My Honda CBR250R Ownership Review


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great pics Abhiwar!! Loving the looks though for CBR i prefer black and red ahead of grey, it is still looking dashing. great choice. why did you not opt for ABS?
 
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Congrats Abhiwar for the new CBR! Excellent review & excellent pictures. [:)]
ABS would have been a better choice as you are bound to travel at high speeds, High speed breaking is almost un-avoidable on CBR!
 
Thread Starter #19
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Part 3 :
I was happily riding my bike, loved to ride it around tows and answer those questions , most common Q was " Kiti Milto Average ? " (FE..? ) , " Chaila...evdhi mothi gadi...100 chya Khali yetch nasel ? " (OMG, Its a Hugh Bike ...minimum speed must be at least 100kmph na ? " and many others like. For a few days i was Celebrity around my Area as i was one of the few owners to get bike from 1st Batch .
One fine Sunday morning i decided take her out for a ride . As always performed basic inspection and started my bike , while i was waiting for RPM to settle down @ 1500rpm i noticed engine note was bit odd. It should be in rhythm grrr..rrrr..rrr...rrr...rrr...rrrr...rrrr...rrr , But on that morning Engine was running OFF BEAT . Well it must be because of clogged Injector i thought , to clear that Clogged hole i Blipped throttle and instead of coming back to normal Bike died . OK, again i started my bike and observed same thing RPM needle was dancing between 1200-1500RPM, which means ECU was trying to IDLE @ 1500RPM but some how Engine was not able to do it. When ever i used to open Throttle more than 30% Engine was dying .
On 10a.m gave a call to Chembur SVC and told them about my issues, at First the attender told me to come Chembur from Thane .
Me:- " How am i supposed to travel 20kms from my house when Bike isn't even Idling Properly ? "

Attender : " Eye-Dole..?, what do you mean by this ? "

Me :- " Areeeeeeeeee, Bike isn't starting at all. ? "

Attender:- " Sir, is your Bike Starting or not ? "

Me: " Are bola na , Bike chalu nahi ho rahi hai "

Attender :- " Oh, Ok Give us few min's sir, I will call you back. "

After some time i got call from Chembur SVC that they've arranged a mechanic for my bike in their Mulund SVC ( hardly 5-7kms from my house) . So Some how i went there and all i could see was each and every guy was eager to try his hands on my bike. Soon i realized that they will mess-up more If i leave my bike there , So asked mech to leave my bike and i am taking her home. The Head Mechanic realized his mistakes an tried to apologies. " No way buddy am not going to leave my bike in hands of bunch of UN-trained mechanics(MONKEYS) , sorry am going home. "

Went home and gave a call to my bestest riding buddy Gaurav who is senior to me in both Riding experience and Knowledge about automobile. spent good 1/2hr on phone with him nut all in vain. He came to my house in same night , Bike was behaving normal, rode for few kms, and again it started to struggle . He to was not sure but told me that there might be some issue with Spark Plug cap or Injector , and Asked me to visit Vihaan Honda (Thane) for checkup .

Spent all night reading about Injectors and FI system's various parts, sensors . On next day i decided to take leave from my work and went to Vihaan Honda , Its was a pleasant surprise after my Mulund SVC's experience. Head Mechanic was trained person in CBR . Patiently he spent full 1hr listening to my query and answered most of the questions . He to was surprised to see such issue and asked me to leave my bike for testing. I did as i had no option and This Service Center was looking in much better shape than other SVC's .

2 Days later i got a call from Vihaan that they found few parts were not working properly so they've placed an order for the same. Meanwhile i got busy with my work and went to Pune for few days regarding few matters . Also for my record i had Emailed Honda customer care about my issue , but all in vain bike was lying @ Vihaan Honda for more than a week now, Mr. Ganesh who was the manager @ Vihaan told me to call Pune department and ask them about Part, he assured me that being an customer/user of Honda product you will receive quick service and they will ship your parts ASAP.

I called up to Pune Head Office of Honda told them about my issue and got some usual replies that the are doing every thing to resolve My bikes issue and bla bla bla bla bla...! So next thing gave call to Gurgaon Head office, Told them about my issue and as always they told me that bike will be ready with in few days. They never gave me any dates or exact waiting period.

After almost 15days i finally my patience was Over and this time instead of calling Pune i directly gave call to Gurgaon Head office. Asked call receiver to forward my call to some senior guy and am not intrested with talking to any middle man now.

Me:- Hello, Do you understand that my bike is lying in SVC from past 15 days because of parts shortage ?

Xyz(honda):_ Yes Sir, and we are extremely sorry for the delay .

Me:- I did'nt called for any apologies , I want my parts to shipped ASAP.

Xyz:- Sir , we are trying our best , and your part will be shipped soon.

Me: Give a DATE

Xyz:- Sorry sir i cant tell you right now .

Me:- Fine i am member of Bar Council and we've our own legal firm , I will wait another 5 days or else i will file an Suit against you people for giving me such low quality product (Indirectly : Honda cheated on me) . Please pass me Fax No. Of you management department . I want to have word with them in writing . I also demand Extended Warranty of 2months , since you wasted 20days of my ownership by delaying parts.

Xyz:- Sir, I promise you will receive you bike in to notch condition With in 5 days .

Me :- I want confirmation in writing , email me Confirm date .

Xyz: Ok sir.

Call ended. With in 15 minutes i received a call from Vihaan Honda that my parts have been shipped , also an engineer is coming to inspect my vehicle [lol] .

Next day i received a call from SVC that they've successfully repaired my bike and i can come up to take delivery. Engineer was still there waiting for, I went did through out check up and pointed out few things like Paint pealed off from Left side mirror , Moisture in Indicators, Tank started to catch rust near drain hole . Every thing was replaced right away and i got my bike back.

List of Parts were replaced.

Injector, IO sensor , Fuel ump assembly , Tank , Indicator and Mirror .

After this i never faced any problem regarding Engine . Oh yea.. Battery too got replace after 6 months . Over all these 20 days were the most difficult time of my life, as this is my 1st bike from my own income .

I never asked for extended warranty thing .

Thank you !
 
Thread Starter #20
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great pics Abhiwar!! Loving the looks though for CBR i prefer black and red ahead of grey, it is still looking dashing. great choice. why did you not opt for ABS?
Congrats Abhiwar for the new CBR! Excellent review & excellent pictures. [:)]
ABS would have been a better choice as you are bound to travel at high speeds, High speed breaking is almost un-avoidable on CBR!
ABS was 30k costlier and over 8kgs heavier than Standard bike [:D] .
 
Thread Starter #21
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[:)]Tomorrow am goning Put "Schaeffers" engine oil for the very first time, Saw Demo of this brand against Mobil 1 and results were astonishing. Eger to try this one
 
Thread Starter #22
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Update On Schaeffers" engine oil

Update :-
Till now i've used Honda's engine Oil for my CBR , Its 10w30 Fully Synthetic Oil. Although Honda claims its life more than 5000kms and oil change interval is on every 6000kms . Personally i never felt comfortable after 3500kms on Honda's 10w30 Synth oil. It costs 750-800Rs for every 1.5L .

Few days ago one of my friend introduced me to his friend Stalin who imports Schaeffers Engine oil , after seeing my enthusiasm he gave me small demo of Schaeffers Vs. Few other brands and results were really impressive , So i decided to go with Premium 7000 (15w40) which also is an Synthetic Oil but has better viscosity than Honda's Oil. I took risk to ruined my bikes warranty by using this oil but i had no option left.

Schaeffer's Premium 15w40 costs 1800/- INR for each 1500ml but since i was new buyer he gave me some discount and I am happy with it .

300kms Ride report After Oil change

I poured 1.5L engine oil , changed oil filter and gave a good 5 mins of idle . Earlier i was facing issues like bit knocking , tappet noise , hard gear shifts , false Neutral and some Engine Vibrations . Now with Schaeffers Gear Shifts have became much smoother , no more false Neutral issue , Engine Vibrations are almost gone , tappet noise reduced to good extent. Engine feels much smoother and relax even at High revs, On my last ride to Lonavla while coming back i gave few high riv bursts , first time crossed 9500rpm in 4th gear . Yet i got astonishing 33kmpl average compare to 28-30kmpl with old Oil (is it more physiological effect than actual result..? ) . I think 3-4kmpl improvement is a sign of a good product .

So i fully recommend this Engine Oil to my fellow CBR owners . I will give another review on Schaeffers after i complete of 3500kms . As of now am Happy with results .
 
Thread Starter #25
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Honda is recalling CBRs manufactured from March 2011 to September 2012 (http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/f...motorcycle-recalls-11-500-units-cbr-250r.html). Yours included too?

Drive Safe,
350Z
Thank you 350z for info, got my self registered and soon ASC will replace master cylinder as soon as they receive parts.

abhiar ji
did you have any issues with the shims?
Yes ! initially i had issue with valve clearance , I got shims replaced once in warranty. After that i never had any issues with tappet or shims .
 
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Great review and fantastic pics, Abhiwar. Really creative composing and visualisation! I too may get a CBR (perhaps in the not-so-near future though) but what is an area of concern is the spare and service support. Heard many stories. What is surprising is Honda's selling point is quality of components and good spare support for its products. If they don't take care of their USP, they will find it difficult to keep the sale volumes up despite it being a good bike to start with. I do hope things improve with time.
Cheers and wish you lots of trouble-free "mile munching" (Prefer that to "Mile Crunching", for Munching lets you savour it! !![thumbswink]
 
Thread Starter #27
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Great review and fantastic pics, Abhiwar. Really creative composing and visualisation! I too may get a CBR (perhaps in the not-so-near future though) but what is an area of concern is the spare and service support. Heard many stories. What is surprising is Honda's selling point is quality of components and good spare support for its products. If they don't take care of their USP, they will find it difficult to keep the sale volumes up despite it being a good bike to start with. I do hope things improve with time.
Cheers and wish you lots of trouble-free "mile munching" (Prefer that to "Mile Crunching", for Munching lets you savour it! !![thumbswink]
Thank you for reading my thread FlyBy . Spares support is good for CBR , initially Honda had many issues with supply of spares but i think now conditions are much better that before. Service quality may differ from place to place.
 
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Thank you for reading my thread FlyBy . Spares support is good for CBR , initially Honda had many issues with supply of spares but i think now conditions are much better that before. Service quality may differ from place to place.

abhi im thinking of picking the cbr 250r by march. i have an R15 v2 right now which has clocked 21k kms. do you thik it will be an upgrade ? . i live in a tier 2 city so how difficult it is in getting the spares? .
 
Thread Starter #29
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abhi im thinking of picking the cbr 250r by march. i have an R15 v2 right now which has clocked 21k kms. do you thik it will be an upgrade ? . i live in a tier 2 city so how difficult it is in getting the spares? .
I honestly think that you should keepR15 V2. least for another 50,000kms. selling your R15 V2 (this early) for CBR250R would be west of time / money and efforts you've taken to buy R15. R15 is a stupendo fantabulous machine let her grow on you.

R15 and CBR250R are two different machines with Complete opposite character . If you are tourer like me who like to be on comfortable sadle and is ready to compensate a bit of cornering abilities then Definitely buy CBR . If you are more of a city rider then keep R15 with you .
 
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I honestly think that you should keepR15 V2. least for another 50,000kms. selling your R15 V2 (this early) for CBR250R would be west of time / money and efforts you've taken to buy R15. R15 is a stupendo fantabulous machine let her grow on you.

R15 and CBR250R are two different machines with Complete opposite character . If you are tourer like me who like to be on comfortable sadle and is ready to compensate a bit of cornering abilities then Definitely buy CBR . If you are more of a city rider then keep R15 with you .
Im not a city rider. I love touring infact the kms done in r15 is because of interstate travels. Abhi at what rpm cbr does 100 ?
 

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