by Mark
It’s not everyday we receive exciting emails into our inbox, just sometimes.
But this particular one was of great interest coming, as it did, from Honda UK, and asking if we would be interested in testing a range of their motorcycles.
Well, naturally, we accepted with great excitement.
And so it was that we ended up at the Honda Institute near Heathrow Airport being given the chance to test the new, for 2011, Honda CBR 125R, CBR 250R, Hornet and the CBR 600F.
We’ll focus on the motorcycles in pairs as this is how Honda had us test them and how they’re keen to show them side-by-side.
First up, I was placed on the Honda CBR 250R. Now, firstly, I haven’t ridden anything less than a 600cc motorcycle since I took my test some time ago and, for the last year and a bit, I’ve been riding a 1,000cc GSXR. So, to say I thought this would be ‘interesting’ is perhaps an understatement.
The motorcycle is built in Thailand and this is firmly the market that Honda are aiming for with the bike. It’s a completely new motorcycle with 27 patented technologies according to Honda.
The bike has a 249cc single cylinder engine, which is an offset cylinder designed to reduce losses caused by friction.
ABS is an option (perhaps a bit much on a 250?) and the bike has a 215 mile range from a single 13 litre tank.
The idea, so say Honda, is for the bike to have the agility of a lightweight sportsbike but with the looks and riding experience of a bigger machine.
If that’s what Honda says, then that’s how we’ll look at the bike. Appearance wise there isn’t in an issue, the bike looks fine, it has a sporty stance and some nice flowing lines.
Sitting on the bike there’s no issues either. The bike has a very nice riding position (I’m just under six foot and 12 stone) that makes you feel you’re sat in the bike not on it (a feature on all the bikes we tested made more apparent when I then got back on my Suzuki only to feel like someone had put a booster seat on it!). I did have an issue with how high the gear lever was, especially in comparison to the foot peg, but was reliably informed by a Honda mechanic that this is adjustable.
It was then that I turned the ignition and hit the starter button…and this is when the problems started.
The engine sounds like a lawnmower, there’s no getting away from it, it doesn’t have the sound of a 125, or a bigger bike, it’s distinct, a sound all on its own.
And that sound stays with you, obviously, but there’s just no getting away from it. Some of the other bikes I tested you forgot the engine sound; they weren’t quite, just not obtrusive. This one is however.
Then you set off. The first thing you notice is the obvious lack of power, but you’re not buying a 250cc expecting to be going as fast as Valentino Rossi so that’s not the issue.
What is the issue is the ‘chugging’ you get from the engine when the revs are anything less than 4,000 and you want some gas. It just doesn’t like it, you find yourself working the gears, a lot, and with the unusually high gear lever I took to not having my foot anywhere near it and stomping on it when the time came.
You see, and perhaps I’ve just been spoiled, but my Gixxer has a nice little display that shows me what gear I’m in. So now, I’ve become lazy, and I don’t keep track of which gear I’m in as a quick glance and I’m fully aware.
Honda haven’t put this feature on any of the models we tested and whilst there was nothing wrong with the dash layouts of any of the machines, in my opinion this is an omission that would make me think twice before purchasing any of the motorcycles. After having this feature, it’s hard to imagine not.
But the biggest issue for me on this bike, I just didn’t get it. I just couldn’t see the point, and the point seemed further away when I then jumped on the CBR 125R.
You don’t feel like you’re getting much more from the engine over the 125 (I topped out at a little over 80mph - on a private road obviously). But getting there took a long time and a considerable amount of gear wrenching after ‘chugging’ round the corner.
Slow down for a corner, hit the gas ‘chug’. Slow down for a roundabout, hit the gas ‘chug’. Chug, chug, chug. In the end I returned to the Honda centre early with this bike as I was just not enjoying it.
Returning when I did was probably one of the best decisions I made that day. You see the next thing I got to ride was the Honda CBR 125R.
Initially I was looking forward to this least. I mean, who’d want a 125 right? R or otherwise? They’re scooters, we don’t even acknowledge each other on the road. “I’m not going to enjoy this” I thought. How wrong I was!
A motorcycle hasn’t put a smile on my face like this one for a long time. It was just fun. That’s the only word that comes to mind when thinking back, it was fun.
Sure I smile when I hit the gas on the Gixxer and lurch into warp-speed (again on private roads obviously). But this was a different kind of fun, a safe fun. It’s the sort of bike that, if you were a father and your son or daughter had one, you’d have no issues hopping on to nip to the shops and arrive with a smile.
Even before you set off the bike is great fun, one of the other testers tried out the orange and silver affair and whilst waiting to leave was bouncing up and down on the bike laughing her head off. She looked like Tigger! It’s an image that will stay with me for a while and just sums up the CBR 125R.
Sure the bike has issues, hit 7,000rpm+ in any gear and the bike will rattle your arse like you’re sat on a bucket of rattle snakes.
There’s still no gear indicator but it felt less of an issue on this bike, probably due to the fact that it wouldn’t ‘chug’ you to death in the lower RPM limit.
But squashing these into insignificance is that engine, it’s lovely and smooth, far removed from its ‘bigger brother’ the 250. Gear changes are a pleasure, there was no ‘chugging’ (hooray!), it’s as light as a feather and so can be chucked around at will, it looks good, has a nice riding position and if this had been my first bike when I was 17, I’d have been over the moon!
And whilst I was out enjoying myself on this machine a thought struck me…why would you want a 250R? I can understand that Honda have built it as a ‘next step up’ motorcycle but when the 125R is this much fun and the 250R couldn’t be further away from fun if it tried…are people going to buy it?
According to sources the 250R does sell very well in Asia and India so maybe this is the sort of bike they like.
For me however; the Honda CBR 125R is far and away the better machine. And so, when my nephew refused to sleep the other night, and came downstairs at 9pm to ask his mum if, when he was older, he could have a motorbike – it was the Honda CBR 125R I thought of and the ‘leap’ to the 600cc will continue.
