Almost ready to ride!
 

I'm back! Not that I was here much before, but hadn't logged in for a couple of years, then lost my password and forgot my email on here was my school email, but thanks to the admins they've helped me recover my lost password and email!

I was most unfortunate and had lost my motorcycle key the fall of 2012 which means that I wasn't able to winterize my gz250 and it sat in my garage with fuel in it and battery in it all winter. I was thinking I would have to drill out my ignition bolts to take it in and have the lock shop make me a new key, but my dad was up for my wedding August 2013 and was out in the yard and found the key to my bike! Over a year after I lost it!

I've made a second copy of the key now so I don't every go without a key again, now its time to get the bike back on the road. Any tips on things I should do before starting to ride? I'm figuring on changing the gas since its now sat through two Michigan winters, my battery is shot from sitting through two winters, so ordering a new battery. I haven't changed the oil in the bike before, so it should probably be done. I don't know how big of a deal it is to change oil in the GZ250, is it tough to get to / going to make a mess? Or should I just take it to a shop and have them change the oil in it? I'm confident working on cars, but never done much work on bikes. Need to check my tires to make sure they haven't dry rotted (fingers crossed - that would really not help me get back on the road if I had to come up with the money for new tires too) and pump them up. What else do I need to do to get the bike back on the road after sitting for two winters and not being properly winterized?

Welcome back!

If you have a torque wrench and a metric set of sockets, it's easy to change oil yourself. It says how to do it in the manual that you can download from this forum somewhere.

According to all the stories here, not that I have any personal experience with that, your carburator is probably gummed up and will need a cleaning.

If you bike was in the garage, your tires should be fine. Unless they celebrated their 5th birthday in the interim. Then, get new ones.

I would also oil the cables (2x throttle, 1x clutch) and lube the rear brake cable; and check the torque on the bolts (see manual at "regular maintenance); and change the front brake oil.