[petza914]

Hi petza914 and welcome to the site.
You will love 250x but if your son is 12 it will be less than a year before he wants to ride it as well. Well that's what fathers normally find.
My son had progressed to 250R before he turned 13 and picked up a KTM200EXC because it was faster and you can't not love a 2 stroke zing.

How is your sons fit for the 230.
It maybe better to keep the 230 unless you're thinking about a 450 in your future.

Dirt bikes are a disease after all.

Thanks Ray. Not much chance of that I don't think. He's small for his age and can only touch the ground with one foot at a time on the CRF100F. I'd say he's 2 or 3 years away from being in the range where a 230 would make sense based on his size.

[petza914]

I ended up buying the 250x yesterday.

What a bike.  It took a few manual kicks from cold start with the choke out to fire up, but once it did, no smoke out the exhaust, idled nice and even and ran well.  It's really a completely different beast than the 230F.  During my test ride, I gave it a bit of aggressive throttle in 3rd and the front wheel came right up on it's own - this is going to be a blast.  Really excited to get it back over to the MX park and compare the experience.  No coolant leaks and the radiators look nice and straight with hardly any bent fins.  I'm going to add braces and guards to keep them that way.

It has quite a few aftermarket goodies and mods on it too.

Light Speed carbon fiber side frame protectors
Acerbis skid plate
spring loaded brush guards that were worn and too close to the clutch lever (now removed)
some kind of bracketed rubber bumper that attaches to the sides of the bike to help hold the boots forward (now removed as they block easy access to the airbox door)
Pro Circuit T4 full exhaust system (OEM one came with it too)
Has the open top airbox mod and the carb has been rejetted to work with the airbox mod and exhaust system
Metal throttle sleeves
Aftermarket bars with center brace
guy threw in a pair of size 11 Fly Enduro boots (not sure if they fit or not as I'm usually a 10 and needed to clean and disinfect them last night before I put my feet in - they're still drying)
Gave me a complete kit of valve shims in the organizer box
Twin Air intake block of and exhaust plug kit for washing the bike


Started going through it last night and today

renewed the front and rear brake fluid last night
installed new AGM powersports battery
coolant is properly filled and fresh
adjusted the chain, which was too loose and lubed it
Air filter has a couple small rips in it so ordered a new one of those and will wait until it arrives before running it
Tires are good, but pressure was a little low.

Seems like I got a heck of a deal on it and that it's a good bike. Between the last two owners, it's had 36 hours put on it.

[Aussiecrf230]

Well the only worrying thing you mentioned was a valve shimming kit.
Hopefully he hasn't needed to use it yet.
He may have, just bought it for future use or when he was going to check the valves.

I would also check your spokes are firm and the sprocket bolts/nuts are tight.
Just part of the general maintenance stuff you already started doing.

Otherwise it sounds great and will be lots of fun.
Post a picture up when you can.

Don't leave the little fellow in your dust either.

[petza914]

Well the only worrying thing you mentioned was a valve shimming kit.
Hopefully he hasn't needed to use it yet.
He may have, just bought it for future use or when he was going to check the valves.

I would also check your spokes are firm and the sprocket bolts/nuts are tight.
Just part of the general maintenance stuff you already started doing.

Otherwise it sounds great and will be lots of fun.
Post a picture up when you can.

Don't leave the little fellow in your dust either.

Will do. Already pinged some of the spokes and there's a pretty good range of sounds, so they're not right. Ordered a spoke torque wrench and will go through both my bike and my son's. Do you know the spoke torque off the top of your head?

Thanks.

[Aussiecrf230]

Always done it by hand and ear so they are firm and ring evenly.
Just make sure you get the correct fitting head. Even Honda has some different sizes just on there own.
Spray the nipples with wd40 or your choice of anti-seize and give the wheel a few spins to get in down into the threads. (Good idea after a wash too)
Nip them all up a 1/4 of a turn (if they go) and see if that has improved tension and maintained wheel straightness with no hop.
After a few rides and tensionings they tend to stay put.

[petza914]

Always done it by hand and ear so they are firm and ring evenly.
Just make sure you get the correct fitting head. Even Honda has some different sizes just on there own.
Spray the nipples with wd40 or your choice of anti-seize and give the wheel a few spins to get in down into the threads. (Good idea after a wash too)
Nip them all up a 1/4 of a turn (if they go) and see if that has improved tension and maintained wheel straightness with no hop.
After a few rides and tensionings they tend to stay put.

Took care of them today. Manual says 32 ft.lbs. but there were plenty of them way tighter than this. Ended up doing them all at 40 and some were still tighter than that. The wrench kit came with about 10 different heads so I had the 3 I needed for my 250x and my son's 100f.

Installed the new air filter and new hydraulic brake fluid and took it for a 10 minute ride on the property next door. Looking forward to getting it to an open area where I can really run it.

Washed and took pics of the 230f so I could put it up for sale too. That's a really nice bike - just easy and comfortable.