Silly question?

[Dooly]

Gidday.
I've never ridden a 250 road bike so excuse me if this is a stupid question.
I'm looking at buying a 250 bike for the stepson who only has a leaners licence.
The bike will only be ridden a few times a year (until he gets his full licence), when he comes up for visits.
I'm looking at single cylinder CBs etc, as he has a mighty GN.

The main question is, are those sized singles quite capable of maintaining 100km or more constantly on rides?
I don't want to leave him behind when we go for rides.
Or have to dawdle myself.
He said he mainly rides at 80kph on the GN as it does'nt have much go.

Cheers.

[Macktheknife]

Kinda depends, my first thought would be to go for a multi or a twin, as these will have a much better chance of keeping up. Most singles IMO are just not up to the task of sustained highway work.
250 Bandit, VTR, FXR, kind of thing will have a much better power delivery. The only issue then is can the step-son handle it?
Good luck

[MSTRS:Me]

Depends on budget I suppose, but does it have to be a single? I can't think of any 250 single that has great performance at/over 100kph.

[Dooly]

He can handle it ok, as he's quite capable on bikes, but as usual, has to go thru the 250 stage before he can move on up with a full licence. And with his

I'm thinking more a sport/tourer rather than GN type cruiser.

I just don't want him to ride my 900, due to the insurance probs that would arise if anything happened and him not being fully licenced.

I saw a SRX250 Yamaha on TM that looked ok.

[Ixion]

SRX250 is a splendid bike (Shit, I miss mine ).

Not as fast as the 4 cylinder race replicas, but will easily maintain 120 on the road (you need to use the gearbox on hills, they're very over geared in 6th, but 100kph is available in 3rd 4th 5th or 6th). Top very much depends on how long a runup you have. I saw 160 easy enough.

And if the road's twisty enough it may be you holding him up!

[Dooly]

Thats good to hear about the SRX, might look into it a bit.

[jeremysprite]

I just got a GPX, will easily dawdle at 100k, doing only 7.5 krpm out of 14k on the clock. FXR's in my opinion won't hold 110k too easily, revving kinda high.

[xwhatsit]

You mentioned single-cylinder CBs, so of course I'm here . My CB250RS will get along at 110, 120 easily enough. Supposedly it has a maximum speed of 150kph according to many of the UK forums, but I doubt that (and never saw it on mine, which had a cracked cyilnder head). I've test-rode a fairly old GN (80s model) and it didn't really seem to have the same poke that the CB250RS does -- I think that'd be because it makes 22hp instead of 26hp, and is considerably heavier than the CB.

Of course, it's an old bike, and isn't quite a Speed Triple in terms of looks and allure, so you might not be so happy to see it parked beside your bike (although no more than a GN250, lol).

I've heard wonderful things about the SRX250 as well. Looks like a good base for a café racer.

[Monsterbishi]

I'd put another tick next to the CB250RS box, assuming the motor is in good health, it'll happily sit on 100kph.

If one came up around here for a good price, I'd buy one again, I had a '83 CB250RS back in the 90's as my first 250cc bike, would still have it to this day if it hadn't been stolen...