 1/4 turn throttle to go with it, which I found out about courtesy of Dan's recommendations for the PZ30b. Taking the cat out and keeping the stock exhaust would help some with heat and increase efficiency.

[Ina Ditch]

Originally Posted by China Rider 27

I would agree with Dan if you want to get by with no further investment. I have a low geared HAWK (3.0) with a PZ30b carburetor is all out a quick accelerator with that combination and a lot of fun to twist the grip on. I would suggest a 1/4 turn throttle to go with it, which I found out about courtesy of Dan's recommendations for the PZ30b. Taking the cat out and keeping the stock exhaust would help some with heat and increase efficiency.

ChinaRider I don't mind putting some money in it I just don't have the experience to know what will get me the most bang for my buck or what is a useful performance mod vs a ego boost. I drive a beat up 90 something carolla and a 05 silverado with a bashed in driver side courtesy of hurricane micheal, I have many faults but vanity ain't one of them. you brought up a point I was going to ask about.
I am wondering if increasing airflow in and out would lower the operating temperature of the motor? as noted elsewhere the heat and humidity are killer here. once the rains start late spring the humidity will stay very high through october and july will bring daytime highs over 100. I never had but one of my hondas run hot but even if they had I believe they would handle it based on the service I got out of the one that ran hot.

[China Rider 27]

I too drive old vehicles, always have, that is were you get the most for your money, but then you also have to be a mechanic of sorts to keep them going. There is a temptation, I have succumbed to it, to get caught up in modification because it seems like the right thing to do and it goes on and on. You have to achieve the next level and then there is always a level beyond that, but that is also the fun for people, but it sometimes does not achieve in the end what you hope that it will.

After hearing your comments, I would suggest you should set the goal of taking your new bike and fixing the shortcomings and making it the best it can be with what it has initially for a time. If you do it right, you basically have to tear it down and build back up and that is plenty. Drive it for awhile then think about mods. One of the first mods I made was an oil cooler. Not usually a first choice mod but I guess my approach is a little different. Copied Jerry Hawks oil cooler install. He has a thread on it. I have a cg motor with an oil cooler and one without and no question it runs cooler with an oil cooler. Moving that hot exhaust gas out faster has to also reduce heat.

But I don't get as much fun out of an oil cooler when I twist the throttle!

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by China Rider 27

There is a temptation, I have succumbed to it, to get caught up in modification... You have to achieve the next level and then there is always a level beyond that, but that is also the fun for people...

Just described me. I am tempted by modding, not always because I need to do it, but because I want to or just because I can. That was actually a small part of the reason I posted the "Top 5 mods" thread, because at the end of the day, many of the modifications I did to my bike weren't really necessary, but they did improve the bike. That leads me to an idea I will come back to in a moment...

Originally Posted by China Rider 27

After hearing your comments, I would suggest you should set the goal of taking your new bike and fixing the shortcomings and making it the best it can be with what it has initially for a time. If you do it right, you basically have to tear it down and build back up and that is plenty. Drive it for awhile then think about mods. One of the first mods I made was an oil cooler. Not usually a first choice mod but I guess my approach is a little different. Copied Jerry Hawks oil cooler install. He has a thread on it. I have a cg motor with an oil cooler and one without and no question it runs cooler with an oil cooler. Moving that hot exhaust gas out faster has to also reduce heat.

But I don't get as much fun out of an oil cooler when I twist the throttle!

Again, I agree completely. (Aiming this at Ina Ditch) Going through the bike and doing a thorough setup/check like I suggest in my Hawk guide will achieve three things - familiarity with the bike and its components, longer term reliability, and peace of mind.

The Brozz is definitely assembled to a better standard than a Hawk out of the crate, but in my opinion it should still have a good once over and lubrication session.

The big reason I suggested leaving it stock for now is entirely so you can judge for yourself what you believe the first, if any, upgrades you should do.
I may have one of the most modified Hawks on this site, but I didn't do most of those modifications on a whim, they all had a purpose and were thought out. They were all done with a specific goal in mind for the type of bike I wanted it to be.

A big reason I suggested seeing what the factory gearing feels like for you is entirely because the Brozz comes geared with the same overall gearing as a TT250 when tire diameter is factored in. The stock TT250 gearing is pretty good for a mix of off and on road, but short enough to provide good torque AND can still achieve a top speed of 60mph at just a hair over 7000rpm, which is ok for short jaunts on the back roads.

Just give that motor a chance to really break in before you make judgements too. The first few hundred miles these bikes are always a bit sluggish to begin with.

As far as modification, decat the stock system for the best budget upgrade, but if you do need a USFS approved spark arrestor AND want an aftermarket system, you can fit other CRF230F exhausts to these bikes besides the ebay ones. They tend to fit better (no surprise there) anyway. Most of us just didn't want to drop the coin because we didn't need to. An Alternative option is to fit a Pro Circuit T4 spark arrestor in the ebay muffler. The caps and silencers for them actually share the same bolt pattern as the 4" T4 cans.

[China Rider 27]

Well said Dan! I will just add a picture on the point. This the stem bearing on a new Hellcat I took apart a week ago.

[Ina Ditch]

Thank you both very much, I hope you know how much your help means to many here.
Dan, I started re-reading your guide AGAIN last night and will re-read it many times because I have CRS disease pretty bad. Both of you make perfect sense and pretty much sum up my sentiments, I'll put money in it anywhere it is needed but have to resist the urge to mod for the sake of modding, especially since I am not a mechanic and could take things from bad to worse in a quickness. I can relate to your mods Dan, I am a welding tool junkie and have poured money into things strictly to satisfy my own curiosity or to make one operation easier that I may only use a few times in my remaining life time. Not the best comparison but I understand sometimes you just gotta do it because you want to.
Thanks again to all of you here who share your knowledge and as repayment for your kindness I will strive to learn enough to be able to one day pay it forward.

[Ina Ditch]

I got a call from the trucking company confirming delivery for tomorrow, waiting on the call back for the 4 hour window of delivery time. I just ordered the rear shock, spoke tool, battery tender and a couple of other things and will pick up some rotella on the way home to meet the truck tomorrow. I ordered new feeler gauges to, the ones I have are really old and hard to read.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by China Rider 27

I will just add a picture on the point. This the stem bearing on a new Hellcat I took apart a week ago.

Holy cow, that's even dryer than my Hawls bearings were lol. I at least had a little booger of grease on them.