What bike do you have

a_ominous

Phryxus wrote:

Just having a look in the blue pages of bike buyers guide and saw that the bandit 600 is in insurance group 5, anyone any experience on one of these?

A restricted Bandit 600 is group 5. It is restricted to 33BHP, but the regular bike puts out IIRC 78BHP which makes it a group 10 bike. Apart from that, don't know much about the specific bike.
I'm still not sure what diff the restriction is supposed to make when some restricted bikes can do nearly a ton. Some of the bike shops have told me that there's no extra power after X rpm on an after-market restrictor. the non-factory restrictors aren't recognised for insurance purposes coz they're supposedly easy to remove. A bit like speed limiters on trucks and buses :rolleyes:

Phryxus

I've decided to go with the Dragstar 650, prob not the classic though. Might go over to england to do my bike test, Less hassle than having to use a restricted bike for two years.

Phryxus

Actually F**k the dragstar, CBR250rr it is, I've tried a little cruiser but I figure sport is the way to go.

padraigcarroll

I have a 1986 cbr 250 (as a backup bike), a 1999 Kawasaki ZX6R Ninja (my commuter), and a 1989 Suzuki RG500 Gamma (my toy!)

vroom vroom beep beep
Goddamn penalty points

cranoo

just got a 1997 VN 1500 classic from the states with 1100 miles on it, like new

Phryxus

padraigcarroll wrote:

I have a 1986 cbr 250 (as a backup bike)

How do you find the cbr, reliability? top speed? worst thing about them?

padraigcarroll

well, depends on what u want really Phryxus,

I bought this particular cbr as a junker, to fix up and use literally as a backup bike when the ninja goes down.

cbr's are ok, hondas in general are ok, nice and comfortable, i call them sofas
eg. sofa 600, sofa 900 rr, or in this case a sofa 250!
Im not dissin all hondas, but im not a honda man u see
cbr 250 is the motorbike equivalent of the honda civic or i suppose starlet turbo
Young lads can just barely insure them, but get good performance for their money.
They aren't bad as a training bra really, as they aren't too bad to work on and the honda reliability wont throw too many problems at you to cause you to hate having to work on bikes.

However!
An FZR 250 was the first 250 I ever owned and i swear by them. Zxr 250's mmm nice
Both better imo than the cbr 250 all better than the gsxr 250 and again all better than bandit or hornet 250's etc

Jap imports can be very problematic, the build quality is nowhere near as good as a euro bike whose materials have bad weather in mind.
Also on any of these bikes u need to get rid of the speed restrictor to get decent top end out of them.

All in all, they, including the sofa 250 are great craic!

Haket

>Jap imports can be very problematic, the build quality is nowhere near as good as a >euro bike whose materials have bad weather in mind.

Eh ?, what euro bikes are you talking about ?. Triumph (turns to mush if there is a slight shower), KTM ?, falls apart before you get it out of the showroom, Ducati ?, <see Triumph), MotoGuzzi, nice bikes for those weird beardy types :-) IMHO Hondas are the best built bikes (by far) , followed by Yam,Suzuki and Kawak all about the same.

Ohh forgot about BMW, yeah they aint so bad as Euro manufacturers go, but you do pay for the extra quality.

The problem with Jap imports seem to be that they are typically older machines (with all the associated probs) and parts can be a problem.

ArphaRima

http://www.aphonda.co.th/product/sonic/index.asp

A piece of **** Honda Nova Sonic Rs125 Sport.

King of the road in Vietnam though. When you see what traffic I have to drive in you'll see this bike makes the best sense. (150cc max by law.)

padraigcarroll

Haket
Jap import honda cbr250 originally built for the jap market versus say a cbr 600 built for the uk market etc
or i suppose a zxr 400 is the best example as they were sold in europe and japan
the build of the european zxr400 is way better than the japanese counterparts.

The only triumphs i can comment on are the t595 and t955i's which dont have any major problems at all, great bikes, in particular the t595, certainly doesnt turn to mush
unlike a lot of suzukis.... i call them triples as they usually go down a cylinder when its been raining!

Haket

>Jap import honda cbr250 originally built for the jap market versus say a cbr 600 built >for the uk market etc


Yeah kinda hard to make direct comparisons, I didnt iknow that about the ZX4, wouldn't have thought the big 4 would have made such big changes between markets.


>The only triumphs i can comment on are the t595 and t955i's which dont have any >major problems at all, great bikes, in particular the t595, certainly doesnt turn to >mush unlike a lot of suzukis.... i call them triples as they usually go down a cylinder >when its been raining![/QUOTE]

Lol !, I've a 955i Triumph and build quality is quite good. However, many of the fastners are unfinished ally which corrodes with most any moisture in the air. But in fairness my suzuki and all previous jap bikes did/do rust badly if not looked after. Yamaha seems to be the worst (although I've never owned a Kwak). I find myself being far more protective of the Triumph than I was of my Bandit 12 . . probly gotta do with the pricetag though :-)

echomadman

The problem with the Jap 250 sportsbikes are that they're learner bikes, and will generally have been caned, crashed and not well maintained. (i know i'm guilty of the first two).
The Fzr250 is a lovely bike, but popular with thieves (A mate had his FZR250R robbed last weekend) as is the cbr250, if you buy one get a big fúck off lock and chain.
I'm biased towards the bandit 250, as i have one. Its fast enough, great in corners as its quite flingable, its pretty cheap to insure too (for a given value of cheap :rolleyes: )
Although i'm in the market for a 600 at the moment as i want to start touring abroad and the 250 is an arse killer on trips longer than 100 miles.

bugs

For Honda bikes there is ZERO difference between parts or build quality of european models and japanese models. For a start, the cbr250 was never sold in europe, every single one of them are parallel imports. They're even considered a rare grey bike outside of this country.
The 1000's aren't even really marketed in japan, they're built for export but the same parts are used. They build all their bikes in hamamatsu where production runs roll out all the required run of bikes and spare parts. The engine seals and various other bits that most people claim to be different for different environments, are not. Parts fiches for euro bikes are exactly the same as the japanese ones, contain the same part numbers and all come from the same place.

I don't know for kawazaki and the rest, but it seems highly unlikely they'd manufacture separate spec bikes. It wouldnt even make sense cost wise.

Joeface

there are 6 in the garage

Yamaha TZR125 1992 (Italia)
Aprilia AF-1 Futura 125
Suzuki GSXR 400
Kawasaki GPZ600R California
Honda VFR400r

and a partly rebuilt JAMES