Why not the Ninja 300? Is the single cylinder engine the major factor? I'd think the Honda will still be far enough out of the performance range of the Ninja and Duke and won't hold anything over the Kawi suspension/frame wise. If the KTMs are typical of their Austrian built cousins, I'd expect them to outpace any of the others in quality and performance in every regard with the Ninja solidly in second place.
Don't know about prices where you people are at, but the Yamaha MT07, which is a 75hp twin costs just a few hundred more then the Ninja 300 here. Prices were just announced.
I've heard nothing but good things about the KTM, which is why I'm interested in it. And my first bike was a Honda, so I'm a self admitted fanboy. To me there isn't much of a difference, so I'll lean Honda because I know their quality.
It might be a Honda but it looks like it was built by the same assembly line and parts bins as the Ninja FWIW. I put my hands all over the CBR 250 and I'd swear most of it would bolt right on to my Ninja 300. (Not a compliment!) Given the true target audience and country of origin, well, they ain't your father's Hondas! Power is a big deal on these little bikes. The Ninja is heavy compared to the singles but brings the smoothness of a twin with rubber mounting and the 39 crank HP. The damn thing is pretty velvety at any RPM. Not trying to sell you one, just wondered why you skipped right past it to the CBR.
Well my cbr250 has GREAT fit and finish. Way better then my 2012 Ninja 650. That thing had so many fairing gaps it looked like Ray Charles worked on the assembly line. With QA being handled by Hellen Keller.
I suspect the KTM 390 will cost substantially more than the CBR 300. The 300 will cost more than the 250, but will still be an "everyman" bike. The KTM, not quite as much so.
I expect all that as well, but the reviews I've seen have been overwhelmingly positive for the KTM, middle of the road for the Ninja, and nonexistent for the Honda. I really WANT the Honda, but KTM is making it hard to resist. The nice thing is, I'm flush for choices! I ride a Bonneville, but I'm looking for a more modern bike that my wife can learn on and that I can tear around town on a bit. (That being said, there's a small displacement Triumph being rumored as well)
The Honda bikes always ride really good. There was a video a while back and the young guys all said they liked the honda in the very twisty bits more than the kawasaki. So they must ride a little different, Honda puts your feet a bit more under you. Changing the steering bearings and brakes, that's a drag for most people, Navin has done so much stuff to his bike. I think people perceive that they won't have to do anything to their Honda, and for the 250, that's been true for me. The Honda has 16k mile valves and the kawasaki 7.5k mile, I'd call that significant. The Honda gets better mileage. The Honda will still be a great bike for a lot of people.
I just eyeballed the OEM parts for the CBR250. It looks like it has loose ball steering bearings too, just like my POS. I have no doubt I'd have done the same mods to the CBR250, except it would still be far slower. I'd bet a donut the steering bearings are just as crappy as the ones in the Kawi, in fact they are probably the same parts! You CBR250 guys might want to give those a good looking at, or try the hands off the bars decel at 60 MPH or so to check for wobbles. I think All Balls has the same tapered bearing kit for your bikes too.
Yeah, but we drank the kool aid, so every thing with our bikes is good. You probably would change them, because you can tell it's budget. The idea of a wobble kind of creeps me out though, but so does no hands at 60. I think I would have noticed though. You said yours came back after awhile, too, what's up with that? That 390, that's a tiny bike, the ninja or cbr is much more practical. I want one of those, sure, who wouldn't, but a $8k track bike, probably not going to happen.
My theory is the single, non locked retainer ring backs off a little bit every several thousand miles. The entire triple clamp/stem/fork tubes are pretty much moped stuff, like the Honda! I've not dealt with this much steering bearing adjustment before, but I haven't had a bike with forks I could feel flexing like this since around 1982 either! Back then I might not have noticed loose steering bearings, but I was riding 1970s CB350s and old RDs! They all shook around at even the peak performance of their chassis anyway.
I'm intrigued to see the new CBR300. The combo of low price, light weight, great gas mileage, simplicity, comfort, and (relative) low-end torque make it a very appealing run-around, back road, economy bike. Better for that task than the Ninja I'm thinking, though not nearly as good as it at the true sportbike game. Horses for courses, and all that.
Not that I'm really interested in the 300 but as mentioned the idea of the CRF300L would at least make me think about checking one out. Curiosity has me asking the question...all these guys out there flogging the cbr 250, pinned at highway speeds on touring trips for hours and hours, do they burn/use oil? That's what has got me put off on singles. While 90% of the junk I do is 65 or under, there are those couple big yearly trips where something has to survive slab @ 75mph for hours and hours without hiding any dino juice. Do the Honda singles handle that or do they hide it like very other single? Got to imagine they'd use some to.
Dpooch, no idea on the Hondas but our Ninja can pull 15/39 gearing which as high as you can go without really just ruining the pick up. It is dramatically taller than the stupid short 14/42 stock. If I was looking at a 80% or more 75 MPH stint for a few weeks I'd return to 15/39. In my regular use it was a bit too extreme, but still useable. I wonder how tall of a gear option the CBRs can pull, 250 and eventually the 300.
Yeah I've been wanting to try the 39. I think even in my unmodified state, it would still be a good combo for high speed work. I tend to like my stuff higher geared, so I might just like it all the way around. I've got to think a front sprocket change on a CBR is a much more noticeable affair and not in a good way.
Neither of these is what I want for highway speed stuff. It just gets old and weak. Either will do it, and the Ninja will surely do it better, but that's not their strong suit. I tire of the screaming engine and the lack of hp at speed. Getting up to that speed and tossing around the light weight, however, is good fun. But it's gotta' have good power character (enough torque down low-mid).
Those are some massive gearing changes you people do, I just went +1 up front on my FZ6 and the acceleration up to 2/3 of the available revs is horrible. Doing +1 / -3 on such a small bike probably makes it accelerate as a 125.
