Honda has unveiled the 2017 CBR250RR to the Indonesian market, as you can see on this website. Featuring a 250cc 8-valve, parallel-twin engine, ride-by-wire, three selectable engine maps, and a steel frame with aluminum swingarm.
Upside-down forks and a big, single 310mm front brake disc (240mm rear) with optional ABS.
We expect this same bike to reach the U.S. market with a higher displacement (probably north of 300cc) to take on competitors from Yamaha, Kawasaki and KTM. Take a look at the video below for additional angles of the new machine. We will provide more details when available.
See more of MD’s great photography:
re: “Featuring a 250cc 8-valve, parallel-twin engine, ride-by-wire, three selectable engine maps”
aargh, if only this were a 250cc I4 Honda would have something the other manu’s would likely not dare touch. yes it would command a premium, but see you can get away with that when you ACTUALLY HAVE A USP. as it sits…? not so much.
This bike looks sharp.
If any of the big 4 Japanese released a true adventure bike w/modern twin displacing low 300cc to 500cc, I’d buy it. I’d happily trade straight line acceleration (i.e. smaller motor) for fuel economy and full fuel tank weight in the high 300 lb range.
I think SRP can approach $9k, even for 400cc, as long as the bike hits all the right buttons. BMW has owned the small car market, selling M3s for as much as $55k. The car is small, costly, it performs, and people love it.
But are bikes like cars in this regard? I can see maybe some takers but I can hear it now just how too expensive prospective riders would think they’d be. Let’s face it, BMW also carries with it a premium status quotient to go with it. It carries with it a cachet that strokes the ego.
Whether real or imagined, there has to be value in spending the extra money.
re: “selling M3s for as much as $55k”
MORE, iirc the V8 E92’s were $80K all day.
BMW sold 404,537 cars in the US in 2015, about 100k less units than the entire motorcycle industry sold here in the same year. The US has always been tough for small displacement bikes but that seems to be gradually changing. Fingers crossed..
Cycle News states that Honda is not bringing it here any time soon anyway.
I expect the 250 will never come here but the 300+ version will and probably in time for the 2017 model year unless they have a bunch of the 300 singles in their warehouses.
Fun. Cool. Capable. CBR250R. It’s here, just short an R.
Why list ride by wire as a feature? How does it benefit the rider over a cable and a spring?
…with a cable and spring, the throttle is connected directly. Old bikes, with carburetors, were sensitive to the rider yanking it WFO, often one needed to gently roll on the throttle to prevent coughing. With drive by wire, or here on motorcycle ride by wire, a computer is told by the throttle what the rider wants. The computer then, decides how much throttle, to give, affording best acceleration, best possible gain in engine speed, as needed. If you have ever ridden a bike, and when pushing a headwind, had the throttle WFO, and the bike was actually slowing down, and you then backed out of the throttle some, sensing the bike speed up, then gingerly, slowly, adding more throttle till the speed increased, you were the one acting like a computer. Having a computer do this for you all the time, is the advantage.
Sounds like the mixture isn’t right on your carbs. I’ve experienced carburetors that are noticeably smoother than fuel injection. I guess that’s just because FI bikes have to run so lean because of newer emissions requirements.
My comment about “old bikes” was meant to describe many of the bikes from the sixties. Diaphragm carbs were introduced to help resolve the hesitation from carbs with just slides. My VFR1200 has ride by wire, and works flawlessly. Carbs that work smoother than FI bikes are probably not currently emission legal if sold today. Ride by wire is a feature, that has advantages, in emission controlled engines sold today.
I don’t have to lube it. That’s good enough for me. 🙂
Ride by wire employs a stepper motor on the throttle bodies to open and close the throttle plates and that allows the selectable modes where the ECU adjusts the speed the throttles open to sharpen or smooth response and or the total amount they open to reduce peak power. Ride by wire also makes it possible to offer traction and cruise control features.
They may have consumer resistance if it’s priced close to their CB500 line. My bet is it will demand a premium over all the other 300cc bikes so it better be worth the extra money.
“They may have consumer resistance if it’s priced close to their CB500 line”
This is the reason Honda doesn’t invest in a new CBR1000 line, a new CBR250RR (like the old one), there is nothing wrong with it, it’s just we are voting with our wallets against them.
There is little chance that the bike shown in the photo can sell for less than the CB500 line does (USD fork, electronics, alloy swing arm, etc.). I agree, it’s a risky bet.
Agreed, and I’d be surprised to see it come here. I think Honda is probably happy enough with their current small offering.
Gee, it only took Honda about 19 years to catch up with Kawasaki in offering a 250cc sport bike with a parallel twin.
Honda has been offering a v-twin 250 (vtr 250) that has always outperformed Kawasaki’s P2 all this time, it just hasn’t been sold jn the US since 1991 because Americans haven’t bought small bikes in meaningful numbers up until the past few years.
It’ll be very interesting to learn what they plan to actually bring to the US. Will it have this spec, or will they dumb it down to hit the price?
Now all I have to do is strip it to the frame, place a CB tank and seat on it, UJM bars, a round headlight, and a single supertrapp, AND I’LL HAVE WHAT THIS 60 SOMETHING WANTS! (350cc..maybe.. parallel twin), cutting edge handling and brakes, ultra light weight, and 70’s looks. Am I weird to feel this way?
No. I feel your pain.
Yes
Here’s a scary thought. Age restricted maps. One for 16 to 18, one for 18 to 21, and unrestricted for 21 and older.
I don’t think that is very scary. I’ve always thought that would be a good and inexpensive way to implement a tiered licensing system. Of course I’m sure a whole cottage industry would sprout up around developing software to modify or defeat the tiered maps.
Except the displacement of a Motorcycle has little to do with fatality statistics. You hit a tree riding a scooter at 40 mph, you’re getting hurt. On top of that, 16-18 often ride supersport 600s in roadracing dude..
No matter how cheap they sell these for, people will still be standing in line to buy Duke 390’s.
Still haven’t seen a Duke 390 on an American road.
Nor have I, though I have seen an RC390.
Saw my first one just a couple of days ago. Heard a bike coming, saw orange wheels and knew it was a KTM. Stopped what I was doing and watched it go by. A 390 Duke. Handsome bike.
Rode a Duke 390 at Americade this year. I really wanted to love it. I’ve been wanting to ride one for a while. I’m a KTM fan, and love small singles. But the Duke is just way too small physically. I’m 5’9″ with a medium build. The bars felt like they were only a few inches in front of my chest. My WR250R feels much, much larger and roomier. My CBR125R even feels so much roomier. This is no exaggeration. I was so disappointed. Some reviewers are now conceding that the bike feels pretty cramped. Granted – the 390 had tons of power for it’s displacement and handled remarkably well. But it also sounded like a KTM dirtbike, and lugged down low more than I thought it should for its 373cc displacement.
I think that’s the problem with the current crop of moto journalists all who seem to think they are motogp racers and praise the bikes while being tested racing around corners or wheelieing. Nobody seems to test them by just riding them anymore, they have to ride them like they are racing them. Just look at the pictures that accompany any test report. Then they praise them up one side and down the other, you buy one, and then find out they are not really much fun to live with on a daily basis unless you have the tach needle buried and going around a curve.
I think they should be required to ride them around for a day going no faster than the posted speed limit, ride them to the store, ride them down city street, through school zones, in traffic and then report what it’s like to actually have to live with one on a daily basis. To use it for transportation rather than as just a race bike.
Everything is super hyped for consumers these days. It’s as if showing a bike, or any other consumer item, in typical daily use is boring and does nothing for sales.
I don’t know but are today’s crop of young riders, or prospective riders, responsive to it?
“I don’t know but are today’s crop of young riders, or prospective riders, responsive to it?”
I think it has been that way for a long time. As least as far back as I can remember. I can’t recall any motorcycle in any marketing copy being shown in typical daily use.
Well I go back a few more than you and I can easily remember Honda’s “You meet the nicest..” ads. They simply showed people, regular people, dressed in regular everyday clothing (plus helmets) tooling about on their CB’s, CL’s and Mini-trails. No pretensions of being Mr. Speed on Racer Road.
Rather than showing bikes in the extreme they were shown as accessible fun transportation for everyone. It worked.
It may have worked back then, but I don’t think motorcycles are transportation anymore: they are pleasure vehicles and fashion accessories. There was a time when motorcycles were used as viable alternatives to cars, but those days are gone (in the US at least.) There are still a few bikes designed for classical transportation (the NC700 and Honda 500s come to mind) and are marketed accordingly with little to no hype.
I do enjoy just getting out and riding, but frankly, I pretty much use my bikes for those extremes you see in the advertisements. My adventure and dual sport bikes ride the TAT or muck through the sands of Moab. (You meet the nicest people on the TAT!) My sportier bikes see track time. Personally, I hope today’s motorcycles and the super hyped ad messages succeed in inspiring people to do more than just ride their motorcycles to and from the office or go for a Sunday ride.
That’s just it, the bikes we rode in our early years were our primary transportation. They took us everywhere and with a variety of parts and accessories could be made into cafe racers, touring rigs, hyper sports bikes, etc. The UJM. Are times like that gone? Seemingly so to the detriment of motorcycling here in the US. Just because bikes appeal to the everyday commuter or Sunday rider doesn’t mean they have no appeal otherwise.
If motorcycling is going to mean anything more in the US than riding cruisers in any great numbers the manufacturers have to appeal to the largest base they can. If Joe average public today couldn’t be less interested in riding then I think we all see the future.
My experience as well. It’s a cut priced 690 for those 5 feet and below.
Just got back from an Edelweiss Tour in Austria, and I saw 2 parked next to each other. My kid’s CRF150F is bigger.
Taller, longer and wider?
LOL!!
Our local dealer wishes he had a line for them.
Too bad it doesn’t come with selectable mufflers.
Sha-Sha-Sha-Shaaarp…. edges. Looks scary.
Why so much concern over the 3 engine maps? It’s just software and an extra switch. Doesn’t cost Honda much, if anything, to have it as a feature.
..and it make for a tie-in to a BIG bike feature that may make an owner “feel” like he’s got more than without it.
It because the most important property of anything today, from hamburgers to airplanes, is how well they “integrate” with your phone.
re: “the most important property of anything today, from hamburgers to airplanes, is how well they “integrate” with your phone.”
🙂 that’s hysterical. ROTFLMAO.
The bike looks great! Not sure I understand the need for 3 engine maps on a 250 though. Honda’s lack of concern about being an industry power leader leads me to believe they won’t bring us anything that riders with any experience will get excited about. Should be a very desirable bike for the first time bike buyer.
I don’t know… They bothered to put USD forks and a pretty impressive brake set on it (for the class.) They might be pretty serious about making some waves with this bike.
Probably seeing the popularity of the small bikes that are used on track days and these small engine leagues.
They’ve got USDs on the entry level 250, but not on the “technological tour de force” Interceptor…
Likely due to Asian displacement limits.
What I don’t get is Honda putting on selectable engine maps on a 250cc bike…I get it on something like the flagship bikes but not this…Otherwise it’s a nice looking bike.
It kinda looks like a Hyosung..which, I suppose is a plus in Indonesia..
Very cool. The 300cc class could revive club racing in the US. The 3 engine maps on a 250cc engine has me scratching my head a little bit..
“The 3 engine maps on a 250cc engine has me scratching my head a little bit..”
Lol. Same here. I can imagine anything with power that soft could benefit from different engine maps. It’s just all the rage I suppose. Kids these days…
First thing I thought too… who needs a rain mode with 35 hp? lol
Then again like someone above says it’s just a button and some software
Classy looking bike for a sub 19 year old.
Fair enough. My first bike was a 1970 Triumph Bonneville. Expert only. Now we see it had not much over 40 hp. Difference was torque I guess.
I can see it now.
Monday: “Nice day, but I’m feeling chill, for this commute I’ll take the 37hp map.”
Tuesday night: “Dang, it’s raining. Better be careful, I think that 35hp map sounds better.”
Saturday morning: “Gonna cut loose! Open that thing up! 38hp here we come!”
*nb: I don’t really care how much hp it’s got in which map, you get the point.
exactly!!!!!
That’s a lot of exhaust for such a little displacement.
Full Flow AND Stealth-y Quiet….like a…ah…Prius?
..plus, no catalyst under the engine.
Weird headlights disposition.
Those are a lot of nice techs on Hondas quarter RR.
I want to complain, really loudly… video with no engine sound?
Race dressed, concept? version here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAxQJehEis0
and sound… although as bike is not displayed could be made up….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeYRQecnh-8
Man those handlebars are low. Hats off to Honda. It looks like a very premium machine for the class.
No doubt; if they make a 400 out of this it would be hard to resist as a second/play bike.
If a 400 comes out from the Japanese manufacturers it won’t be from Honda. They’ll be about 5 years late with their offering.
Maybe? When the current crop of 250/300cc+ bikes hit the market it seems to me Honda was smack in the middle of it.
Like any manufacturer, they need to see that the market is ripe for a 350/400 play bike. Sounds neat to many riders but there has to be enough buyers to warrant bringing them to market.