About the Delivery

I have read an article somewhere that honda will be sell about 30,000 cbr's within one year from the date of launch ! So that means they will be able to produce 2500 bikes every month to meet that expectations !! Already there are around 6000 bookings ! so i feel whoever booked till now would be able to get it less than 3 months or sooner ( some may cancel the bookings !)

Note : Correct me if I am wrong !

Test Drive opinion

Hi Guys,

Just got back from a test drive on the Honda CBR-ABS at Kun Honda, Adyar, Chennai. These guys have been postponing the display bike date for a very long time, and I finally got the good news on saturday from the dealer that the display bike is available and I can come take a test drive on Monday.

Needless to say, i spent very restless two days ( I know it's sad, but what can I say, I am addicted to it.) I informed my boss in the morning itself that I will be leaving from work 1 hour early. Was eagerly waiting for the clock to hit 5 p.m, cudn't wait a minute longer than 4:45. So i left office and started for the dealership.

Reached the dealership, and there stood the beauty in all its splendor, a red std-cbr for display. Just stood there spell bound, admiring the beauty for a couple of minutes. Then politely walked upto the reception and in all humbleness asked her, "Can i please get a test ride?". And she goes "Sorry sir! It's only from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. It's closed now" . This was where I was getting a little bit pissed, but I could still be pushed. So again in all due respect I told her that the timing was not informed to me when I called to check at 3 in the afternoon. At this point I was redirected to the sales guy, and by now I was infuriated. It was almost like you walked into the bedroom for your first night and they tell you it cannot happen . He asked me to come back tomorrow, I shouted at him, if that was the case then why the hell did they call me up and ask me to come take a test drive. And when I called up the showroom, the receptionist didn't inform me about the time and I live around 40 kms away. He got the nerve to ask me "Who told you that on the phone sir?(Regarding the timing)" Red in the face, I answered, "Am i supposed note down the name of each and every receptionist that attends the calls to your showroom? Can i talk to your manager?" . They both backed down now, and asked me to wait for a couple of minutes and finally I was getting the respect I deserved. They made me sit down, while they brought the bike from the godown.

First things I noticed, the beat is very feeble, calm and quiet. Almost makes it very hard to listen unless revved, which I guess is expected from any bike, but we all know, how often we have such little comforts :P.

The bike was a bit heavy, (I own a pulsar 200, so any comparison is made in reference to that), bit heavy easy but only until I shifted the gear and revved it though. I didn't want to take any risks , so I started off slowly, as slowly as I could. The gear shifts seamlessly , the console looks so attractive , that at times it goes to the extent of distracting you. The rear view mirrors protrude a tad bit longer to my liking, and they seem to be around a mile away from the *cockpit(replace this word with whatever u feel appropriate). The mirrors itself were small, I didn't try to adjust the rear views, but they were giving me a decent view of the rear side, (not great, but yeah decent...definitely not as bad as a P220's atleast). Now we entered a road with rubble but with a clear stretch for 50 metres and I wanted to see how this bike accelerated. I forgot to mention this to the pillion rider. Result, he almost flew off the bike,(I was in second gear btw and was accelerating in the third). He held on dearly by holding the grab rail, which seem to have done a good job. Inference:- The bike accelerates pretty well even from 2nd to 3rd and not just the initial jerk and slow pickup which is the trademark of most bikes.

One more point to be noted here, I was very skeptical of the bikes quality when reading through the entirety of this thread, where many a opinions have been given on the poor quality of the plastics and how ill-fitted they came. Just to test this, I put my full weight on the grab-rail and exerted as much pressure as I could ( I am not kidding, I weigh 68 kilos) They didnt as much as waver or try to give into tensile stress, IMO they were quite sturdy and unless you are planning to make somebody sit on the grabs itself, they should perform just fine. The plastic fairing fit perfectly and when checked with the naked eye and thumb, nothing seemed to be moving. The maximum speed I reached was around 80 kmph, and there were absolutely no vibrations until that speed, cannot comment on what happens afterwards.

After the initial mishap, I thought I should warn the guy this time, and told him I am going to test the breaks now, So hold on. And I hit the breaks as hard as I could at 80, with absolutely no consideration for the road,(the reviews about the ABS have instilled that confidence, what can i say) and I must say friends, they live upto the reviews. The road I was driving on was tarmac, and even though the front tyre was a bit angled, it still stopped dead without showing any sign of giving in.

Another thing to watch out for , is the reaction of other people on the road, when they come head to head with this bike. I was driving in a single lane road where traffic is allowed from both the sides, and whenever I would enter the road, people would stop , stare and let me pass.

In my opinion, Honda has got a winner here... and I am more than happy about the investment I am making. Sorry if this is a bit too long for your liking, but then again, if you really love the bike and wanted to know another bikers honest opinion, I don't think you will hate me for it . Anything else that I have left uncovered and would want my opinion on, kindly post...

Ride safe

That's a very good and elaborate review..

People are raising concerns about the quality of the plastics and all, but I found the quality pretty good enough.. The quality of the fairings, clip-ons, indicators, headlight, tail light, alloy wheels, RVMs are upto the marks..

But yes, when I checked the rear part just above the tail light, it felt very weak.. as if someone can pull that part out with a finger only.. And I specially didn't like the foot rests and the gear lever (looks a little smaller than other bikes)..

I still dont understand why some confused minds try confusing everyone.. Guys, get one thing clear.. You cant get a rocket for 1.5L neither can you get everything perfect in any product.. If newer bikes come in and around same prices bracket.. They may have something better.. But then there would be compromise elsewhere.. If this fits your needs.. Go for it.. Or wait for the thing you need.. We saying here that the CBR name doesnt justify or the price and quality not on par wont change anything out there.. Honda has already achieved an overwhelming response and have a
winner in hands..

+1. Nothing is perfect guys, Prioritize your needs and choose what fits best. Plastics on the other hand are pretty good. No doubt about that.

Honda surely has a winner in their hands, If plastics and other minor things are a concern, then why are the booking numbers still high?

I dunno about other cities but here in hyderabad, after the launch, booking have gone up a lot. I visited my dealer twice after the bike was on display and I saw 5 bookings happening right in front of me.

Re: Honda CBR250R Launched in India at 1.43 ex showroom Delhi

This is the one page im finding the sane comments.. Well said all above.!
I calld up kun honda at 7pm ant tey said showroom wil be closed at 7.30, so missed out on seeing the mean machine today.

Im definitely buying it. I have over hundred pics of the bike and I cant stop looking at them.
Some guys are complaining abt the very small details.
Come on guys its a gorgeous looking bike wit the performance and FE matched for the Indian use.
Dunno how many of those Ninja comparers have ridden a Ninja and use it for daily use.
You can find a fault wit any bike and by all analysis Engine is of superb quality and flawless. Then why to cry on little paint jobs and bolts.
And for those ''im saving this money for'' the bikes which wil release nxt year intelluctuals should be investing in a chit fund and get a 'Vmax' or 'RSV4' in two yrs and again can cry abt it on sme aspects. So Either buy it or Shutup.

PS: No Offence :P

Sent from Galaxy S using Tapatalk

+1
dude we have a guy(stig)who has a cbr250 and also owns the ninja 250r!!

Its not that those commenting on quality are against the bike. Its just that, having seen/felt the quality of Honda before, some parts just look unfinished/crude and do not live up to the Honda's quality finishing.

You sound like Pakistan saying "We didn't know he lived there" after they killed Osama. You can't put a "no offence" when you clearly meant to offend people...doesn't work.

Engine is of superb quality and flawless? From where did you come to that conclusion? I've encountered a bike with clutch problems in under 300Kms of running. Other bikes have had oil leakage issues. How is this flawless?

Either buy it or shut up? This isn't the "Honda Forum" in case you landed here by mistake. So put up with everyone's opinion or find somewhere else to post your ultimatums because they don't work here.

Almost everyone here save up over a long period of time to spend on something like this and it is absolutely fair that they get to see both sides of the coin.

So what if there are issues with the build quality and paint? I am sure that if you turn up a financial report at work with a few errors here and there it will be perfectly acceptable...yeah why not? Looks good...nice work with Microsoft Excel chief! Yeah you missed out a few million dollars but thats perfectly fine...we'll give you a raise

Dont compare

Yup, many in here have a greater expertise in bikes., I lost my cool due to some
excitement spoilers who just focuses on negatives, Every info and comment here are useful wen done rightfully on the context of the topic.

Edit: I made this comment b4 reading the above 2 comments. I know pointing out the negative is more imp than the positives and abt the engine quality , I havent made any test rides, all my conclusions through all american and thai video reviews. Mr. MT-01,no need of a long example.you couldve said im Wrong. I am more than happy to accept tat.

Had a Test ride of the CBR250 today at Pratul Honda, Somajiguda, Hyderabad!

My Previous Riding Experience:
Coming to my riding experience, I have been using a Karizma from past 4 years, 49k kms. Have ridden a Pulsar 150 in my college days for around 30k kms. Got a taste of a friend's (Sri Harsha from XBHP) Ninja 250R for around 30 kms just a couple of weeks back and have ridden a friend's R15 for around 500kms.

Gave these details as I would be comparing the bike with my above experiences so that readers can get a better feel of the bike

The Look:
The Baby CBR is a LOOKER . Head Turner... Looks Huge from front 3/4th and rear 3/4th view. From the front it looks a bit smaller. Its indeed a bike which you can park at an awesome scenery and keep watching it for hours

And being a Ninja fan from past 2 years, I can say it looks better an more futuristic than the N250R (PERSONAL OPINION)

The Ride:
Initially they gave me a small ride in the traffic with which I could not get into details of the bike. Upon requesting the manager, they were generous enough to give me a ride from Somajiguda to Necklace road and Back. Almost 20kms or so
The manager with great smile said that "No Problem Sir, you are a premium customer as you have the #1 booking from this showroom. We would want your complete satisfaction before getting the bike delivered"

The Bike felt damn comfortable to ride. Everything was Just Perfect. In the Traffic its a GEM. People before realizing that its a CBR they will be seeing the bike's Ass from a long distance

Very very light and flickable and Nice handling too.

In comparison to the R15:

The R15 when you sit on the bike feels that you have a huge cockpit in front of you and feels like you are sitting on a BIIIG bike. But the CBR doesn't feel as Big from the cockpit view.
Riding wise, the R15 just shoots from 6krpm until RED Line with minimum efforts on the other side, CBR revvs similarly from around 4.5 to 7/7.5 RPM and after that it takes time to reach the revv limiter.
So it directly means more Mid Range

Braking:
I was riding a C-ABS model and frankly I was not impressed with the braking. It was just good.
The Ninja 250R braking is amazingly sharp !

PS: Might be I did not like the braking after tasting the braking abilities of N250R

Acceleration:
I was riding at around 120-130 kmph and rpm showed at almost 8k-rpm but the bike lacked that PUNCH factor. Then I realized that the Punchy feel has already gone around 2k rpm earlier

All in all its an EXCELLENT Bike - JACK OF ALL TRADES!
Its a bike PERFECT for Indian conditions.
Honda's excellent service back up and brand name will make this bike sell like HOT CAKES

As many ppl said earlier, I agree that this bike should have been the real ZMR

But Alas... even though I love the bike, I am opting for the Ninja 250R over this as this would be my final upgrade and I loved the screamer/revv hungry nature and the punch the bike gives at high RPM's
Also my primary use of my next upgrade would not be commuting but would be only weekend Fun rides and touring...

Looking forward to see a lot of CBR's on the Indian Roads and I congratulate all the lucky CBR owners and the desperately waiting prospect owners

My 2 Cents

Ravi: I mentioned this long time back when I guess I was one of the first few to catch the bike early. Good to see the chain increasing But the CBR and ZMR are different, so lets keep them opposite each other rather than putting them on the same bay. Yes, the ZMR has quality materials used, Honda need to borrow that factor in from Hero.

The ownership thread is already started still i am waiting for my dealer's call.

Again I would like to say this as said in my earlier posts. Our own false expectations are the cause of dissatisfaction. I appreciate all kind of reviews coming along wow! & not met expectation things. Most of the review updated here are based on the expectations which were set before on the machine. A correct expectation requires a good knowledge and capability on anything before really trying. As far us the quality of paint job & finish we have had mixed reviews so i assume the finish is not uniform with all the bikes for some reason. So it is our luck getting the good finished bike , if not reject that and wait for the best one.
In my knowledge , as far as the dynamics and performance it is surely not built for track day uses but inclined towards user friendliness, may be the CBR batch mislead. If it was designed keeping performance alone in mind i need not to explain the Fireblade can answer you . But it has surely better figures than the so called indian sports bikes. My expectations are the following
1) Affordable sports looking - Exceeded expectation
2) Good Dynamics and comfort for everyday use - hope it meets expectation after going through the reviews
3) reliable for long rides (over 500Kms twice a month ) with economy - ans same as above
4) X factor - With aftermarket mods will surely rip the tarmac (may not be furious as rossi but to myself )
5) Something that justifies the price - yes! though i am buying with my own money still justifies my father that i am not looser who doesn't know the value of money

I think people with above expectations will never be let down.

As i mentioned earlier though the showroom is a Km away from my residence i have not visited it to check the bike or test ride it. I am testing myself to which extent I can hold my temptations until the sales guy call me for the delivery. And my productivity in office these days is going down just because of this waiting

So you finally decided upon the NINJA huh
Good Good, I felt that you'll get the ninja when you said I have all my eyes on the ninja in one of your mails. Well, Finally the decision has been made. So when are you getting the kwaker?

I tried to have a look at ninja today at showrooms but what a crap.!! no ninja in display... huh... wait everywhere... either test rides of CBR or having a look at ninja