The Fastest 250cc Motorcycles
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- Опубликовано: 11 июл 2024
- This is the story of the fastest 250cc motorcycles ever built,
and the rivalries witin the industry that led to them breaking the 100mph barrier and then riding into the distance.
Both two-strokes and four-strokes from the past make the bikes of today look rather tame by comparison.
The full article is here
barebonesmc.com/the-fastest-2...
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
02:19 Todays Crop
03:34 The Cream Of The Past
03:35 Mondial Bialbero
04:00 Aermacchi Ala d'Oro
05:06 A Special Mention For MZ
06:10 Honda CB 72 Dream Twin
07:20 Ducati 250 Mach 1
08:15 Kawasaki A1 Samurai
09:47 Yamaha RD 250
11:20 Kawasaki S1 250 SS Mk 1
12:40 Suzuki GT 250 X7
13:35 Yamaha RD 250 LC
15:00 Honda MVX 250 F
16:49 Suzuki RG 250 Gamma
17:40 Kawasaki KR 250
20:09 Honda NS 250 R
21:04 The Four-Strokes
22:45 Yamaha TZR 250
23:50 Honda NSR 250 R
25:05 Suzuki RGV 250
26:37 Kawasaki KR1
29:00 Kawasaki KR1S
30:30 Suzuki RGV 250 SP
31:15 Aprilia RS 250
33:10 Some Honourable Mentions
37:40 Thoughts From The Shed
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ride free everyone
The Suzuki Super Six deserves at least an honourable mention
You are probably right, Cheers for watching, ride free
Oh yeah. It left every other 250 at the time standing.
@@barebonesmc And the t250 j
How about the Suzuki Hustler.
@@noiwanttobeanonymous3797 pretty much the same machine, the T20 and T250 had mainly cosmetic differences, the earlier T20 was quicker as well. The same basic engine was carried through from the T20 to the X7
When I turned 17, back in 1981, the first thing I did was to get myself an RD250. Crazy bike, sometimes I am amazed that I reached my 18th birthday. I only rode it in London but it was perfect for city riding as it got up to 60 really quickly! You never forget your first real bike.
that ones true 🙂 I remember taking the cash for a trick KH 250 when i had just passed my test and they had just got a 350LC in, it was a hard choice but the LC won 🙂
I had the RD200 , electric start was rare then .
@@joecamel6835 they were another bonkers little bike 🙂Cheers for watching mate, have a great weekend 🙂
@@barebonesmc Bet you wish you still had your 350 LC, that bike is a classic. You need deep pockets to buy one of those now. After I passed my test I went for the GS1000, 4 stoke direction instead. Been riding ever since, keeps you young at heart 🙂
@@rufus1346 indeed mate, but if i had who knows what bikes i might have missed 🙂 enjoy the ride mate
I couldn't agree more about todays 250s and 400s being made to look like donkey's when compared to the 1980s and 90s bikes like the KR1-S, RGV, NSR, RS and TZR 250s and the CBR, RVF, VFR, FZR, ZXR and GSX-R 400s. My first 250 was the Yamaha RD250E, then the TZR250, RGV250, my last 250 being the Aprilia RS (the Biaggi replica), to this day I've never had a bike that handled better than the wee Aprilia and that includes GSX-R, CBR, Yamaha R series 600s and 1000s, in fact the only bike I've owned that matches it is my 2023 Triumph Street Triple RS (29 years later), I'm in my mid sixties but I still miss the smell, sound and thrill of a 250 stroker hitting the power band, I just have to catch a whiff of burning two stroke oil and it takes me back to my youth.
Castrol R runs through my veins lol Cheers for watching mate, ride free
Well said....as stuff "improves " things go into reverse...a modern 250 with less power then a 1980s 125...
glad you enjoyed it mate 🙂Cheers for watching. Ride Free 🙂
The CBR250RR sounds like nothing else revving up to the moon! The bike made you ring its neck and it taught me so much about riding!
You learn a lot more riding a small bike.
Expensive hand grenade, good chasis though
Had the FZRRRRRR, loved it but I was always wanting a 400 or 600. Now I know better I wish I still had it😔
The lessons we all learn eh :-) cheers all, happy riding
What a great presentation of these old greats. I remember being 15/16 yrs old drooling at the 250’s as they were released and the so envious of the slightly older generation. When my turn came I got the Yamaha RD250LC and would street race anything. A great trip down memory lane - thanks for putting this vid together I can see a lot of love and effort went into it.
glad it jogged some good memories mate 🙂Cheers for watching. Ride Free 🙂
Thank you for doing this vid, brings back good memories of me & my best mate riding out to southport on a saturday on our 250's, i had a yam TDR250 and he had a G plate RGV250, we used to ride to west coast bikes, they always had exotic import stuff from japan, TZR 250 reverse cylinders, the NSR 250 with credit card ignition, GSXR 250's, NSR400's etc i very nearly bought a katana 250 from west coast but ended up buying a fully restored RD350LC, think i made the wise choice 😁 we were lucky to ride in a time when you could ride a bike that gave you such excitement and we did'nt have the green mafia wanting to hang you from the nearest lampost for riding something other than a pushbike. You get more excitement taking a big dump than what you get on a modern 250, 😂 and we used to think the superdream 250 was boring. I feel sorry for the young uns, there are some good nutters out there who would be great on a 250 stinkwheel but the good old stuff is well out of their price range now.
lol, cheers for the comment mate, and yep, todays crop are a bit sad, Cheers for watching mate, ride free 🙂
I had years ago kh250 greentripple. Then rd 200 and 250.my next one was amazing tzr 250.
The first Hondas brought into the UK were the 250 Dream with the full mudguards and 125. Then the 125 Benly arrived, what a sharp looking 125 that was. A shame the 250 sports version wasn't styled the same.
i do like the old Benly 🙂 cheers for watching mate, have a great day
As a teenager, I remember a nighttime race along the North Wales coast between a BSA Starfire B25 and a Ducati Desmo 250 single - We all waited at the cafe some 15 miles away to see who might arrive first - it was the Ducati a good couple of minutes ahead - astonishingly the front downpipe was glowing dull red - they were both gorgeous looking bikes
wild times 🙂Cheers for watching mate. Ride Free 🙂
Amazing work. Thank you. 42 minutes of edition and thorough information. Really appreciated
Glad you enjoyed it! :-) Cheers for watching mate, enjoy the ride
I'm currently rebuilding a 67 cb77, not a 72 sadly, but it really is a nice platform. Sleek, simple, and reliable. Can't wait to get this old thing back on the road.
I had a cb72 It was my first bike and I didnt realise how good it was at the time,and it could do about 95 mph ,and more reliable than anything british
A Very Pretty Bike , one of Honda’s Best.
I traded one in the 90's for a kawasaki ER5, not criticising the kawa, but man was that a mistake.
Remember many of the 70s bikes mentioned -my father had a 1973 RD350,my brother had RD400 and I remember the X7,RD250LC have an original 80s Honda pamphlet for the MVX250,a surprising failure as a rider in the town I lived had one,rode it hard and didn't have any issues thanks for the doc much appreciated Auckland New Zealand 2023
welcome aboard mate, Cheers for watching, have a great week
My 250s in my earlier life were all Kawasaki, S1B, S1C and KH250B1. All good fun. After that came a Z900A4 (I still have it) then a ZZR1100D2 (I still have that too). But, I was missing a Kawasaki triple in my life. So I bought a Kawasaki H1F in 2015. The 500 is so much more tractable and torquey compared to the 250s. Passion fulfilled.
I actually owned a stock 1964 T20 Suzuki 250, the first of the 250 Hustler Six Speeds in NZ which could exceed 100 mph and accelerated quicker if the Posilube Oil injection was set at half the factory setting and quality Two Stroke Oil used. I also had the use of an A1 Kawasaki belonging to a mates brother and discovered once that if you set the rotary valve on one side two notches back from standard , the bike had to be push started but could pull 135 mph once it was up and running. It wasn’t quite as quick as the Hustler and the biggest quirk was the pegs were round on round shafts so at a high lean on a race track you couldn’t leave your boots on the rubber as it spun, so you’d lift your foot up over the Carb box … both sides … that was a challenge … the Ram Air GT 250 from Suzuki accelerated quicker but topped out before my T20. That T20 was bought by a scout collecting early bikes for the Japanese collector market, I really regret selling that bike …
enjoy them mate, Cheers for watching mate, Ride Free 🙂
I also had a 250 hustler . I hit the ton on that.thats the cop told me anyway.also from New Zealand
@@rickydee5863 whenever did the cops get anything right tho lol, i cant comment much on the Hustler as we never got it
I had a 1970 Bridgestone 200 GTR and then a 1970 H1, Cherry Bomb. Still alive at 68. Still ride, Tiger 800XC, among others in the garage today.
I sure miss the 2strokes.
Great video ! One of the most comprehensive look into 250s ive ever seen! Very well put together and full of suspense. 100/100
thanks a lot mate, it was hard work im not gonna lie, i started thinking it would be an easy one lol, after listening to my own voice for 42 minutes over and over again it wasnt lol, .Cheers for watching mate, Ride Free
WOW!!!! That was a mind-blowing video by you and I enjoyed every second of it. Thanks
cheers mate, a much appreciated comment, it was a bit of an epic to do, and you still get know it alls moaning lol. glad you enjoyed it and thanks again for the comment, .Cheers for watching, Ride Free
Great vid. Thanks for the time you put into this.
🙂Cheers for watching and for the comment mate. Ride Free 🙂
Wow! What a fantastic video. Thanks for making it 👏👏👏
glad you enjoyed it mate 🙂 Theres plenty more on the channel, hope you will look around and find something your interested in. there is more on the website too. and there will be more to come. Cheers for watching. Ride Free 🙂
What a fantastic video !! Brought back soooo many memories , superb 👊
im glad mate and Cheers for watching , hope you have a great weekend
Great video. It brought back many memories of the late 70’s and early 80’s! 👏👏👏
glad you enjoyed it mate, .Cheers for watching, Ride Free
Awesome video, thanks for making this 👍👍👍
:-) Cheers for watching mate and thanks for the comment, enjoy your weekend
This was a Great Video - Thanks for this !
Glad you enjoyed it! :-) Cheers for watching mate and thanks for the comment, enjoy your weekend
I had the KR 250 back in 1984, absolutely loved it. But then i have always been a 2 stroke fan.
cant fault you mate, Castrol R runs through my veins lol, .Cheers for watching mate, Ride Free
Thank you for a trip down memory lane. Back in the day I owned the RD, X7 and a KRIS before moving on to bigger four strokes. My older brother had a Suzuki Hustler and later GT, overlooked in your review (that’s not a criticism). I appreciate the time taken by you to research all this 👍 most enjoyable.
X7 was a rare bird.
the list of bikes i missed keeps growing lol, but at 42 minutes it was getting to be a nightmare already lol, Cheers for watching mate, Ride Free 🙂
@@mikebreen2890 The X7 was common as muck here lol, not so common now though lol, a lot were trashed badly 🙂
@@barebonesmc It was all RD250 and Kawasaki KH 250's here, nobody had an X7. Well, somebody must have done but you know what I mean. Oddly, one person did have an X5.
@captainblacktooth371 lol, glad to oblige mate 🙂 .Cheers for watching mate, Ride Free
We most certainly got the Suzuki Across here in Australia. It was my first ever bike and what I learnt to ride on. It was very fast for its size and after some tuning I clocked it at 180kph. The helmet compartment was also one of the best features for a commuter bike and would hold a decent amount of shopping if the situation called.
I sincerely regret selling my Across and can definitely see myself getting another one again one day.
Fantastic video by the way, well done.
The helmet where the tank normally is was such a great design, perfect for a learner. I never understood why those bikes seemed to suddenly vanish from the roads. I guess they just got too old. Shame!
Great video and presentation, loved it.
🙂Cheers for watching mate. Ride Free 🙂
Your films are superb! Packed with encyclopaedic info and great footage! Bravo 👏
He is not accurate at all . Suzuki was missed out via the T250 Hustler and the GT 250
@@Interdiction ah ok
there is always a choice, at 42 minutes the video was already too long, i cant always include everything the T20 was actually closer than the GT or Hustler but the T20 should probably have got a mention
cheers mate, i do my best :-) Cheers for watching
I've saved this vid to my, Bike Playlist, because I will definitely want to watch it again and again... I've always loved, fast, small capacity bikes... Great work Sir !
glad you enjoyed it mate 🙂 Theres plenty more on the channel, hope you will look around and find something your interested in. there is more on the website too. and there will be more to come. Cheers for watching.Hope you will climb aboard. Ride Free 🙂
What a great rip down memory lane that was. Thank you barebonesmc, that was abrilliant video.
Glad you enjoyed it 🙂 cheers for watching mate, have a great day
I had an RDLC 250 for a few years... 84-87 I think... what a great little bike, I also acquired a beat up 350 version. One of the baffles fell out one day when a friend was wringing it out, and the piston seized. They were good to work on as well...
sounds like an entertaining story lol .Cheers for watching mate, Ride Free
Good video. Id like to see the same thing for the 125 two strokes. There was some really cool ones in the 80s and 90s
who knows in time mate but itll take e a while to recover from this one lol, .Cheers for watching mate, Ride Free
Just absolutely brilliant, thank you!
Cheers for watching mate, ride free
Best video I have watched this year. Absolutely brilliant.
Cheers mate, theres plenty more on the channel and to come :-) glad you enjoyed it so much and hope you step aboard :-) Cheers for watching, hope you have a great weekend
Great video, brought back some great memories of my early biking days. Had a KH250(B2) back in ‘78 , bought on the back of a ‘Motorcycle Weekly ‘ road test where it was tested at 93.4 mph (one way ) , making it the fastest 250 of the day . Truth be told, there was little to choose between the KH , RD or the GT but it didn’t stop my mates and me arguing, constantly. Happy days.
lol, oh those arguments lol, we had an "agreed" location to use late at night, the coppers even came to race some nights lol, wild times, Cheers for watching and the comment mate, Ride Free
I had a new blue October 77 B2, from Kawasaki lowfield heath Gatwick . An Excellent bike that I kept long after my test and It still lives in my memories to this day.
My first big bike after my test was a red and grey Kr1s. Loved it to pieces no matter how often it tried to kill me.😊
lol Cheers for watching and the comment mate, Ride Free
Video very well explained with great ownership of details. CONGRATULATIONS!
Welcome aboard mate, enjoy the ride and cheers for the support
Fantastic. Thoroughly enjoyed it 👌
Glad to hear it :-) cheers for watching mate, have a great weekend
I owned 3 of the list, the RGV ,NSR and KR1 , my favorite being the Suzuki😊 ,god I wish I still owned it or any one of them , great video ,took me back to some great times ,thanks😊
Cheers for watching mate, have a great weekend
The Suzuki X7 was an afterthought to the T20 Super Six that blew away any other 250 at the time. It's a shame it wasn't mentioned.
I do my best mate 🙂 at 42 minutes long it was just getting to be a nightmare so some were always going to be missed, Cheers for watching , Ride Free 🙂
There were quite a few GT250's in between.
It was at 12:40 , watch again !!
The x7 was just a yamaha with its reed valves. They even sounded the same. They were just too small, low and skinny. What this video fail to show is the appalling fuel consumption of all the 2 strokes. Never thought about it at the time but most were around 20mpg. I have a 380 and that's doing 18mpg when pushed. That and engine life span finished them off.
@@maxflight777the Suzuki T20 did not get a mention.
Thanks for that. Your view of 250 cc bikes is the best I’ve watched thanks again
Glad you enjoyed it mate, Cheers for watching, Ride Free
That was a fantastic video…thank you 😃👍
glad you enjoyed it mate 🙂 Theres plenty more on the channel and the website, let me know what you think. hope youll climb aboard. We do have a great bunch as subscribers and i can thoroughly recommend reading some of the comments too, some funny and most informative too. Cheers for watching. Ride Free 🙂
2 stroke engines are very sensitive to humidity as well as ambient temperature, I remember how much better they pulled on a cool and humid autumn or spring day, and how a hot and dry day used to affect them... Maybe that explains some of the speed variation in different tests..
You're absolutely right, I rode with a mate over 100 miles from home to Nottingham with a mate who had RD250 DX and it was about 80 degrees that day. When we came back a couple of days later the weather had really turned and it was about 55 degrees. Both bikes were a hell of a lot quicker on the journey back.
@@sambrooks7862 Unfortunately on the cooler and damper days the road surface was often damp as well, which limited the extra fun you could have - especially with tyres in 1960's and 70's.
@@chrissmith2114 yep, still, binning it is all part of lifes rich tapestry lol!
Back in the early 90’s I was the proud owner of a ZZR1100, my young cousin had a KR1S. I can well remember riding at over 130 mph with him sat directly behind me on the little 250.. I was genuinely shocked at how quick his bike was..🤓
the equivalent for me was being passed around cadwell by a 1970s 125 racing honda that looked like it was made with mechano lol, Cheers for watching mate, have a great week
Your story at 130 sound like a lot of BULLSHIT M
ORE LIKE 130 KLM.S TO ME.TRY THAT NN
NIWNOW YOU
130 130TO ME TRY THAT
Try that today yiu would still be useing a bus pass
I modified a 250cc four stroke motorcycle and went 123 mph at the Ohio mile in 2012. Dyno horse power was 61 hp and almost 30 ftlb of torque.
Great video.
tell us more :-) sounds a beast
@@barebonesmc I am Darkhorse Racing. I started with a stock 2008 250 ninja and just tried to see how fast it would go in an official land speed event. 84 mph at Maxton North Carolina with the East Coast Timing Association. Long story short over the next fifteen years I have been racing with a top speed of 123mph in 2012 at the Ohio mile. It’s a 4 stroke parallel twin. I have run it from stock to turbo nitrous methanol. It’s been fun.
@@darkhorsegarage9623 good going 🙂 Im a corners and dirt man more than straaight line speed but our differences make the world more exciting 🙂 enjoy it mate
@@barebonesmc This just started to see how many things I could do with 249cc. I rode to work every day., then went to the drag strip. The bike ran a 14.2 second 1/4 mile. Then I did a couple riding clinics and some track days. I planned to do an Iron Butt rally across the US in 50 hr, but once I tried land speed racing the people are amazing. I never looks back.
@@darkhorsegarage9623 good on you mate
Very enjoyable RUclips upload with great footage in order of some awesome bikes over the years, thank you for that. Best Wishes, QQ.
Thanks for your support mate 🙂 the feedback does help me and i do appreciate it
Great video, I loved the trip down memory lane, I think you are dead right about modern 250s not hitting the mark, I feel very lucky that I passed my bike test in 1986 .
My first bike after passing the test was a mark 2 rg250, I see nothing that would make me excited about a 250 now. What a shame.
it is mate, 🙂 cheers for watching, have a great day
On a 5km stretch of motorway heading north my 250cc Hyosung Comet V twin held 160km and 148km on the return south .60kg rider.Not bad for a Korean 4 stroke.
Well it is a Suzuki designed engine after all. The engine in the 650cc version is just a direct copy of the SV650s engine.
Great video, thank you.
glad you enjoyed it mate 🙂Cheers for watching. Ride Free 🙂
thank you so much an amazing video
glad you enjoyed it mate 🙂Cheers for watching. Ride Free 🙂
When selling motorcycles in Japan, from around 1980 there were many traffic accidents, and under pressure from the government, four manufacturers began to voluntarily regulate horsepower according to engine displacement. Specifically, 50cc was set to have 7.2 horsepower, 125cc to 22 horsepower, 250cc to 45 horsepower, 400cc to 59 horsepower, 750cc to 77 horsepower, and over 1000cc to 100 horsepower. These numbers were lowered in 1992 to 40 horsepower for the 250cc and 53 horsepower for the 400cc. This voluntary regulation was abolished in 2007, but exhaust gas regulations had already stopped the production of two-stroke engines.The Aprilia RS-250 might not have taken the top spot if it hadn't been for self-imposed restrictions that only annoyed its users.
Cheers for adding this mate. As i have often said, if we could amass the combined knowledge of all the subscribers we would have the most comprehensive motorcycle encyclopedia ever 🙂
I had one of the first RD250's at 17 years old, people always forget the predecessor YDS7 which was just as good even though it didn't have reed valves also the Suzuki Hustler which was good. Enjoyed the video very much.
Just purchased a YDS7 in mint condition had one as a 16 year old.1971
cheers for the comments, .and thanks for watching , Ride Free
@@stevenedwards2162 I wish I had a 250 now it would be ideal, enjoy it.
@@andypandy9931 Thanks I paid a fortune for it but I just had to have it the exact same colour in gold and black as the one I had as a youngster, certainly will not be riding like when I was sixteen thou 🤣👍
@@stevenedwards2162 no Steven take it easy we are both a lot older now. I used to really hammer my RD 250 then got a new Kawasaki H1 I think £715 and then a H2 which was £939 on the road.
Thank you for the thorough, detailed research.
Thanks for your support mate 🙂 the feedback does help me and i do appreciate it
Rode a newly purchased MVX250 in the 80's it was very cool . Never seen one since. Cheers from New Zealand.
a very rare bike here too, Cheers for watching mate, Ride Free 🙂
Great video (as always), I hankered after the KR1-S when I passed my test, but my Dad who signed for the finance said no, GPX250R lol. Re the ZX-25R, I LOVE the fact that Kawasaki bucked the recent trend of singles and twins and remade a mighty screaming 250-4! SHAME though it wasn't released in the UK(Worldwide) 😒. But yeah, I regularly saw 120 on the clock with my GPX (ok giving 5 MPH with speedo accuracy etc 115), but, LOVED it! 14,000 rpm red line, the looks (STILL wished I had the KR though hahaha). My biking life had many a 'Strange'/unusual bikes with a few Imports, black and red GPZ400R (I even once saw a GPZ500R in a dealers window), GSX400F/R, Bros400 and a coupla others...
Ride safe, ride free my friend(s)!
😎🇬🇧
You mightn't be here today if your dad had allowed you to buy the KR1S. A friend of mine purchased one new. I was lucky enough to take it out a few times. It was blisteringly fast with the most brutal powerband that I've ever experienced. The thing would barely run until you were doing 5 or 6 thousand RPM but when you got to the 7 thousand mark, it was like someone had attached a rocket to the bike and lit it. You couldn't change gears fast enough to keep up with it, just about.
I actually find it hard to believe that they were 60 horse power. To this day, it's got to be amongst the fastest "real world" bikes that I've ridden.
My friend sold that bike at about 30,000km. It had had about 5 sets of rings through it and he'd given up replacing plastics at that point. Everything was broken or scratched. The bike was a shadow of its former self. Somehow, my friend survived. The KR was not a bike for the road. The GPX was a much better choice. Your father is a wise man.
@@davidbrayshaw3529 Hahaha yeah, you're right, after I had the GPX for a while and kept reading about this and that about the KR1/1S I thought "Yeah, can't be arsed with the constant piston ring replacements ,(even though it was easy enough to do it on strokers), but, I seriously didn't want to end up side if the road with a broken ring hahaha. I did end up getting an RD350 YPVS FII (with some Stan Stevens tuning) after I had some time on the GPX so, did at least get to enjoy some 2stroke madness again, loved that too! 😈😈 Mwuhaha 😉
😎🇬🇧
cheers mate, i guess the ZXR400 is the closest we have got, but with a 9.6k price tag it may take some selling against the bigger bikes, :-) Cheers for watching mate, enjoy the ride
I was 17 when I bought my 1985 KR250. Straight from an XS250 this thing was FAST. It would do awesome wheelies too.
im sure it did .Cheers for watching mate, Ride Free
What a great video, really enjoyed that. 👍
Cheers for watching mate, have a great weekend 🙂
So many Beautiful bikes, great video.
.Cheers for watching mate, Ride Free
What a fanrastic video, thank you! The most exhilarating and exciting class of bikes there ever was, in my humble opinion.
I own a 1991 KR1-S, which I bought new. It wears the black & green racing livery like the example shown in your video, and aside from a couple of minor but unsightly fairing scratches which were professionally filled & painted in the early 2000's, and a 5mm hole repair & repaint on the exhaust, it is all factory and mint. A low mileage example it's whole life, sadly it just doesn't get the miles these days which it once did. I keep it run and maintained though, and the soundtrack alone isn ike a time machine, transporting me back 30 years to the twisty country roads of Sussex & Hampshire, and rhe pure adrenaline rush.
Happy days indeed ❤
Thanks again for this great video.Would love to see the full KR250 deep dive please!
the KR250 video is going to take some time :-) ive got to contact some owners and translation can be a bugger sometimes lol, but it is on my list :-) Cheers for watching and glad you enjoyed it , hope you have a great weekend
Greeves Silverstone is another racer capable of 100mph+ on right gearing. Started off with RAS model with 36a villiers engine, but all following models were Greeves own engine.
i will have a look🙂Cheers for watching mate. Ride Free 🙂
The RD250F was an extremely exciting bike to own after my FS1E moped, it was crazy to be allowed to go from 45 mph to 95 mph without any instruction though.
wild days lol have a great day mate
Thats because back then people had brains ,didn't need instruction
@@randombanditdad3754 Wow, that really is a sweeping generalisation. I have a few mates who had bad accidents on their 250s at that time. I had done some off road riding as a schoolboy so was ok, it was more to do with experience than brains in my opinion.
@@randombanditdad3754 i dunno, i reckon i knew as many dumb asses then as i do now lol , enjoy the ride 🙂
@@bobupen6476 thats why on batteries it says do not drink contents 🤣🤣
excellent footage and sounds, loving the cadwell footage
🙂Cheers for watching mate. my second home :-) Ride Free 🙂
Brilliant video, Thanks.
.Cheers for watching mate, Ride Free
Having had two RD250’s in the early 1980’s then two RD350LC’s that still look amazing today. I would have loved an RG250 gamma. But looking at the 250 Katana and the other 250 fours, they sounded absolutely amazing!!!
i still remember borrowing a mates FZR 250 back when I was running a 350 LC, I loved it, a very different ride but great fun, and yes, an addictive exhaust note :-) Cheers for watching mate, hope you have a great weekend
@@barebonesmc Thanks, you too. It is good to see Cadwell Park, used to be my local track when I was living in Lincolnshire.
@@hughphillips1427 glorious track, and my 2nd home at times lol
Extra honourable mention to Yamaha SRX250 of 1984. 32hp and 123kg dry. Oh how I miss her.
Yes the Yamaha SRX 250 single/4stroke was so much fun Cafe Racer style bikini faring, rode it to university all week at Max throttle and put only $2 petrol in the tank. It was beautifully made with Yamaha great fit and finish.
not a bike i know much about to be honest :-) Cheers for watching mate, enjoy the ride
What a great show. I drove three RD 350 in the 80s , young, wild and fast as the Honda 750, with 74 Hp.
wild days, and even wilder nights 🙂Cheers for watching mate. Ride Free 🙂
Fantastic video thank you so much it brought back so many great memories.
glad you enjoyed it mate 🙂 Theres plenty more on the channel and the website, let me know what you think. hope youll climb aboard. We do have a great bunch as subscribers and i can thoroughly recomend reading some of the comments too, some funny and most informative too. Cheers for watching. Ride Free 🙂
@@barebonesmc Been on the road since I was 15 2nd bike was a RG250WEI Then at 17 I bought a GSXR750 in 1985 then a GSXR1100 in 1987. Now at the age of 54 I’ve never not owned a bike or multiple bikes at the same time currently have 3 and commuting on a GTR1400 concours. Thanks for that video once again I loved it. By the way I was blown away by an RS250 on a winding Rd while riding my R1 YAMAHA 🙄
Been there mate, being passed by a 125 when you are on a litre bike is sure to make you think lol in my defence it was an RS149, which is coming in the next big video :-) Great story 🙂Cheers for adding your bit mate. Ride Free 🙂
The Suzuki Across was very popular here in Australia. It was comfortable and powerful enough to tour on and the storage compartment (fuel tank) being able to carry a helmet was a bonus! PS Australia also got the KR250. Cheers.
.Cheers for watching mate, Ride Free
The fastest shopping trolley on two wheels.😀
@@MrTerrymiff lol
Also the chassis was designed to take up to a 500cc engine.
@@awestruck9075 that would have been a blinding bike
I'm surprised that you didn't mention the Suzuki X-6 Hustler. In 1967 it produced 29 hp and although I never saw figures that put it over 100mph, my 1967 X-6 Scrambler will easily go over 90mph.
This was a great video! I loved all the info and saw many bikes that I never heard of. Thank you!
Cheers for watching mate and glad you enjoyed it, there would always be missed bikes, i was sick of listening to my own voice by the end of this one lol , have a great weekend 🙂
In 1981 I had a 1971 T250 hustler and my God it was quick. I usually rode with 5 or 6 other lads, most rode either RD250s or X7s although one lad had a GT 250, none of them could get anywhere near my old hustler, it wasn't just "a bit quicker", it embarrassed all of them. The only lad I rode with who could get anywhere near me had a honda 400/4 and even then he wasn't faster unless it was head wind and he was about 3 stone lighter than me!
@@sambrooks7862 lol, weight is the enemy 🙂
@@barebonesmc tell me about it 😂
@@sambrooks7862 lol
Brilliant video by the way as all of yours are.
:-) Cheers for watching mate, enjoy the ride
Very interesting summary.
You made some excellent points about old vs new.
Thanks for posting.
Glad you enjoyed it mate .Cheers for watching , Ride Free
Sad thing about the KR-1 is the fact that it's crank-halfs were made in one unit which meant that you couldn't do a con rod replacement as like on any other regular two stroke. A friend of mine still takes one of these to the circuit and I'm the one to rebuild his cranks... 🙂
the voice of experience :-) .Cheers for watching mate, Ride Free
@@barebonesmc cheers to you for making these great videos! That's a thing i'm totally NOT experienced in. 🙂
@@phillarsson8253 thanks mate, i do my best, even an old dog like me can learn new tricks lol, if you look back, all i did until this year really was use RUclips as a store for old video footage, no editing really at all, then i began to edit the footage from the European tour last year and it sort of progressed from there, would never have believed it could take off like this, Cheers for the support, Ride Free 🙂
@@barebonesmc you're doing great, don't worry! As an old dog myself as being a motorcycle mechanic since I was around 13, I've ridden and worked on so many mopeds and motorcycles and even lawnmowers... from a simple Vespa Ciao over lots of Japs and crossing total overhauls of bevel-head Ducati's on to early Kawasaki ZZR 1100's cranks repairs. The list is long but ever so fascinating.
I owned a Suzuki Across for a few years so I'm very glad to see it get an honourable mention here. They were a great little bike, surprisingly reliable and quite popular here in Australia through the 90's.
One feature of the bike was the storage area where the fuel tank would be in a more traditional design, large enough for a full face helmet. The actual tank was under the seat, but only held approximately 12l of fuel.
ouch 12 ltrs even on a 250 is limiting, but good to hear a bit more about them, i knew about the storage, i guess thats where honda got the idea for the NC700 🙂) Cheers for watching mate, ride free 🙂
My first road bike was a bandit 250 which had the same engine as the across. Fun little screamer it was and dead reliable. I miss it!
Interesting, I didn't know about the storage, I recently sold my Honda NC750X and thought that was a groundbreaking idea, little did I know it had been done before.
@@tonyjourneyman1944 me neither mate, we live and learn as they say 🙂
@@barebonesmc Yeah, the 12 litre tank was a pain so I got into the habit of carrying a 5l fuel can in the trunk.
Awesome video like usual of course! It was a pleasure to to watch it with my coffee! And now i want a 250 2stroke 😂
lol, you are going to need a big garage in the end mate .Cheers for watching, Ride Free
Nicely made upload, thanks for your dedication to the subject, you brought back a few nice memories of less complicated times.👍More exciting times. 😏
wild days and even wilder nights 🙂Cheers for watching mate. Ride Free 🙂
Lot of research in this video, and well presented. My favourite 250 was the honda cb250rs which I owned for a couple of years. My only transport for work. Most certainly not a contender for this list. I agree about the lack of progress in this capacity, rather disappointing.
Cheers for the support mate, have a great weekend
Couple of things of note. Although in awe of Yamaha's TZR-1, I was lusting after an RGV250K back in 1988 when they first released. I already then currently owned a 1985 RG500 Gamma which I had bought new in early 1986. Still do. Pretty sure the Kawasaki KR-1 released a few months ahead of the RGV250K here in Australia. A younger friend still on his 250 licence limitation bought the Kawasaki KR-1 (new) shortly after its initial release, and I the opportunity to ride it hard. My recall is that it was a very appealing bike with no immediately apparent vices, and a drop dead gorgeous looker. I particularly loved its radial rims which had only just started becoming de rigeur in mainstream road motorcycling which Suzuki had deliberately avoided on their RG500G hampering it with bias ply rims and undersized front rotors in order to promote their marketing shift to 4 stroke with their new flagship the GSXR-750. Such a shame.
A bit over a decade later I bought one of the last new Suzuki RGV250Ts available from the RGV's final year export production run. That model was still black box unrestricted, but had had by then a rev limiter imposed at 11500rpm. By the end of the suffix T model produciton, all but one of the mechanical issues and undesirable idiosyncracies of the original and subsequent stock models had been eliminated, that being namely it's neutral stability and heavy front end tendency to head shake horrendiously requiring skilled corrective input if its straightline stability was upset by some external road condition/object. This could be all but eliminated by fitting a steering damper for which the frame was set up with a damper lug ex-factory, but of course at the cost of front end feedback & finessed feel. I never fitted one to mine, although I've experienced some 'you really need to be experienced and capable' scale tank slappers over the years attributable to this. The Aprilia RS250, owned by friends, which I've ridden shared that same characteristic. Stock, I put my RGV through the test radar at 212kph true flat nil wind. My overall assessment without detailed elaboration. It's a much more difficult and challenging bike to ride very fast capably than the RG500, and very VERY easy to get yourself pear shaped fast without experience and exceptional skill level. Definitely a bike for experienced skilled riders. Much as the wife persists in nagging me to sell them, I still own my RGV250T too.
great story :-) Cheers for watching and the comment mate, Ride Free
No mention of moto Morini. I did own a Ducati mach1 in 1965 and reached 8000rpm equivalent to 108mph; with full fairing and a slight wind behind me
@@marcellogenesi6390 Even fully faired on the track at its claimed 116kg dry with just 200ml of fuel in the tank and a 45kg rider aboard for 27HP, I find that an event I'd have to personally witness to believe without scepticism. Already read the memory lane specs, so please don't bother quoting them.
Perspective. My 1974 Ducati 450 Desmo (14kg heavier) producing the same spec HP would be pressed to do that as I recall, and not for long given rubbish Ducati metallurgy of the day. 70s' Ducatis in particular. Spit! Ugh! Just Ugh! Although I owned three and rode considerably more during that period, -sucker for punishment or slow learner (?), they were all a regrettable mistake given 20:20 hindsight.
Moto Morini made a momentary distribution presence splash for all of a figurative 5 seconds here in AU with one of their 350s mid 1970s during the height of Italian bike fashion craze, but the brand didn't sell. Pretty and stylish bike though. Fairly sure local pricing stupidity had something to do with it being a non-event at the time. Laverda, MV Augusta, Benelli, Moto Guzzi all suffered from the same overpricing affliction. Ducati was the only Italian brand near price competitive with understandable Japanese dominance, with Guzzi and Laverda providing a niche anternative to the cashed up BMW R90S buyer who wasn't one. The 750 S3 and 850 Le Mans (Mk I) Guzzis sure were stylish though.
I had a mate with 'Italian brand fever' who bought a new Laverda 500 of some now forgotten flavour in early 1979 I used to ride with frequently. Spectacularly unimpressive in all respects except price. In late 1979 or early '80 after I'd blown up the Desmo and GTS and in need of reliable set of two wheels for not too much money I bought a new Kawasaki Z500 which outperformed that Laverda -and just to to add insult to injury, for around a third of its price!
@@theblytonian3906 Whether you belied or not I did reach 8000 rpm, that is 108mph in fifth gear, maybe the road was slightly down hill I cannot remember. My first bike was a Triumph 200cc tiger cub. then a Gilera175cc super compressed, then a Ducati 250 Daytona, finally the Ducati 250 mach1; sadly followed do to anforseen circumstances to a an Austin Minivan.
@@marcellogenesi6390 That's a great distant memory to have regardless. =]
Great video!
I have a 1963 CB72, which I'm getting ready for the road at the moment.
good on you mate 🙂 cheers for watching mate, have a great day
What an absolutely excellent video. Really enjoyed watching this and I owned both a 250LC and TZR250 as a young man. Made me smile!
glad it jogged some good memories mate 🙂Cheers for watching. Ride Free 🙂
In the 90s my friend built an RG250 project with his dad. They sent the motor to Kevin Cameron to have it built. It put out 52WHP on a stingy local dyno. In hindsight it was one of the most special bikes I've ridden.
Top work yes that motor must av been well tuned also to produce that decent power it must have been fantastic on the go 😂
@@stephenhurst9257 Indeed, very peaky power delivery. About 2000rpm of useable power at the top of the rev range. If memory serves, it had re-worked FZR 600 forks and swingarm as well as wheels. If I knew then what I know now, I'd have a collection of historically significant motorcycles from the 80s and 90s. LOL
that was/is part of the joy, that tuning. We had a guy called Terry Beckitt back in my day who was a wizard. and i thought i had done fairly well getting a TZR I had to around 65HP but the guy who bought it (the right new owner) took it to Mick Abbey and in the end (lots of changes including a banshee block) got it up to almost 90HP at the wheel which was unbelievable to me. but i saw the dyno readout. Mick is obviously the modern day Terry Beckitt i think :-) Cheers for watching mate, have a great weekend
I wonder how much difference a fairing made to the top speeds. All of the earlier stuff up to about 1980 were naked bikes but after that not only were you getting a jump in engine output with water cooling but the bikes were all faired. Together they must have been worth a good few mph.
good point :-) Cheers for watching mate, ride free
Another great show. 👍
glad you enjoyed it mate, have you seen the " stroke Terrors one yet? 🙂Cheers for watching. Ride Free 🙂
Very nice narration. Brought back memories of my Suzuki GT250M (and BSA Starfire) and friends' racing X7s and RC250 LCs.
glad it jogged some good memories mate 🙂Cheers for watching. Ride Free 🙂
Great video, I really enjoyed it, but where are the Spanish 250's of the late 60's and early 70's? The Bultaco Metralla and Montesa Impala were both 100mph bikes on a good day with a tailwind. They were widely used in production racing and can still be seen in action at Spanish events.
The Bultacos also launched the career of one Mr. B Sheene
the Metralla has been mentioned, ill check the other one out, some inevitably get missed :-) .Cheers for watching , Ride Free
Great video! As a Suzuki fan, I would have liked to seen the X6 mentioned in there, but I know you can't always get everything! Great job!
It did just get too long in the end, there are plenty coming out of the woodwork though so who knows in future :-) Cheers for watching mate, have a great weekend
Yeah! The Suzuki X6 set records. It's production top speed was 104 mph. It came out before the Kawasaki samurai, and it was faster. I won a lot of gold with an X6 in the day.
@@shaggybreeks ill agree it probably should have got a mention 🙂 🙂 Cheers for watching mate, ride free
Beautiful bikes, thank you for your effort.
🙂Cheers for watching mate. Ride Free 🙂
I don’t watch a lot of 40+ minute videos but I didn’t think about not continuing with this one. My first M/C was a 305cc Honda CB77, Yamaha 250, Bultaco 250 and a couple of Aermacchis a 250cc and a 350cc. I also had a Honda CL72 “Scrambler”. This was the last half of the’60’s & some of the’70’s. Just to top it off; a Triumph 650cc and BSA Gold Star 500(in a box. Never got it running). Thank you for the video/info.
i dont do 40 min videos in general mate but this one just didnt seem right split up :-) glad you enjoyed it even if it was a marathon :-) Cheers for watching , have a great week
Small correction: it's pronounced Aermacki. As you predicted, here's a correction regarding the Honda MVX250F being Honda's first two-stroke street bike. It wasn't. If we discount the fact that Honda's very first production model, the A-Type, was equipped with a small two-stroke motor, the title goes to the MB5 launched in 1979. If we include all street-legal models as opposed to street-only, then we must include the MT125 and MT250 dual sport (or dual purpose as we used to say and not to be confused with the MT250 road racer) both launched in 1974. And now the biggie: no one has to thank MZ for rotary disc-valves on two-strokes. They did use them on their GP bikes, but they did not invent them. What Walter Kaaden, MZ's race engineer, did do was to develop formulae for calculating exhaust resonance in two-strokes in order to improve gas flow and in particular he improved on the work previously done at DKW (MZ's pre-WW2 predecessor before the partition of Germany) on expansion chambers. These formulae are the secret that pilot/engineer Ernst Degner took with him when he defected out of communist East Germany and it is the reason why every performance two-stroke is fitted with expansion chambers. And now an anecdote: when I was a motorcycle-mad teenager in Montréal, I would often walk or cycle over to Plaza Cycles which was one of Yvon DuHamel's early sponsors. Besides all the shiny new two-strokes and magnificent Z1, they would sometimes expose one of Yvon's bikes. Even then, it was surprising to me how small these race bikes were. And, of course, always with number 17.
i hadnt thought about the MB5 which is a bit bad because my mate had one :-), i stand corrected. and yes my pronunciation isnt perfect, old habits die hard as they say :-) and MZ/DKW might not have invented the dic valve but they did do a lot of pioneering development with it. and the way i saw it, it was the combined use of the better disc valve alongside the expansion chambers that was what improved the overal performance. but im happy to be corrected, ill do some more reading. my understanding was that without the improvement in performance of the disc valve the power pulse was less focused which made designing the helmholz resonator much more difficult. as the power pulse was focussed the frequency band of the resonator became narrower which meant it was easier to create the expansion chamber that would work over a wider rev range. so that is why i always mention the disc valve as well. Cheers for watching mate, hope you have a great weekend
It seems that the Suzuki T20 of 1965 is missing in your otherwise very complete listing. As far as I remember, it was the go-to 250 cc bike when it appeared, with its 6 speeds gearbox, at keast in France where Kawasakis were not imported at that time. It was also easy to tune for racing/
I owned one in NZ and it was a genuine ton up bike there when the oil pump was set right …
there will always be ones that get missed, they werent as popular here. it wasnt until the ram air GT250 that Suzuki started to gain more of a market share but it maybe should have been mentioned
GREAT VIDEO BONES ,IM 85 NOW ,I RODE MANY OF THESE BIKES WHEN I WAS YOUNGER .STILL RIDE EVERYDAY ,ON A HUSKY 2T ..LOVE THOSE 2 STROKES...GREETINGS FROM THE PHILIPPINES
welcome aboard mate, you have to love the strokers :-) 🙂 cheers for watching mate, have a great day
Wonderful content mate, brings back memories of chasing my mates across the North York moors on my rd250 and many years later racing a kr1-s.
glad you enjoyed it mate, Cheers for watching , have a great weekend
@barebonesmc I've recommended your channel to a few of my ex-racer, 2 stroke addicted mates, hope they join the tribe. Keep up the good work and many thanks for the content and the effort you put in.
@@jeromebradley9232 much appreciated mate, im still reeling that we passed 10k subs without me even getting a chance to say thanks to everyone again, doesnt seem 2 minutes since it was a thousand lol 🙂 Cheers for watching , ride free
I think the lack of exciting 250cc bikes has to do with the nanny states we all seem to live in. Having said that, my son has a Ninja 300. It is a fun, quick bike. I've had it to 3/4 ton without giving it the whip. My son won't tell me how fast he's riding it. I'm sure he is a ton up boy.
No dad, I know him and we never go over 30mph.
Great trip down memory lane.
Interesting to see what the Lambretta and Vespa guys can get out of their Two stroke scoots, 30 to 50bhp quite easy , then up to 70+ bhp!
Eric Cope got 127mph on a Lambretta RB250 @ Elvington!
Ive seen them racing at Cadwell and one guy took one out in the fast group at a trackday i was at, no one realised he had a 350LC engine strapped in it 🤣🤣 bonkers things. Cheers for watching mate, Ride Free 🙂
@@barebonesmc thanks for replying and sharing, I really appreciate it.
Hope you have a great weekend.
Jim 🏴 ☺
...I really enjoyed this incredible dissection on motorcycle size I never really considered as sporty... but now I do, at least the vintage models and thank you for sharing!!!
Glad you enjoyed it mate. Cheers for watching, have a great weekend
Great video loved the 250 is back in the day thanks for some memories of the past
Glad you enjoyed it. Cheers for watching , Ride Free
We got hosed over here in the States, of the Japanese bikes the 88-90 Honda VTR250 was about the closest thing to any of these bikes that we ever had (at least to my memory). I think the market has gone price driven and less care about performance, today's newer riders want electronics and B.S. not power.
In many countries, young learner riders were restricted to 250cc only, which is why so many high-performance 250cc bikes were built.
I do think the VTR is a grey looking bike tho. Agree about the electronics, I recently bought a new Suzuki SV650 and one of the things that appealed to me is that apart from ABS it is pretty "dumb".
i think the shift in focus from racing 250s was a big part of the changes, :-) Cheers for watching mate, enjoy the ride
The 1986 ex250 Ninja was the best looking 😀 I loved that bike. It was right around 100 mph top speed. Not bad for a four stroke twin of the time!
they were great little bikes .Cheers for watching mate, Ride Free
Great video!! Very informative. I remember some of those bikes. Many weren't sold in the United States, and it used to annoy me. I subscribed and liked.
welcome aboard mate, thanks for the support. Cheers for watching. Ride Free 🙂
I am not a biker but your video brought back memories of the late 70s and early eighties when a few friends of mine were bikers, technology as progressed but not always for the better, safety, emissions, production costs etc has played a part here. Probably people skip the 250 in search of a better deal on a bigger bike ?. I am not a biker but I did enjoy your video.
glad you enjoyed it mate, i do think cost comes into it in a few ways, from bike production cost to profit margins and insurance costs to name just 3 have a great weekend mate
Where is the suzuki supersix ???
42 minutes was too long as it is lol, i had to thin some out, as always. Cheers for watching mate, ride free 🙂
As an early 60's child my growing up bikes were the RD's, GT's, CB's and KH's. All these bikes did over 100 mph. Or they did when we rode them. Modern smaller capacity bikes seem to be a bit weak compared to the ones when I was a teenager. In the early 90's I had a CB125TB2. I toured Scotland and Wales on it and it would cruise at 70 and topped out at about around 80 mph. And that was with luggage, food and camping gear. We didnt have Karens and political correctness in those days, having said that, or speed cameras etc. Oh for the good old days...........
dont get me wrong im not on the side of any politicians, but i do think the industry has questions to answer too, and so maybe do we, everyone likes cheaper bikes, but sometimes the compromise is too much, do you think we expect bikes to be too cheap now?
Great video 👍
glad you enjoyed it mate 🙂Cheers for watching. Ride Free 🙂