Assembly

The KPX250 comes from overseas in a metal cage wrapped in cardboard. If you are paying for assembly from a dealership, then this page may be useless to you. If you are one of the brave DIY’ers out there ready to put your bike together, then this should help! It is a living document that I will update as I get suggestions, so please Reach Out if you find something I missed. Send me a picture too and I’ll add it! You also may be able to find a picture of what you need on the Media page if I missed it.

Skill level:
Moderate Shade-tree mechanic / owns at least 1 toolbox

Assembly Time:
First bike? 1 or 2 people? Plan on 4 hours.

Tools Needed:
8mm, 10mm, 12mm, 13mm, 15mm, 17mm,18mm sockets
8-18mm wrenches
Phillips and blade screwdriver
Box cutter
Bike Stand / Bucket / strong friends
Metric Allen key set (6mm and 5mm)
Oil Drain Pan

Must have Supplies:
Oil – We recommend Rotella, but whatever you use, make sure it has the proper additive for wet clutch operation. You can usually pick this up at advance for a few dollars more than waiting on Amazon
Grease – For axle and wheel – I like using high quality stuff
Oil filter – Not needed for assembly, but I’d change after the first few hundred miles, go ahead and order

Parts:
1. Riser Bolts (6mm Allen key) – You will have 4 spare when done
2. Forks Protector bolts – 5mm Allen key
3. Speedo Cable bracket screw
4. Washers for Front fender bolts
5. Front fender bolts (4x) and Front Brake cable mount bolts (2x)
6. Front Brake Cable mount
7. Passenger peg mounting bolts
8. 8mm Front Brake (Smaller diameter) & 8mm Front Clutch (larger diameter) control bolts
9. Front Clutch Control mount
10. Front Brake Control mount
11. Risers for handlebars
12. Speedo Cable mount (Mounts to plastic fork protectors)
13. Rear passenger peg
14. Throttle

15. Front wheel Speedo Spacer
16. Front wheel brake side spacer
17. Front Axle Nut
18. Front Axle
19. Battery & Electrolytes

Steps:

There are just a few major activities involved in putting this bike together

• Unpacking
• Removal from Cage
• Front wheel installation
• Controls Installation
• Battery Charging/Installation
• Accessories (Fork cover, front fender, blinkers, mirrors, etc)
• Change the Oil / Adjust chain tension / Check tire pressure

Unpacking:

Pop the straps with a razor knife
Remove the cardboard
Untwist all the ties holding the wheel, handlebars, accessory box, front fender, etc in place
Using a 10mm (at least on the 5 we did!), un bolt every bolt you can see. Don’t forget the bolts over the triple tree
Undo the straps holding the cage to the luggage rack
Using a blade screw driver, wedge the metal apart in the pinch locks at either end.
The cage should then lift off of the bike

Removal from cage:

This step can be tricky. I’d suggest never trying this by yourself. The front forks are bolted to the cage (using the front axle bolt, don’t trash it!)
There are multiple ways to go about this. The easiest is to drag the bike out of the cage (make sure it’s in neutral) and directly onto a bike stand/bucket/whatever
You can also attempt to install the wheel while in the cage by pivoting the bike backwards and installing the wheel while in the cage (see later steps for wheel installation)

Detach the front axle from the forks. The shipping nut is not used, but the bolt is your front axle, do not damage it!
We simply listed on the front of the bike to relieve pressure and lightly tapped the bolt out. Once the head is stick out, put an open ended wrench behind the bolt and tap on the wrench to continue sliding it out.

The point is, it should somehow get out of that cage and either onto it’s front wheel, or onto a stand.

Front Wheel Installation:

This can be tricky, the steps below enabled us to do it (the last 3 out of 5) times without too much trouble.

• At this point, your bike should be on a stand or a bucket, you don’t want your friend holding it up in the air as it may take awhile to line everything up
• Using a 10mm socket, completely remove the front brake caliper from the forks, it will just cause you heartache
• Grease your front axle, a good coat.. any extra will squeeze out the ends when everything is tightened down
• Find your spacers. You will have 1 metal spacer for the front brake side, and the speed may have it’s black spacer and / or O ring separate in the accessory bags
• Great the speedo and brake disc side of your wheel bearings. Dip a little extra grease on the spacers so they’ll stick in place
• The smaller side of the metal spacer goes in the wheel. The ‘winged’ side of the black plastic spacer goes in the speedo side.
• The speed goes over that spacer, it’s O-ring sealing up against the wheel
• As you’re putting the wheel into place, be careful and make sure the fins on the speedo surround the fork ‘nub’ that keeps it in place
• Carefully slide your front axle through the fork, spacer, wheel, speedo, and fork.
• Clean excess grease, red Loctite the threads of the axle, and torque on the axle nut (~60 ft/lbs should do it)
• Ensure wheels still spins freely!
• Spread brake pads if necessary, and mount brake caliper using the supplied 10mm bolts.

Controls Installation:

The controls are adjustable, but some are not. I install the non-adjustable first and then build what ‘feels right’ around that.

• Using a Philips head, open the headlight switch. (1 is longer than the other, keep track of them)
  • Spread it over the handle bar. There is a hole in the handlebar and a ‘nub’ on the switch, install it there.
• The Kill/start switch is the same way, except with a brass ‘nub’ on the bottom. Install this in the hole on the right side
• The clutch is installed using the bracket and 8mm bolts. Ensure when compressed it does not hit your ‘flash to pass’ button
• Next would be the throttle. you’ll need the throttle grip from the accessories. This can be tricky to get right, but is simple once you get the hang of it
  • Remove the bolts holding the throttle bracket together (8mm)
  • Grab some needle nose pliers, and pull the end of the throttle cable. There should be about 1.5″ of play so you can pull it a little
  • Slide the throttle grip onto the bars
  • Place that ‘stay’ on the end of the cable through the hole on the throttle grip
  • Lay the throttle cable into the groove on the throttle grip as you lay the grip into the bracket
  • Place the other side of the bracket on
  • Bolt that sucker together, adjust it to your comfort
  • **Cable adjustment should be facing up to allow room for brake master cylinder later**
• Install Front brake lever using the bracket and the 8mm bolts
  • Master cylinder should be relatively level but lever should be at your comfort level
  • Pump brakes up until they catch. This is a good time to remind yourself to check that they’re working before you take off on your first ride
  • **You can manipulate the front brake cable to tuck in by playing with the slack, rerouting, or rotate the cable mount on the left for 180 degrees**

Battery Charging / Installation:

Hands down the worst part of this bike is the fact that you have to the luggage rack to remove the seat, and the seat to remove the fairing that covers the battery. I’ll be buying some battery cable extensions for charging as that’s gonna be super annoying. Either way, for initial installation, here goes:

First, buy this, it’ll keep you from having to take your luggage rack, seat, and fairing off just to get to your battery:

Then back to work:

• Remove the battery from the packaging
• Remove the cover from the electrolytes
• Remove the cover from the battery fill ports (foil)
• Open the hardware (remove the push pin)
• Poke a hole in the foil on top of each electrolyte
• Flip that sucker over onto the battery, lining up the holes. Give it a smack
• Pole a whole in the bottom (now facing up) of each electrolyte to allow them to drain into the battery
• Let it finish, then you’re good on the battery
• Place it on a charger until it reads 13.6v via voltmeter or the chargers built in reading

• Remove the 4 6mm Allen bolts holding on the luggage rack
• Remove the luggage rack
• Using a 13mm socket, remove the front luggage rack mounting points
• Sliding the seat up and back, remove it (this will reveal the allen bolt you couldn’t get to on the side fairing)
• On the left side of the bike, remove the allen bolts holding the black fairing on.
• There is also one phillips head screw up under the fairing towards the front of the bike
• Slide the fairing (there are clips) towards the rear of the bike and pull the rear of the fairing to release.

• Using a 8mm socket, remove the bolt hodling the battery mount
• Using the supplied hardware, attach the battery to positive and negative connections
• Replace the battery strap and tighten the 8mm bolt
• **On all of mine, I added some styrofoam/cardboard to the side to ensure it didn’t shake as it was loose in the battery tray**
• If you purchase the above extensions, hang that out behind the fairing so you can later plug in a trickle charger for your bike

Reassemble in reverse order!

Accessories:

There are various parts that need to be installed, we’ll cover them here:

Mirors: Pretty straight forward. Screw them in, then use a 14mm wrench to lock the lock nut down to the bike to keep it from twisting. If your mirror get loose, a phillips head on the back of the mirror will lock it in place better. If you don’t want the circle mirrors, check the Accessories page.

Fork Covers:

These can be annoying. You’ll need the 5mm allen wrench, a phillips head, and an 8mm along with the appropriate hardware.

• Start by placing the fork cover on the forks (Cut the zip tie on your brake line)
  • The brake cover with two holes in the high mount is for the brake side
• Using the 6 allen screws, mount the bottom of the fork covers. Tighten down the screws
• Using the Speed mount and phillips screw, wrap it around the speedo cable protector grommet, and collapse it. Place the screw through the mount into the singular plastic hole on the speedo side mount
• Using the black brake cable mount and 2 8mm bolts, place the mounts over the cable, with the bolt going through the plastic and then through the mounts

Blinkers: For the front blinkers, you’ll need to remove the headlight. Simply use your 5mm allen key on the top bolts of the headlight on each side remove them completely. Then loosen the bottom bolts. Assuming you haven’t installed you fender, the headlight can now tilt forward.

Using a wrench (16mm? Need verification)
Tighten the nuts holding the blinker sin place onto the blinker ensuring they are at a level height and match
Repeat on the rear

Front Fender: Simply use the four bolts (8mm) and the washers to mount the fender (Honestly I’d do this after the blinkers so you can pivot the headlight down)

Change Oil / Adjust Chain Tension / Tire Pressure

Oil: Again, I recommend the Rotella linked above, but just make sure you run something built for a wet clutch motorcycle.
-There is no sight glass on this bike, so the proper way to check the oil is to have someone hold the bike level, remove the dip stick, clean it, then press it against the threads (not screwing it in) and check the dipstick again. I try to stay on the middle to upper portion of the hash marks on the dipstick.

• Using a 17mm wrench, remove the oil drain plug.. preferably over an oil pan or your least favorite piece of Tupperware
• Replace oil, ours used about 1.15-1.25 quarts to show as full

Tire pressure: Make sure you have some. Higher for street only riding, slightly low for dirt, high if you drop it when you get to a trail. I ride around 30psi

Chain: I try not to do anything someone else has done better, here’s a standard chain adjustment video. I see about 1″ slack max as good on our chain. Don’t forget to lube the chain!!! Also, it will stretch, as will all your control cables, so you’ll be making multiple adjustments the first few hundred miles.

**If you’ve made it this far, go check youtube and learn how to properly adjust your throttle tension, clutch tension. Check all your brakes. Fill with gas, test start and let it warm up for awhile. Check oil again. These are all standard practices for any new motorcycle and not specific to the kpx.**

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