My Summary of the Yamaha Route 66 (XV250)

Hello there! Last year, I posted a topic about how I would ride the bike around for about 1 year, at least 10 miles a day about, and tell you guys how i fair of it!

I have had quite the adventure. Me and the gal have had our thick and thins, but it is about a 30 year old bike with show room miles on it, so what is to be expected?


Note: This bike is a bit custom. There are a lot of visual modifications to the bike, as this is my bike. So from results below, your mileage may vary.


The Good: My 1988 Yamaha Route 66

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I purchased this bike from a old man whom lived 100 miles way from where I live now. I saw the bike on craigslist at college. He purchased the bike brand new in 88, and was ridding it because he was developing Parkinson. It's a very sad tale, and he really did not want to sell it. He originally was not going to sell it to me because I was so young, but he saw something in me different that was from other young boys. I contacted up my dad, we scheduled an appointment, and we were blown away by what we found. 7300 miles, Not ridden in the rain once, never dropped, original paint, Garage kept its whole life.

Comes with "Windshield, Crash bars, Lights on crash bars, Saddle bags, Back rest, Tail light in the back rest, Front fender light, Custom chrome trim" and more. All of this for a reasonable deal as well!

Anyways...

This bike is like no other. When I say that, I mean the looks of it. Never before through my years of biking (4 short years) have I gotten so many complements for such a tiny machine.

Every day I go out to simply ride to the gas station and put 93 into the tank (Octane does matter with this machine), there is always one person walking up to it, asking "What the hell is a Route 66?" To my surprise, this bike is exceedingly rare evidently as the Virago and the V-Stars are more popular due to the sheer numbers of the machines they made of them. Small talk turns into hours of conversation over this bike as i just go out to grab a loaf of bread.
If you are shy, Do not buy this bike.

The Route 66 is just a beautiful icon that puts away "You need Displacement for Placement." Due to the frame's size, the peanut gas tank, and the V-Twin underneath the seat, you will never guess how many people ask me "So is this a 1100?" "Thats the 750, right?" I always give them three guesses, and they will never guess the engine size is a 250. I also have to consider the fact that my bike is full fitted with Highway Bars, Lights on Highway Bars, Windshield, Accent light on the front fender, and a Back Rest.

The alluring chrome strips on top of the gorgeous sand beige sparkle paint with a black frame screams something that would instantly be considered a retro bike. The chrome races it's way around the edge of the fenders, the underside of the peanut gas tank, even onto the end of my handlebars as the throttle and hand grips have chrome on the ends. The air cleaner and the electrical box which sits in front of your knee caps are finished in a plastic chrome that is so shiny that is is hard not to admire how handsome you yourself are riding the bike. The 4" Monkey bars are perfect of this bike. My arms have never gotten numb, and it complements the bike so well to make it look like something straight out of the 60's or 70's.

The engine putters below, and people are astonished at how soft and quiet at idle it is, to even have a conversation over. (We will get to the idle in a minute) The bike hums when you rev, and does not grunt when you are above about 3k. It is a constant hum that is music to my own ears as you go through all the gears before 45 miles an hour. Below 3k RPM, you will get a harley like purr. This is only achieved when you are up a gear or two above normal and are going slower than 30 mph. This makes it enjoyable to put put through town and others look my way and shoot a smirk as they see this machine roll in front of their line of view, without the roar of a straight pipe. Reserved, Yet enjoyable, The thumping is just perfect.

Gas? Who needs it? You just about don't with this thing. This thing on paper gets 78mpg as it is a small engine, a lightweight bike, and a single barrel carb. Due to it being 300lbs, it will putter on the carburetor alone a mile and a half before running out. (I found this out the hard way) Impressive, but I didn't want to find out the way I did. I have managed to Hyper-mile it up to 90mpg as I did not go above 40mph during that tank of gas, and up shifting whenever I could. The worst MPG I got was 57 when I was dogging the doodoo out of the thing, just to see how bad I could get my mileage. Very respectable, and very cheap. (Also, Just put 93 in this thing. It goes faster)

Even though the Ride Height is 27 inches off the ground stock, the pegs are so far off the ground and forward, that I have yet once scraped the pegs. The previous owner also never scraped pegs on this bike, let alone even drop it. The chicken strips (That's the tread wear not touched by the road of your rear tire) are about 1/4th of an inch thin, so I would say that this thing can be manuverable as i glide through sharp corners at 50+MPH.

Reliability is a bit of a mixed bag. After preventative maintenance, it is relatively great. Oil changes after every 2500 miles as i do not use synthetic oil. Tires still have plenty of tread after 4k of milage, and the engine is not making any new noises. The clutch zone is exactly where it was when i bought it. My engine DOES NOT like conventional car oil. (Do not make this stupid mistake I did. Get Motorcycle oil) I use Yamalube 10w-40. I swear by the stuff, but maybe there are better brands out there.

Yamaha Route 66 is in the Foreground. Kawasaki Vulcan 800 is in the Background

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The Bad: Holy Moly. Remember that "Me and the gal have had our thick and thins" Quote? Where Do I Begin?

Note Again: This is MY EXPERIENCE, Mileage may vary.

First thing that I noticed when I got the bike, first gear was VERY short. We are talking red line at 15mph. After you bang through all the gears accelerating to fifth, you realize that after fifth gear, you really are just bound to it after 50mph. This can be troublesome as you ride through the highway with your engine shouting at you at about 5k at 65mph. This engine revs all the way to 9k, but it is still kind of uncomfortable hearing that engine shout like that after ahwile. I actually get nervous sometimes and wind down a little bit down to the comfortable 55mph of the bike, hearing the bike go back to its general hum that I love so much.

When you do ride at top speed (I pegged it at 85 before, but only once) You will notice two things.

1: There will be vibration that starts to go up your left leg at 65mph, through your body, and down your right leg towards the 75mph area. This is all a spectrum too, so you can generally guess what speed you are going if you do this often. I do not. As you probably guessed, it gets a bit uncomfortable when that starts to happen, as it can numb your left or right leg.

2: The wind will make you it's toy. It is a light bike. It weighs only 300lbs after oil and gas I am Cock Sure. Undoubtedly, This things positive thing turns into a negative the faster you go. You will start to feel the air bully you around, to the left, to the right, and then the headwind will push you from 75mph down to 60 as you fight the air you breathe to go faster.

This thing is Slow. I mean, Slow. It's not going to go around Circut De la sarthe in under 4 minutes. You will not be beating any lap times with this thing. This bike is one of those toys that is just pretty to look at, but that's about it. It's gears are short, it's engine is weak with a crank output of 20HP max stock, and with a single barrel carb, it is understandable why it only has 12ftlb of torque to get it up to 85mph.

After riding it for one year, I got the gear ratio figured out. (Low speed minimum - Top Speed Engine Governor)

1st: 0mph - 20mph
2nd: 4mph - 35mph
3rd: 8mph - 50mph
4th: 15mph - 60mph
5th: 35mph - Top Speed

Do not step out of any of these gears during any other speeds. You will bang the gear box, and it will be very upset. That is how I did one thing I will explain below.

This bike is small. This bike will get cramped after one hour of riding. Your lower back will start to suffer as you are diving and cruising through the corners of mountains and valleys. When I ride in a group, I always have to signal about a hour in the ride that I need to stop to relax a little bit. For a 20 year old, I feel old on this thing when I ride long distances. Do not even do pillion on it. Just do not.

If you do want to do pillion anyways because you are stubborn, you will suffer, Greatly. You will be cramped upon your gas tank as it will be your best friend along side with your handle bars. Your best friend behind you will be cursing at how cramped he is upon your back, practically breathing down your neck as his body is about pressed up against yours. if you think your seat is bad? Wait until he gets on his. While you can suffice 1 hour of ride time on the bike, he will be lucky if he can ride on it 10 minutes. The pillion seat is small, and stiff.

The bike is also quiet it idle. People will reverse into you, regardless if you see them in their mirrors. Their excuse always " I couldn't hear ya! I didn't know you were there!" I contacted Larish 41 and am putting on pipes after a lengthy decision. I wanted to keep the bike stock so bad, but safety first.

Loud pipes save lives.

The Ugly: This is the stuff that has happened to me. This is the stuff that has happened on my bike. This might be a lesson for others that wish to purchase a 250 with show room mileage and with such a age that it could be your father. COMB OVER YOUR WHOLE BIKE OR THIS WILL HAPPEN.





I am guilty. I purchased this thing with 7300 miles. With a bike that is in such beautiful condition, with such low mileage, at such an age that you could almost taste the 80's right off of the exhaust you inhaled from it, I was sure this bike was ready to ride.

I couldn't be more wrong.

The first issue was that this was my first vacuum fuel system. This bike does not have a off on the Pet-Cock. It has On, Reserve, and Prime. I called up the previous owner to ask what I should leave it on over night when i don't use it. He claimed he used prime. I thought to myself "This is what he did, this is what works, right?" So I set the bike to Prime, and went to bed.

Do. Not. Do. This.

I went to the bike two days later, clicked the key on, flipped the ignition switch to start, and pressed the starter button. It just turned, and turned, and turned. It wouldn't turn over though. I checked inside the gas tank and swore that I just filled up. I was down 2/3rds of a tank, and didnt know why. I didn't see any gas leaks. Then I took a thought.

I opened the oil cap to the engine, and boy, you could have lit that thing ablaze from a cigarette 5 feet away. All the fuel dumped from the tank, through the carb, down the crank, and into the case in a course of two days. I had to drain the engine, take it apart, replace the transmission gasket, and put it back together. This was a timely lesson, and it was a relatively aggravating one at that.

The main fuse blew when I went to the store two weeks in of owning the bike. I couldn't figure out what was the matter. I was getting great voltage to the battery, but not the ignition switch. I thought my switch went bad, until I though about the 15 amp fuse that was under the seat. I upgraded the fuse to a 20 Amp in the parking lot, No problems since.

My stator went bad two months into ownership. I was riding my bike, and countless times, it would want to die, and not charge properly. I went through four battery's, swearing that the charging system was okay on my bike. Well the years of age took it's toll, and being stranded 80 miles away from home in the mountains down a road you didn't know the name of gives you the impression that it probably was not that $180 dollar battery you bought five days ago.

A month later, the carter pin holding my shifter in-front of my left foot snapped in two on a ride. It snapped, the shifter foot fell off of the peg, hit the ground, snapped the shift rod in half, and went under my rear wheel. This caused me to go into a tank slap, and made me pray to god. I bounded my arms tight against the bars, slowing down, clutch in, praying i would not dump. Alas, I guess I kissed god's @$$ good enough because I was lucky not to wreck. I picked up my shift peg a quarter mile down the road, threw it in my saddle bag, and limped the bike home in 4th gear.

The amount of stop signs ran that day was uncountable.

Two Months Later, I was riding 30mph in fifth gear. For some reason, I did not down shift, and gave it throttle. I heard a deep clunk underneath me. I pulled the clutch in, pulled over, and cut the bike off in neutral. I looked down, and sure enough, a minute later, about a cup of oil was pissing out of the bottom of my tranny case. I guess the stress of the gears banging blew out another gasket. I had the bike towed home, and had to take the engine apart again to fix the OTHER transmission gasket. I went ahead and replaced ALL of the gaskets to the engine. Countershaft and all.
No metal shavings or damaged parts though, that was good.

The Regulator/Rectifier went out. Easy fix.

The tail light blew.

The front fender light blew. Twice. Not sure why, Wires are good to it. I changed out the bulb, and it has not done anything bad since.

The instrument light to the speedometer failed. Had to replaced that.

Ever since then, The next three thousand miles I have put on this bike have been spotless maintenance besides an oil change. Front breaks are coming up as the rear ones need adjustment. But that is to be expected.

The Summary:






Regardless of the bad and wrong I said about this bike, you're probably wondering was it worth it? Well yeah. It was worth every single penny I spent into it. It was worth it because it taught me a lot about smaller bikes. I never understood why people purchased 250's. What enjoyment was there to be had of getting one? What was the point of owning one when you could own a 1200 sportster? So I had to buy one myself.

And I get it now.​

I get why this old man had this bike for 30 years. This bike was about all he needed for these mountains. This bike won countless awards at shows in the Appalachian mountain meets, cancer events, autism awareness events, ect. It was a beautiful charity bike, and won multiple blue ribbons, even though it's just a 250. I plan on taking it to countless more, raising awareness for breast cancer and autism.

People pick this bike out all the time, claiming they have seen it before at an event, or on a ride. They come to me and ask me how I obtained the bike. I tell them the story, and they are so pleased and proud it fell into the hands of me. Every time I ride, I feel the heavy burden of taking special care of this bike, and treating it like as if it was one of my own.

If you purchase a bike and you don't look back at it as you go inside your house, you probably bought the wrong bike.

This bike. This bike is like no other. This bike will get you picked apart from a crowd. Weather you are parked next to a Harley Dyna Glide, A Indian Chieftain, A Triumph Bonneville, or all three of them, People will flock to YOU on this bike. They want to know what it is. They want to know how you obtained it. They want to know what it's like to have such a small bike that looks... timeless.

This bike reminds them of their childhoods, their first dates, their first bikes they owned, and their first traffic tickets. This bike reminds people of a time where speed wasn't a priority on the raffle ticket that you checked off when ordering a vehicle from a dealership. This bike has class. It has a distinct tone to it. (It's about to have a burlier one) It has a shape to it that is mocking of others. It fools people to think it's a soft tail, when really, it's something so different.

And in a marvelous way.​

This bike is reliable. It is a beautiful piece of history. The preservation of this machine is bar to none. It's chrome is spotless, frame rust free. The wheels gleam in the light. This bike is the grand father to the Virago entry's, and later to the V-Star Entry's. It's tone is soft, yet it can be assertive when you give it throttle. The feeling of the small V-Twin between your legs is something I never got on big bikes.

And it feels good.​

She just wants to take life a day at a time. It wants you to look at the landscape as you putter down winding hills through deep trenches as you pass lush green fields full of livestock and farm houses. This bike wants to be loved, but not rough. You take it soft on her. She likes it best gentle. She wants you to share memories with her, as you craft new ones when you get a laugh out of something that seemed so complicated to solve but was so easy to fix.

Did we have rough times? Yes. But I cherish them all as I got to learn this machine from the inside out. I am blessed to have this piece of engineering beauty fall into my hands, as I doubt it will ever leave them. I have been offered almost triple of what I payed for it, and turned offers away without second though. I know if I ever rid her, I would never get another bike as Phenomenal as her.

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She's Beautiful.

She's Valuable.

She's Timeless.

And She's Mine.

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Nice writeup. Thank you for it.

The Route 66 was a limited-production verison of the Virago/ V-Star 250. The main differences between the models are cosmetic.

I saw no mention of you remedying fuel dumping into the crankcase. Setting the pecock to PRI when parked was an enabling step, but not the cause. Your float needle in the carb is leaking. If it were working properly the fuel could not have gotten into the crankcase, even with the petcock set to PRI.

The 15 amp fuse that you replacd with a 20 amp. Unless that circuit is supposed to have a 20 amp fuse, you should change it back to a 15 (running an overrated fuse will eventually lead to an electrical fire). The voltage change you saw had nothing to do with the rating of the fuse. When you changed the fuse out you also scraped any corrosion off of the terminals at that point. Given the age of the bike it's not unwise to get some electrical contact cleaner and de-oxidize all of the electrical connections on the bike.

When you take care of the brakes, don't just replace the pads/shoes. Rebuild the hydraulic system. Those hoses are probably the originals, and the seals on the calipers and master cylinder will be original too. Seals and hoses that old are just waiting to pop on you, or shed crud that will block the master cylinder return port. Get braided stainless lines if you can afford them. They are a huge upgrade to braking performance.


Loud pipes don't save lives. People reverse/pull into you because they don't look, and pipes won't help that (BTDT bought the earplugs). Ride conspicious, ride smart, always have at least one escape route ready to use.

Enjoy your new love

 

I did not mention I cleaned the carb afterwards of that. I thought it was a given that you could assume I did. The float had a little crud on the needle, but a little carb cleaner got it right up, through the jets n all. My bad.

I did not think about the 20 amp fuse. I will change it back to 15 stat when I wake up tomorrow.

I figured I am going to have to flush the whole thing anyways when I get new brakes. I never thought about a whole braided system, but as the back breaks being drum spring loaded, it couldn't be done to the rear anyhow. This is food for thought you gave me, and I like it.

We have different views on loud pipes. Another thing I am shameful of mentioning is it seems that the hidden pipe underneath the frame from the rear cylinder is starting to slowly rot out. It's made out of cast metal, and It's getting pretty bad, and I was gambling on a whole new exhaust anyhow. I could always get another stock exhaust system, but I also wanted to make it a little different. Love the current sound, but I am opting to a louder noise to see if it gets the attention of motorists

I contacted up a man who has been building exhaust systems for this bike years on end. He got it down to a science, and crafts them if you can find him on the web. His exhaust sounds beautiful, a little ratty in my opinion, but it has a thumping idle that I could not pass up.

I know I have to re-jet the carb, (Bye bye gas milage) replace the exhaust gaskets, tune the carb, tune the valves, and might even have to time the cam. I am possibly going to replace the cam chain as well soon, just to do preventive maintenance. I will make sure to do the cam shoes (If it has any) as old shoes will just wear the chain down back to where I replaced it from.

 

Good story, man! Don't think I've ever seen a post so long! You must be in love with the bike to spend so much time writing.

 

I love the thing to pieces. If I was poor and did not care about the condition of the bike, the wheels would literally fly off from the sprockets with how many miles I will eventually put on it. Yet I take care of my baby. It sounds silly, but I lost my ex girlfriend over this thing. She was worried about my safety(isn't it always), and it was me or the bike. The choice was simple.

You cannot keep me off two wheels. I was just approached from my neighbor for seven years for the first time ever yesterday as I was parking my bike in my garage to ask me what the bike was. I kid you not, this thing just draws people to it like a lamp in a field of gnats.

All of the bad things that have happened with this thing only made me love it more. It's just something you fix and fall in-love with. I know my way with a wrench, so it's a breeze when something fails. It's just troubleshooting electronics that is a pain sometimes. K-Moe will tell you all about that as six months ago I was prying him for help with the stator.

I am taking this bike to a cancer event in April around the Blue Ridge mountains. I cannot wait to clean and polish her up for that day. 10 hours plus of shining all of the bike for the big day for a chance to get a silly ribbon. The real winners are the people who are sick that benefit from the event.

 

Sir, you are a true bike lover!

 

I guess I am! I got another 50 miles to go before my oil change. Going to check the breather to the carb as well, make sure the rubber breather is in good shape.

 

I have just gotten my go pro. I am uploading my first video of me riding the bike.

My subject of the first video is Pipes! Her me shout and rant As I go to the garage to lend my mechanic the Route 66 to put The Larish41 Exhaust on and tune the bike. (Thank you, Larish41. I know they will sound fantastic)

I will post one video reply soon to this thread. I will be taking the bike on daily routines, to let you guys get a feel for her Follow me if you wish, but I won't be spamming this thread of videos. I enjoy my stay here, not a ban.

There will be videos where I do not talk at all. Where it will just be me, and the sound of the Yamaha roaring under me.

(Caution: I swear like a sailor. It does not help my father and my brother were both in the Navy)

 

<- There's the Larish41 pipes on the bike. It needs a little more love (Tuning) to be perfect.

 

Sorry, we don't ASSUME anything........if you don't tell us you DID something, we assume you DIDN'T do it.

 

Noted. It just seems quite simple though that I checked the carburetor when I noticed there was fuel down in the crank. Wouldn't anybody do that? It's not Brain Surgery. Gas comes from somewhere, usually from the direction above the engine.

I digress, I will be sure to include more details in my future blogs.

 

You have clearly never met that PO guy. The prior owner who somehow manages to turn a perfectly good motorccyle into a heap of "repairs" and "improvements" that no longer runs.
Then there's the service tech who I used to supervise. We had installed new machines at a remote site and he was called out because one of them wasn't working properly. He decided that the factory had wired the whole machine incorrectly, and proceeded to snip wires and make splices. Funny thing; one of the sensors was plugged into the wrong socket. He rewired a whole machine because of a misplaced plug, so we got to order a $250 wiring harness to fix his "fix."