GKA 250cc

Posts: 248

Let me just start by apologizing to RMB, I know I said I was going to get those engine shots for you, A close friend had been in fatal car accident last 2/11 Monday night and I was not much in the mood to be around the buggy or anything else. I well post them today when I get home!
But anyways
Let’s get back to the review

I bought a GKA 250cc, basically the same as the Spyder 250
Start with the good
Got it for way less than asking price with the warranty, I am not going to tell the dealers name out of respect, since they do ask a lot more than what I paid.
Went through the entire buggy, all the Welds were complete and clean. Which we all know is always a plus.
Complete racing seat not the half and half as I like to call them.
Four wheel disc, and four wheel independent suspension
Four fog lights and strong horn
Engine cranks every time first try so far
Water cooled,
Lots of room for a bigger engine!
Very comfy on rugged trails
Buggy already assembled

Bad
Already got two flat tires, from puncture hole
Seat belts look cheap, wonder how they are going to hold in a severe roll
Top speed is 70kmh according to Manuel, feels slow on the open road
No speedometer or rpm gage
Radiator sets behind gas tank
CVT drive

Over all I would recommend this buggy, Sunday when we had the severe storms blow through GA, I took the buggy out to find the limitations it had. And to my surprise I did not find any, It was dark, wind was blowing like crazy, lightning was everywhere and rain was washing away the trails. The lights were providing plenty of light, and I felt like I was on a jungle adventure, My first concern was traction, before I hit the trails, I played on my test track, and found that under steer was present, and when hitting the brakes the buggy would slide a few feet, so the tires were of poor quality for the wet conditions, or so I thought. I then ventured on the trails that are around the corner from where I live, went back and already I was running over down trees, not a problem just rolled right on over, than the first major hill. A small creek had formed creating more of a wash out on the trail, my first thoughts went to the tires. Are they going to be able to push me up this. Can’t know unless you try right. Hit the throttle and wheels spinning made it up. First thoughts are awesome, kept on going down the trail and came to a point where the trail was already washed out, and sure enough a nice size creek had formed from the rain. Again I thought I was going to get stuck, but tried it anyways, front went under a little than one side popped up, again hit the gas a little and the buggy jumped out of the water filled trench. Now came the slightly more challenging part of the trip. Crossing over the small water fall, (by small I mean a 13foot drop) I know the trail, I know the trail markers, the fact it was dark made it a bit more complicated, since the creek I usually crossed now looked like a small river, I was not that concerned about clearance but more concerned about being washed over the side of the falls, worst case would be I was pushed off and rolled, which to me meant testing how well the roll cage and seat belts would hold up. So off I went, sure enough the front went under enough that the floor was flooded, and again the buggy pulled me through. At which point I am smiling from ear to ear, and absolutely satisfied with my little 250. So I keep going down the trail where I have to cross over again to get over to the rock face. I already know the water is deeper at this cross over, No worries of a water fall to go off of. Go head again front dunks a bit more and the buggy pushes through. I am finally nearing the end of my trip. And now I am on a very large rock face, I figured this was going to be easy and found out quickly it was not. The face was slick, really really slick. Fish tailing like crazy, I thought someone maybe had left oil on the hill. So needless to say, I end up crawling across. The cliffs on the rock face are huge, and I had no desire to roll off them. So finally after a slow 10 minute crawl across the rock face, I am now nearing the exit to find one last challenge. A mud pit, my first mistake was slowing when I came up on it, got about 5 feet in and stuck. First thoughts, Are you @$%ing kidding me. Put the buggy in reverse went back a little, put back to forward go forward a little more, and so on and so on. Finally after a good 5 minute fight I finally broke free and continued on my way, got to the road and headed home, managed to get up enough speed that the rain was stinging. Nature was giving me and my buggy a free wash. Got home looked at the buggy and most of the mud had already been washed off. My helmet that had not been cleaned since I had went to D,T was completely clean, and it was covered in dry red clay before I left.
So the next day was the real challenge to my little 250. After a ruff night of 15 miles of torture, how was the buggy going to do? Buggy started right up first try, put into gear back out of the garage Put into forward gear, and took off, buggy ran like it did first day I got it. So far, doing well went through and checked for any signs of leaks, damaged to suspension or any problems, everything had held up.
Over all it was like driving a sports car, that rode like a Cadillac, that could go off road, and the top was off, I got soaked. I did take some pics when I got home. No one wanted to go with me on my little ride, so I sadly did not get any pics on the trails, That was blast! Very Happy

and the smaller off road karts could not have done what I did with my mini buggy.

Posts: 1094

nice review glade your happie does that thing have a locked rearend

Posts: 248

By locked rearend do you mean postive traction? if so yes it does Very Happy

Posts: 1094

no i mean both wheels spin all the time

Posts: 76

Sounds like great fun. It can be exciting to see what the buggys can do. If you get back home without any trouble it's even better. Cool

Posts: 248

Yep, It does have a Locked rearend, I could not imagine a Buggy with a one-wheel-wonder, That would suck! Again another hard weekend of buggy fun. So far no problems Very Happy

it has been nothing but a champ. Friends absolutly love riding it also.

Posts: 15

I just purchased a Spyder 250 from Allnewpowersports.com and waiting for it to arrive. I actually was going to get the smaller cheaper one but they didnt have the color i wanted so they upgraded me for no additional charge. Save about $600.00 I hope i have as much luck as you did. I will add a review when i get it in.
Jason

Posts: 248

johnsonjasonm, I can say I have not had any problems at all with my 250, Other than two flat tires Laughing

and I ride it at least 3 or more times a week. It is holding up well this is the where I ride every week

http://www.buggynews.com/topic11656.html

Very Happy

Thats sweet that you got a upgrade with no additional charge, Nothing better than hearing that you are going to get a upgrade cause they could not supply Very Happy

I hope all works out for you and you have just as much fun that I have had on my GKA250/ spyder Very Happy

Posts: 15

I got my Spyder 250 on Thursday and it wouldn’t run so I went to bed. Friday when I got home I adjusted the carburetor and now it runs good, (other then an occasional miss). I ran it around the neighborhood for a few hours on Sunday and got the engine broke in. Then I did a fluid change. I remembered others having trouble with there exhaust and noticed mine has a flex connector and it is hung with rubber mounts. Whoever designed the layout of the engine and drive is a moron. You have to remove the air box passenger tire and shock and loosen the parking brake cable just to get to the drain plug for the gear oil. You also have to loosen engine mounts and lift the engine to remove the oil drain plug. After getting everything back together I decided to put it to some test. I laid a couple of tires and a small telephone pole on the ground and tried climbing over them. The only way it was making it over was with momentum. This upset me as a stock yerf has no problem with it. Then I did some high speed (30-40mph) test so I hit some dirt roads. At one point I got about 3 or 4 feet of air and it landed pretty good considering its weight. Small bumps like 6 to 12 inch deep ruts are no problem at all. The suspension and comfort of the ride are incredible. We then went down the street to some fields and figured we would try to climb some small to medium hills. It would bog a little on a 30 degree but not to terrible (about the same as a stock yerf). We tried a 45 to 50 and it bogged pretty bad Intel the tires broke loose then it just kind of worked its way over so we came back around and pulled partially onto the hill and stopped. When we tried to go again the clutch wouldn’t grab so we had to put it in reverse, witch is something I hate to do, and get some speed to get over. Another test for it was safety so we decided to roll it a couple of times. Not so easy to do. At full speed we could turn hard and slide onto pavement without it even trying to roll. So we figured to leave it at that as rolling isn’t even a concern. We didn’t want to do any crash testing because it doesn’t appear to have a very solid frame. We decided to but it on a stand and remove the CVT cover while it ran. We noticed that the clutch doesn’t engage Intel about half throttle and at that point the CVT is nearly in high gear. Not good for torque.

In short the goods;
Suspension it awesome
Plenty of room
Nice looking
Good tire grip
All components work
Exhaust is suspended with rubber mounts and attached with flex connector

Now the BAD;
Carb is extremely picky
Nothing for passenger to hold on to
No bottom end power (Yerf could pull it all over)
Engine doesn’t run steady and smooth
Clutch slips easily
Very time consuming to maintain and repair
Bolts it comes with are crap

Overall I would not recommend this go-kart for anyone who does a lot of real offloading or trails unless they are willing to add aftermarket parts. I did however feel pretty safe in it and love the suspension. If there is a 150 on the market with suspension like this one I would buy it for sure. If any one has any ideas on how to get this thing to climb please let me know. I ordered the 18 gram rollers and spark plug from Blade and I would like a High output ignition coil and clutch spring (not sure witch one to get). I am afraid to just buy from anyone because it is a 250cc and we measured the clutch on mine and on a yerf and they are different so parts will not be interchangeable with 150’s. If you have a 250 and have already done these mods please let me know where you got them and how well they work.
Jason

Posts: 248

That sucks...I guess their might be a differance between the GKA and the spyder after all:shock: I did not have to remove anything out of the way or loosen any bolts to do a oil change Confused

If sitting on dirt My buggy could get a little wheel spin from the digg...a little more after some minor mods I noticed a increase in tourqe when I gutted the muffler...I just replaced the stock 116 jet with a 127.5 jet but could not put the UNI filter on yet...I need a larger pilot jet before stepping up to a 130 with the UNI or higher. Let me know how the 18gram rollers work out for you...sorry to hear that the spyder is not working out as well as you had expected...I have beaten the hell out my GKA and it has held up well...Guess I did get lucky Shocked

Hope you can get all the bugs worked out on yours

Winston