Atomik Blitz V2.0 THE Update...
Ok kiddies, here is how things went over the weekend. actually found out some great little details about the Blitz, and have discovered i've built the bike Atomik should have built to begin with...
The bike is now a completely different animal... and i'll confidently say it will trounce a stock Honda XR250 or Kawasaki KLX250. Not in quality, but most definately in performance..
So here's how my weekend went...
I picked up the suspension late friday arvo... only to be given the bad news... The stock atomik fork is downright shit, basically... once they go, and start playing up, nothing can be done to improve them... Mine had developed a habit of compressing, but not rebounding... so they would be stuck at about 2/3rds travel... which obviously isnt great for handling...
The shock on the other hand, isnt too bad as far as damping goes... the problem is the build quality... Hoey's revalved the shim stack, which made marked improvements to what was already a decent shock, but the problem lies with the bladder... getting it to seal, is i'm told a prick of a job... and sadly had started to leak again by the end of the weekend...
So there i am, friday night before heading away saturday morning for a three day riding trek, with no front end...
Hmm... that YZF front end looks pretty similar says I...
So here's the fix i came up with...
Using the 99 YZF400 top triple clamp, forks and front wheel, the Blitz soon had the YZF front end fitted... Atomik has actually copied pretty much everything, if not in appearance, then at least in measurement. YZF forks measure 54mm at the top of the leg... Blitz forks measure 53.25mm at the top, so YZF forks wont slip into the Blitz top triple.. hence the reason i used the YZF triple... The other advantage is, the YZF triple clamp moves the bars back a bit, which improve the one issue with the stock Blitz ergos... The YZF triple clamp aligns with the Blitz bottom triple perfectly...
My YZF brakes are now quite old, and need a seal kit through them, so i quickly discovered the Blitz caliper is a copy of the Yamaha Nissin item... which allowed the YZF front wheel to slip straight in. rotor alignment was bang on, and allowed the use of the better performing Blitz caliper and master cylinder, which is a copy of the old Honda XR250 master...
Nothing could be done the night before leaving about the linkage issues (covered elsewhere in this thread, and solved by MarlboroMan), so the standard shock was bolted back in. The YZF one kinda fits, but requires the pipe be customised a fair bit.. The stock shock had just been revalved, and i was keen to try it out to see how much difference it made.
So the Blitz now stood as having a shortened muffler, OKO 26mm flatslide, YZF400 forks and front tyre, and a revalved rear shock....
Testing times....: Finally we got to our riding spot, set up camp, and suited up... straight off idle the increase in performance afforded with the pipe and oko was immediately noticeable. Bottom end strength has been retained, something the Loncin Gen 3 can list a strong point, but where the pipe mod and OKO fitment made the difference, was in the mid and top end... put plainly, the Blitz now rips compared to a stock setup. Power i would guess is somewhere around 25-28hp, and the power delivery is how it should be... strong down low, building through a punchy mid-section into a screaming top end, which is assisted along with the Hi-rev ignition box. powerslides are now an option, as is diving deep into a rut or sandy corner, feeding in a bit of clutch, a heap of throttle and blasting your way out of there, just like a big boys bike...
When speaking to a few other riders where we were, they were surprised to find out it was a $1300 China Atomik Blitz that had just gone round them, and not a "proper" Yamaha YZF250... (that sticker kit and YZF plastics were totally worth it..
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Suspension was the obvious big difference to the bike. Anyone who has ridden or owned a YZF400, will know you need to push the things hard to get the most from the suspension, and it's no different with the Blitz. Hoeys did a great job with the shock, and it's action and performance is similar to the stock YZF400 shock, without the adjustability. Trailride this thing, and it will buck around, and feels harshly sprung. Get up it, and it will fly, and the suspension will happily soak up anything you can throw at it. The only thing i didnt try, was it's dune-jumping ability, due to the dunes at "our place" being over-run with drunk idiots on banshees and 4wds. (the missus thanks you, idiots...) Over fast, rough and rolling tracks, the Blitz now really shines, and is quicker than it should be... Just ask the blokes who got pwned on their jap and euro mxers by an old fat bloke on a china 250... ha ha ha ha!
