Accessing the air filter was rather easy. The air box is under the rider seat. Take the pillion seat out, and you’ll see two allen screws that holds the rider seat in place.
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DIY service update:
Carried out a DIY service recently on my pre-owned Gixxer 250. I was not planning to do one since the bike was serviced just 1000kms back according to the service records. It started out as an air filter inspection. My engine was running somewhat poorly from low to higher rpms and had a bad throttle hesitancy and poor response. Refinement was also rather poor. Engine was feeling a little restricted so I decided to check the air filter. Was not expecting any miracles here. But to my surprise, the air filter turned out to be badly clogged and looked like it came from factory. The bike has done 15500kms and was only a year and 7 months old. It was evident that the SVC didn’t bother cleaning or replacing the filter.
After a decent cleaning a lot of sand and dirt came out from the filter and it looked rather dark. The bike lived it’s life very close to the sea which might explain the sand. Fitted back the filter and rode the bike around for a week and there was remarkable improvement in engine throttle response, power delivery and refinement. So much so that I decided to not go ahead with the official recall for the balancer gear issue.
The condition of the air filter forced me to go ahead with a DIY service and it was the perfect occasion to experiment with a thicker grade oil. Ambient temps in my city were hitting 40+.
Procured new air filter, oil filter, 20w50 Motul 7100 OIL, and new handle bar grips. Parts were readily available at Supra Suzuki showroom in Thrissur, Kerala.
Air filter change:
Accessing the air filter was rather easy. The air box is under the rider seat. Take the pillion seat out, and you’ll see two allen screws that holds the rider seat in place. Remove them and you have direct access to air box.
You have to undo 5-6 screws to remove the air box cover. Two of them are under the left tube of the chassis. To access those, you need to unscrew three allen screws that hold the frame side cover in place and then pull the side cover out a little so you can get to those screws.
You’ll have to wiggle the wiring harness a bit to get the airbox cover out.
So this is the old filter vs new filter comparison. I’m not 100% sure if the old air filter started out it’s life as white in color like the new one Both have the same parts numbers.
Oil change:
Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos of the oil & oil filter change process. It is fairly straightforward. Drain plug is under the engine. Oil filter is accessed by removing two bolts from the cap. I used Motul 7100 fully synth oil as I was happy with it’s performance in my earlier bikes. The ecstar oil that came out looked rather brown with only 1000kms of running. I’m not reading too much into that. It had no obvious metal particles or foreign material in it.
New grips:
Also took the time out to replace both grips along with the throttle tube. The handle bar had some wear on the powder coated surface and rust started to settle in due to constant throttle movement (being near a sea might not have helped). Applied a thin smear of grease on the surface before fitting the brand new throttle tube and grips. It was quite a struggle to get the throttle side bar end weights off as the screw had seized in due to rust on threads.
A simple thing as a grip change can make a big difference to the riding experience. Old ones were really cooked under the sun and lost all the pliability and grip.
Observations:
After the minor service, the bike felt rejuvenated and I was finally happy with it. The refinement, throttle response and low speed tractability was massively improved. It felt nice to ride finally. The vibes only kicked in after 7-8k rpms It was a thumbs up from my brother who is a regular pillion. He said the vibes that he felt on the pillion seat and pegs were gone. I’ll ride it until the next routine service in Aug to observe any improvements or developments. I’ll keep you guys posted!
Keyword: Did a comprehensive DIY service of my Suzuki Gixxer SF 250 motorcycle