Straight line stability isn’t bad but throw in some fast corners and you get a wheelbarrow effect from the front, a slight wobble or weave. Below 60mph you don’t notice it as much and you can throw it around with ease. In traffic you can dart into gaps, bounce over speed humps and generally make light work of the inner city gridlock.
However there are still flaws.
Try attacking a few corners and it gets a bit vague. The damping is poor, as are the tyres which offered poor grip and lacked any feel even in near-perfect warm, sunny conditions. I hate to think what they’d be like in the wet or on a cold winters’ morning.
The racy looking ‘petal’ brakes weren’t much better, either. You need a real handful of lever to stop proceedings, not the one finger I was expecting from the large 300mm single disc.
The engine is from Suzuki’s ancient GN250 which wasn’t that great when new last century and is as exciting as the Antiques Road Show, but it’s bullet proof and should take a hammering.
It’s a little agricultural with a few vibrations thrown in for good measure, will sit happily at 60mph all day long but at 65mph hills become your enemy and 70mph is nearly flat out.
The colours may be bright, but up close the level of finish is below average and I wouldn’t like to think what one would like look after two years of teenage abuse and a harsh British winter.
There IS a flip side – it’s very cheap, that’s nearly a grand cheaper than Suzuki’s Inazuma 250 or half the price of Kawasaki’s Ninja 300 ABS.
With that you also get 24 months warranty for peace of mind. If you just want simple transport it has to be one of the cheapest 250s on the market.
Insurance group: 6 of 17 – compare motorcycle insurance quotes now.
The clocks look dated, the gear change indicator is an afterthought and the tyres woeful. Get the idea?