I've had a 600cc single get over 60 MPG with a pumper carb and run under 50MPG on a EX250. A Busa can gurgle along and get 40+ MPG and turn around and run under 10 seconds in a 1/4. Economy is found in your wrist. A 250 sinlge will do most of what you ask with a downshift in headwinds and uphills but don't count on passing power. If you are in the bike game only to save $, buy a used rat 250 and ride it till the chain falls off and the tires peel from the rims. Cheap cars beat bikes in $cost per mile. Fuel is only one factor and the difference in tires and driveline is huge.
True. Maintenance costs are the killer on bikes. You can replace all 4 corners on a car for the same or less than a bike and get much better rubber life. Same for shocks, etc. Especially if American-made. When more cars are getting 40mpg+ highway, bikes are either going to have to improve or be relegated to the expensive luxury category. Wait a minute, they already are! I still think there are some practicalities to owning a bike. Enough to justify one to the better half, anyway. My old GS450, the predecessor to the current GS500, got a consistent 60 mpg. My 1990 PC800 gets between 45 - 50 mpg even though it really needs to be tuned. Newer bikes should be better but really haven't improved in the mileage department. At least the PC has hydraulic valves. Try to find something that doesn't needs valve adjustment nowadays, outside Harley and a few more. Singles offer the economy of simplicity. Less valves to adjust, etc.
Holy freaking crap I had no idea the CBR600 was that expensive. That's insane. Well, like you said "would I buy an $8000 250? Unlikely. For another $2k I could buy a Ducati Monster or Hypermotard." Exactly my point, though I guess it wasn't supported with the CBR example...
And anyone I steer towards a 250 "sporty" bike is told to check the classifieds, there is no shortage of under 1k mile 08 EX250s for at or less than $2k. Hondas competition is not just new EX250s but decades of used ones that are low mile/good cond for under 30% the price. I see you are a bunch of titewads, , which will you buy, a new $4,000 CBR250 or a year old 700 mile example for $2500? $8000 250, if it was a real gem? Like a V2, I3 or I4 that had 125 or 250 GP dimensions? Don't think of a 250-400 engine like we are now able to get. Think about silky smooth, vibe free near 20,000 RPM bikes that can cut under a 600 SS bike at will. Sorry Honda, I know you did alot of work here but a 25 HP 250 is hardly breaking new ground, even if it is $4k.
25hp versus the 50hp 250s that Japanese makers were selling 22 years ago <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/244BydXYq1w?fs=1&hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/244BydXYq1w?fs=1&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
Those would never sell here!!! Imagine that bike with +20 years of development, a sumoto and sportbike version today! Pass the premix!!!
Canadian Price on a Yamaha WR 250 X is $8599.00 Having spent considerable time on one, yeah... i would. I am however awaiting the new 250 Duke. Yeah baby.
Ah geez! I forgot, there may be sand somewhere someday! The EX brakes are so spongy from the crap lines and low end calipers its like havin ABS anyway! Honda probably just adds air to the fluid & ups the $!
New, fuel injection, ABS, single cylinder, don't need to remove the cam to change the shims, Honda quality...easily worth the difference.
Explain to me how a top spec. 250cc bike would cost less than a 600cc supersport. It can't. If the suspension is the same, the frame is the same AND the manufacturer has to design a clean sheet inline engine and homologate it, how can that cost LESS than a 600? You're not making any sense. The top spec. 250 would cost just as much or more than a cutting edge 600. It would not be 7 thousand or 8 thousand. It would be 11 or 12 thousand. It's not a supermoto. It's not an MX bike. It's not a 12 thousand dollar KTM. There is no race series to support high spec. 250cc machines in the US. There is no large, pent up demand for highly strung, small displacement machines. I'd loved a brand new, 2011 VFR400 with Ohlins and 80hp but it would weigh 400lbs and cost as much or more than a VFR800.
Read it again, will you buy a new CBR250 or a used CBR250 for a few K less? It'll still have all those nifty features with the 700 miles its likely to get on it from the first buyers girlfriend. Now, if you mean the old EX250, the valves are screw adjusters. http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/What_is_the_adjustment_procedure? I just saved you MORE $! Get a pre 08!
Not to mention the fact most people finance their bikes. If you have to go through the hassle anyway, why not buy a new one with a two year warranty? Especially since it will be easier to obtain financing through a dealer or even from a bank for a new Honda.
Honda still builds the Vtwin 250 and Suzuki has a lovely 400cc I4 already in production for home market. Either one coulda been upgraded to better spec and brought here for less effort than they went thru to build the CBR. Would you find much to protest if this bike was really a VTR250 with some adjustable suspension bits from a decade old 600? Would a new base VTR250 option (read cheaper)be less newb friendly? You doubt a current EX250 series wouldn't be far more interesting if a 2011 VTR250RR could be included?
Why on earth would any Japanese manufacturer try to sell a small displacement, high spec. sportbike during a financial apocalypse with gas on the brink of spiking to 5 dollars a gallon? There is no argument for a machine like that that makes ANY sense in the current economic climate. Sportbikes skew to younger riders. Younger riders can't obtain financing or insurance for sportbikes anymore. The target demographic for a high spec 250 - 400cc sportbike is in the dozens or low hundreds. No one is buying the 600cc mahines that have been sitting on showroom floors for 2+ years, who exactly do you think is going to pop for these wonderful, 8 thousand dollar 250's? The target demo for the CBR250R as it is being presented by Honda is in the tens of thousands.
I guess they better scrap all the VTRs they built for all over the world then. They are still in production. And Suzi better stop building sweet 400 I4s too! Offering a optional higher spec makes sense, have a better suspension offering for riders who might want to down size for all the same reasons but don't want to drop down to basement quality components. Younger riders want sportbikes, correct? They can't get financing for + $11,000 600s and insurance on a real sport 250-400 is CHEAPO! You are only making the case as to why they should bring them here! Thank you for finally agreeing with me!
