NX250 Thread -- official ADV owners manual

parting out 1988 bike. keeping motor, carb,and wiring for a future project. tank,seat,plastics,speedo,tach assy. tons of good stuff on this one. the plastics are rough, i welded the cracks so they have integrity, but they will need finish work to be pretty. accepting best offers and trades for: lifan for ct70 project. cb77 front fender,st90 top end and misc. please pm and i will text pics. shipping to lower 48 only please. but if your hurtin i may ship abroad. thanks

added to page 1, Flea market post.

Good luck with sale!
~vc

three cheers for the man. thanks for the thread and all the extra homework. come on fellow nxers, mad props to the man.

What condition is the seat in?

pm'd

I've only been reading (tons of great stuff!) the past few weeks, and figured it's time I said something. I do have a question I'll get to, but intros first. My name is Dave, and I've been riding a variety of different bikes starting with a Kawasaki 100 enduro in 1974 when I was 14. I've had my current NX250 since January of this year. I'd been looking for awhile, and found this one locally and in excellent condition. He was the second owner, and was friends with the original owner. I have the original invoice, brochures and most of the maintenance records. I said "current" because I actually had 2 NX250s in 1988. I got them from Bob Barker on the game show The Price Is Right! I loved the bike then, and kept them both for quite before eventually selling one and then the other. I soon came to regretting selling both of them, and as I said, I had been looking for a good one for quite some time
Meanwhile I was on to other bikes. A little over a month ago I had a little mishap in our local mountains and totalled my 2005 Royal Star Venture. I've decided I'm not going with another big tourer for now and I'm thinking of a sport tourer or adventure bike. Leaning big time towards the new Triumph Tiger. That's gonna take a little time and meanwhile I'm enjoying the NX250 just fine.
On to my request for some help. I'm having a problem with the headlight. When I first bought the bike, the light didn't always come on right away. It normally only took idling for about a minute, sometimes it took getting started down the road a block. About 2 weeks ago it went off and has not worked since. I've checked basic wiring and connections, the fuse is good, I replaced the bulb even tho it looked okay, and I still have no headlight. All the other lights; turn signals, rear running and brake light all work. Any ideas? I will greatly appreciate any advise.
I do realize the answer may be in here somewhere already, but there is soooo much info on this site, I haven't found it.

Well...not sure what i was thinking, but I gave the guy $125 bucks and dragged it home.

Booger Joe threw the chain, couldn't get it undone and there it sat. Engine turns and has good compression.

Tear down and it will be the Zombie Apocalypse Cavalry Scout bike come spring.

Navydavy,
I had a similar issue some time ago and the advice from the forum was to carefully dismantle, clean and renew the starter button unit - I don't remember exactly all that I did, though I remember a tiny spring being part of the problem (I'd have to take it apart again to remember what was bad) What happens over time is that the mechanism for turning off the headlight while starting the engine fails and doesn't return to its original position and allow power to the headlight - there are others here who can explain in better detail than I - good luck and welcome to the forum

welcome navydavy, and sheridan64!

i would love to see the footage of you winning B.Barker's games for NX's





about the headlight issue....
missed that in the thread...about the starter button, and the h/l interrupt circuit for engine start...
wasn't aware of that issue/solution, but am now

*added to FAQs* post...

yeah I had the headlight / starter switch issue and it seems to be pretty common on old bikes.
Basically the spring that returns the switch gets weak and doesn't return it far enough to make contact for the headlight circuit. The headlight is wired to be turned off while starting the bike to conserve power. Sometimes just wiggling the switch will turn it back on but with some bumps it will go off again. Rather annoying.
Trick was to remove and open the switch (careful while doing this and keep track of how things were before you disassemble it, so that it goes back together easy, it is not hard or overly confusing however). Inside it you will find the said spring and as someone stated before all that is need, or was in my case was a little spreading of the spring ends to give it the necessary reach to push the button back to the desired location.
I hope that this is your problem as the solution is pretty easy.

good luck

Cant wait to see another NX resurrection! keep us posted here
good luck!

Thanks so much for the quick replies. And as one would imagine, it makes perfect sense. This forum is a wealth of information and just good reading. I'll be getting to the repair today and hopefully reporting success later on.

If your spring is toast, you can use the spring out of a clicker type ball point pen. The same spring works if your horn button is hanging up as well.

So, I would like my bike to go faster.

I have noticed that Honda Nighthawk 250cc have a very similar rear alloy rim to the AX-1 - but a much smaller sprocket. At least 12 teeth smaller. I'm going to borrow one and see how it works.

Would be nice to hit 90+ mph instead of 75

Good luck with that. These bikes don't have the raw power you would need to make that work, and you would have to get a shorter chain or remove links from the one you have now. 1st gear will feel like second, I doubt you will be able maintain your speed on level ground in 5th gear. 6th gear will be useless.

make sure you upgrade the brakes too

Check the with of the hub.
Of it is right, swap the sprockets, and go for it.

Is the front rim the same to?

have a simpler solution
use the rear hub of an NX650

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So since I got my bike I've been fighting carb gremlins. The bike would idle up and down as soon as it warmed up. At freeway speeds it would miss from time to time. So the other day I pulled the carb completely off the bike and with surgical precision I took it apart. Prior to this I only took the float bowl off to clean it out. That fixes most bikes. This gasket sits under the slide cover. There were witness marks showing a huge vacuum leak. So I made a new gasket and the bike idles and runs great. Further inspection I noticed a 1/4" hole in the slide. I'm sure that is for smog. Most carbs don't have that. Just thought I'd share that fix.

What is the carb used on NX250's?