The best combination of reliability, power, fuel economy, handling and everything you cannot go past the CBR250RR. Even maltreated they do 100,000k's. Raceworthy out of the box. And so amazingly nimble I've never ridden a bike the like. Wouldn't be that much slower around the track than my VFR400R.
My advice, ignore the Hyosung, heavy questionable reliability, slow. Positives are that it's cheap for the appearance, and it doesn't use much gas.
The GPX250Ninja, is just an 80 GPX in new clothes unfortunately, but they weren't terrible bikes. Other countries got the fuel injected version, and I wouldn't be able to settle for the carburretted one.
The GSX250. Another 80's bike prettied up, heavy, slow, unco, fuel economy probably reasonable, but i wouldn't tolerate one.
The 2 strokes, slightly quicker on the track than the CBR250RR but even though they are lighter, they don't feel as nimble. The engines rev freer and going from a 2 stroke bike you already know how to control the engine. They will be collectors editions because so few are left running after all the failure. Not a bike that you want to use too much. maybe as a track bike or perhaps an ornament.
The reason why I haven't commented on the other 250 IL4's is because they haven't passed the test of time like the CBR. The ZXR on the track has slightly better (more stable) suspension but isn't quite as nimble (throwable). More prone to oil leaks and has cam chain tensioner issues which can ruin the bike. The FZR and GSXR are in a similar basket, you don't see them around anymore because they are all either in the tip or in peoples garages awaiting repairs/refurbishments that will never happen because you can't get the parts easily.
That's another reason to get the RR mc22 (don't go for the single R mc19 vastly different handling characteristics and not as good brakes) lots of parts around, and noobs do crash them so it's often cheap to pick up a spare bike for parts when you crash yours. Aftermarket fairings are easy to come by too:
www.justfairings.co.nz
check out
www.cr-x.org/cbr250
they are massive over on Victoria Australia. I raced them at Phillip Island, Winton and Broadford last year (a written off one that I fixed up) and won races and prize money on it even with gearbox issues against GSXR's and FZR's with heavy mods. Also beat plenty of 250 2 smokers and even 400's and 650 twins on it. No mods.
I've posted it several times before and I'll post it again, here's the race results from the last time I raced my road CBR250RR in NZ. Only one 400 beat me in F3 on my CBR250RR:
http://www.silver-bullet.co.nz/event...p?eventid=5510
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