Help Reminiscing About My Old Balius

I've had a 1997 Kawasaki Balius sitting in storage for about seven years now, and I'd like to dig it out in the near future and get it running again.

Searching for a service manual got me to this site, particularly this link: http://2fiftycc.com/index.php?resources/kawasaki-zr250-balius-owners-manual.13/

Which isn't working for me. I'm guessing I've got to post a certain number of times. I'll have to go looking through some terms and conditions later.

If anyone's got a link to a Balius User Manual then I'd love to know about it. Kawasaki Australia list owner manuals on their web site, but the link for the Balius one doesn't work.

Meanwhile, some photos, taken back in 2008. The bike was this colour when I bought it, which is Tiger Mica from the Holden Commodore car. I'm assuming that someone's crashed it at some point, and it's been repainted in this colour. It also has the Kawasaki logo on the fuel tank instead of the Balius badges.

Actually, if anyone knows where I can get Balius badges from then I'd be interested in that as well.

At the moment, the bike is buried behind a hell of a lot of junk in someone's shed. It will get retrieved in the near future and cleaned up for re-use.









The current toy - a very blinged Aprilia SXV550:

 

The camera flash at night makes it look in much, much better condition than it actually is.

Right now it's sitting in the corner of a shed full of junk. The bike looks terrible.

However, someone recently set up business here in Perth specialising in detailing bikes. He's good.

I'm thinking that I'll spend a few dollars and get him to have a go at cleaning it up.

www.cleanride.com.au I've only met the guy briefly once at a bike show last year, but I know of his work.

I managed to find a scan of a user manual last night. A workshop manual isn't crucial, but would be nice to have.

 

As this bike has been in storage for a few years, the registration has lapsed. This means it will have to go through an inspection, and part of what is required is a front sprocket cover. Looking through some old photos, I can see that this bike didn’t have a sprocket cover on when I bought the bike. Furthermore, the part of the engine casing that the sprocket cover bolts to has broken off.

I’ll need to find a secondhand sprocket cover somewhere, and hope that just the one bolt (ie the lower one) will be enough to hold the sprocket cover in place for the inspection.





The orange one is the second Balius that I’ve owned. In early 2008 I bought a crash-damaged Balius on eBay. I got it home, repaired it and got it licenced for road use. I originally bought it just for the heck of it (ie fix it, sell it, make a profit) but found the high-revving engine addictive. The Balius motor revs and sounds like a Formula 1 engine.

I repaired the bike and took it to a licencing place for an inspection. The bike was declined… because the rear mudguard did not extend down to the required 45 degrees.

I did some research and learned about rear mudguard laws that night. Yep, it’s a legal requirement for any motorbike licenced in Australia for the rear mudguard to extend to an angle of 45 degrees. There was nothing to specify how, though.

So, I grabbed an empty oil bottle and chopped it up.

When I returned the next day I had the same person to inspect and clear the bike for licencing. He was highly amused, and said it was the sort of thing that he would do. It cost me around $50 for the re-inspection… just for someone to look at a piece of plastic that I bolted to the back of the bike.

For anyone in Australia that ever needs to licence a bike - be aware of the 45 degree mudguard rule. It’s part of the Australian Design Rules, which specify the requirements for any vehicle that is licenced for use on Australian roads.













Once the bike was licenced I removed the temporary plastic and bolted the licence plate on. It is very likely that I’ll have to pull the same stunt when I put the orange one through an inspection sometime soon.









The silver Balius, licenced and ready for road use.





The tacho was smashed off in the original crash (ie before I bought the bike). It turned out that it wasn’t a legal requirement for licencing, so didn’t replace it. I’ve since found that a complete set of new gauges can be bought on Amazon for around $US130.

Do a search on Amazon for Balius speedometer.
eg http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZZQSPJC...TF8&colid=3KW9QKS1NGFRW&coliid=I1TDTNTKRXEHOH

Balius parts such as this can also be found on Aliexpress.com. Once again, do a search for Balius speedometer. There’s currently a listing for a Balius speedo housing (ie just the external housing) for $US49.90, including postage.
eg http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free...24.html?spm=2114.13010208.99999999.261.lKFTbj

I didn’t know about aftermarket gauges until last night (when I was reminiscing). I wish I knew about these options back in 2008.





In the background you can see a Balius wreck that I bought, at auction, for parts.





I rode the silver one around Perth for a while, before finding the orange one on eBay. The orange one was in better condition, so I bought it and sold the silver one.

 

Different cover - the Balius one could be seen, so was chrome. The ZXR one was hidden behind fairings, so was plastic.

According to various parts listings, the Balius was the only bike to ever have that particular sprocket cover. The part number is
14026-1205.

I'll have a look around for places that might be wrecking one, but they would be very scarce by now.

It's not a huge drama - it will be at least a month or two before I put it through an inspection, and will put something temporary together at the last minute if required.

I'm a tad curious why the engine casing is broken off though.

 

I finally managed to get my Balius out of the storage unit today, and the news is generally not good. The bike has deteriorated badly, much to my disappointment.

In the back of the ute.



Time to start having a close-up look.



When I started looking closer things started to not look good. The bike had not aged well. There’s corrosion and rust all over the place.



Surprisingly, the seat was still in good condition.



From the top it didn’t look too bad. Until I had a look at the metal surfaces, particularly in and around the engine area.



At least the paintwork is all still good.


When I bought the bike in 2008 it already had an aftermarket Roo Racing muffler on it. I remember that muffler was very noisy, so I’ll probably go back to a standard muffler.



Years ago I bought a Balius wreck at an auction, and ended up keeping the standard exhaust that was on it - the header pipes are all bent but the muffler was in reasonably good condition. The Roo Racing exhaust that is currently on the bike is a standard exhaust that has had the standard muffler cut off and replaced with the Roo Racing one. This has been done by welding a flange plate to the exhaust pipe, which the Roo Racing muffed then bolts to.

If I can get the same thing done to the standard muffler then I’ll be able to swap mufflers easily by removing four bolts.



I ever liked the original relatively-narrow Balius handlebars, so replaced them back when I got the bike in 2008 with some dirt bike Renthal handlebars. This gave much better control of the bike.

Putting the Renthal handlebars on meant that the original brake line was just a little bit too short. Back in 2008 I took the bike to a brake place and had a braided brake line made up that was long enough to reach the master cylinder on the Renthal handlebars.



Roo Racing was a place here in Perth that made aftermarket mufflers years ago.

You can see how the standard exhaust has been used, but the standard muffler has been cut off. A flange plate has been welded to the pipe, and the Roo Racing muffler bolts to that.

Once I get this bike running I’ll see about getting a standard muffler set-up to bolt on instead. That will mean that I can swap mufflers by removing four bolts (three on the flange and one on the footpeg). It will be interesting to do some comparisons to see if the noisier muffler makes any more power than the standard one.



The fork tubes may need to be re-chromed.



The chain is covered in rust, and will have to be replaced.



One of the rear indicators. At least they can be polished easily enough.



Here you see how the Renthal handlebars give extra leverage and control over the front end.



The gauge cluster is still in fairly good condition, although I’ll probably replace the outer casing with one that I can get via mail order from China.



Plenty of rust on the mirrors.



At least the kill switch doesn’t look too bad.



The clutch adjuster.



One of the triple clamps.



Surprisingly, the clutch lever pulls in easily enough.



Plenty of rust on the rear disc rotor.



The front brake master cylinder is in terrible condition.



I knew that the existing tyres would be too old, so I managed to find some ex-track day Pirello Diablo Rosso II tyres. They’ve got plenty of tread left for road use, and only cost me $50 for the pair. These things are normally around $300 each when new.

Buying ex-track use tyres can be a bargain, as they will be expensive top-of-the-range tyres. The trick is to get them with enough tread left to make them legal for road use.

These ones have only done a couple of track days, which means that they also haven’t been through many heat cycles. I drove 55km each way to pick up these tyres - a long drive, but very much worth it.



The front wheel is in bad condition.



It looks like there’s a leak in the left-side fork seal.



The rear wheel rim is in relatively good condition.



I went looking for the manufacture date of the tyres, and found this on the back tyre. The first two digits are the week and the second two digits are the year of manufacture. This is showing a manufacture date of the 18th week of 2006, making that tyre 10 years old almost to the day.

Although those tyres were almost new back when I bought the bike in 2008, by now they will have hardened a bit. They would probably still be useable - they have been stored in different sheds for the last seven years (ie out of direct daylight).

However, I got a good deal on some replacement tyres that I will much more confident in.



The front disc and caliper are ok.



These Pirelli Diablo Rosso II tyres will be going on next week.



The 2214 indicates that this tyre was manufactured in the 22nd week of 2014.



The 3914 indicates that this tyre was manufactured in the 39th week of 2014.



Rust all over the place.



That engine looks terrible.



The header pipes have corrosion, but they’ll clean up fairly easily.



The right side of the engine. Undoing any of the bolts is going to be difficult in the future. Only 6-sided sockets will be going near this bike - conventional 12-sided sockets would risk stripping the bolt heads.



To get this bike through a licencing inspection will require a front sprocket cover. I’ll have to find one secondhand.



There’s a lot of surface corrosion on the engine side covers.



The engine area looks terrible.



Those header pipes will look good once restored.



Even the outside of the carburettor has rust. The throttle is jammed, and won’t rotate.



Lots of surface corrosion on the left hand engine sidecover.



I took the Balius to a place in Perth called CleanRide. They specialise in motorbike detailing. I was extremely disappointed with how badly the bike had deteriorated, but the owner of CleanRide (Roberto) reckons he can get it looking good again. I hope so - if he can’t perform some miracles then it’s not worth getting this bike going again.

I took a whole lot of photos so that I could take matching photos next week to see how much improvement there is. I’ll be getting the bike back next Tuesday.

The bike has resided in three different sheds over the last seven years. It’s been in the most recent shed for about two years, and I don’t recall it being anywhere near that deteriorated when I put it there. It’s also nowhere near the ocean, so it’s not salt in the air that’s caused the corrosion.

As yes, that is a $125,000 Ducati Desmocedici on the left. Every bike that leaves that place looks better and shinier than brand new, so it will be very interesting to see how the Balius turns out.

 

Roberto reckons that he can get the bike looking like new. It sounds like if anyone can, he can.

Tyres: Yep, got them from Rod. 55km drive each way, but it was worth it. I tried to buy the ones that Rick had advertised, but his pricing and attitude was so far from realistic it was a joke.

When I rang him I was going to ask him if he was on PSB, but he asked me first. Yep, he recognised my username.

 

I picked up the Balius from CleanRide today, and now it’s a long way from the disaster that it was when I got it out of storage a few days ago.

I was extremely disappointed with how the bike had deteriorated in storage, but now it’s back into rideable condition.

My plan is to take photos, in daylight, from the same angles that I did last week so that comparisons can be made of what the bike was like before and after detailing.

It was well worth the $249 that I spent. There is no way that I could have ever gotten the bike back into this condition on my own.

Most parts of the bike turned out better than I thought was possible. I spent the weekend looking at last week’s photos repeatedly, and I couldn’t see how this bike was going to get back into a condition that would be acceptable to me.

There are some areas, such as the wheels, that didn’t restore well. I’ll live with that, and there are other parts that I’ll remove and get cleaned up separately later on (ie soda blasting).



The exhaust system looks a lot better.









The bracket that holds the throttle cables in place is still rusty. I’ll remove that some time and get it soda blasted.



There’s still a fair bit of rust on the lower triple clamp and around the steering head area. It’s much better than it was, though. If I’m feeling ambitious some day then I’ll remove the lower triple clamp and get it soda blasted and repainted. A quick go with a matching colour spray can would also clean up the steering head on the frame.

I am very surprised that the rust spots on the forks were removed. I had expected the forks to be require disassembly and re-plating.



The removable part of the frame has still got signs of rust, but that part is easy to remove and repaint (ie if I respray around the steering head).



The rear indicator lenses don’t look the same. They can be bought from Kawasaki (part numbers 23048-1065 and 23048-1066) but I’ll check to see if there’s a cheaper aftermarket version first.

The muffler looks a lot better.



I had planned on replacing the speedo cluster housing, but the old one cleaned up really well. Goody, one less thing that I’ll have to do.

There’s still surface corrosion on the upper triple clamp, as well as traces of rust on the steering stem nut (ie the big nut in the middle), as well as the four bolts for the handlebars. Those parts are all easy to remove, so I’ll get them soda blasted later on.



The wheels are pitted and didn’t improve much. Bombed out there, but overall I’m extremely relieved that the bike now looks like how it was back when I bought it in 2008.