The Honda CBR250RR has debuted in Indonesia, giving an interesting glimpse not only into Big Red’s future, but also possibly the future of motorcycling.
First off, the details: the new quarter-litre sportbike is powered by a liquid-cooled 249 cc parallel twin, with eight-valve head, six-speed transmission, and a 14,000 rpm redline. There’s a throttle-by-wire system, which opens up the possibilities of traction control and other advanced electronics, including three riding modes (Comfort, Sport, Sport+).
ABS is optional. The front forks are USD units and the swingarm is aluminum. Sounds legit!
But, the details fall apart there. The engine specs sound interesting, but Big Red hasn’t published an official horsepower figure, nor do we know the bike’s weight. Machines in this displacement rise and fall on three numbers: Their horsepower, weight, and pricing relative to the competition. We know none of those figures yet.
Just as importantly, we haven’t heard anything about adjustable suspension being available for this bike, which is a must-have for serious riders.
We also don’t know if it will be imported to North America, as there is no rhyme or reason sometimes to the decisions manufacturers make as to what comes in, and what doesn’t. It’s hard to imagine it coming into Canada as a 250, as that would be smaller than their existing CBR300, as well as competing bikes from Kawasaki, Yamaha, and KTM. But it’s also hard to imagine that Honda’s engineers didn’t think about this already, and we’d be surprised if there wasn’t a big bore kit in the works that takes this bike to the 300-350 cc range.
Even if it doesn’t come into Canada, it will be interesting to see what impact this bike has on overseas markets. If this bike is competitive with the Yamaha R3 and Kawasaki Ninja 300, we could see the competition that used to exist in the 600 cc sport bike market instead work its way down to the entry-level market.
GALLERY
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not interested. Still waiting for a CRF450L
I was hoping for a 4 cylinders. Probably never going to happen ever again.
Too much $$$ – a twin will have to do.
And hey, they HAVE made some pretty fast 250 twins in the past — cough cough, NSR250, cough cough. Of course, they were two-stroke V-twins …
I seriously regret not buying an NSR250 on one of the multiple chances I had. It would probably have transformed my riding, and approach to motorcycling. I’d be a slim roadracer instead of a fat adventure bike enthusiast.
I’m thinking we’ll see a 300cc-ish variant for late 2017 – that’s just how Honda rolls.