Which little bike?

Broome has an open invitation to race one of my SVs. Road Atlanta in September would be good!

 

Sweet.

 

jolly moto... had a set on my RS250

 

Two Recalls Hit the Yamaha YZF-R3 at the Same Time

http://www.asphaltandrubber.com/recall/yamaha-yzf-r3-recall-clutch-oil-pump/

Oil pump and clutch pressure plate bearing

 

in response to the Benelli 300. When I was in China I had the opportunity to go to QJ which manufactures the Benelli. They let me ride the 300, 600 and their big triple. The 300 was nice and had the best sound of any small bike I'd heard. Felt solid and shifted smooth, my only complaint would be the front brakes but they weren't scuffed in as they pulled this bike right off the line so I could ride it. I rode the naked version with the under exhaust.

 

Their test riders did a great job of thrashing the bikes and stunting. Truly tested the bikes in real world applications including crashing. All bikes in test fleet had personality marks. LOL

 

The rear shock on that Benelli is in an adequate position to double as a steering damper.

 

I had my Ninja 300 for a day this week before I tore it down. Kawasaki fit and finish, nothing to talk about. Heavy for a little bike, scary brakes and needless to say poor suspension.

 

I sa

I say you should get a TZ 250 and let JD teach you how to ride it, I remember him riding his Honda 250 and lapping me at tally when we were growing up.

 

CBR might be worth looking at now. They've moved to a parallel twin like the Ninja and R3. I would assume they'll do the 250 in the foreign markets and bump it to 300+ for the US.

http://auto.ndtv.com/news/2017-honda-cbr250rr-makes-global-debut-in-indonesia-1433750

 

The "problem" with the EX250/EX300 is that the only thing you can do with them is race...

At a track day, and, IMHO, on the street, they can be a little scary. Even if you're an awesome rider, it just won't keep up with advanced group traffic, nor can it accelerate out of the way of cars who aren't paying attention.

I suspect there will be more Kawasakis on the grids, just based on availability. Do the 250's and 300's race together, or can a 250 race up a class? ...I suppose that probably depends on the weekend turnout.

 

Depends on bike, and more importantly.... the rider. There are some tracks a fast rider could ride, at least the 300 in Advanced. Yes, straight line speeds would be a good bit difference, but an experienced rider will be just fine. Lil Tally, Barber, Jennings come to mind. Joe Gianotto ran some low to mid 26's at the JenningsGP endurance race last year, and it wasn't even in full race trim, and his 1st time on the bike. Our competition had a full raced prep Kawi 300, and their top guy ran some 26's as well.

May not be ideal, but could be done, again at particular tracks. This would depend on overall advanced pace at the time also.

 

I've ridden plenty of street miles on a 250, even in and around Atlanta. They are fine.

250s can race F and bump up to race E. People also run D-SS and Clubman with them. Almost forgot, you can also race V5 on Saturday with a 250.

 

All I know is that N2 wouldn't allow a very fast 14 yr old out in Advanced on his 300, and he was passing everyone in intermediate on the outside of any turn he wanted. That was at PIRC. I haven't ridden the full course, but the back straight of the old section is a 140mph straight even if you're not that skilled...

 

And my extra 250 (unless you want another go at it, sugar).

 

If you can wait after the GNF there should be several 2015 R3's for sale as they won't be eligible for Yamaha $$$ after that. One or both of mine will be available.

Having raced a CBR250 and now the R3, I can tell you that the 300's are WAY faster than the 250's; more fun to race, and more realistic for trackdays and street use.

 

a stock CBR 250 in no way compares to an N250 or larger.

A 250 is a hoot on a tight track against the 600+ bikes. Sure the big tracks will kill us on top end. We run out around 105

What Jeff said about JGP. The 300/R3 turns 26's a fast 250 can turn 28/29. There are plenty of I riders at JGP who can't do that on 600's

 

250s and 300s are fine in the Advanced group at most tracks, unless there's a one line corner at the end of a long straight. For example, at AutoClub Speedway. This is a very scary and dangerous situation. A fast bike is going to be catching a small bike with 50-60mph in hand, and can easily mis-judge when the small bike will enter the one-line corner.

 

Pretty sure STT makes 250s ride in Intermediate, regardless of the rider, simply because of the limitations of the bike. Too many blind corners.

 

Its reasons why this that I wish there was a COST EFFECTIVE way to go bigger displacement on a N250 for those that have decently sorted bike.