Bought my first bike! Have a few questions!

I usually stay away from the carb/airbox, steering head, linkage, swingarm pivot, and the wheel bearings when I powerwash. A 2X10 works for a ramp.

Congrats on the bike....when washing avoid getting water in the tail pipe...I use a plug...avoid spraying directly at radiators cause you can easly bend the fins.....check the air filter and maybe replace with a new twin air filter, or better yet get a few so you always have a clean one when you wanna ride....I got the same bike, and you may want to consider a fly wheel weight, as it helped mine alot from stalling when trail riding, plus the power is a bit more manangable....I also put on the gnarly fmf pipe w. shorty sil, and that really help with bottom end power which is nice for trail riding....hope this helps, btw careful with the throttle cause a 250 can hurt you bad.

down here at our local lumber shop i guess you would call it, they sell piecess that you can bolt onto a 2X10 piece like senior said. if you searcha round abit, you wil see what i mean. i just bent a big enough piece of metal and bolted it onto a 2X10 and it worked fine to get my bike up on my trailer. im geting a 2 stroke soon, and al my friends say you should turn the gas off when not riding it. i have no idea why this is, or if its even true. id like to know myself.

Make sure to turn off the gas. If youre needle and seat is bad then raw gas will run into the cylinder and leak pass the rings straight to youre crankcase. And if you dont know gas is not the best lubricant out there.

LOL In other words you can flood it.. Twostokes are lubricated by the oil thats in your gas! There is no other lubricant in the engine at all, only in the gearbox. I dont know why raw gas would be in the tank? Gas is the best and only lubricant for a 2banger as long as its mixt with oil.. Turn the gas off so that you dont flood the carb when not riding..

Gringo

how could you "flood" the carb, isnt there always gas in the carb when its running? i dont know much about these so would just like to know how these things work.

he means engine because you dont want to accidentally get the gas all in the engine and that will not be the best of time starting it up

Only way fuel can get to the engine is through the carb.. Try pumping the throtle 20 times before you try to start it! You will have a hell of a time starting it as to much fuel in the carb has gota go somewhere..Your carb has floats in it so that it can maintain the the correct amount of fuel to operate properly. When you flood it you flood the engine,No big deal. Undo sparkplug,kick it a dozen times, reinstall sparkplug and she should be happy again.

Gringo

Pumping the throttle on a carb that doesn't have an accelerator pump does nothing but raise the slide. It's the vacuum (venturi effect?) of the piston moving that draws fuel through the carb and then into the cylinder when kick starting the bike.

Keep the fuel petcock off when not riding it. No need to shut it off each time you get off the bike, just when it's parked at home.

Think about the float bowl as having an inlet (needle valve/seat) and an outlet (jetting). When the float inside the bowl rises due to fuel coming in through the needle valve, it closes itself off at a certain level when its own buoyancy forces the needle into the seat. This shuts off the flow of fuel into the bowl through the needle valve, and that's how things stay. When the engine is running, fuel is drawn upward into the carb through the jets and down the intake to the cylinder from the vacuum of piston stroking. As the fuel level in the float bowl goes down, the float falls away, and so does the needle (they're attached to each other). This lets fuel seep in through the needle valve-provided you remembered to turn the petcock on, right?!

If the needle valve isn't sealing 100%, or there is any dirt on the seat, a very small amount of fuel can leak through even when the engine is not demanding it. If you are out riding, this normally isn't an issue since there is almost always a constant demand for fuel to the carb. Even periods of taking a rest break may not be that big of a deal as the amount of fuel leaking by is relatively small (hopefully!). Now, a bike with a very small leak at the needle valve/seat area that is left with the fuel petcock on for days or even weeks can result in fuel making its way to the cylinder. Here's how: With the tank being higher than the carb, gravity will force the fuel past the leaking needle valve/seat and the fuel level in the float bowl will rise until the fuel pushes upward through the jets into the carb tract and flows down the intake and into the cylinder. The result is a "flooded" carb/intake/cylinder that will be difficult at best to get fired off, and can likely cause a wet-fouled spark plug.

4-strokes with a leaking needle valve/seat can have the cylinder walls washed free of lubricating engine oil, and lose a considerable amount of compression if the fuel petcock is left on for long periods of time. Also, those carbs with an accelerator pump (modern 4-stroke MX bikes) will shoot a stream of fuel down the intake tract when the throttle is twisted as long as there is fuel in the float bowl (there almost always is). This produces the same flooded engine, which again, will be difficult to start and often results in a wet-fouled plug.

..so when the engine is off on a 2-stroke withough internal pump (normal 35 mm mikuni eg) and you twist trottle it doesnt do anything? Is that right?

Correct. It just raises the slide.

My 2-stroke starting ritual is this: Gas on, choke on, then give 2-3 slow, "priming" kicks (to pull a small amout fuel into the carb throat), then one good kick and she usually started. Blip throttle to keep running, choke off after 10-15 seconds, and don't ride off until you feel some warmth in the radiators. And I even take it slow for a bit to let the engine "heat soak" (come to full operating temp throughout the entire engine). After that, one good kick would bring her to life as long as the engine was remotely warm. Remember, I'm talking about a bike that was in good shape all around-jetting, compression, reeds, etc. It's still not a bad ritual for any 2-stroker, IMO.