Tweet
Hello World,
This is the first ride report of my Honda CBR250R. It's been a week since I got this baby delivered, but didn't really do justice to riding it as I was restricted to commutes within the traffic laden city of Bangalore. So I decided to give that engine a spin on a short "run-in" trip. The entire ride turned out to be a fantastic experience and I've become more acclimatized with the dynamics of the bike.
Initially me and a college-mate (who is a CBR expert and has clocked more than 45k on it) had planned to do a 200 km loop covering Bangalore - Kanakapura - Anchetty. But plans changed and I had to do a solo, so I decided to cover the same distance but on a different route. There was one "Panchapalli" a.k.a Chinnar dam that had eluded me during my previous trips, so I decided to check it out as part of my first ride on the CBR. And so I set out on the week-new machine to get to know it better.
Initially, I had apprehensions on whether a long trip would be a good idea during the run-in period. This is owing to the fact that I had broke-in my previous bike (Unicorn Dazzler) with just commutes to office. The owners' manual of the CBR plainly mentioned that full throttle starts and rapid acceleration should be avoided during run-in period. This was not of great help to me, as I rarely do these even after run-in period. Rather, I did not have a quantitative measure of speeds/RPMs/loads/temperatures that I should be operating the bike in to be considered safe during its initial days. However, I decided to make use of what I already knew about run-ins and how the engine shouldn't be strained beyond limit and so this contributed to limiting the trip route to country roads with minor elevation changes. Though tempted, I had to set ghat riding for another day. Result - massive chicken strips left on the tyres after the trip :P
After packing just my cam, I started (rather late) from home and hit a busy Hosur road at 8.20am. The bike "felt" really confident as I set out. In the previous week I had ironed out some minor issues (like with gear shifting, more on this later) by just adapting to it. I hit the first high speed of 85kmph of the day after exiting the Electronic city ramp and bike felt rock solid and planted to the road with no major vibrations. 80kmph was reached at 5k RPM in 6th gear, these figures looked good to me and I made these the mission parameters for day's ride. At the end of the day, my run had consisted of sticking to these numbers for 90% of the time, with occasional variations in RPM in 4th and 5th gears between 3k and 6k. Max speed was (rider-limited :P) to 95 kmph. I couldn't check the gas mileage returned as I couldn't find out how much fuel was consumed and tank is yet to become empty from the 7L I had filled. But a mental note to self to keep a tab on mileage to detect possible issues with the bike (too high or too low a mileage is not good I guess).
The first 80 kms stretch to Denkanikottai saw me maintaining a strict speed limit of 80 kmph. The road conditions were damp but the MRF rubbers seemed to handle it rather well. Brakes were sharp wherever I wanted them and combined with the sticky soft compound, worked well in generating good stopping power. There was no work for the ABS modulator throughout the ride. When I stopped at Denkanikottai, I couldn't believe that I had just done 70+ kms. After a rather long and fulfilling breakfast, I asked for directions to the dam and headed out.
The stretch to the dam gave me a taste of how the bike handled in roads with potholes and loose sand. I was tempted at many places to "feel a skid" wherever there was gravel or wet sand etc., but the tyres maintained their traction. I'm confident that the tyres alone will help counter some rider errors while taking turns on tarmac with sub-standard grip. I encountered a place where I could go off-road onto some gravel and damp grass, and there was no issues riding in this terrain.
After some time at the dam, I headed back and decided to increase my speed since I now knew the roads better. There were very few turns, but they did give me a chance to how the bike fared and it did handle well. One thing that was bothering me was that I couldn't do quick down shifts. I'm 6 feet tall and in my naturally stance on the bike with my left heel on the foot peg, I noticed that my toes point down at and angle. This is ok for up shifting as I just have to rotate my foot upwards. But for down shifting, since my toes are already under the shifter, I have to raise my foor completely off the foot peg and "stamp" on the shifter, which feels awkward. It would be perfect if the gear level angle can be adjusted just like on a Unicorn, but sadly no. Compared to the first time I rode and faced this problem, I have adjusted to it and guess I can live with it.
After reaching back to Denkanikottai, I decided to look for roads with more turns and headed towards Thally. Instead, what I got was a road under construction with might big sharp stones and gravel! I literally stopped and thought about whether this route was worth a puncture. Started riding in 2nd gear at a low speed, ride was not so bumpy as I had expected, probably because the tyre pressure was not too high. After a couple of minutes, proper tarmac welcomed me and it was a relief, although the tyres didn't break a sweat. I had expected some bruises, the MRFs being a softer compound than the Continentals, but there weren't any, just some sand sticking to the surface. This was all good news for me, and probably the extra weeks I had to wait for the MRFs are paying off. But this is just the start and too soon to comment as the bike has done just 400 kms. Hoping to finish the run-in and first service ASAP to unleash the bike's potential.
Cheers,
Arvind
This is the first ride report of my Honda CBR250R. It's been a week since I got this baby delivered, but didn't really do justice to riding it as I was restricted to commutes within the traffic laden city of Bangalore. So I decided to give that engine a spin on a short "run-in" trip. The entire ride turned out to be a fantastic experience and I've become more acclimatized with the dynamics of the bike.
Initially me and a college-mate (who is a CBR expert and has clocked more than 45k on it) had planned to do a 200 km loop covering Bangalore - Kanakapura - Anchetty. But plans changed and I had to do a solo, so I decided to cover the same distance but on a different route. There was one "Panchapalli" a.k.a Chinnar dam that had eluded me during my previous trips, so I decided to check it out as part of my first ride on the CBR. And so I set out on the week-new machine to get to know it better.
Initially, I had apprehensions on whether a long trip would be a good idea during the run-in period. This is owing to the fact that I had broke-in my previous bike (Unicorn Dazzler) with just commutes to office. The owners' manual of the CBR plainly mentioned that full throttle starts and rapid acceleration should be avoided during run-in period. This was not of great help to me, as I rarely do these even after run-in period. Rather, I did not have a quantitative measure of speeds/RPMs/loads/temperatures that I should be operating the bike in to be considered safe during its initial days. However, I decided to make use of what I already knew about run-ins and how the engine shouldn't be strained beyond limit and so this contributed to limiting the trip route to country roads with minor elevation changes. Though tempted, I had to set ghat riding for another day. Result - massive chicken strips left on the tyres after the trip :P
After packing just my cam, I started (rather late) from home and hit a busy Hosur road at 8.20am. The bike "felt" really confident as I set out. In the previous week I had ironed out some minor issues (like with gear shifting, more on this later) by just adapting to it. I hit the first high speed of 85kmph of the day after exiting the Electronic city ramp and bike felt rock solid and planted to the road with no major vibrations. 80kmph was reached at 5k RPM in 6th gear, these figures looked good to me and I made these the mission parameters for day's ride. At the end of the day, my run had consisted of sticking to these numbers for 90% of the time, with occasional variations in RPM in 4th and 5th gears between 3k and 6k. Max speed was (rider-limited :P) to 95 kmph. I couldn't check the gas mileage returned as I couldn't find out how much fuel was consumed and tank is yet to become empty from the 7L I had filled. But a mental note to self to keep a tab on mileage to detect possible issues with the bike (too high or too low a mileage is not good I guess).
The first 80 kms stretch to Denkanikottai saw me maintaining a strict speed limit of 80 kmph. The road conditions were damp but the MRF rubbers seemed to handle it rather well. Brakes were sharp wherever I wanted them and combined with the sticky soft compound, worked well in generating good stopping power. There was no work for the ABS modulator throughout the ride. When I stopped at Denkanikottai, I couldn't believe that I had just done 70+ kms. After a rather long and fulfilling breakfast, I asked for directions to the dam and headed out.
The stretch to the dam gave me a taste of how the bike handled in roads with potholes and loose sand. I was tempted at many places to "feel a skid" wherever there was gravel or wet sand etc., but the tyres maintained their traction. I'm confident that the tyres alone will help counter some rider errors while taking turns on tarmac with sub-standard grip. I encountered a place where I could go off-road onto some gravel and damp grass, and there was no issues riding in this terrain.
After some time at the dam, I headed back and decided to increase my speed since I now knew the roads better. There were very few turns, but they did give me a chance to how the bike fared and it did handle well. One thing that was bothering me was that I couldn't do quick down shifts. I'm 6 feet tall and in my naturally stance on the bike with my left heel on the foot peg, I noticed that my toes point down at and angle. This is ok for up shifting as I just have to rotate my foot upwards. But for down shifting, since my toes are already under the shifter, I have to raise my foor completely off the foot peg and "stamp" on the shifter, which feels awkward. It would be perfect if the gear level angle can be adjusted just like on a Unicorn, but sadly no. Compared to the first time I rode and faced this problem, I have adjusted to it and guess I can live with it.
After reaching back to Denkanikottai, I decided to look for roads with more turns and headed towards Thally. Instead, what I got was a road under construction with might big sharp stones and gravel! I literally stopped and thought about whether this route was worth a puncture. Started riding in 2nd gear at a low speed, ride was not so bumpy as I had expected, probably because the tyre pressure was not too high. After a couple of minutes, proper tarmac welcomed me and it was a relief, although the tyres didn't break a sweat. I had expected some bruises, the MRFs being a softer compound than the Continentals, but there weren't any, just some sand sticking to the surface. This was all good news for me, and probably the extra weeks I had to wait for the MRFs are paying off. But this is just the start and too soon to comment as the bike has done just 400 kms. Hoping to finish the run-in and first service ASAP to unleash the bike's potential.
Cheers,
Arvind
.. Kill the chicken strips soon and kill all of them 
It's been a really long time since I have done a proper ride after my Kerala monsoon trip. Hoping to catch up with you soon, and once again, my sincere apologies for not being able to make it.
Comment