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I occasionally check in here to update anyone who cares about the current status of my 2004 GT 250. I own 4 other much fancier bikes and over the years have owned dozens of others and I really believe the GT250 to be highly underrated.
I have owned mine for about a 13 years, and I am ashamed to admit that I have put a grand total of about 40 hours of maintenance into this bike (i.e a MAYBE three hours a year), and yet, it continues to reward my gross neglect by running pretty much like the day I bought it.
I generally abandon it every winter and don't do ANY of the storage steps that I should be doing (and generally DO perform for my more expensive but less reliable bikes) but sure enough, every spring I drain the old fuel out of the GT, fill her up with sea foam and let her sit for a day, drain her again, put new, clean fuel in and sometimes a new battery, and what do you know, she starts first time. After a quick few safety checks, she's ready to drive and asking where I want to go today. First day of riding season I usually have to use her to go get parts and supplies for my other fancy-pants motorcycles that generally won't start for love nor money after 5 months of storage.
Admittedly I don't put a lot of miles on the GT - maybe 2000 km a year, but that bike is the essence of practical transportation. Easy to work on - happy to take cheap generic replacement parts from the local autoparts store if needed, totally adequate performance (especially for a 250, and especially on the freeway). It's my "go-to" bike for errands around town and I have lost count of the number of times I almost took one of my 1000 cc plus collectible monsters out for a ride, but then thought - "screw it... a bird will just shit on it ", and then took the little GT instead, and probably had more fun and a lot less anxiety about reliability as I trust that little bike completely.
The only issue I am seeings is that over time the electronic fuel gauge has gradually stopped working. Do I care? Honestly not really, but if anyone has any tips for an easy fix or replacement strategy I guess I might give it a try one day.
I can also foresee that eventually the cheap original exhaust will rust through and I will probably need to replace it. Anyone got suggestions and pictures for an economic after market solution?