Hyosungs... slow, low quality, but pretty, don't even try keeping up with real sportsbikes. Very average brakes and suspension.
Honda VTR250, a good allrounder, and no doubt plenty of fun, but not enough power to blast away the boy racer cars, and not pretty enough for my liking. Single front disc.
Honda CBF250 Hornet, another good bike, fast too, cheap to run, reliable, not as pretty as the CBR though, a definite contender. 4 cylinder, good power. Single front disc though?
Two strokes (RS, RGV, NSR)... Unreliable as all heck but fast and fun. In my opinion as someone who is good with tools, I'd still rather be able to ride my bike whenever I want and not have to work on it 50% of the time, and they use as much gas as a small family car. Will cost you more to run than an average car. Good power, good brakes, lightweight and good suspension.
Kawasaki GPX (ninja), fast for a twin, and comfortable riding position, no race bike though and it was designed in the early 80's when bikes were at their ugliest. Total commuter though, waste of time as a weekend blaster.
Suzuki GSX, early 80's designed big heavy slow, but I think they are reliable. Not as good as the GPX.
Now for the real contenders:
All four stroke
All 250 cc
All 6 speed
All have a redline around 19,000rpm.
All have approx 45hp
All weigh about 150-160 kg
All handle great and go fast.
Not all of them are reliable though.
Suzuki GSXR, Yamaha FZR, Kawasaki ZXR, and Honda CBR.
These are the bikes that have been competitive at 250 fourstroke racing here in Victoria Australia. However we can narrow down our comparison a bit. There is a very good reason why you don't see hardly any GSXR's around. They get compression issues. The valves wear out the seats too fast, and you can throw the engine away.
The FZR, so rare, you probably won't find any for sale, and if you do it will be because of issues. And again there is a reason why they are so rare. There's not many left running because of reliability. But the fastest 250 I've seen in the fourstroke 250 class here is an FZR. Lots of mods. Pulls out of about 50% of the races due to issues though :P
The ZXR, second most common quality 250 4 stroke. These bikes are fast fun, bigger than the CBR and handle awesome. The tip over slower than the CBR, but are more stable mid corner, could have something to do with the adjustable suspension. They have known cam chain tensioner issues sometimes, and are renowned for oil leaks.
The CBR 250 RR, from where I'm sitting, possibly the best all round bike ever made. I'm 5 foot 10 and it's comfortable as. No sore wrists like I used to get on the RGV or CBR600. It's got cam gears as opposed to a cam chain, which seems to remove some of the reliability issues that the ZXR gets. It gets close to 20km/l which is good enough (same as all the other 4 cylinder screamers). It's light, and very flickable, I haven't ridden a bike which turns into corners easier, and I've ridden a lot of bikes. It is a lane splitting legend. Awesome brakes. The suspension is a little soft, but that never seemed to bother me even on the race track going for wins. I've couriered on them. So 8 or 9 hours in the saddle with a large pack on my back, and it was still OK. The sitting position is brilliant, more upright than the average sportsbike, still great for racing. And we know they go for over 100,000k's if you know it's been looked after with quality oil. Plus they take crashes extremely well.
There is a very good reason why there are a lot of these around 20 years after they were made. They are still being imported, because they are the best learner restriction bike ever, but they are getting harder and harder to find in Japan, because the market for them in Australia is huge. And they are very reliable. I prefer them to riding 600's around town, and they are the most fun I've ever had on the track aswell.
The single R CBR is not as good handling or braking wise. Don't bother.
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Originally Posted by ferriswheel
. Enjoyed my Zeal , fine performing trouble free machine.
was kick arse.
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