First Bike

[Lteejay]

Hey - looking at buying my first bike. No experience riding yet. Had suggestions of either Honda VTR250 or Kawasaki GPX250. Any thoughts?

[deeknow]

I had a late-80's GPX as a 1st road bike, it was brilliant, kept it as a commuter for awhile too coz it was fun to ride, cheap to run, and suprisingly big and comfy for a 250

[The Big J]

I had a GPX250 first up and it was very good and comfortable.
First week of my learners I rode it Wlg-Dunedin and no complaints.
Noticed it seemed to get blown around in the wind but that may have been inexperience.
Only thing was it seemed to lack any torque, nothing would happen until 9000 rpm and then bam but it was ok from my point of view as a learner because you could take it easy. And above 110 the engine seemed to be working quite hard. That said it would do 140 just didn't seem to enjoy it.

[MidnightMike]

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...ad.php?t=36047

Save a bit of dosh. Get this instead of the vtr.

Perfect first bike.

[Lteejay]

I am leaning towards the GPX250. Apart from what I have heard, about it being a good bike for newbees, it looks much sexier than the VTR. Will start the search for a second hand one. Cant wait to get on the road
Cheers for the feedback.

[MSTRS:Me]

Dunno about 'sexier' than a VTR.
Check here http://www.bikepics.com/kawasaki/gpx250/ unchanged for 20yrs
But still an excellent beginner's bike.
Watch out for rusted-out tanks in the older ones...they have a design fault in the petrol cap area that lets water in and they don't drain well.

[Alice]

As an overprotective, soon to be owner of a VTR 250, I must jump to the defense of the bike and say, there is nothing unsexy about the beast.We are soon going to have some adventurers together and to me she is a cool looking bike.
Hey, hope you have luck tracking down a bike, it was a bit of a mission for me, got there in the end.
The VTRs nice and light so its going to be good to learn on.

I am leaning towards the GPX250. Apart from what I have heard, about it being a good bike for newbees, it looks much sexier than the VTR. Will start the search for a second hand one. Cant wait to get on the road
Cheers for the feedback.

[sunhuntin]

currently im on a gn250 [avoid at all costs] but have fallen for a virago 250. havent purchased the virago yet...but im hoping to on tuesday. test rode yesterday, didnt want to take her back to the shop.

[Mr. Peanut]

The old GN250s are good. It's the new ones you want to avoid.

[sunhuntin]

The old GN250s are good. It's the new ones you want to avoid.

yeh...the new ones are crap. all kinds of trouble with mine, and the same problems have been found in other gns of the same year

go check out "club 250" on this site...everything you could want to know!