CBR 250's are an excellent bike to start off with if your looking for a sports 4 stroke. Revving to 21000 rpm you can imagine that they are quite nippy, and will out accelerate most things on the road with 4 wheels, unless they got a turbo, then im sorry your screwed, as I have personally tried lol!
Now at first glance you would swear that this bike is the same bike on the 400 page, it has the same paint job but there are suttle differences, and when you see them up close for real there is quite a difference! The cbr250 is more of an upright ride compared to the 400, it is also no where near as wide as the 400 either. I've ridden two different CBR 250's, one completely standard and the other slightly modified with a straight through can. Jesus Christ is there a difference!!, when I rode the one with the standard pipe, it felt like it wanted to scream but you could feel it holding back while going up through the revs.
Without the bafflein the exhaust its a whole different ball game! I couldn't believe how different it was, basically the guy had rammed something down his standard end can and removed all the baffle that was restricting it. I highly recommend it!!!
The only thing about these 250's is that they are a bit of a basdard to get parts for, I live in the UK, and obviously it was never originally manufactured here, so all the bikes over here are grey imports, which in turn means you have to get the parts from over seas if you want new ones.
Specs
If you need detailed information go to the specifications page
Dyno Sheets *NEW*
 | If your interested in the power performance of the CBR 250 then check out these lovely dyno sheets kindly provided by "Luke Cantwell" everyone please say thank you :) Click image |
CBR 250RR Archive
Im in the process or changing the archive so that the pictures will represent the model and year of the bike, as to give the viewers ideas on color schemes and specifications of the bike.
1995 CBR250RR owner: richie w's
Here she is stripped for cleaning, good for giving you an insight to what she looks like with her clothes off :P
1989 CBR250RR owner: Joel Heinzel
1991 CBR250RR owner: Corey Lott MC22 New zealand
Corey has had this bike re sprayed in some crazy cool way, check it out :) (sorry for taking so long!)
As mentioned with the cbr400 i want all the pictures I can get of the CBR 250 as well. Send them to me and I will upload them and include recognition for yourself on the picture too.
Road tests
Honda CBR250RR (1999)
The 'Babyblade', as it's colloquially known, has become one of our favorite quarter liter bikes over the years. It has lots of performance, with civilized road manners that allow the learner to come to terms with its considerable performance.
History
The Babyblade started arriving in this country in small numbers as a grey import until Honda MPE took up the challenge and added it to the corporate brochure.
Under the skin
The heart is a high-stepping liquid-cooled four-stroke four, with four valves per pot, that revs to a scary 18,000rpm. It's matched to a six-speed gearbox, twin alloy spar frame and a monoshock rear suspension set-up.
Starting: Simple, but ride it gently for the first couple of Km/s so it gets a chance to warm up properly.
Suspension: Quite basic ? minimalist forks, and a monoshock with adjustment for spring preload only.
Brakes: Twin discs up front with two-piston calipers, and a single-pot caliper on the rear disc.
Stability: Unusually exceptional. We've ridden several examples and they have generally been fast-steering (a little flighty at speed) though entirely predictable. The 9000-plus-km test bike (that's a lot of miles for a demo) felt less precise than we're used to with this model. Fiddling with the tyre pressures and steering head bearing tension would be the first ports of call then, maybe, a change of rubber.
Cornering clearance: How much would you like? You're only likely to touch down on a race track.
Performance: More than enough to be exciting, with a genuine 160-plus kmh on tap. It's delivered in a linear fashion, leaving all the decisions to the rider. It takes 4000rpm to get moving in a reasonable way, 6000rpm for serious urge, while 100kmh translates as 9000rpm in top.
Rider comfort: Quite good, despite the sporty ride position. Long rides can be uncomfortable, though a one-day play in the hills is well within the satisfied zone. Seat padding is fairly thin and suspension spring rates high, which is the price you can expect to pay for a serious sporting tool.
Pillion comfort: Forget it. The pillion perch is too high, with foot pegs that are bordering on fiction.
Vibration/harshness: There's an ever-present vibration happening, but t's not intrusive.
Finish: Average. No clear spray over the decals, though the fairing fit is good.
Looks: Aggressive, colorful and distinctive. Nothing subtle about it.
Extras: The Dunlop K510 sport radials fitted to our bike were premium kit, with lots of grip. We wonder if they contributed to the less than ideal feel of the steering, but didn't have enough time with the bike to be certain. One bonus of the high pillion seat is the capacious storage under it ? enough to handle a set of wet-weather pants.
Value for money: Priced at $9999, the Babyblade is more expensive than Suzuki's quicker RGV250 with its higher-tech chassis, which raises a performance-per-dollar question.
SUMMING UP
We can think of no better performance 250 as a stepping stone to the hot 600s, RGVs included. There's plenty of urge on tap -- enough to keep the rider interested well beyond the compulsory 250 provisional licence period. Avoid well-worn examples as the rebuild costs will be high. But never make the mistake of underestimating the Babyblade as a sports bike...
