NX250 - An OK bike?

[paulj]

I see an add for Honda's NX250 - nice looking bike but I know little about them - I'm an old fart (now) ex rider of Honda 185, 250, 400's way back. Getting back into it again and looking for a road/trail bike - road to get a few tens of k's to the track and then trailing forever here in Central Otago - any comments/ideas will be welcomed. The NX looks fine from the outside but...

paulj - better go get the L plate rating off my profile - GREAT site ... Im enjoying the reads ...

[merv]

My brother bought one back in about 1991 and it was a great bike. It was like a small Dominator. It has the watercooled 250cc engine similar to that in the XL250 Degree. Engine was very smooth and fast for a 250 trail bike in its day and it would do 140 - 150km/hr no sweat. He used it on the 1992 Pukemanu run and then lent it to a young friend to ride on the 1994 Pukemanu run. The Wairarapa adventure rides back then were plagued with rain and my Bro' decided in the end when the going got tough he preferred his XR250R he had then in those conditions.

The NX has a 16 inch rear wheel - reasonably hard to get tyres for. It also has a rod operated rear drum brake which was apt to lock when you were racing along hard. Front mudguard is the low fitted type apt to clog with mud.

Moral of all this is its a fantastic lightish adventure bike, fast smooth and economical, but definitely not a really hard out dirt bike and they are getting old now as they were imported here from about 1989 I think it was and not many were sold and I doubt any are newer than about 1995. In the end my Bro' kept it probably about 7 or 8 years.

Here's a pic of the bike after the 1994 Pukemanu with the young guy that rode it in that.

Second pic is doing a river crossing in 1996 covered in mud - you can see we liked trying to do the hard out stuff on it.

[James Deuce]

Good God! That Ginga's not a Cudby is he?

[merv]

Nah he was a Napier man - Gibbs.

[James Deuce]

I knew a Cudby with an NX. He was mental on gravel, fantastic little bike.

[paulj]

Brilliant - a couple of points there that I had not thought about - so it is a little 'rare' but for my 'modest' use might be just the ticket ... I knew I'd get good advice here ... thanks ...

[merv]

A minter with low kms would be worth looking at as they are a lovely bike to ride, but as I said you won't find any young ones.

[constablechuck]

Last weekend on Trademe I bought a '91 Honda NX250, Liquid cooled 6 speed.

This bike screams for a trail bike. It's faster than most larger cc bikes I've ridden and handles very well.

I love this bike. The best $1000 I've ever spent.

[clint640]

$1000? That's a bloody sharp price for a road legal 250cc dirt bike ya lucky bugger!

When I was 16 I lusted after one of those, well actually I lusted after a Dominator & the NX250 was the next best thing for an L plater. Unfortunately the budget then would only stretch as far as a CG125 but I made up for it later on when I got the bitchin'est 250 adv bike ever made, a TDR250.

Cheers
Clint

[clint640]

Oh yeah, have a look at the NX250 thread over on advrider if you haven't seen it already:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=322268

Cheers
Clint