Anyone ever owned/rode an RS250?

[dick dastardly]

Hi, I just passed my test and have a (small) budget available for a bike. I will only be using the bike as a saturday toy and thought that an Aprilia might be a good idea as they are cheap and look fairly easy to gain some road and possibly track experience on.

Has anyone here got any advice they could give me about them? I have read reviews saying that they are good fun so long as you don't have to commute on them. I have also heard that they can be very unreliable.

Before you all say it, I am aware that I may get the piss taken by larger bikes for riding a hairdryer, but I don't care so long as the bike is good fun and fairly quick.

[badapple]

Before you all say it, I am aware that I may get the piss taken by larger bikes

You will have the piss taken out of you by bigger bikes

[Mon Ami Mate]

badapple said:

Before you all say it, I am aware that I may get the piss taken by larger bikes

You will have the piss taken out of you by bigger bikes

But they'll laugh on the other side of their faces when you ride rings round them on the twisties.

Expect a top end rebuild every 10,000 miles or so, but huge grins per £!

[cinqster]

MCN did a good double page buyers guide for the RS250 a few months back, not sure if you can order reprints of old articles though?

[s2ooz]

not ridden one myself, but Im led to beleive that a 250 has the best acceleration of any bike. its the perfect weight/power ratio.

which is nice.

[dern]

I've never ridden one but they look the business. I had an rd350 which was similar power levels but wouldn't have handled as well and unless you are used to bigger 4 stroke bikes I can't see why you couldn't commute on them. Motorways might be a drag but then they are on any bike, on the twisties it would be absolutely superb. It would probably be a bit like the kwak 250 (kr1?) of my mate's I rode once. Initially it was a pain as I missed the torque of the gpz1100 I had at the time but once you got used to where the power was it was fantastic fun.

The engine rebuild issue is normally just a case of taking the heads off (no valve gear remember so it's pretty easy), getting somewhere trustworthy to bore out the cylinders and provide you with the new bore size. You then match that up with new pistons, rings and small end bearing and new gaskets and put it all back together with a torque wrench. You could have it apart one evening and put it all back together in another. You can get a feel for play in the crank while you have the top off but you won't need to do much with that for a lot longer than 10k miles I wouldn't have thought.

You would have to use good quality 2-stroke oil to keep it working well though and keep the rebuild intervals as long as possible so with that and the relatively poor fuel consumption it might be relatively expensive to run.

I'd love one as a second bike.

Mark

[raceboy]

Watched a review of one on Men & Motors the other night, and the opinion was that they are good, but not best suited to a newbe, even being 'only' a 250 they are pretty quick and not that forgiving with a narrow power band

[rsvnigel]

They are the dogs danglies, if you get one make sure its a post '98 model and make sure it hasn't been modified beyond a race can/system.

[tl1000gussie]

Message to mr badapple, if you have never ridden one i suggest you try it. Top speed isnt everything. Any real biker would not laugh at anyone no matter what they are riding.

There are many R1/gsxr/hayabusa owners who cant ride for shit. Have embarressed many an R1 at castle combe on gsxr400. a cheapy (£1000) but loads of fun.

Agree RS250 may not be ace to learn on as its peaky and you do need to ride on limit to stay with big boys, but respect will be given if you pull it off. Maybe try a good 400 for the 10,000 mile rebuild issue if you dont want to spend any more money on it. If anyone laughs at you they will be a minority in PROPER biker circles, so buy it and try it, I agree with last guy about post 98 bike. good luck.

[badapple]

If you properly read my reply, you will see I was taking the piss out of dick's original post & not the bike. I want one myself when I can have two bikes at once.

[dick dastardly]

tl1000gussie said: Message to mr badapple, if you have never ridden one i suggest you try it. Top speed isnt everything. Any real biker would not laugh at anyone no matter what they are riding...

I agree with last guy about post 98 bike. good luck.

Badapple was just winding me up, look in our profiles, we've been mates for years. There was no harm intended, isn't that right Phil (You downtalking son-of-a-bitch)?

What are the differences with the pre and post 98 bikes?

Edited to add: Just got beaten to it by him

>> Edited by dick dastardly on Monday 12th May 23:49

[hertsbiker]

good machines, no shame in riding one. Lots of respect from the "big" bikes, and you can rip through traffic easily.

Be warned, they need severe thrashing to motor along as they were intended though. You may find your mechanical sympathy cuts in before the power band does!

[bikerkeith]

An RS250 is the nearest thing to a GP bike on the road. It means there is only one way to ride it, thrash the nuts off it all the time, keeping it in the power band. Try to accelerate with lower revs and nothing happens at all. They are top fun for Sunday ride outs but not best suited for commuting. As mentioned before, buy the best 2 stroke oil to stave off rebuilds.

[tl1000gussie]

My bad to mr bad apple, was assuming the worst of your possible impeccable caracter.
My apologies for not noting your history with old friend.

[tl1000gussie]

Mr dick dastardly, the aprillia rs250 is a suzuki rgv250 engine I believe, which was prone to going bang. The later the model post 98; up to current model was more reliable as the engine was refined by aprillia, and also makes about 8bhp more. Agree with everyone else 10,000 miles to top end rebuild, 20-30 is bottom end re-build, and always use top quality fully synthetic oil (Silkolene) I hope I can advertise on here. It also smells yummy to be behind, and im sure mr bad apple will soon know that smell. LOL

[rsvnigel]

Aprilia sorted the suspension on the post '98 models.

[badapple]

tl1000gussie said: My bad to mr bad apple, was assuming the worst of your possible impeccable caracter.
My apologies for not noting your history with old friend.

No problem

[mel]

I've got one as a track day toy that is spot on, yes they can be a bit "delicate" if tuned and can nip up, but at the end of the day use it lightly on the road in standard trim and it will be good as gold. They are very nippy and handle superbly, on a shorter circuit Brands, Pembray, Lydon etc a good rider on an RS250 can seriously embarrass an average rider on an R1.