Suzuki Across GSX 250 F

As I endevour to revive this website (again… and again), I will start by adding some interactivity, and hopefuly I will get a response :-)

I have made a spreadsheet to record “purchase history” of Suzuki Acrosses. I think it could be interesting (with enough data), to see our old bikes being re-sold, and so-on.

You can view the spreadsheet here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p8hX5ImJb6x56LrSAuK6eYQ Or see it embedded at the bottom of this post, if your browser supports iframes.

You can contribute to the “purchase history” by filling out a simple online form, which is here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p8hX5ImJb6x56LrSAuK6eYQ

Thanks, and happy riding! James

Over the years I have seen the same couple of questions asked over and over again by just about every new Across owner.

In this post, I will try to cover these common problems and hopefully help get your Across back on the road, running nicely.

The things here are listed in order of complexity/difficulty.

Battery - may appear ok with lights illuminating normally, but “nothing” when pressing the starter. This is because the battery will carry near-normal voltage, but will not hold enough current to power the ignition circuit.

• Most Acrosses are now pushing 15 years young, and there’s a good chance the battery has not been changed many times during the bike’s life (if ever).
• Since an Across is often ridden by learner riders, the battery gets more use than a non-learner bike (new owners showing off their new bike by starting the engine, stalling frequently while learning clutch control, etc).
• Once a lead acid battery is fully discharged, it will not hold charge properly again (unless rebuilt; which is not possible with the Across sealed battery).
• A replacement battery should cost between AU$50-AU$150; once replaced you can eliminate the battery from any other problems the bike may have.

Idle Mixture Screws - vibrate loose (rich) over time. The bike will run too rich at idle (~0-3000rpm). It will start from cold with little or no choke, and may “bog down” if left to idle once the engine has warmed up. May also be difficult to re-start after stalling.

• The idle mixture screws are 4 flat-head screws on the top of the carburetors.
• They control the air/fuel mixture in the low rev range (0-3000rpm) of the carburetor circuit. The effects of these screws at higher revs is negligible compared to the other mixture controls (needle and main jet).
• These screws vibrate loose over time and enrich (more fuel) the air/fuel mixture.

Throttle Slide/Piston Holders - hold the throttle piston/slide to the carburetor diaphragm, in-turn hold the throttle needle in the piston. These wear over time with the movement of the piston/slide in the carburetor and allow excessive movement in the throttle needles.

• Small white plastic clips inside the carburetors.
• Stocked by most Suzuki dealerships as common spare parts; approximately AU$5 each. The Across requires 4 (2 per carburetor, 1 per cylinder).
• In an emergency can be “jammed” in place by wrapping the “clip end” with some kind of tape (inert teflon tape is best, but anything will do in an emergency).
• MANY Acrosses have these super-glued in place… this is not a good idea as the needles and pistons require some small movement to avoid the needle or main jet being damaged.
• When very worn, the entire piston & needle may be “dropped” from the diaphragm; effectively closing all fuel supply to the corresponding cylinder. This will be felt as a sudden loss of power, but the engine will continue to run. Seemingly at “half power”. This can be fixed using the above emergency method. OR…
• It is always a good idea to carry some spare throttle slide/piston holders in the boot of your Across. They’re tiny, cheap, and you never know when you (or a friend) will need them.

This post is a work in progress. Planned additions include; bold headings will be links to other posts with detailed information, photos to identify components, section for “dirty” carburetors, section for incorrect float height settings, section for worn high-tension spark plug leads.

The most common PDF version of the Across workshop manual has some pages missing.

The complete workshop manual (for the Suzuki Across GSX 250 F) can be downloaded from here. Extra diagrams are available here.

PDF, images and image map HTML taken from Triple’s page at http://triple.batcave.net/. Thanks mate; keeping the Across alive!

Secondary download locations: Complete workshop manual - Triple’s original http://triple.batcave.net/images/Workshopmanualcomplete.pdf

Information here may be useful for users to navigate through this site more easily.

• All hyper-links open within the current window (does not open a new window or tab).

That’s all for now, ahaha. James

I have started this blog with the intention of turning it into a helpful, interesting, convenient and reliable source of information for the Suzuki Across motorcycle (GSX 250 F). This has been a “dream” of a few members of a small unofficial Australian Across “club” who call http://www.twincam.info/index.php?showforum=33 home. Mostly comprised of people who had an Across but have since upgraded (including myself) and even a few people who never had an Across, haha, go figure. The group does still however attracted a few Across owners seeking information and advice. Over the years the quality and convenience of this information and advice is somewhat unreliable, since things are constantly repeated, details are lost, people with certain knowledge or skills are lost, and so-forth. Therefore, we saw a need for some sort of website like this, and hope to carry on the wealth of online-knowledge provided by greats such as Crazy Ivan (who’s website has now departed), Peter (http://www.dixonarchive.com/across/default.htm) and OzBrickie (http://au.geocities.com/ozcross250/index.html).

The big question… Why? And it’s a good question, since most of us (especially those of us with “a lot of experience” with the Across) have had a few other bikes, members of various other clubs with plenty of other things to do… Why would we spend our time with something like this? Well, because the Across deserves it! It deserves to live-on as long as it’s materials will allow. Now becoming an aging machine (~16 years at the time of writing), helpful information on it could easily be lost, leaving remaining owners -however dedicated- with a lack of resources or -worst of all- a sense of community, which is really what riding a bike is all about. The Across is also an excellent learners bike, with enough performance for anyone to hone their skills on the race track, comfortable enough to get a taste for long trips (aside from that seat), very easy to work on and learn valuable ($$$ saving) mechanical skills and available for a great price nowadays, since it doesn’t have the ‘cool’ image of “race replica” learners bikes like the ZXR250, CBR250RR, etc.

Anyway here’s how I invision this blog working;

• A few members of the Twincam Across group (and hopefully one day other knowledgable people) contribute to the blog.
• Posts are published on the blog; posts may be technical how-tos, tips, mindless ranting/winging, reports of rides or meetings… basicly anything. Importantly, posts will be indentified as accurately as possible using Tags. This is esspecially important for technical how-tos.
• Visitors must be able to find the information they want as quickly and easily as possible. That kind of navigation in not inherint in Blogs (obviously chronologicaly focused) so we’ll need to develop a bit of a system and posting/Tagging standards to ensure information is easy to find.
• ALL content in the Blog must be hosted at reliable, long-term locations. This is the reason I decided to use a Google Blogger blog. I will also use Google Web Picasa for picture hosting, Google Video for videos, Google Documents for documents, and so-on. Google are not known for terminating any of their services. So this blog (and it’s included content, photos, videos, etc) should live on for a long long time, even if we stop maintaining it for some time.

So I’ll leave it here and wait for comments and suggestions from my good friends at Twincam. Cheers, happy riding, James.