SAGA 250 mod thread

[RageHard]

Was changing the oil on my bike last night and noticed I had an exhaust leak (due to the fact that the exhaist really dies not fit properly but I digress) When I pulled the Head pipe I noticed that where it joined the muffler pipe there was a poorly fitting ring welded insode there that did not look good for flow at all. A bit of time griding and whacking it with a hammer and chisel got it out of there, and the result seems to be a tad more mid range punch but this may be due the exhaust sealing properly now.

[RageHard]

Anyone know the specs for the countershaft sprocket on the pushrod zongshen motor? Would like to go a step larger up front for street duty.

[COJO]

Hi,

I just purchased a 2008 250gyc, I have never heard of these bikes before. Just figured I would introduce myself, as I might need some pointers. Hello!

[Scooterchick]

Hello "COJO",

I do hope you find what you need here. I am new to this forum as well. I just purchased a 250cc Saga cruiser that has been back to the shop 3 times in one month. I am thinking of getting a full refund and the return of my trade in bike which was a Kymco and move on. It stalled on me in traffic and while entering a highway. I do hope things work out for you!

Scooterchick

[Murphy C]

hello all first post
just wondering if anyone knows where I can get mods in Vancouver BC for this Saga 250 Senior


Thanks M

[Real4real]

Just bought my 2009 Saga 250 a week ago with 150kms on it. The dude I got the bike from was nice enough to put a Mikuni carb from a 250 pro brand engine and also found that at 2500 feet above sea level a 120 jet was required for both stock and new carb to work correctly. I was told that carb install was simple (bolted right in) and the original cable fit the new carb slide, the only downfall was a carb mounted choke.
The mods I have done are a new NGK spark plug, 15w40 oil change, a better chain and a 35 tooth rear sprocket for a Honda XR185 now at 120-130km per hour on the highway.
Turned out that setting the valves made by far the biggest difference, at only 150kms the exaust valve broke in and was being held open slightly when cold causing hard starts and poor power. Removal of seat, gas tank, upper engine mount and valve cover was nessasary. Nice thing was the valve cover had an o-ring rather than a gasket. Set valves to a standard 0.002"-0.003" clearance cold for both intake and exaust. I set my exaust clearence looser than spec just in case there is carbon between the valve and seat, I will correct at the next 500km oil change.
Contacted Saga Canada to get the engine specs for setting the valves and got no reponce. Sevice is obviously the reason for Kijiji being packed with people selling these bikes. I did find the rocker to valve clearence on the manufacturers web site.
My Saga starts and run perfect and performs very nice for a pushrod engine. To anyone reading this, please set your valves. Use a feeler guage between the ajustable rocker and the valve, ajust until you can't move the feeler guage easily then tighten the jam nut. When you tighten the jam nut you should be able to move the feeler guage out from between the rocker and valve stem easily. Although all these changes caused improvments setting the valves made by far the biggest. Rough machining causes valves to wear into the valve seats and can cause valves to not close correctly. I will be checking my valves every oil change and will post interval ajustments to the valves.
These are well built engines and can perform like the higher brand pushrod bikes if maintained. Like many others I have seen on these forums I believe that depending on a service tech from Saga or other China bike dealers will defeat the purpose of buying a cheaper bike. These techs are rushed and lack knowledge, they also know that if you bought a cheeper bike you will not want to pay high service costs. Turn wrenches yourself, ask question to learn, save big bucks and bring the big power your bike was designed to produce.
I also have a Gio 125cc dirt bike and although I turn wrenches everytime me and my boys abuse it, we have been trying to kill this bike for five years and it still starts on the second kick with the original engine. First time my Gio didn't start and low compression was an issue set the valves and the boys took it out again to hold it wide open up a sand hill again. I have owned many big name bikes and although I can't say my China bikes are better, they have been abused far worse and still run. My Yami budies laugh every time they see what these bikes can put up with and cry every time they need to fix their $5000 bikes from half the abuse the china bikes can take. A big brand bike costs as much in few parts as buying a new drive train costs for a china bike, lol.

[flyfishinwoman]

I worked on my bike this weekend, replacing the tube and putting in a new 40 tooth sprocket to get highway speed. After purchasing some tire irons to help with the tube replacement, the job wasn't too bad. I had to cut 10 links out of the chain to adjust for the new smaller sprocket. When it was all together, I went for a spin on the highway to check what gain in speed the change resulted in. With the stock sprocket, 70-75 km/hr was about top speed, but with the 40 tooth, I got up to 95 km and perhaps could have got a little more out of it but I felt a little wander starting to develop so backed off to about 90 km. That's all that I wanted - to get up to highway speeds for this area, which is 90. Now I can ride to the local trails, yay!

While I had the rear wheel off, I measured the shock and it appeared to be about 15.5" eye-eye, but that measurement was less once the wheel was on and the shock was loaded. The bottom mounting was measured about 30 mm but I couldn't get to the top to measure. I want to get a shorter shock to lower the rear seat height (and I will lower the front as well to maintain the steering geometry). I cannot get a longer dog bone in there, as the rear linkage is almost up against the swingarm as it is.

So, does anyone know of a shorter shock that can just bolt in, or am I going to have to modify with some bushings, etc.? Thanks in advance.

[flyfishinwoman]

I got a shorter shock and installed it, and also lowered the front tree on the forks but the result was a bike with too little clearance, negating the dual-sport duty. So, the shorter shock came out and the triangular linkage that the shock mounts to on the bottom was modified. I drilled a hole lower down on the triangle and then cut out the top area of the triangle to get clearance for the shoulder of the shock. After raising the tree on the forks (or lowering the forks in the tree) the bike is the perfect height for me. The modded triangle bracket lowered the bike about 1.5 ", enough for me to get my feet on the ground enough to make a "save" if necessary and not be awkward when stopped. I can even pedal the bike when sitting on it, instead of having to get off the bike to maneuver it. I need to do a valve clearance check and oil change next.

[kenvb]

so are any ofyour Sagas still running..im looking at a 08 with 232 kms. hasnt run 5 yrs..tank full of stinky gas . my last 200 cc china bike lasted 24,000 before some ass-- stole it.