The CBR250 mc22: to upgrade or not to upgrade?

[Dirty_Harri]

Hi,


So I'm picking my mc22 up from Raglan this evening- extremely excited! :eek:
Anyway..I wondered if there was much point in upgrading to a 400/600cc once I have my full. I'm pretty light and was thinking that it might be best for me to stick with the 250's. Are there any thoughts on this? Perhaps benefits of 250's vs bigger engines? I've heard that the mc22 is "flickable", is that the case with the bigger bikes aswell?

Cheers all. :)

[Magua]

A 250 can be very capable in the right hands. Just look at renegade master (but not at his lisence). How long have you been riding for?

[The Pastor]

yeah after i got my full i upgraded to the mc22. its a brilliant bike and can easily keep up with on road riding of the bigger bikes.

just not in a straight line :D

pretty strong engines, but ive raped mine something horrid. still no major engine work required... so far lol

[NZsarge]

Sticking with a 250? Can't hurt really, depends on the amount of experience you've had with motorcycling, give yourself plenty of time to learn the ropes before going in hunt of more power I reckon..

[Str8 Jacket]

Jeepers girl, take your time!! Get your CBR learn to ride, do a few trackday's and gain some confidence. It'll take a loong time before you will out ride your CBR! :yes:

Relax, enjoy and you'll know when its time to upgrade.

[PirateJafa]

You can sell a average sporty 250 and get a dang nice 400. Big enough to do everything (Bar 220km/h+ depending on gearing) yet small enough that they still corner like mad. :niceone:

[Phurrball]

Big and small bikes are both great fun and fantastically capable - for different reasons.

I have just gone from mostly riding a VFR800 to mostly riding an FXR150 on the Auckland commute.

I've been having riotous fun on the twisties near home, and loving the economy and light weight.

(1/5 the horsepower has only resulted in 1 'oh shit' moment trying to pass a diesel ute uphill :blink:)

Back on the viffer today 2 up and loving the grunt.

You'll only know when you try - and that can wait till you feel ready as others have suggested.

Get out and ride that 250!

(For the record - nothing's wrong with my viffer - I was just disturbed at wasting the tyres on a city commute)

[Ragingrob]

Wait, you haven't even got your first 250 yet and you're asking this lol?? Learn how to ride first, ask questions later!

[vifferman]

Get the bike first, ride it, get your full, then upgrade to a different bike if/when you're sick of the 250. You might well find you don't feel like upgrading.
On the other hand, if you end up doing a lot of highway miles, you might decide that you want something that is more relaxing (requires fewer gear changes) to ride. Or not.

You won't know till you've done lots of miles.

I kept my first bike (175) for over a year after I got my full. May have kept it longer but I killed it. Second bike was a 250 - only sold that after more'n a year, because I ran out of money at university.

A lot of guys trade up to bigger bikes (if they're honest) because it's an ego thing, often somehow related to penis envy or somesuch. But they'd never admit it...
You shouldn't have that problem.

[vtec]

Gen you know what I'm going to say.

Had the CBR250RR's for about 5 years. Only once I was truly the Jedi on it did I feel the need to upgrade. If you aren't racing superbikes, I don't think there is a NEED to upgrade. However, the VFR400R cruises on the motorway more comfortably and seems to be just as flickable, although not convinced it is quicker through the corners yet... yet. Quicker on the straights, but the gearing is funny.

Get riding so you can post up a bike review on here for us once you've got a few k's under your belt.

Hey Renegade... you racing yours yet? Tracktimes?

[Candle]

ive had my cbr for about one and a half years and i love it but at the end of the day its up to what kind of rider you are if you like thrashing it as many of us do then a bigger bike when you skills have got to the stage where you can handle a bigger bike then id say go for it but if you enjoy just pottering around then id still say up grade, better tho have more power and not use it than not have it and need it. Besides makes take offs allot more impressive if your on something with more up and go as it were.

at the end of the day its what you feel comfortable with and what you can handle

[helenoftroy]

Jeepers girl, take your time!! Get your CBR learn to ride, do a few trackday's and gain some confidence. It'll take a loong time before you will out ride your CBR! :yes:

Relax, enjoy and you'll know when its time to upgrade.
Exactally!!

geez girl you hav'nt even got the pocket rocket yet!!:beer:

[Dirty_Harri]

Exactally!!

geez girl you hav'nt even got the pocket rocket yet!!:beer:


Tis true. But I like to plan ahead..

Got home from Raglan an hour ago with the cibby. We didn't have a bike trailer so resorted to suspending the bike between thousands (that's maybe a slight exaggeration) of bungee cords and a couple of ratchet strops- not ideal but it did the trick! It was too dark to take on a maiden voyage when we got home but I practiced some starts in our driveway. I found that throttle to be quite sensitive, might take the n00b a bit of time to get used to. :p

Anyway thanks for all the good advice guys :)

[Creeping Death]

Trade the 250 in on a Busa on your way back from picking it up,put a nice shiney L plate on it and slap on a coupla 250 stickers over the 1300 ones.Who's gonna know?:cool:

[PirateJafa]

Tis true. But I like to plan ahead..

Got home from Raglan an hour ago with the cibby. We didn't have a bike trailer so resorted to suspending the bike between thousands (that's maybe a slight exaggeration) of bungee cords and a couple of ratchet strops- not ideal but it did the trick! It was too dark to take on a maiden voyage when we got home but I practiced some starts in our driveway. I found that throttle to be quite sensitive, might take the n00b a bit of time to get used to. :p

Anyway thanks for all the good advice guys :)
Only need two ratchet strops to hold the front down on a trailer - remember to compress the forks fully. Then if you want, you can use one more strop across the rear to stop it bouncing around, but this is optional.

[several thousand k's with bikes on trailers behind me, all of which have been general-purpose trailers "borrowed" from a school.]

[RocKai]

I rode mine straight away when I bought it last weekend. Riding at night is scary as hell when you don't know your light switch was on fog light (LOL!?!). For a 250 I find that there are plenty of speed and grunt in corners and overtaking cagers on 5th gear and hit the powerband (10k-12k rpm) will give you plenty of horse. The cons are its lightweight in the wind and not enough grunt on the straight but apart from that, it's forgiving for the first 2 years of riding I reckon. Then you move up when you feel like it, just don't bin your precious Cibby. Good Luck :rockon:

[wildcat_lgf]

of course the other part of the equation is that all 250's are overpriced (due to supply/demad, etc)...

when I got my full, I upgraded as I didn't want to pay high prices for a 20y/o 250, when I could get a much newer (non-250) bike for about the same (and I got a good deal)...but I would be almost as happy with a 250 again (or even my mighty mito!)

But the smaller bikes are a lot of fun - and less likely to get you into trouble (except the FXR150 - they are painfully slow to ride and handle badly compared to a CBR)

but of course re-sale will be better on a 250 as well.

[fatzx10r]

skip the 250, and upgrade to an 04 zx10r asap :shit:

[Dirty_Harri]

Hey guys,


I've been riding every chance I've had since getting the cibby, practicing hill starts and cornering- It's like learning how to drive a car again for the first time, frustrating but exciting! I changed the oil yesterday afternoon and after finally getting the sump plug off it seemed the oil was dribbling out as opposed to spouting. So I decided to get a cable tie from thee bf's eletrical supplies and jam it up the sump to see if I could loosen a potential blockage. As a consequence my blue jeans are now black. I just sat there like a stunned mullet whilst the oil spewed out over me. :slap: idiot

Anyway, the bike is now fully functional with the speedo drive finally in action. The downside however is now I know i'm only going 45km/ph around corners. :confused:

[OnCam]

im sure your meant to push the starter with the kill switch in OFF for a few seconds to help drain the oil..

keep practising on the corners, you can push harder than you think.. try to look through the corner where you want to exit and not 5meters infront of you an keep your arms relaxed.

[Ragingrob]

And make sure you take the Dip stick out when you do the oil, will flow out much faster.

[Chrislost]

im sure your meant to push the starter with the kill switch in OFF for a few seconds to help drain the oil..

no, NO NONONONO! NO!!!
Go for a short ride, get the bike up to temp, then go home and remove fairings, hot oil sucks but at least ya wont spill it on yourself again...

Hey guys,
Anyway, the bike is now fully functional with the speedo drive finally in action. The downside however is now I know i'm only going 45km/ph around corners. :confused:

Who cares! go as fast as you read the corner, not what the speedo says, in fact, NEVER LOOK AT THAT DAM THING or you will get distracted/worried.
and RIDE YOUR OWN RIDE, who cares if you get to the pub 5 minutes late, the que will have gone.

[NOMIS]

Wait, you haven't even got your first 250 yet and you're asking this lol?? Learn how to ride first, ask questions later!

Agreed, or you can sell the mc22 and get a r1 in a months time no problemo - now if any one gives you advice like that dont listen ..

Is this a old thread because im sure you have your bloody bike

[R6_kid]

I wondered if there was much point in upgrading to a 400/600cc once I have my full. I'm pretty light and was thinking that it might be best for me to stick with the 250's. Are there any thoughts on this? Perhaps benefits of 250's vs bigger engines?

Ask this question to yourself when A) you have your full licence, and B) you have ridden something bigger than a 250.

Your naivety with respect to motorcycles is shining bright at the moment. You are at the beginning of a very long path and there is a lot you will learn along the way that will allow you to answer this question for yourself when you get to the time that it needs to be asked.

Not only are there different engine sizes, there are different engine designs, which all have good and bad/not so good points. To stick to your first bike you will limit your ability to experience motorcycling to the fullest, and it will more than likely cost more money in the long run.

Even the last of the CBR250's is getting on to be 15+ years old now, they are highly strung for the displacement (engine size), and parts are only becoming more scarce. As the engine ages things will wear out and will need replacing, and being a 250 it is more than likely to have had a few owners thrash the tits off of it at some point.

When you are in the position to (legally) consider a bigger bike there are many things you are likely to gain over a 15 year old 250cc bike. You will get more power, better suspension, better parts availability, better reliability, better ridability... and the list goes on.

My suggestion is get on with riding the 250 while its 'all you have' and take the opportunity to ride other 250's with different engines - singles, parallel twins, v-twins, two strokes etc. Also try different styles, the first time I rode a Motard I was hooked - I never thought I'd want anything other than a pure sportsbike before that.

Basically there's a great big world out there and limiting yourself to only experiencing one small part of it would mean that you are missing out on a rich, diverse, thought changing experiences that could lead you down much more exciting paths.