This is a serious post guys... Please read this.
Saturday morning.. with only 2 rides on the bike (3 hours total), my airfilter and subsequently airbox caught on fire. I had stalled the bike in a mud bog and after clearing the cylinder (compression release pulled in... throttle wide open... 15-25 kicks...thankfully gas off) smoke started pouring out of my muffler and then from under the seat. Yes... my filter and airbox were on fire. We poured as much water as a helmet could hold into the airbox then had to roll the bike into the river and dump it there to put the fire out.
I have to imagine the damage is pretty severe. Besides the airbox and filter being destroyed, the seat frame melted and the smoke from the melting plastic ran through the engine for 3-4 min. I have to imagine that this can't be good for the piston, valves, gaskets, ect. I expect the whole engine will need to be rebuilt.
I dropped it off at the dealers Saturday afternoon (the head had to be filled with water and they were going to take it apart and dry it out to keep rust from forming in the engine). So I'm totally freaked. I've ridden 4 strokes and 2 strokes for at least 14 years now and never --- EVER--- had a bike catch on fire.
First a warning. If you have a new 250F check to make sure the mesh backfire screen is on your filter assembly. If it isn't contact your dealer and have one put on ASAP
Second, for those of you who wonder if it's OK to remove these... I say NO !!! People were asking about this a couple of weeks ago and were told not to remove them. I'm proof of what can hapen if you don't have one on your bike.
For the record, I never removed the screen on mine, it was never installed in the factory. Yamaha and I wil have to deal with that I guess. Please check to make sure that your bike has one!
We're (my dealer and I) looking at how Yamaha Corp. will deal with this. Any suggestions on dealing with Yamaha on this would be greatly appreciated....
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