Honda Cbr250f
RIDING IMPRESSION
HONDA CBR250F More than a 17,000-rpm redline
PREVIOUS SMALL-BORE TECHnological marvels haven't always been such wonderful motorcycles. Honda's 1973 CB350 Four may have been a "velvet shriek" at 10,000 rpm, but it was also gutless and slower than a CB350 Twin. Honda's 1975 400F at least hinted at torque. but often seemed to require more revs than it offered acceleration in return. Suzuki's Japan-only GSX25OF Four was impressively smooth, but made the CB35OF seem like a stump-puller.
Indeed, history isn't full of smalldisplacement Fours that were very satisfying. So it’s refreshing to find that Honda’s CBR250F is more than an exercise in technological oneupsmanship; it's a precision-crafted jewel with an excellent engine, a bike that is simply fun to ride and that makes you forget its displacement.
Once this tiny inline-Four is warmed, it will run as low as 1200 rpm in top gear without protesting or snatching the chain, but any useful acceleration requires 4000 rpm or more. At 8000, the engine comes to life, hitting the first signs of a powerband. By 12.000 rpm it is pulling harder than any four-stroke 250 has a right to pull, while emitting a muted howl that somehow escaped the noise police. Best power is between 12,000 and 17.000 rpm; kept in that range, the CBR will stay with or pull away from a surprising number of larger bikes.
Still, riding the CBR can take a bit of adjustment. Cruising near 65 mph in top gear in the freeway’s fast lane, the CBR shows 9500 rpm on the tach. And accelerating quickly from that speed requires two downshifts to bring the engine up to the sweet part of its rpm range. Ears trained on larger bikes misjudge the CBR at first; unless you keep close watch on the tach, your tendency is to shift too soon and ride around one gear above the one needed for best acceleration. Thankfully, the CBR doesn’t protest that treatment; it simply doesn’t accelerate as hard as it can.
Beyond the engine, the CBR is a tiny machine that can accomodate big riders. Seat height is a low, 30.6 inches before the suspension is compressed, and the wheelbase is short at 54.3 inches. This is, after all, a machine intended for the Japanese home market, with a sizable percentage of women riders in its target group. But a 170-pound, six-foot American still fits well; the peg-toseat distance is more expansive than that of some 1 lOOcc pure sportbikes, while the handlebars require only a subtle forward lean, and the seat/gas tank countouring conforms well to practically any body.
The billowy suspension, however, has been tailored for very light riders. During most of our testing, we ran 15 psi of air in the fork; that kept the front end from bottoming every time the front brakes were applied, without rendering the fork stiff or noncompliant. Increasing preload helped the rear suspension, but the shock really needs a stiffer spring. Still, even with the adjustments we made, the CBR maintained a good ride.
And perhaps more important, the handling didn’t suffer. The CBR’s light weight (335 pounds dry), 17inch wheels and steep steering-head angle make it a quick-steering motorcycle. But 3.8 inches of trail keeps its steering from being of the hair-trigger variety, and sticky tires maintain excellent traction. Ridden smoothly to keep from confusing its soft suspension, the CBR can be a real backroad weapon, capable of showing its taillight to far faster machines.
Just like the steering, the other controls of the CBR call for extremely light inputs. The clutch requires as little effort as any we’ve ever sampled, and the little Honda’s gearbox just might be the smoothestshifting ever from that company. A short, low-effort dab at the shift lever clicks the next gear almost without the need for conscious thought. And no wrist could possibly be too limp to deal with the CBR’s light throttle-return springs.
Beyond performance, the CBR maintains its jewel-like status, with styling as modern and clean as any that ever graced a 250 (although the tidy, narrow-gauge turnsignals aren’t U.S.-legal). And its twin-beam aluminum frame looks every bit as wellmade as the one used on the Honda VFR750. This 250 shouts quality everywhere you look.
It’s unfortunate, then, that every downward drift of the dollar relative to the yen carries the CBR further away from the U.S. market. At the current exchange rates as this is written, the CBR250 sells in Japan for the equivalent of $3900, or $200 more than a 600 Hurricane in the U.S. That may leave plenty of room for it in the Japanese market, which imposes considerable restrictions on larger machines, but Honda sees no place for it in this country. While the CBR250 is a streetbike that learned its ultra-high-rpm wail directly from its GP racing ancestors, it’s also a machine that will sing those songs only in Japan.
