New 125 v old 250

[Sommers]

go the new 250 Ninja!!!

[Drach]

Originally Posted by Falcore

rgv250 ftw

My mate had one, and he loved it!!!! Then Desmogod had his little incident.....

[Maxo]

vtr 250.

[wirafals]

hyo 250 if you have nerve of steel

[Aphex]

Originally Posted by wirafals

hyo 250 if you have nerve of steel

And the mind to carry a complete set of spares with you.

[wirafals]

Originally Posted by Aphex

And the mind to carry a complete set of spares with you.

and backpack off course

[mu53wa]

THanks for all the input guys, went and looked at the CBR125 yesterday - nice looking bike but yeah don't think it will keep me entertained for long.

Now looking for an early-mid 90's CBR250RR around $4-5k, very little available in Perth it seems though.

[Revelations]

i had this dilemma...look at the forsale section fireblade250 has his up for sale for cheap

[kwakas]

buy_this_bike_here!

[Sp0t]

Originally Posted by wirafals

hyo 250 if you have nerve of steel

To deal with all the digs about riding a Hyo?

[merctom]

If your looking at a 125...

YouTube - MCN test: Yamaha R125 takes on Honda...

[thro]

pity the r125 isn't for sale here...

[dom69]

go the aprilia RS250,you will never get sick of it!!!

[thro]

^^ i think the point was, he has a 4k budget and for that money he can afford a ZXR-250 or a new CBR125 (well thats what I read into it, otherwise i have no idea why he'd be comparing new 125 vs old 250).

If you can find a good condition RS250 for that money, I'll buy it.

The new bike will "just work".

The ZXR-250 will be much faster though. MUCH MUCH faster. But its going to have the issues a 10-20 year old bike will have...

[Stratos]

Old 250. If you looking at new 125, forget the 4 stroke unless you live and commute in the CBD. Mito or RS125. But they are not cheap.

And i advise against a RGV or RS250 for a 1st bike. They earned the name 'Kid Killers' for a reason. As a second bike, shit yeah! And its always fun having a two stroke to tinker with! Im miss my RS so much.

If i could choose out of the old 250 4strokes, i would take the ZX2, purely from a performance point of view. Practicable is not a word i understand.

[mu53wa]

I ended up extending the budget and have bought a new Ninja 250, couldnt go against it in the end. Thanks for all the replies though.

[xanthian]

I realise this is flogging a dead horse, but just in case someone else searches this thread, there are actually legitimate reasons for buying the new cbr 125.

One of them would be fuel efficiency. If you pick up an old, revvy 250 (with the carbs normally in less than completely perfect working order), the cbr will quite happily take you the same distance on almost half the petrol. Even if you have a perfectly maintained 250, the 125 is still more fuel efficient. Think of it more as a scooter that looks and handles like a bike. If you just need a commuter and aren't taking the freeway to work, it's a tossup between a vespa or the cbr 125, in my opinion.

Another big thing would have to be the pillion pegs. Ok, so you may not have the oomph to take a pillion out on a real road, but at least you have the option of taking one down back streets; the pillion pegs on a cbr 250 are so fictionally placed, however, you typically don't even have the option of installing a backwarmer unless it's 3 feet tall. This isn't true of all 250's; the gpx has much better pillion peg placement, for one.

And, yes, the mechanical issues can be a plus or a minus; repairing an old bike is less complicated than a new bike (apart from the carbs), but you can be guaranteed you will need more maintenance by the same token. If you want to learn to service a bike well, an old 250 is normally a better candidate, and you'll learn more because you'll have to delve deeper inside it, but if you just want to ride it, it will be an extra cost at the mechanic's for its higher speeds.

As others have rightfully stated though, an old 250 goes significantly faster. It usually has character (no two are alike, where I don't think I've seen a cbr 125 not in the red-black colour scheme), sounds better, can go fast enough for the freeway, and ultimately sells better, with far less depreciation. In my opinion, they look better too; I just can't stand the swingarm on the 125.

Of course, an old 250 doesn't have a warranty, which your new ninja will, so the extra price you paid does go towards something. Be aware that there are old 250s around that are selling for cheaper prices than you paid, and go significantly faster, however.

[scaffardi]

Go with the cbr125r and buy a roo racing exhaust pipe dosnt sound like a posty bike any more its louder then all other bikes ive been next to . and they get 350/400km out of 10L of petrol, plus they are good for traffic And i can also keep it at 120/125km/h on the freeway.

[semi]

Originally Posted by xanthian

Another big thing would have to be the pillion pegs. Ok, so you may not have the oomph to take a pillion out on a real road, but at least you have the option of taking one down back streets; the pillion pegs on a cbr 250 are so fictionally placed, however, you typically don't even have the option of installing a backwarmer unless it's 3 feet tall. This isn't true of all 250's; the gpx has much better pillion peg placement, for one.

bah, cbrs are ok for pillions. I have been pillioned and pillioned others on them, and it wasnt that bad. The gix is a million times better, but it wasnt too terrible.

[Spock]

Originally Posted by Aphex

Everyone on here that's purchased a CBR125 has got sick of it very quickly.

I've got a CBR125 and I'm not sick of it...