Aprilia Rs250 Help - Good or Bad First Bike?

[Korea]

2 stroke 250's for commuting on? Piss off!
Did it myself for a while, wore the poor thing out and scared myself shitless in traffic, alone, in the corners, everywhere... because I was a learner and I had to get the sexiest, fastest, most difficult to learn on bike available.

But I'm not saying your first bike has to be an ugly munter (I'm sorry, nobody gets into riding because it's "practical" so you can throw your crusty GN's back on the trash-heap thank you very much)

Go a 4-stroke like the FXR150 or a 250 twin or something. Then you will never maintain it, or lube the chain, or change the oil and it will still be running happily by the time you flick it off for that 250 2 stroke, if you're good enough.

Reminds of something some wise man told me:
The 250 2-stroke is the bike you get when you've mastered all the other bikes. In the right hands, they're a weapon!

[Sniper]

Been said before but not a bad thing to reitterate. Bad first bike.

[curious george]

Bunch of whimps.
Go for it.
All of the above is true however, especially the bit about expensive to crash and maintain.
Do a search here for 'RGV' and 'Aprillia 250' and 'NSR'.
Buy it for life though, because you must love fiddling with bikes and the extra headache that 2 strokes require.
I suggest you rethink your purchase if you have any desire to get a bigger bike with your full licence.
These are fantastic bikes that love to be raced, nothing else.
Decide what skill level you have, and buy accordingly.

[Motig]

Yep, definitely not a bike for learning on.

[emaN]

rs250....hubba hubba...dribble dribble...me want...me need...come to papa!

um,getting back to 'thread matter'; a gpz250 was a great 1st bike.

[Eurodave]

About 8 years ago one of my mates bought a brand new Chesterfield colours Aprillia RS 250 for his first bike, god it was a beauty!!,. About a week or so later he dumped it big time when he hit the power band going round a fast corner, fuck, what a mess that made!! It was insured & he eventually got it fixed up after a lot of drama getting parts. I would say that this is a bike for experienced riders & DEFINATELY NOT any good as a learners first bike. You need something that has smooth predictable power ie a four stroke single NOT a racetrack refugee 2 stroke with its brutal powerband at your early stage, maybe later once you have the needed skills

[imdying]

As with all the gp replica strokers, it'll be a prick round town, need 10x the tlc. Having said that, plenty of my mates started on RGVs and the like, and they didn't die. Most likely you'll drop it (even if just at the lights) and that's expensive.

You'll probably survive the first 6 months, and love it to bits after that. If you've plenty of coin though, I'd buy the FXR150 first, and get the rs as well later on. 2 strokes don't like running around town, the engines like to be free. Plus, the engines aren't good for much over 25000kms, so you don't want to be adding unnecessary kms on it if you can avoid it. Keep the FXR for ripping around on, and the rs for doing laps of your favourite roads.

For all their quirks, 2 strokes are great great fun. If someone offered to swap my 97 ZX6R for an RZ500, RG500, or late250 2 stroke, I'd probably consider it.

In a nutshell, buy it, but don't waste it. And by that I mean, learning to ride, or commuting on it. They're not good for either. The guy who taught me to ride said 'Bikes are great, but don't rely on them for your only transport', and it's true. They're not like a car, you can't ride/drive them when they're half fucked or injured (not if you're smart). Of course two bikes fixes that

Man, now I'll be thinking sweet smelling blue smoke all day

[Aprilia]

Thanks to all who have posted, I will sadly have to put the Aprilia off based on my skill. At this stage the FXR150 will be my choice so I will get out and have a look at a few in the weekend. Its good to see as a noob there is the support there to warn you about the hidden risks etc you don’t think of until its to late. I must admit to me when I thought to get a bike it was right, I can get up to a 250cc so lets see what’s out there. I then see an Aprilia 250, my jaw hits the ground and I think wow that’s the bike I want. It meets the learner restrictions so it must be all good, how wrong was I and how many who don’t ask come off second best on that reason alone, I’d hate to think. So thanks again and safe riding.

[Sniper]

Good choice mate

[Lord Pac]

ahem.. so who's selling the rs250?

[froggyfrenchman]

good choice!

[k14]

Thanks to all who have posted, I will sadly have to put the Aprilia off based on my skill. At this stage the FXR150 will be my choice so I will get out and have a look at a few in the weekend. Its good to see as a noob there is the support there to warn you about the hidden risks etc you don’t think of until its to late. I must admit to me when I thought to get a bike it was right, I can get up to a 250cc so lets see what’s out there. I then see an Aprilia 250, my jaw hits the ground and I think wow that’s the bike I want. It meets the learner restrictions so it must be all good, how wrong was I and how many who don’t ask come off second best on that reason alone, I’d hate to think. So thanks again and safe riding.

Good choice mate, I for one thought "here's another one, all this info will go straight in one ear and out the other", but you proved me (and I'm sure many others wrong). You have made the right decision. There's always plenty of time in the future to get the RS250, first thing first, learn how to ride, then go for the flash/fast bikes.

Good luck.

[_intense_]

The question here is: should a beast like the RS250 even be a learner legal bike.... if you do get one BE CAREFULL ffs, they are an extremely powerful bike for a newbie rider, with a powerspot thatll make you shit youself and is more than capalbe of 230kmph+++ in a good state of tune, require careful maintainence, but 2smokes are sweet if you keep on top of that. but yeah you wont find a sexier 250 bike ever. aprillia 250 is the shit god luck man.

just read ur reps man, FXR was my first bike to, its fantastic to kearn the basics on. work up to the rs, maybee you can look foward to it as ur 2nd bike, you'd be much safer imho doing it this way. oh yeah -WATCH OUT FOR CAGES

[marty]

this looks almost brand new >>> http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...ad.php?t=22872

$2k has to be a bargain

[pritch]

Mate of mine has had cause to work on Ferraris off and on. Major problems with erratic running etc.

The importers rep explained that this is normal. If there is a Ferarri in the family the wife will want to use it for shopping.

Ferarris don't do shopping. Spitting, farting, coughing, choking though, they do real well. If you try to use them for shopping that is...

RS250 is the same, brilliant bike, my current dream bike, and I'm nearly 62. Fragile and temperamental as Hell though.
About the most unsuitable bike possible for a learner, except maybe the RS125.

Get real!