What 250 to get?

[Ooky]

2smokers are freaking awesome! easy to work on and buying parts from the UK cheap to run but get very anoying when not in the twisites but as I found out a couple of weeks ago crash very nicely!
but comes down what you want it for awesome fun track bike PITA comuter

[Fluffy Cat]

He he been reading all the posts. Few things to educate about 2/strokes for people who have never ridden them...please do not get too upset.
The main bunch of performance 2/strokes that were made are, TZR, NSR, RGV/RS and KR1. The KR's and the RGV/RS's were officially exported to the UK and were unrestricted. The others were restricted. In unrestricted form all these bikes are about the same power wise as a 400. In the UK 250 2/strokes raced against and beat 400's. In Japan there was a race grouping for these 2/strokes and the battle was really between the NSR-MC21's, TZR,s and the RGVsp. These bikes had hop up kits and factory support. Power outputs of around 70hp were possible. The NSR MC21 was based loosely upon the 1989 Honda RS production GP bike. The TZR was the most restricted of the bunch but all motor parts were interchangeable with the TZ production GP bike. The KR1's was tested in the UK at 139mph as standard. The Aprilia RS uses the RGV motor and has a nice fully adjustable chassis.
These bikes were true performance bikes unlike modern 250 4/strokes. The main problem with them was piston ring life, and now they are getting on a bit cranks. NSR's when new could easily go 20,000k's from new with no service. No shim check etc. But after that i would pull them apart and replace pistons little ends and rings. Off you go for 20,000 more k,s. Not so with the RGV/RS as the Suzuki power valves could be a problem. Which was fixed a bit better on the later batches with stronger pins.
So what am i saying?. Well its time to upset peeps...
There really is no comparison between the 4/snore stroke 250's and the ring a ding (as some one said) 2/strokes. If you want to learn to go fast God forbid anyone doing something as dangerous as that!!!. The an NSR etc is the bike to get. They have high power to weight outputs they are peaky but the modern ones have powervalves which mitigate this somewhat. But the peakyness teaches you throttle control like nothing else. Brakes and handling at the time were way up there and because of the race inspired geometry(this means that they go round corners) and light weight you could seriously harass any other bike bar 4/stroke 250,s which would be long gone behind you due to their low power to weight output.
The bottom line is this.
An RGV the Australian Kid Killer as some news papers called it, can and will bite you learner or not. Its the nature of these performance bikes and they are performance bikes make no mistake about that. Unlike their 4/stroke wanabe cousins. The 4/snore stroke 250,s are i have to say this under duress. Not bad bikes they are reliable, have good brakes and handling(just like a nice safe Nissan Micra). But they are safe due to castrated outputs and less than sharp geometries. They were built that way by the big four as the 2/strokes had given them trouble in all sorts of ways.
As a youngun i had an RGV and it or rather me, almost killed me most rides. I learnt heaps....in a short period of time and had fun that i judge all my subsequent bikes by. I still have an RS250 and an NSR.
Enough said.......oh and they are nice safe 4/snore strokes still....hehe.