[NorCal707]

I let a friend from the local forum here in the San Francisco area forum BARF borrow my cbr250 for a comparison article against the ninja 250. The folks at CityBike, a local SF magazine picked the article up and want to run it next month. Saturday we did a photoshoot for the article and you can see the pics here. Was a great experience getting to show it off, after just 3000 miles of riding experience! (The guy on the ninja has ridden over 200,000 on his various ninjas lol )
http://www.garyratherphoto.com/grphoto/DownLoadZip/CBR250.zip

 

[woolf]

HELP can't get it to down load

 

[Roadkill]

+Well, at least the commercial filming citation from Parks and Rec wasn't more than an infraction, LOL!

Nice shots. The side-by-side readers was neat.

Ride on.
Roadkill

 

[CBR250R]

Is this the article you are referring to?

Honda CBR250R vs. Kawi Ninja 250R : "Real World - Extreme Riding - Shootout" - BARF - Bay Area Riders Forum

Mike

 

[CBR250R]

I read through the comparison. While I commend the writer for taking great pains to be rigorous, meticulous, and careful in his methods - I think it is naive for him to suggest that he is being completely objective in his review and free of the bias seen in online magazine comparisons between the two bikes. It is like a scientist claiming that he doesn't need to be "blind" to who will be receiving the active medication and who will be receiving a placebo in a drug trial - because "he is objective and not biased" so he will not in any way influence with the outcome of the study through his interactions with the participants. One needs to accept that you can be biased in any of a number of ways without even realizing it.

I thought it was interesting from his selection of dyno information gathered online that the Ninja 250R was producing on average about 28 hp, while the CBR250R was producing about 24 hp. When I searched all the online reviews I could find (not leaving any out) my data looked at bit different. See link below.

http://www.cbr250.net/forum/cbr250-performance/1309-race-winner-8.html#post20406

Also, it was interesting that the top speed he obtained for the CBR250R was 84 mph in 6th gear, and 88 mph in 5th, which is the slowest top speed I've ever seen in any test of the bike. He then mentions that the Ninja 250R can obtain 100 mph, yet it doesn't appear that he even tested its top speed next to the CBR250R - something that should have been done if an "objective" side-by-side test was desired to control for wind and other variables. Is the CBR250Rs performance representative - or could it be that this specific sample might have been a little down on power? He doesn't appear to consider this possibility. While many have suggested that a stock Ninja 250R can reach a true top speed of 100 mph, I have yet to find any magazine review that confirms this to be true. Some have been close though.

He also mentions that the CBR250R obtains about 10-15% better fuel economy than the Ninja 250R. Interesting that in the online reviews I've read - even the ones that declared the Ninja 250R the winner of the comparisons - the fuel economy advantage for the CBR250R over the Ninja 250R was considerably more dramatic - more like 30%-50% better fuel economy.

And I found it interesting that he says "The combination of these two quantifiable tests, and the overall impressions of the engine’s performance during the CBR test ride, clearly illustrated that I wouldn’t want to take to the grid on a racetrack and try to do battle in the “Production” classes against a sea of Ninja 250s. In mildly modified form, it would definitely be a “David-and-Goliath” massacre!"

No. The above doesn't sound biased at all. Perhaps he needs to be made aware of the CBR250Rs dominance over the Ninja 250Rs as reported by DRC from the Race Winner thread below:

http://www.cbr250.net/forum/cbr250-performance/1309-race-winner.html

"After many late nights last week race prepping our new CBR, we took it to Motorsport Ranch in Cresson Tx, for its first race. Ryan Andrews won the E Superstock race (against 22 EX250s) by more than 5 seconds. Then we entered the CMRA 2 hour endurance race, and took the overall win by a full lap. We also set the fastest lap of the day by over 1.5 seconds. Thanks to Road and Track Suspension in san antonio tx for the suspension work, Kyle at M4 exhausts, and Dante @ Bazzaz for the late night tech support."

I could continue - but it is getting late so I'd better stop here.... If anyone cares to post this message to the BARF forum - feel free to do so.

Mike

 

[llory]

Is this the article you are referring to?

Honda CBR250R vs. Kawi Ninja 250R : "Real World - Extreme Riding - Shootout" - BARF - Bay Area Riders Forum

Mike

Haha I read that article and found it rather amusing that the author handed out "ties" in areas where the CBR was clearly the winner (instrument cluster and features for instance), or giving the Ninja the edge on tires (wtf? they both come with IRC tires), or even the braking comparison.

I say the author is clearly biased

 

[NorCal707]

+Well, at least the commercial filming citation from Parks and Rec wasn't more than an infraction, LOL!

Nice shots. The side-by-side readers was neat.

Ride on.
Roadkill

LOL yeah he said he thought the cop was gonna let him go.. until his wife got in his face about paying taxes to keep the parks etc... hahah It was pretty bullshit, free magazine, camera man was basically doing it for fun. It's not like Speilberg was filming the next Jurassic Park there. He gave a bad name to all law enforcement that day.

 

[NorCal707]

Is this the article you are referring to?

Honda CBR250R vs. Kawi Ninja 250R : "Real World - Extreme Riding - Shootout" - BARF - Bay Area Riders Forum

Mike

Yes that is the article. As you can see from the comments many people had the same ideas as you. He is somewhat biased it's impossible not to, he has ridden over 150,000 miles on ninja 250's and loves them obviously. Not to mention he can do things on them people only dream of. I rode with him that day for an hour or so and I was scraping my pegs around turns that he was taking one handed lol. It's hard to be completely unbiased ever.. he just has no interest in picking one over the other compared to others that have reviewed the two bikes.

Gary says this "From my side, the objective in testing the bikes against each other in this unofficial, private shootout was to have zero. Not working in the motorcycle industry in any way, or having any affiliations with any motorcycle company for gratuities, advertising dollars or other hooks, I had no horse in this race."

Being a taller, bigger rider who cares more about the commuting abilities for me means the cbr250 won this shootout. A lot of it is up to opinion.

 

[ashiem_HSC]

thought this would be a little bit usefull for us here (cbr250 owners)

review done by a biking experts back in malaysia, cbr250 vs ninja250

tested on track, sepang

full review : setapakrompongz: Honda CBR250r Test Ride - Full Report

utube: