Honda CBR250RR MC22 Review: An iconic motorcycle from a bygone era
Ah, the Honda CBR250RR MC22. A wonderful, iconic and in this day and age, unique motorbike. What other 250cc motorcycles make 45hp and come with 4 cylinders? How many mainstream motorbikes have a nimble kerb weight of 157kg (no, GROM’s don’t count), rev to about 19,000RPM and have gear driven cams? Can’t think of any, well neither can I – leaving aside the Kawasaki ZX-25R of course, which remains forbidden fruit to many of us and is pretty porky for a 250 at about 180kg.
Before we get any further, I’ll preface this review by saying that before the MC22, my first bike – and the CBR’s garage mate – is a Yamaha XSR700 (an MT-07 with makeup), a very very different bike.
Anyhow, that’s something I may cover in another post, but it does give some context to my views about the MC22.
At a glance
I’ve found the CBR250RR to be heaps of fun both around town and on mountain and rural roads. It’s light, incredibly maneuverable and the pièce de resistance: revving it out and listening to that sonorous MC14E, all while not having to worry about losing your licence.
The flip-side is that the lack of torque means it can also be somewhat tiresome, particularly if you’re in an area with plenty of traffic lights. They’re also quite old bikes now, many of which have lived very hard lives. That means more maintenance and more probability that something will go wrong.
At the end of the day, like anything, how much weight you place on each of these characteristics will largely depend on your circumstances and personality.
What’s it like to ride?
If I had to surmise, I would say it’s highly rewarding and involving. From time to time I also find it somewhat comical to ride - the juxtaposition between its sound and its pace, particularly around the suburbs when you’re not pushing it that hard, but revving it out to satisfy yourself: it tends to turn heads, sounding somewhat like an F1 car from the noughties, but to the confusion of onlookers, without the blistering pace to match.
The fundamentals of the bike make it, in my eyes, a fantastic beginner’s bike for those looking to focus on their core riding skills. The bike is pretty lightweight, which means it doesn’t feel as intimidating to get on and off, or manoeuvre at low speeds.
The bike also won’t compliment you by masking your mistakes with electronic aides or boundless torque (neither will it punish you too harshly either, except maybe your ego if you select the wrong gear).
If you enter a corner without keeping the revs above 10,000RPM, you’ll find it struggle out of the corner. This forces you not only to choose the right gear ahead of the corner, but also to maintain a good line and a pretty constant speed throughout the corner.
Riding position
The riding position is sporty, without being aggressive. I’m about 5 foot 10 and I wouldn’t want to be much taller – my legs feel a tad cramped, but it’s not a big deal – one positive is it forces you to stop a bit more, which is probably a good thing. The other aspect is that some compromise on the comfort of the seating position should be expected with any sport bike.
Brakes
The brakes up front are a twin disc set up with 2 pistons per calliper – no ABS here. That’s a pretty good set up for the class – many sub 600cc bikes only come with one front brake. I have found that the initial braking feels a bit weak as you start pulling the lever, but provides good braking power as you continue to apply the lever - it’s certainly adequate for the bike.
One positive aspect of the initial braking coming on very gradually is that it’s likely to be more forgiving to beginners.
Braided brake lines are something that is likely to help that initial feel and something I’m contemplating doing.
One mod I have seen some people do is to add the 4 piston Nissen callipers that featured on the RVF400 NC35 and some other Honda’s in the 90’s. This is done either with an adapter bracket or installing the front end from a compatible bike. You’ll also need to change the master cylinder in the brake reservoir.
Four piston brakes are probably a little overkill for a 160kg 45hp bike, but it’s nice to know the option is there.
Engine and Gearbox
The gearing is short, very short. Despite this, the bike has a relatively big effective RPM range for spirited riding, between 10,000RPM and the redline at 19,000RPM. 2nd gear will get you to roughly 110kph. That to some extent offsets the gearing ratios, from the point of view of how many gear changes you’ll do around the mountains.
However, riding around town is a rather different matter: I am quite frequently changing gears. The bike is happy purring along at 60kph in 6th if you are cruising, which I’ll do when I’m on a good stretch of road. The engine does about 5,500RPM at 60kph. The bike will accelerate alright if want to speed up slowly from there - imagine situations where you are constrained by traffic – but if you want to accelerate at a reasonable pace, you’ll need to change down a couple of gears.
You won’t want the bike to drop below 4,000RPM though (at least this is the case for my bike) at which point it really struggles in any gear other than 1st. Just take a look at the dyno graph below from when I had my bike tuned (among other things).
Before you say it, yes, the dyno shows that the 45hp bike ‘only’ makes 38.59hp. However, accounting for drive train losses of 10 - 15% the bike is producing pretty well the same power as when it rolled off the production line in 1991.
I’ve found it very easy to up and down shift through the bikes 6 gears. Despite not having a slipper clutch, the bike is quite happy downshifting without rev-matching, so long as you’re easy and smooth on the clutch, without any noticeable or concerning changes in the rear wheel speed. I do usually rev-match though unless I want some engine braking to slow down, because it’s very easy to do on this bike and, as I’m sure you’ll relate, it just sounds cool.
Despite what I’ve just said above, the light kerb weight and incredible sound coming from the bike do compensate for its fatiguing nature in traffic. It’s also very easy to lane filter.
Exhaust
At some point someone has modified the header on my bike so that it’ll accept a slip-on muffler, rather than a bolt on one.
The muffler is a Delkavic - a brand I’d never heard of until I got the bike. It sounds fantastic but it is on the loud side for me, particularly on longer rides, where it can become tiresome. There is also an exhaust leak as the headers are now in two pieces and are connected via a clamp rather than a weld, with the pipe connecting the muffler to the headers periodically coming loose.
I’ve managed to find a stock muffler and headers which I will restore and fit at soon. That’ll also give me the option to fit a range of mufflers that bolt up to the stock headers.
If you want to get an idea of what it sounds like with the Delkavic, click here to see a video of the bike on a private road.
Fuel economy
Yeah, I know, some of you won’t give a damn about fuel economy. That’s a position I can understand given how little fuel bikes consume relative to cars which provide similar levels of performance. Nevertheless, knowing the fuel economy is particularly useful for understanding a motorbikes range and can be a good proxy for how well your engine is running.
In my experience, the fuel consumption of the bikes I’ve ridden hasn’t varied too greatly regardless of how aggressively I’m riding. By all accounts that variance has been around 10 – 15%, which is far less than the kind of variance I’ve experienced with cars.
Although a topic to be covered another day, when I first got my bike the fuel economy was around 6.5 – 6.8L/100km. After the carby’s were rebuilt, a new choke cable and it was tuned, the bike started returning 5.2 – 5.8L/100km depending on how and where I’m riding.
Quirks
A genuinely surprising aspect of the bike is how spacious the storage is. No, I’m not kidding. Underneath the pillion seat is a storage compartment and it’s far more spacious than what you’ll find on most modern naked and sports bikes.
Another quirk of the bike are the headlights. First of all, the JDM versions of the bike have a switch that allows you to turn the headlights off, which is quite rare. Secondly, the headlight bulbs are not a standard size. Instead, they are H4R bulbs. What makes these different (and rather annoying) is that the spacing between the two lower locating tabs are different to that of standard H4 headlights. This means H4 bulbs won’t fit without modification.
You’ll also have to be careful with any replacement bulbs you do fit. The standard Honda bulbs are rated at 60/35 watts. Most H4 bulbs are 55/60 watts. Why does this matter you ask? Well, anecdotally, people have reported that after fitting 55/60W bulbs to their MC22’s, their left-hand side light switches have burnt out. That occurrence would explain why Honda opted to vary the size of the headlight bulbs: to avoid people accidentally installing the higher wattage H4’s which could cause that to happen.
One thing the bike does lack is a fuel gauge. Personally, I don’t find this too much of an issue as you can:
1. easily open the tank and get an idea of how much fuel the bike has; and
2. you quickly get a good idea of how many k’s you can ride before you should fill up by paying attention to how much fuel you’re filling up for the number of kilometres you’ve ridden each time.
Ownership experience
Most of these bikes have little in the way of documented service history. If you’re lucky, the person you’re buying it off will have done some oil changes and replaced some other parts.
My bike was one such bike. It had done 4,000km in the 8 years the previous owner had it. During that time, some oil changes were done, but not much more than that.
The odometer read 39,000km when I got it.
Given the lack of history I decided to have the valve clearances checked (which should be done every 40,000km). If the clearances are out, it can be catastrophic for your engine.
Checking the valve clearances involves removing the carburettor and radiator, among other things, so I decided to have the carburettors rebuilt. The bike also needed a new radiator fan switch, because it wasn’t switching on, and I had the valve cover gasket and spark plugs replaced as well as the front forks rebuilt. The bike was also tuned.
The bike now runs fantastically and I have good piece of mind that it should be mechanically reliable.
The only mechanically related things left to do are to fix the exhaust and replace the tyres. The bike has a pair of Pirelli Sport Demons which have plenty of tread but are about 9 years old and are quite square in places from sitting. In other words, they are rubbish to ride on, especially in the wet where I’ve had a few frightening experiences including the rear wheel sliding out from behind me. No, I didn’t lose control, but yes, I almost needed to change my underwear.
Conclusion
So that’s a wrap. Is the bike perfect? Of course it’s not. But it is bags of fun and a rather unique proposition in today’s motorcycling landscape. While it can be a little more tiring than my XSR700 by virtue of its low torque and riding positioning, I have found it to be more fun and exciting when pushed.
As I mentioned above, whether the bike is suited to you will depend on your personality and life circumstances. While these make great beginner’s bike, they do require more attention than modern bikes (even one’s that have been looked after) and there’s less certainty about their condition and reliability.
If you’re looking for a bike that you’ll need as transportation and you have a limited budget that doesn’t extend to an MC22 that’s mechanically sorted, I’d probably tell you to get something newer like an R3 or a Ninja - the possible financial and emotional headache wouldn’t be worth it.
Other Reviews
If you’re interested in reading other people’s thoughts on the Honda CBR250RR MC22, here are some other good quality reviews to check out: