The First 300
Ok, The Easter weekend is nearly over. I've been taking advantage of the good weather we've had here in Brisbane and getting out and about. I've already racked up 300kms.
Let me say, that if someone had told me two months ago that I'd would be buying a 250 road bike, I would of laughed in their face.
I bought a 250 when I first started riding (30+ Years ago) and I took it back to the dealer within a month 'cos I hated it. Back then I was doing a much longer commute than I'm doing today. More recently I've been commuting to a from work on my old trusty Husky 410 and while it's a lot of fun to ride, (fun of the, Wheelie from every set of lights type
) Come the weekend there wasn't much fun in screaming up the freeway at a 100kph, hoping your fillings don't vibrate out, only to spend most of the time off road going sideways as the road/trail tyre compromise bit hard.
The old Husky lives on! and will be born again with a new set of full knobs and a bit of TLC.
Back to the CBR, Ok it's not a sports bike, it's not gonna get you from zero to warp speed in 2.3 sec. but it will get you to legal highway speeds quickly enough, sitting on about 6000rpm at 100kph. The bike is comfortable and stable at highway speeds, even with some strong cross breezes and big rigs passing in the other direction. There's still plenty in reserve to get going from 100kph in top gear. I've hit 150 before backing off for traffic. Certainly enough poke to accelerate your way out of trouble. I did feel a real buzz through the handlebars at these speeds which tends to make your thumbs go numb after a while, or maybe I'm just hanging on to hard?
Off the freeway is where the CBR comes into it's own, around town, on some twisty stuff this little bike is BIG fun. It feels so light, changing direction like a push bike on rails, just awesome. The torque sweet spot really supports this type of riding and helps with the day to day commute, although you'll be kept busy with the gears, compared to our big bore brothers, it's definitely not as bad as some of the multi-cylinder 250's out there (Ninja's) If you keep the CBR sitting in the right rev range, just twist the throttle and with a throaty hum and little whine the CBR will accelerate away.
This little bike is so easy to ride, anyone and I mean anyone from the beginner to the more experienced rider gets off with a smile on their face.
(Tri-Colour Non-ABS)
More later.......
