Hyosung opinions please

[Bad Biker]

I originally looked at getting a Hyosung 250 for my first bike but tended to pull away from because I goy inconsistent feed back from some people I know. (respect but don’t necessarily rely on their opinion)

I talked to Motorad who use to be the agent and they bagged the brand, I talked to Red Baron who is now the agent and they raved about it

Wgtn Motocycles had no opinion.

My understanding is that Hyosung factory use to supply engines to Suzuki and now have taken up there own brand and producing their own bike.

What are your thoughts???????????????????

[blackdog]

Try riding one and form your own opinions.

My experience with Red Baron in LH is they will stand by their product.

IMO they are the best bang for buck 250, especially for anyone over 5'8".

Knowing people that have turned over 100,000km on them, I would say... It's still all about what YOU want.

[rickstv]

All the people on here who have one don't have a bad thing to say about them.

On the other hand the people who bag them have never owned or even ridden one and have heard stories from friends of friends of third cousins twice removed.

Ride one, make up your own mind. Don't listen to anyone who doesn't own one.

Rick.

[avgas]

Also search the threads here. There are a few million about how good Hyosungs are.

Long story short.
Hyosung was subcontracted to make the SV650 back in the days. They learnt the tech got good at it and started their own company using similar tech to suzuki with same build quality.

Think of them as the Kia of the biking world. There are people who love kia's, hate them and the rest of us simply think "They are ok".

[GrayWolf]

ridden one, GT250R, not my cup of tea for riding position. But the motor is as capable as any 250 out there unless you want Max revs and Max performance. There's been several owners on here who did have issues with the earlier production machines... Hyo have improved substantialy for quality, reliability etc over the last 2-3 years.
Saying that take into account that the japanese have made their fair share of dogs back in the late 60's early 70's.... just most here won't remember things like the Yam TX750, Kwaka rubber frames, Honda self destruct 'torsion spring' heads, The suzi RE5 techno overkill to a simple problem, and I could continue, but I hope you get the idea.
Ive been on the capital 1000k and seen the Aquila 250 (custom hyo) perform admirably well and with a fairy 'substantial' gentleman riding it.
My own experience with TSS has been extremely good overal, as far as repairs and dealing with problems arising from mistakes. The parts dept has two damn good 'jokers' running it.
Ride a couple of the Hyo's..... and decide for yourself, dont be swayed by the "ZXRFZRGPZCBR is the shitz cuz itz qwiker than anifing elze" brigade.

[Bad Biker]

Sorry to confuse, I have ridden the GT250 sport and liked the bike.

Got a bit of a numb hand after an hour on the sport but put that down to old rugby and various wrist injuries but also tried the cruiser I liked both and thought both performed well for what they were, I thought they were good bang for buck but questioned also if I wanted to pay 7-9+k and find I was board very quickly and concerned about reliability and durability of the bike.

Wife conceded to a GN250 and upgrade to a new bike of my choice in 12-18 month around the 10k mark

N.B Wife lost me one due to a cardiac arrest and does not want to lose me again (god know why)ah ah ah :rockon:

[TOTO]

Had one as my first bike and loved it. Now have one as a race bike and it is still pretty awesome.

Like others already said tho, make your own opinion.

[Old Steve]

I ride a 2005 (first registered 2006) Hyosung GV250 named GLORIA, she was bought second hand with 9412 km on the clock. I don't know how previous owners treated her, I replaced front and rear sprockets and chain at 13,000 km and fitted a ScottOiler. I replaced a faulty indicator switch, and have fitted new front and rear tyres. I change her oil at 3,500 km and have her serviced by Bay City Motorcycles every 10,000 (oil will be the cheapest maintenance you will do).

This week GLORIA turned over 30,000 km. So I've done just over 20,000 km on her in 17 months. Since her new chain she's done 17,000 km with only one chain adjustment. She has a little rust on the front indicator bar and her two mirror stems are pitted (my laziness with not applying the autosol).

She does have the Suzuki Intruder gearbox glitch, you can't get into neutral when the engine is running - I have talked to an Intruder owner and her bike is the same. When I park her up I just turn the engine off, turn the key back on, click the gearbox into neutral, and turn the key off again.

She's good to ride, being a cruiser she's got a low centre of gravity and only weighs around 160 kg. I love taking her through corners, She has only 5 to 10 mm of unmarked tyre each side front and back. I can cruise at 120 km/hr - but she won't go much faster than that without a downhill road and a tail wind - but I usually ride along at 110 to 115 km/hr on the open road. Her bars feel wide and well pulled back, and her mirrors give great rear vision. She's easy to ride through the streets. I filter down between two rows of traffic each evening really easily.

Bottom line, I'd buy her again knowing what I know now. Great value for money, reliable, and a reasonable performer for a 250 cc vee twin. The best thing I've done to her was to remove the two baffles from her exhaust, she sounds best at 4,000 rpm with a little throttle on when she burbles and chuckles away delightfully.

[NighthawkNZ]

Nothing wrong with them... and like all productons they are getting better with experience of producing their own bike... They have been around in other countries a lot longer than they have been here in NZ.

Main thing is maintenance (but is the samne with any bike) as every one has said take a couple for a ride.

As for numb hand arm don't have thnewbi death grip on the bars... relax, and loosen your grip. use your kness on the tank to also take some of your weight and over time you will find all is good...

[Hortz]

Hey mate, I agree with old Steve. A GV 250 was my first bike and I brought it new in 2007. So far I have been through 2 ninja's and I'm on my second hog and I still love to take the hyosung for a spin. It's the biggest small bike around. If you are looking for something to ride around while you do your time on "L" plates then pick up a cheap honda 250.

[Garfield]

I bought my GV250 having tried a number of different bikes, the price was reasonable and I liked the bike. I have now done around 5000km on her.
As others have said, you either like the Hyo or don't. mine is a 2005 model with 14,000km on the clock and apart from not getting it into neutral when the engine is running she is a great bike and suits my needs.:wari:

[nivram]

Owned at Comet 250 from new since 2007 and the amount of problems I've had have all been very minor nothing major. For the price this has been an excellent bike I've clocked up just over 20,000k and been on a number of longer journeys the bike is fun to ride and looks great.

I can't really faulty them no worse than the Suzuki and Yamaha I've own previously both of which had far more issues than the Hyo plus $20 of gas will get me 350 + Kms

[GrayWolf]

Sorry to confuse, I have ridden the GT250 sport and liked the bike.
I thought they were good bang for buck but questioned also if I wanted to pay 7-9+k and find I was board very quickly and concerned about reliability and durability of the bike.

Wife conceded to a GN250 and upgrade to a new bike of my choice in 12-18 month around the 10k mark
:

Not sure if a GN would suffice for 18months, they are a good learner bike, but I feel you would get bored before that time was up. Maybe talk to her about getting the HYO 250, and then talk to the dealer about a good trade in to a HYO 650 in 18 months?

[release_the_bees]

If you asked me if I liked my bike, I'd tell you that I absolutely love it and that it's handled absolutely everything I've thrown at it. If you asked me if I'd buy another one, I'd say probably not. As much as I love it, it has cost me a fair bit fixing all the little bits and pieces that have gone wrong. In the 1.5 years that I've owned it I've had:

Burned out stator x2
Stuffed regulator
Replaced water pump.
Replaced headlight as the low beam somehow overheated/melted the reflective coating off the inside of the casing - that was great fun riding at night.
Fixed minor issues where the indicators, tail light and dash occasionally stopped working.


Despite the above I am glad I bought my Hyosung and overall I am still happy with it. If you get a good one then you've got a bargain of a bike, if you get a crap one then you'd probably have been better of spending a bit more up front on something else.

Incidentally, the guy at the Hyosung dealership told me that in the workshop they call the Hyosungs that always break down 'Fridays' (he said they joke that some of them were probably rush built over a beer (or more likely a sojo) last thing on a Friday afternoon).

Edit: I guess my perception of reliability might be slightly skewed, as my two previous bikes were a GN250 and a GS500, which are two of the most reliable bikes around.

[release_the_bees]

She does have the Suzuki Intruder gearbox glitch, you can't get into neutral when the engine is running - I have talked to an Intruder owner and her bike is the same. When I park her up I just turn the engine off, turn the key back on, click the gearbox into neutral, and turn the key off again.

I have the same issue, but in my case, if I blip the throttle and try again I can then usually shift into neutral. On the odd occasion that fails I do exactly what you described above and it works like a charm.

[Sable]

Buy a used bike.