Can anyone tell me why 250cc bikes have to be either old or gutless?

[Drew]

The motard suggestion is something I've never even thought about for beginners. Wonder how many bad habbits it would create if one wanted a road bike when they got a full licence.

[FilthyLuka]

Good luck getting one road legal... however im sure you could get the YZ250 engine into the WR250F frame if you want, or at least the YZ250F engine anyway. But would cost a bit more than most n00bs could afford me thinks.

if you buy the bike new from the dealer, throw some lights on, getting it road registered just costs $300 for the compliance, so i was told by the Manager of a VTNZ station. The biggest problem is getting the paper trail sorted. If you can get a trail back to the dealer, eg, your the second owner, you get a reciept and last owner proves they bought from dealer, not a problem.

Had a similar idea involving a suzuki RM250

[R6_kid:Me]

Unfortunately if the vehicle was never intended for road use from the factory then it is enevitably expensive and generally a pain in the ass to get it road registered. Hence the reason you can't road regiser racing quads in NZ, the best you'll get is a 'farm vehicle'.

Getting a bike like a WR250 and putting a YZ250 engine in it aint hard, you're just placing the racing MX engine in the place of the enduro engine... it's not likely to show up as a problem come WOF time.

[FilthyLuka]

Unfortunately if the vehicle was never intended for road use from the factory then it is enevitably expensive and generally a pain in the ass to get it road registered. Hence the reason you can't road regiser racing quads in NZ, the best you'll get is a 'farm vehicle'.

quads and ATV's have different rules and regulations to motorcycles.

The expensive of registering a _new_ MX bike is the cost of wheels/tires, lights and compliance...

yeesh, i could see how that could tally up now...

[R6_kid:Me]

quads and ATV's have different rules and regulations to motorcycles.

The expensive of registering a _new_ MX bike is the cost of wheels/tires, lights and compliance...

yeesh, i could see how that could tally up now...

and the fact that it was never destined for road use. Same reason you cannot register HRC CBR600RR's for the road.

[FilthyLuka]

and the fact that it was never destined for road use. Same reason you cannot register HRC CBR600RR's for the road.

Well, technically, if you bought one from a dealer, provided the bike is manufactured by honda for the unwashed masses and has documentation (crumple zone tests ect) that you would find on most vehicles (read, that are required for compliance), there is no reason you can put on some lights and register it :S Buggered if i know why you would want to

[disenfranchised]

Nup, that's just how they're registering them over there. Very very very popular in Australia to put the latest paint jobs on them and flog them for big $$$$... the Tyga bodywork is also very very popular for tarting them up to flog for more than they're worth.

I stand corrected....and man does that seem like a dodgy sales practice.
Good thing I don't live in Australia, I probably would have been sucked in ages ago.

OK, so my next suggestion (silly though it might be) is to get your hands on a KTM 250 FRR
http://www.ktm.com/Bike-Spec.6395.0.html
Not road legal...and probably hard to get hold of without a full race team to support ya....but 110HP...can't complain about that

[warewolf]

and the fact that it was never destined for road use.

AFAIK that's not a barrier. As long as it meets the standards, it's possible. Lots of the larger kids trail bikes get road registered as adventure bikes for short-arses. Those bikes were never meant for road use, either. It's just problematic to fit up all the required parts, eg brake light switches to brake assemblies not designed for them.

[dickytoo]

old, no.. saw in the flesh today, the new kawa 250. Was actually impressed with it. I'm sure it's still pretty gutless tho, I think it's still a twin air-cooled 250. But still, tis a stuna

they went to water cooling awhile back...

[Paulus]

Good luck getting one road legal... however im sure you could get the YZ250 engine into the WR250F frame if you want, or at least the YZ250F engine anyway. But would cost a bit more than most n00bs could afford me thinks.

KTM250EXC and Gas-Gas EC250 are both 2 stroke enduro bikes that are road legal (if they come with the correct kit) and relatively common here in NZ. They'd be an absolute blast!

[Ixion]

Did anyone ever wonder *why* learners are limited to 250cc ?

[disenfranchised]

Did anyone ever wonder *why* learners are limited to 250cc ?

YES!!!
It seems like a silly rule...especially given these Race 2-strokes putting out 60+ HP.

The whole 35HP limit seems more sensible to me...maybe it's just to hard to police

[ManDownUnder]

Did anyone ever wonder *why* learners are limited to 250cc ?

Because it's a limit that's easy to Police?

[Ixion]

The question was actually ironical.

If there was a wide choice of new 250cc bikes which young men did not consider "gutless", then the law would most certainly be changed , and the limit reduced to 125cc, as was the case in the UK.

The reason for the 250cc limit is precisely to prevent young men from learning to ride on machines that are not "gutless'. In the hope that they may perhaps survive to become somewhat older men. The relatively small fleet of aging race replica machines is under the radar.

[Maki]

"Can anyone tell me why 250cc bikes have to be either old or gutless?"

Because they only have 250cc. The first rule of internal combustion engines is: "There aint no substitute for cubic inches."

If you want more power, then get a bigger engine.