Service center woes are common to most companies from what I have seen. The major issue I have faced is non availability of common parts like clip ons and brake levers. The parts took a month to arrive.

Pros : mileage of 41 kmpl, Smooth cruising character on open stretches.
Cons : Front brakes have lost most of their bite, need to get this checked.

Hi Zafar, can you pls compare ur Honda 300 with the gixxer 250.and why did u change

Hi Castro,

The CB300r had annoying vibrations/buzziness for my taste.Have always used japanese bikes & I'm a sucker for refinement.
The engine being derived from the legendary CBR250r lost its balance as it was increased to 286CC + the CB300r chassis was designed for extreme weight saving, that too may have resulted in bad dampening of vibrations.
You can check 'Bikewale' review on YouTube.It was the only reviewer which mentioned the lack of refinement.

Now with the engine not being enjoyable,I wasn't ready to live with its other obvious shortcomings namely, bad fuel economy,small tank,hard suspension,small & hard seats, expensive spares & majorly extremely bad spare parts availability. Had to wait 2 months for a rear wheel replacement. Totally not worth the maintenance,when the product is not giving you the riding pleasure.

- Rant alert
Honda had given up on the Indian market after the introduction of CBR 250R (no real updates for 7 years or so of its production, with new sticker jobs counting as updates). I was actually looking at used CBR 250R before buying the Gixxer SF250.
#lifebeginsat250 as xBhp says

Question : What service intervals are you following?
My bike has crossed 2600 km in about 3 months of ownership. Most of the mechanics say 2500 to 3000 km which is way off from factory service intervals. I need some sincere advise.

I am following an interval of 4000 to 4500 kms.
I have also came across many mechanics (incl SVC) guys saying the interval is 3 to 3.5k. Mostly because they are unaware of 250 i guess.
They compare it with the gixxer 150s, which is air cooled.
And also i don't think suzuki engineers would be a fool to suggest such intervals, particularly considering that the company is comparing it to busa and gsx series. and also treating the 250 customers as premium.
Anyways if i did very spirited riding would consider changing before that.

Thanks CastroGunner, I too would now like to keep service intervals at around 4000 km. There has always been differences between what is usually practiced and what is specified by the engineers. I still haven't seen a service center following thoroughly the preventive maintenance schedule items as specified in the owner's manual (they do check the usual suspects like chain slack and all).
On a side note, I heard that Bajaj recommends engine oil to be changed every 10000km. I have a Pulsar too, gotta see if it works that way or I kill the motorcycle. The pulsar does get heated to an extent after an hour of continuous riding. Does excess heating mean engine oil needs to be changed?

Well i dont think so that bajaj recommends oil change at 10k. Be careful on that. the only motorcycle under 3 L segment that i know with 10k oil change is RE 650 twins.
And more the oil is subjected to heat, the faster it loses its lubricating properties and also, faster the impurities presence due to wear and tear. yes more heat means more pressure on engine oil. And compression ration also plays a big role on that
however cooling system plays a vital role on that. Eg: Gixxer Sf and SF250 runs on the same synthetic engine oil but the oil changing interval recommended by suzuki is 3.5k for gixxer 150 and 5k for 250. This iI think is purely due to the effectiveness of SOCS in 250.
I also heard that very high quality oils like Motul can be used longer.

Today I completed 1000km on ODO,
I hope I don’t sound too repetitive, the bike cruises absolutely wonderfully until 115kmph ( don’t need too much space ahead to achieve this cruising speed, I meant that even in busy trucking highway one can reach 115kmph immediately after passing a cluster of traffic)

In been growing more and more comfortable in this bike, its easily a 1000kmperday bike for me as of now (haven’t tested the theory yet). Yesterday late night while returning from office I was falling sick a little ( too tired basically). My entire lower body was paining. I got more and more tired while walking from my desk to parking with full gear (Cramster mesh jacket, rynox full pant, cramster gloves and industrial safety shoes, I follow ATGATT) yet the 25km ride back home on this bike was absolutely comfortable, the ride didn’t add to my tiredness at all.

Hi guys,
FIRST LONG RIDE ON GIXXER

Recently I did my long ride on the Gixxer, There were two reasons actually.
1. During my last 2 family trips around east Gujarat and Udaipur region somehow we could see Chaturmukha Dharana Vihara also known as Ranakpur Jain mandir.
2. There was too much itch to take Gixxer out for a real trip and stretch its legs

So I started at 6:00AM from Jaipur, It was too cold.
<Gear list:
Cramster Breezer Jacket with warmth layer
Cramster Summer leather ankle length gloves
Surgical gloves on top of leather gloves (top prevent air entry)!
Quechua Fleece gloves on Surgical gloves
Quechua Winter Jacket with warm layer
Rynox Riding pant>

Enjoyed the warmth provided by gear, Headlight was pretty much when there was too much light from other sources, Held onto speeds upto 115kmph (limited by truck traffic and visibility, not by engine). Stopped for tea just before sunrise and warmed my hands and body.

Sun had risen by the time I wore my gears back. With the renewed energy and visibility, I let the engine loose its inhibitions and roar proudly like a king he is.
I was keenly observing the engine behavior and its performance with full focus (switching between speedo, engine roar, tachometer, Wind blast force, visual cues for speed) and trying to find that sweet spot for cruising, touring, casual riding. What surprised me the most was that there is no such one speed range in which the bike feels best. 90-100kmph no problem enjoy the ride quitely, 100-110kmph again no problem enter the FAST territory and chill, 110-115kmph no problem enter the cruise speed territory, 115-122kmph enjoy the somewhat fast cruise territory, 122-135kmph no problemo! now you know what the bike is capable of, 135+ now its time to forget everything and concentrate hard on the road ahead, its ok to go fast but the bike says "all is well as long as you dont this all day". And the best part is I could hold on to a steady speed without constantly giving throttle corrections. A picture of the beautiful foggy road:


After my PhD thesis on this engine (dont mind the cringe!) I decided to settle down at 115kmph for ride with no strict upper or lower limit. Somewhere I saw this nice sight and clicked a photo.

After Some more distance I stopped near a toll booth to click some photos and admire bike (Click to View full Res):


On way I had brunch and by noon I reached the Destination:



Returned through the same route, during return leg I have to say that it was getting more and more uncomfortable for me and had to take a lot of stops, I see three reasons for this.
1. BIKE: There is no hiding the fact that Gixxer SF 250 doesn't like bad roads, it likes to transfer shocks onto rider's butt like a true sports bike(which this isnt!). The seats are also on harder side, I need to give the seats more time for break-in before I pronounce a verdict on seats.
2. FITNESS: This is my first somewhat long ride after 2 years, also I have not been exercising during this period.
3. GEAR: I had worn a inner pant, a jeans and on top of both these my riding pants were a little tight when knees were folded for ride, I guess this cut off blood supply to my leg and caused some pain.

As I have been saying many times, brakes are OK nothing great.

MRF tyres, just adequate, nothing to talk highly about.

Total trip distance?


Kitna Deti hai?
I measure through full tank method only during one leg of the trip and I got 30.77kmpl. I expect any enthusiastic rider to achieve similar efficiency.

How are the LED headlights in Foggy conditions? Heard many complaints in about pathetic performance in night time rain and early morning foggy condtions.
Is it as worse as the FZ25?

I don’t know about FZ25, but headlights in general are bad, it was not any worse during fog.

Today the bike reached 2000km on ODO, The gear shifts have become butter smooth. One of my original gripes has disappeared! Hurray

I’m getting 34.84kmpl with normal day to day riding!!! Quite happy considering how hard I’m riding the bike

Great, I am getting a mileage of 38-41 on fairly light riding. So glad to know even if I ride hard I can expect a mileage of 35.
I sold the Honda Navi because it started giving a mileage of 35 and I had learned how to ride a bike by then.