The CBR250Ri 

About the Bike

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There’s a reason why the Honda CBR250R and RR (MC19/22) are the most popular grey import motorcycles worldwide, bar none. Actually, there are heaps of reasons. They’re undoubtedly the best introduction to 4-stroke sportsbikes that money can buy. They’re cheap, reliable, powerful for a 4-stroke 250 and fun with a capital grin. And they rev to 18,000rpm (Yes, that’s eighteen with three zeros after it) so they sound like a million manic mosquitos on methamphetamine.

If you don't want to hug these little cams, you have no appreciation of mechanical beauty. Technically, the CBR motor is a watercooled across the frame 4-cylinder with gear-driven double overhead cams and sixteen valves. It’s fed by four 28mm carburettors and has a compression ratio of 11.5:1. Stock power output is around 45bhp at the crank. The engine internals are like the guts of a Swiss watch on steroids, but better engineered and much more reliable. CBR250 engines regularly exceed 100,000km of hard use, even with minimal maintenance and infrequent oil changes. They’re harder to kill than Bruce Willis wrapped in carbon Kevlar and driving a tank.

Research has shown that this dial says "Thrash Me Violently" more effectively than tight PVC underwear Richard bought his MC-19 more by good luck than good management back in 1996. Since then he has kept breathing thanks to more good luck rather than skill. Don’t get me wrong – Richard is a good rider. He just crashes a lot. It’s not always from riding like an idiot, though. A psycho cager in a 4WD ran him over on a roundabout, he tried to combine sleeping and riding around a roundabout, and then a new rear tyre let go... halfway around a roundabout.  They weren’t terribly major crashes, but they did leave his bike (and his buttocks) quite road-rashed.


It might not be to everyone's taste, but it's certainly bright! In real life, it's brighter again.

Not so long ago, Richard decided to repair all the various bits of crash damage and paint the bike a new colour. Preferably a nice bright safety colour so blind cagers could see him coming. He selected Crash Test Dummy Yellow. If it didn’t break the roundabout curse, at least it would make the bits easier to find afterwards.

The Honda Nad Flatteratorer. Try one and spend a week curled up in your own private universe of pain. When he started stripping back the fuel tank, Richard found almost as much bog as Kakadu in the wet season. It was filling the most impressive dent that any of us have ever seen. It’s so impressive that Richard has cleaned it up and left it as a conversation piece. If nothing else, it explains why the previous owner is now previous. After making a dent like that in a steel fuel tank, I wouldn’t want to ride again either!


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