A low mileage, 1980 Honda RS250 turned up in the local rag. Turned out to be very clean and tidy on original tyres, brakes, chain and sprockets, which all needed replacing. A quick spin confirmed the 8000 miles as more or less genuine. The asking price of £250 was reduced to £225.
After a short, reasonably pleasant, ride home, the chain was removed and boiled in Linklyfe, which eradicated most of the stiffness. A new back tyre, for £18, was bunged on. Next, valve clearances, balance shaft chain, oil filter screen, oil, air filter and plug. It started first kick and ran much smoother than before, so I must have done something right.
Out on the road, the bike felt much better than my previous mount, a YB100. Made me feel king of the road for a while, felt I could burn off anything I wanted (as long as it was smaller). It was so much fun that I did 900 miles in my first week!
The RS250 used to be an immensely popular bike because it was reasonably priced, as fast as the 250 twins, its light mass meant it could be flicked around with ease and it had a certain charm; a sort of four stroke MZ. All those virtues disappeared overnight when Honda updated it to CBX form, because it became very expensive and the later bike is much rarer on the road than the RS.
The single cylinder OHC engine was derived from the trailster motor, not a bad starting point as the major requirement for such designs is light weight. Part of the evolution of the engine from the old XL250 single was the incorporation of a chain driven balance shaft, the resultant reduction in vibes meaning a lighter tubular frame, ultra thick mild steel tubing no longer being necessary to absorb the usual single cylinder vibrations. That the balancer is not gear driven is a ridiculous piece of design work in an otherwise advanced piece of engineering.
Apart from putting petrol in, changing oil every 1500 miles, cleaning the filters every other oil change, the bike ran faultlessly for 9200 miles. It was at this point that all the expense seemed to coagulate. The front tyre needed replacing, brakes needed doing at both ends, and finally the chain and sprockets could hang in for no longer. However, these things all replaced, the bike was again back to its old self, no more clunking when I changed gear, the front end staying where it was put, even when slightly damp, and it would even stop again. While in this very unusual feverish work mode, I even decided to change the front fork oil which made a remarkable improvement to the bike's handling.
The RS is acceptably stable up to the 75mph I managed to extract out of it - yes, brand new they might manage 90mph, but the motor became decidedly rough and clattery at the higher end of the rev range. Weighing around 300lbs means it can be flung around country bends like a good ‘un. As narrow as can be, the bike can be filtered through traffic with ease, gaps that would have a multi slamming on the brakes taken without difficulty.
Admittedly, the suspension was not top notch, the rear shocks allowing a bit of wallowing in fast bends and the front forks getting a little twisted by a quick change of direction or heavy braking from the single front disc, but the bike gave a general feeling of security and never gave me much of a reason for backing off. In comparison to the YB it was a great leap forward, and larger bikes owned since have not impressed me as much.
Power delivery is not exactly awe inspiring, nor is it the stuff that British single myths are made of - it requires at least 5000rpm before it starts to accelerate smartly and it does not have the grunt to plod along at tickover speeds in top gear. At least it is never frightening in the wet when the abrupt power delivery of some bikes would have the back wheel sliding all over the place. As four stroke 250s go, it's far from the slowest.
I acquired a set of used Krausers with a Z1100 fitting kit which I managed to modify to fit the RS250. A great improvement in carrying capacity, which didn't seem to upset the usual top speed of 75mph. The bike regularly returned 70mpg, occasionally bettering 85mpg on long runs. As the former figure often included lots of stopping and starting I was quite pleased with the economy.
Just as the nights were starting to become colder and draw in, an amusing chain of events occurred.....it all started with a throttle cable that broke as I was about to set off home from work. My mate on a Beemer took me to a couple of Honda dealers who did not have one in stock. Each successive mile saw the BMW's lights become dimmer as the daylight faded. In the end, the BMW broke down a few miles after he had taken me home. The Honda now has a spare throttle cable taped in position...naturally, it has never been needed.
A few weeks later, I was just emerging from the bank in time to see a woman reverse into my little red bike. I was not quick enough to catch her registration number as she drove off. Damage was minor, annoyance was not. One bent footpeg, bent bars, broken mirrors and levers, plus a few scratches. The bike was still rideable. Later, forced to brake suddenly, I found that the rear brake lever was also bent, as it dropped below the mounting plate it slid underneath and locked the back wheel solid. Back home, everything was straightened except the mirrors and levers, for which the local breaker was visited.
A couple of days later, on my way to work, the bike cut out, but then started again first kick. One of those things, I thought, and carried on. That evening the bike would not start, the electrics were totally dead. The fuse was checked, battery was okay, the fault was finally traced to a wire broken off a small printed circuit mounting board behind the headlamp, part of the main ignition circuit. A touch of solder later and everything was back to normal. I assume that when it was knocked over, the shock loosened the wire and general vibration was too much for it. I certainly had no more trouble from it.
The engine had purred along reliably for the whole time I had the bike, not that the RS is exactly famed for longevity. Balance shaft chains, cylinder head bearings and even piston rings have all been known to give problems - but usually not until there's at least 25000 miles up. There are bikes around with 75000 miles up - but not that many. Caliper seizing is endemic to the breed and single cylinder power pulses do the usual destruction routine on the rear chain - if ever a bike needed full chain enclosure, chain oiler...
The RS has been out of production for six years now and despite the large numbers still running finding a very good one won't be all that easy - too many were thrashed and neglected by despatchers, others were so much fun that the mileage quickly piled up. On the other hand, used spares are plentiful thanks to the numbers in breakers and if you do pick up a good ‘un a non runner can be found for under a hundred notes to serve as a cheap spares source. For between £300 and £500 something with loads of life left can be picked up after a bit of shopping around.
My time with the RS came to an end when I bought a CX off a friend and sold the 250 for £75 more than I paid for it, complete with an extra 15,500 miles and an almost bald rear tyre. The new owner was going to put an XT500 motor in; sacrilege! All in all, it was a great little commuter that was good fun, well mannered and reliable. I have an exceptionally clean Haynes manual for sale!
John Morton
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I have just done over 100,000 miles on my 1982 Honda CB250RS. It now looks more like a rolling wreck than the immaculate little single when it stood in the secondhand dealer's showroom. I bought it one year old with just 3400 miles on the clock. It wasn't at all like the British singles I'd owned in the past, it was more like a Japanese twin, needing much throttle and wrist effort to make it go.
Perhaps because so much use was made of it, the gearbox action did not impress me very much. Used to the firm, precise feel of British bikes, I found it difficult to know when gears were engaged, and there was a large amount of transmission lash despite the fact that primary drive was by gear. The first few weeks were not very happy, not helped any by the way the front disc grabbed on and viciously twisted the forks.
Good points were a relative lack of vibes due to a pair of chain driven balance shafts, light mass and narrowness that allowed rapid progress through city traffic. So much so, that at the end of the first week I was pulled over by a sweating cop after I had whizzed around his agricultural antique. He was even more annoyed when removal of my helmet revealed that I was old enough to be his grandfather!
The engine sounded a bit noisy even at this low mileage and I spent the first year worrying about the camshaft which runs, in typical Honda fashion, direct in the cylinder head. Oil changes were done every 800 miles, left any longer meant a degeneration in gearchange preciseness that I could not tolerate. The single overhead cam drives four valves but they only needed adjusting slightly every 4 or 5000 miles; a period I soon found, apart from oil changes, over which the engine could be left well alone. The only other thing that it needed was an adjustment of the awkwardly placed balancer chain tension.
No, what really irritated me about day to day running of the RS, after I'd become acclimatized to its other idiosyncrasies, was the need for daily chain adjustments. I know the bike is a single with power pulses that tend towards destroying chains, but I have owned other singles with just as much power which had much longer lasting chains. Chain mileage was anywhere between 3000 to 5500 miles; sprockets would not last for more than two chains. A sprocket set now costs £25, so this was a major expense.
It's possible to buy a HD chain and sprocket set, but these only last about 20% longer - as they cost 20% more there was little advantage, save the convenience of improved service intervals. I became so sickened by the way expensive chain sprays had their oil flung all over the back wheel and did little to save the chain, that I went back to the sixties solution - old engine oil. Much to my surprise, this clinged to the chain for longer and left less of a mess.
My first long run was less than successful. A 200 mile bash down the motorway. The chassis was stable and resisted even the buffetting of speeding artics. The speedo would get up to 75mph in a fairly snappy manner and then creep up to 80mph. 90mph was a possibility in favourable conditions, but, really, the bike was out of its element. If it could sustain a pleasant 75mph cruise there was nothing left in store for overtaking and we were sidelined to the slow lane.
At my age I can live with sane speeds, what I can't tolerate is discomfort. The Honda's seat turns rock hard after 60 miles - and I mean rock hard! This is a great pity because I found the riding position the perfect compromise for my 5'9" frame. Flatish bars and footrests set neither too high nor too far forward would in other circumstances have allowed me to complete the journey in one go. I was later able to solve the problem by taking the seat apart and replacing the foam with that from an early seventies BMW seat that had somehow found its way to the corner of my garage.
I thereafter generally avoided motorways and long dual carriageways. Again, something of a pity because the bike has a stability and surefooted feel that is at odds with its low mass and short wheelbase. Even when, at 9000 miles, both forks and shocks had lost most of their damping and felt decidedly soft, the bike still refused to twitch in a frightening manner. Decent, thicker fork oil and a pair of Konis took care of that, and it's still a pleasant bike to ride today.
When I had my attention on the forks I also fitted some gaiters, but much to my dismay the forks have still pitted and it's gone through four sets of seals - they are very frustrating to fit, believe me! The forks have required nearly as much attention as the engine. It's still on its original bore and piston but has had two camchains and one camshaft. Regular oil changes and occasional oil filter cleaning have paid off as regards the camshaft bearings as they are still within tolerances. It's easy to know when the camchain has gone, the engine makes a very nasty racket!
Why has my engine lasted so well? For a start I have a C90 for shopping trips, so it isn't subjected to short journeys which are the worst kind of life for an engine. Secondly, I am never in the kind of hurry where I harshly rev the engine on starting up, I always give the engine a minute or two before riding off to achieve full circulation of the oil. Thirdly, these days, I rarely take the engine anywhere near the red line. Any one of these things would help but all three together are, I feel, a sure way to obtain the best out of the machine.
I have often taken the bike into Europe, the longest trip being 5000 miles. Apart from a sprocket set and spare cables taped in place, I take no precautions and have developed great faith in the RS. It has, in fact, never let me down. It was even able to climb up very steep Alpine passes without conking out. Here, I was very thankful for its nimbleness around the hairpin bends. It could be really banked over and even the thoughts of shooting off the side of the road didn't worry me.
It has attracted a disproportionate number of punctures, for some reason. I have stuck with Avon Roadrunner tyres as mileage is reasonable and grip reassuring. One thing I hate about low profile tyres is that they are real buggers to get back on the alloy rims. The number of times I've gouged a hole in my newly repaired inner tubes does not bear thinking about. I get 14000 miles out of the front tyre and 8000 miles from the rear.
Fuel consumption is reasonable, varying between 50 and 65mpg these days, but in the early days when the mileage was low it went from between 60 and 85mpg. Similarly, oil consumption between changes used to be negligible but now it uses around a litre, although the motor does not smoke very much. The rear drum needs shoes every 18000 miles and the front disc pads last about 8000 miles. The motor lacks much by the way of engine braking.
The front disc is still powerful but despite braided hose and clean fluid has developed a spongy feel and tends to lock up suddenly in the wet. Dunlopads cure wet weather lag but the caliper has the usual sticking pins and demands disassembly, cleaning and greasing when the pads are changed. I didn't do this the first time and the result was a seized up caliper. Another consumable are silencers but I cured mine by buying a 2-1 with a rotted silencer from a breaker. A rather long stainless steel R80 pattern silencer (from another breaker) was persuaded on to the end of this, and is still there to this very day.
Other problems? Plastic sidepanels that break but are repairable with Araldite. An engine that now leaks from several different places and doesn't respond to a tweak on the cylinder head bolts. A back wheel that started to break spokes when heavily loaded up with camping gear in France - the wheel was rebuilt in a small workshop at minimal expense, try that with a cracked cast alloy job. The time both sets of wheel bearings went within miles of each other and a spate of blowing bulbs traced to the combination of duff rectifier and dying battery.
As I mentioned before, the bike is now a rolling mess in need of much remedial action. It would cost me more to bring the bike up to a reasonable standard than I could ever hope to recover by selling the thing, but I think I really should make the effort, for it has been a delightful workhorse for all these years and miles; I don't even notice the transmission slop any more.
Lewis Williams
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I have owned over ten Honda CB250RS's. That's counting complete machines that had a reasonable chance of running with a bit of work. I have bought many others for the spare parts, they were so far gone that they usually cost less than a hundred notes a throw.
Why such fanaticism for a machine whose long term durability is open to question and is now old enough to make good ones the exception rather than the rule? Well, first of all, I am restricted to 250cc or under by the otherwise extortionate insurance quotes. I do know people who ride big bikes without insurance but this is not for me.
Then there's the machine, one in good condition will do more than 90mph, hold the road very well and be a doddle to ram through city traffic. Fuel, in the 60 to 70mpg range could be better and drive chains could last longer, but other than that it is a very cheap machine to run whilst maintaining a large degree of fun. I have been, occasionally, forced to ride a C50, so believe me the extra expense of the RS is well worth it!
They were made between 1980 and 1984, so by now a lot of them are on their last legs - which means plenty available as a cheap source of spares. A lot of them were despatched, as the very things that make them appeal as a cheap and cheerful motorcycle also made them ideal as a despatch hack.
Prices range from £50 to £750, although as little as £300 will procure a nice running example - not easily, mind, you'll have to do rather a lot of running around for that. For £750 I'd expect something with less than 15000 miles on the clock, either stock or with sensible mods. For £50 it'll probably have a seized engine and bent frame - not as rare as you'd expect because high mileage engines can seize, lock the back wheel and throw the bike off the road into something solid!
As for mileage, anything goes. One of my bikes has now done 117,879 miles, but it basically has had several newish sets of engine internals. Some DR's used to cane them so terribly that there was nothing left worth salvaging by the time 30,000 miles was on the clock - I bought one machine that had only done a pathetic 15000 miles and had no engine parts I could reuse!
The secret to making these engines last is the old trick of changing the engine oil as often as possible - on my two good bikes I do it every 500 miles; on my hacks every 1000 miles! The RS motor is a bit more complicated than many modern engines in that it has a gauze oil filter hidden away inside the cases, which needs to be cleaned every 5000 to 7500 miles. If it isn't the top end is the first to suffer with some pretty obvious rattles.
Mind you, I once bought a bike with a doom laden sounding top end only to find that it was valves that had enough slop to suggest they had never been adjusted since the machine was rolled out of the showroom. Once that was fixed the bike lasted for a couple of years; one of my bargains, though these days those kind of gifts are hard to come by.
The state of the engine can often be deduced by the amount of vibration. With two chain driven balancers whirring away, the motor should be smooth, save at the red-line and for a mild patch in the 5000 to 6500rpm range. Again, though, a worn balancer chain or ill-adjusted tensioner can cause lots of vibes - a new chain and tensioner are really needed every 20 to 30,000 miles depending on the level of neglect and abuse. Secondhand spares can be used if desperate to save money but they won't last long. If gear driven balancers had been used there would have been one hell of a lot more happier RS owners!
The piston can be short-lived. I've got as little as 9000 and as much as 53000 miles from an OE one. Some dealers will try to pass off pattern pistons as original Honda ones, but the two I've tried never did more than 8000 miles, so beware! It's the rings that break up first, letting the piston smash itself into the bore. At the first sign of a serious loss of power or exhaust smoke, I whip the cylinder off and put in some new rings - a lot cheaper than buying pistons!
The small and big end bearings are better than many, lasting at least 50,000 miles in my experience (with the aforementioned attention to oil changes), whilst the crankshaft bearings would make it around the clock. Exchange cranks are still available.
I once ruined an expensive rebuild by using a pattern gasket set that blocked off an oilway to the head. It only took 275 miles to wreck the piston and camshaft!
The latter employs Honda's usual trick of using the cylinder head itself as a bearing surface for the camshaft with the obvious result if there is a lack of oil reaching it - careful warming up of the motor is also needed so that an adequate oil pressure in the head is achieved. I've had heads go for over 75000 miles, so it's not that terrible a problem - firms aren't making a fortune out of renovating RS heads, as was the case with the old CB250G5.
The cam rockers are a bit of bad news, often out of action in less than 15,000 miles, whilst the four valves, especially the exhausts, can grind their way into the cylinder head.
The clutch rattles from new but works alright whilst the gearbox has always been finicky; by the time 75000 miles are done there is a distinct art to snicking the box through the gears. An abundance of false neutrals gives the novice RS rider a rather hard time. A good gearbox is a sure sign of a low mileage bike.
This might seem rather depressing, a large enough catalogue of faults in just the engine department to make staying clear of an RS a prime objective in life. But a properly rebuilt motor, given the necessary care, should last up to 50,000 miles without any major incidents.
And they are very versatile beasts. I've done many a pleasant European tour on my RS250's, covering as much as 5000 miles a time. Although the top speed is only a rather strained 90mph, the little engine appears happy to whirr away with as much as 80mph on the clock for as long as the fuel lasts!
Comfort, of a stock bike, is not so good, though. The riding position is a reasonable compromise between town and high(ish) speed riding, nothing to complain about there. What upsets the bike's comfort is one of the nastiest seats I've ever come across. It's not bad for the first 25 miles but then goes as hard as concrete. Even more annoying, it soon develops small cracks, which allow it to soak up the water, giving the rider a nasty dose of the wet backside syndrome.
I once bought a new seat and it didn't last for more than 6000 miles before the water started seeping in. Some foam and vinyl are the cheapest answer but not very pleasing to the eye. I eventually ended up robbing an old Honda seat of its cover and using its foam along with some extra reinforcements to construct a reasonable perch. Not perfect, but a 100 mile ride is a cinch and as much as 350 miles in a day possible.
The worst thing that happened to me on one of my tours was having the petrol tank dissolve between my knees. It had rusted from the inside out and I began to worry when I could feel a bit of give when I pressed hard against it during cornering. Luckily, it was on reserve and there wasn't that much fuel to lose. I became a bit concerned after that about using tank-bags, as the weight might cause an elderly tank to collapse. The fuel tap also leaked around its joint with the tank on many high mileage examples.
The finish was never very good from new, they were built down to a price; fair enough as their relative cheapness was part of their appeal. Long before the motor starts spitting out oil (mostly from the top end), the protective black paint has started to peel off, leading to the usual rash of white corrosion. Touching up with black paint doesn't last very long, it's best to have the engine parts bead-blasted when they are stripped for a rebuild. Rather a lot of Solvol is needed to keep it up to scratch after that but well worth it for the effect.
The frame is a very simple structure, which goes a long way to explaining the minimal mass of 300lbs, but is quite adequately braced for the mild speeds that the RS manages. I have come across ones heavily bent at the headstock which snapped when an attempt at straightening them was made, so I have always tried to use
A distinct weak spot is swinging arm bearings that can wear out in less than 6000 miles. Those that have not seen grease for a couple of years seize up completely. I once hit the spindle so hard a frame tube snapped! I have wasted too many evenings swearing at the swinging arm for my own good and have now gotten into the habit of taking out the spindle every 5000 miles and applying an excess of grease. The most I've got out of a set of swinging arm bearings was 22000 miles.
The steering head fares rather better, at least it can usually be disassembled with relative ease. There are taper roller sets available that last about 35000 miles. The demise of either set of bearings shows up in the stability with either head shaking or back end wallowing.
Another thing that affects handling is frame straightness, although a straight frame engenders the RS with surprising stability for such a light bike, if it's out of line even very slightly there is a strong tendency to pull to one side when slowing down. Long term owners compensate for this automatically so a pillion ride will not reveal the problem when testing an RS.
On one such bike, which I thought I had mastered, I experienced my only wild speed wobble in all my time with these Hondas. It was more than frightening. I was only doing about 65mph at the time, when the front wheel hit a rut in the road. The handlebars shook a little and were then wrenched out of my grasp. The RS had a mind of its own after that, and a pretty evil one, too. The bike wobbled so badly I was nearly thrown clear of the saddle. The machine only coming to a halt when it had run right off the road, skidded wildly on some grass and thrown both of us through a prickly hedge!
The only thing that saved us was that the eventual landing was relatively soft and my leather jacket stopped me from being scarred for life from the bushes. The bike was stripped down a week later and I had a joyful evening cutting up the cursed frame!
Another bit of obvious deterioration occurs on the fork stanchions - rust eats into them until they resemble the surface of the moon. I have salvaged some by filling the pits with Araldite and rubbing them down, but my two main machines have had the forks rechromed using the proper hard-chroming process. I doubt if there are any left in good original nick, now, though if you find some, coat in grease and cover with gaiters.
These quick rot stanchions don't do anything at all to help the fork seals which I've had last less than 4000 miles, which if you think about it is bloody ridiculous. Even with refurbished stanchions they last for less than 15000 miles, more usually around 10,000 miles.
The stock forks have reasonable springing and damping when new but start to sag after as little as 40,000 miles. Some washers in the forks or heavy duty springs bring back the excellent handling but I don't recommend heavier weight oil as it's a quick way to blow the seals!
The twin rear shocks don't impress from new, but they don't really upset the handing until after 10,000 miles when they sag so badly the rear guard can hit the tyre! Luckily, the fittings are common, so just about anything from a breaker improves matters. Ground clearance is already good (with the stand prongs cut back a little), so I would try to obtain shocks of a similar length. I certainly wouldn't pay out for a new set!
The RS comes with spoked wheels with neat looking alloy rims. However, it's quite easy to dent the rims when trying to fit tyres and even the mildest of collisions can buckle them. They can be rebuilt with new rims, so it's not the end of the world. Handling does degenerate badly with wrecked wheels, though.
Another thing to cause the shakes is worn out wheel bearings, but these last quite well, about 25,000 miles on the back and 15,000 on the front. Coming home from one heavily loaded tour I did have a couple of rear wheel spokes break on me, but this has only happened the once and we managed to stagger back to base slowly.
Tyres are one of the better aspects of bike. It'll run on just about any rubber of the right size and won't object to less than 2mm of tread. I prefer cheapo Avons, as they will do better than 15000 miles a set without provoking too many nasty surprises in the wet.
Which is more than I can say for an, admittedly already worn, set of Chin Sins, which whilst okay in the dry caused massive front wheel slides in the wet. I had them off after the first crash and swore never again. There's cutting corners and there's being bloody stupid!
Other crashes have not done very much damage to the bikes. They usually slide down the road on the handlebars and the footpegs. The former do seem to bend very easily but can be straightened with a bit of brute force - I like the bend so much that I don't really want to replace them with a different type.
The combination of a single front disc and rear SLS drum have saved me from battering cagers on several occasions. However, the front caliper is renown for corroding up even in the mildest of winters and the shaft in the rear drum will also seize eventually. The latter is easy to cure with just a bit of grease every time a rear tyre is replaced but the caliper is a different kettle of fish.
The first problem is that it's so corroded together it can need several smacks from a hammer, which may break the casing rather than make it fall apart. Even when it's apart and all the corrosion has been cleaned off, and if necessary the pistons and seals replaced, it can last for as little as 5000 miles once reconstructed. There are various antidotes which involve fitting a different caliper, an old Honda drum brake front wheel or a completely different front end - I managed to fit a GPz305 front end to one of my bikes and have experienced much improved braking with no ill-effect on stability!
Another obvious area of corrosion is the exhaust system, which corrodes mostly around the end of the silencer but eventually spreads to the whole system. Different silencers can be fitted but they cause a nasty flat spot in the midrange unless extensive carb mods are undertaken. I managed to buy a few new exhaust systems when a dealer was selling off old stock, so am well set up for the future.
Electrics have been generally reliable, although the later version fitted with an electric starter can give trouble. I had one dodgy rectifier and had to buy an exchange alternator, but it's quite an impressive machine in this area, even having a reasonable headlamp!
I have fixed the drive chain wear to an extent, with full chain enclosure and a Scottoiler, increasing life from less than 5000 miles to around 15000 miles - but it still needs new sprockets at every chain change.
So there you go, the RS250 has lots of potential trouble spots, which bike hasn't at this kind of age, but if you find a nice one there's the promise of lots of fun riding at minimal expense. My advice is to buy a reasonable one for riding and a couple of dead ones for spares, that way you won't have to go running to the local Honda dealer for the bits that will invariably wear out.
Eddie
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Flat as a fart. Not a very nice description of one's motorcycle, is it? But the RS250 totally underwhelmed me with its performance, the only more boring bike ever ridden was a CB250 Superdream. Don't get me wrong, though, the RS was quite a respectfully quick bike, eventually reaching 90mph, it's just that getting to any reasonable speed is such a great snooze.
I've always been one of the terminally skint, never having much spare cash to spend on bikes. In order to progress up the bike ladder of desirability I usually buy bikes on the cheap, do them up and sell them at a slight profit. In this manner I've managed to minimise the cost of two wheels. The point is that I've owned 24 motorcycles to date. The other day I tried to write them down, but only managed 23 until I recalled that the missing one was the RS!
It's not that the competition is particularly hot stuff, unless your dream bike happens to be a CD175 or Jawa 350 (thought not), but all the other bikes made some lasting impression, however, fleeting the length of ownership. The Honda, however, stayed one whole year but even after this period of trusty service it still remains a blot in my memory, filed away somewhere under the title, 'Forget this forever.' So what went wrong....
During the time under my bum, the little Honda single proved to be a very competent machine, coped extremely well with the day to day trauma of commuting to work and back. It went okay, stopped well with its combination of front disc and rear drum, always returned a staggering 85mpg and even did a passable impression of going around corners.
So why oh why was it such a bad memory, what, for god's sake, is wrong with them.....thinking back I now remember that riding it always felt slow; tediously slow. You sort of wound it up to speed and sat there, bored by the inevitability of it all. Just like a Superslug but lighter.
The RS was only three when I bought it, was obviously well cared for as the cosmetics were in good nick. In fact, the only thing to give away the 12000 miles of use was the non-standard tyres. A bargain at £250 in 1983. The Honda was a bit of a loser from day one, it was the bike to replace my recently dead Suzuki GT380 - a seventies triple that was surprisingly good in the context of hack motorcycling.
After that machine, the RS would have to be good to win a space in my heart. It didn't. To stack the odds further against the RS, it came along when my life took a serious downturn in the fun/boredom ratio. Life was becoming seriously dull. The commute through the rush hour traffic revealed an irritating transmission fault. Snatch at low revs meant that gearchanges were depressingly regular. Gearchanges are okay when they make an LC go quicker but a great bore when all they do is let you maintain a constant speed or end up going slower. The bike was a pain in the arse.
Any saving made from the frugality was blown away, straight into the pockets of Mr Reynolds or Izumi, as the transmission snatch junks chains and sprockets like there is no tomorrow. Being supremely tight, all my chains can expect to live well beyond their normal pensionable age. If it's still in one piece it's used - I get 8000 miles out of mine, twice the normal life expectancy. Wider chain kits are a good idea.
Being tight does not extend to engine oil, though, the RS has a puny oil capacity, uses thin oil and shares the lubricant with the gearbox. Not a recipe for making oil last, the lubricant in my RS was changed every 1000 miles without failure. If you laugh at this paranoia, talk to any RS or XL250 owner. Those lacking such fanaticism about oil changes will tell tales of cams mating with heads, an old Honda 250 problem, either remedied by bearing conversions or regular oil changes. Still not convinced? Try buying a good head in a breakers yard, these days!
Riding the Honda at night never inspired confidence, the rectangular headlamp was very bright but the spread was disappointing, the main beam's warning light also used to dazzle me. This was before compulsory scratchproof visors, so maybe things have improved.
In the road tests of the time the press always raved about the RS's handling with such dubious claims about keeping up with a Ducati, outhandling a Montjuic and other such crap. It may be true that they do handle well, but it never overwhelmed me with a feeling of confidence. It felt all wrong, the steering head angle was steep (compared to previous tackle) and it felt like I was leaning forwards all the time, with the front wheel directly below the bars. Felt like an SS50 for the nearly grown ups!
I much preferred the buckling, ditch seeking handling of the Suzuki GT380! I later rode a CB350S, which had a similar riding position but made me feel much more involved with the bike, so I'm not against semi-racing crouches, just the little Honda's.
Another drawback of the RS became apparent due to my need to start early in the morning. You know how it is, the morning after, a bit hung over, a bit dazed, you don't want any fuss or bother, do you? What you really don't need is a bike that kicks back like a mule if you get it slightly wrong. Especially if you work in an office and have to wear crappy shoes. It's an ankle breaker, believe me. It's worse than a 750 Bonnie and Velo Thruxton put together!
At least twice a week would see me hobbling around the office after my pathetic prods on the starter were rejected. After a month of trying to master the technique and catching the kickstart lever on the back of my calf, I made a rare purchase of some new gear - namely, a spanking new pair of MX boots.
The really terrible thing about the RS was that it was turning me off motorcycling! Even with the MX boots solving the starting horrors, there just wasn't much fun to be had from riding the RS250. The mileometer was only slowly turning whilst the Escort was being thrashed into work more and more. My God, I screamed, what's happening? I rushed to the mirror, finding a stranger there who looked smart, neat haircut and no stubble. It can't be.....he looks familiar. I knew I was in trouble when I found myself looking in the Dunn and Co window. I also knew that something had to be done.
The next day I found myself applying for a bank loan for an MG Midget. Luckily, this was refused, but the bank manager agreed for a loan towards a Triumph 650. The lord works in mysterious ways. The Triumph was only going to be a short term thing, a sort of last fling before settling down into four wheel tedium. Instead of submitting to the inevitable, I chucked the job and moved. Having rediscovered fun on two wheels I reverted to my former self (scruffier) and felt like a new man.
Two years later some bastard stole the 650, which meant a minimal pay out from the insurance company and massive premiums. Thoughts suddenly turned to the happy days on the RS250 (which would be both cheap to buy and insure).....then the bubble burst. I remembered how it really was and bought a Suzuki 250 X7 instead. Who cares if it only does 40mpg, life's too short to be bored. There are legions of satisfied CB250RS owners, but if you have blood that still likes to flow and hasn't congealed completely to lead, then buy some mad old stroker for the kicks!
Steve Willet
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The Honda CB250RS is becoming so elusive that it's almost a classic! I see the odd one still on the despatch circuit in London. Invariably a real rat - chain churning along the ground, suspension sagging and a smoky, rattly engine. Maybe they'd fetch a hundred notes on a good day. Somehow, they keep on going, doubtlessly helped along by a garage full of cheap spares - for every one still on the road there must be ten broken for spares.
Before I found my machine I'd viewed half a dozen overpriced, well worn out heaps. I admired the optimism of their owners but could only laugh at their stubbornness. And the way they told blatant lies over the telephone. Even the one I finally found had 29 thou on the clock but the chassis was perfect except for faded, original paint. It was old but had never been ridden in the winter - three owners but all from the same family. Three hundred quid after the usual round of negotiations, against an initial demand for £435.
I knew I was on to a good deal when the vendor came up with the original toolkit, spare cables, workshop manual and a large box of used parts. The workshop manual was heavily greased around the bits on piston and camchain replacement, which gave pause for thought. Sounded just like a typical Honda from the eighties.
To those who missed out on the RS experience, it's a lightweight 250cc thumper with a thoroughly straightforward chassis layout. Being on the short, squat side I fitted on to the Honda quite well. Flat handlebars well matched to the pegs and a together feel more often found on bigger bikes.
The engine performed on a par with a 250 Superdream, which ain't exactly inspiring but more than adequate for town and country work. Even motorways could be cruised at 80mph if some energy was put into the gearbox and throttle. Of course, you had to learn to absorb the vibes - the engine had a chain driven balancer system that took most of the vibes out when new but wear made it less than perfect. There is, in fact, no way to completely remove the vibes from a single, the art being to redirect the buzz so that the chassis can absorb the worst of the buzz. The frame has to be matched to the engine.
There's always a bit of a thrill, playing with a new bike, during the first few days. The Honda had neutral steering and decent Avon rubber. Combined with its light weight, made for a ridiculously easy time. No hidden nasties. Only that the overall experience was a bit bland - more likely to break the clutch or drive chain than do a wheelie or donut. Singles are supposed to be full of character but even the louder than stock exhaust failed to impress.
Time and mileage went by at a rapid pace, as it does when you're getting on in age. The RS ran up to 36000 miles with no major expenses. Then the camchain rattled away like a box of screws dropped in a washing machine. I'd found no less than three dead tensioners in the boxes of bits. Forewarned, I'd already bought a new tensioner and camchain at an auto-jumble. A good set of piston, rings and barrel were much rarer, the stuff I came across far gone.
One of the joys of running an old Jap is, of course, riding halfway across the country to an auto-jumble, spending an afternoon swapping insults and tall tales with like-minded enthusiasts. Much better than dying of boredom in front of the TV. It was just as well that the RS was turning in 70mpg, otherwise I would've been well out of pocket. Cycle parts in good nick were also rare; one of the great coincidences of my life to have the front guard disintegrate en route for an autojumble only to find a better replacement there for all of a quid. Enough to make you believe in God.
The RS came with a pretty marginal front disc when brand new and a decade's worth of abuse hadn't improved on it any. With the exception of the EBC pads that allowed sensitive braking in the wet. The caliper is one of those curious Jap designs that corrodes together so solidly that it won't come apart again without doing a self-destruct act. Charmed by such delinquency the average owner finishes off the job with a sledge-hammer. These are as rare as sexy women in auto-jumbles, although a solution of sorts is to modify the caliper so that a couple of screws can force it apart. Such minor engineering work is beyond most owners. I don't know if the long term effects of wear and winter on more modern efforts allow them to fare any better...
The drive chain's another short-lived item. A combination of small drive sprocket, odd swinging arm placement and disturbingly thin chain that did nothing to resist the thumper power pulses - old British singles used to have ruddy great shock absorbers on the end of the crankshaft, along with much heftier flywheels.
Needless to say, the high revving little Honda would see off most of that dross. I don't mean to insult those who believe old British bikes are brilliant, and have yet to forgive the Japanese for what they did in the war, but my own experience of old Brits was not very pleasant.
There are all kinds of solutions to the fast wearing chains. From heavy-duty kits to full chain enclosure but I found the easiest solution was to use the cheapest chain possible, often secondhand, taking links out when necessary. A bit tedious but I had more time than money on my hands.
Obviously, this made life interesting, every ride an adventure. The time the chain snapped was quite traumatic. I should've replaced it because there were some pretty obvious tight spots - in one position it was bow-string taut, in another there was three inches of free play.
Anyway, there I was charging through commuter-land, going across a large junction on amber when the thing went. A bit of a bang followed by a rapid loss of speed which I blame on the dragging front disc and slowly deflating tyres. The inner-tubes had more patches than original rubber and the tyres were often worn down to the carcass.
I was about halfway across when all the cars from the side came streaming towards me. They couldn't believe that I wasn't going to get out of their way. The screaming brakes and tyres overcame my own hollering efforts. I tried to urge the bike on as if I was on a horse. Somehow, the cars braked and swerved around me. It was a bad day, a fat porker was waiting on the pavement, and wrote down a long list of offences. Mumbling away that I shouldn't be let loose on the open road. The only lucky thing about the event was that the chain had flown off harmlessly rather than wrecking the crankcase or my leg.
With just over 42000 miles clocked up some very strange electrical antics occurred. Fuses blowing, lights flickering, the battery going dead and the bike refusing to start. Sometimes it'd conk out in the middle of traffic, forcing me to paddle it to the side of the road, amid harsh horns and sibilant shouts. I cursed and threatened the heap but never quite found it in my heart to abandon it.
Not since a brief spell with a GS450 had I been so frustrated. That bike was soon sold as there were no cheap electrical bits for it. After much mucking around both the alternator and rectifier were found to be on the way out. A complete rewire, used black boxes and battery were necessary, as well as a cheap exchange generator. It took so long to figure out because the components were only breaking down when they became hot. I had a long argument with one mechanic when I refused to pay him for telling me that there was nothing wrong with it!
After 47000 miles performance became less than scintillating and the vibes only likely to please the most perverse sado-masochist. A worn out balancer chain proved the cause and a used one was fitted, not without a lot of cursing and grazed fingers. The tensioning of this item's best described as pre-historic, making a mockery of an otherwise easy bike to maintain (or more likely neglect).
Yes, the engine will run without the balancer connected but only viable if you want to stand the bike on its end and let it dig a huge hole in the garden. I know this because a lad around the corner had boasted about this trick only to complain a week later that the petrol tank had split open and even the tubular frame was beginning to crack up.
I occasionally bumped into other RS enthusiasts. We'd swap lies about our highway escapades, the longevity of the engine and the size of our spares' stashes. I had about half a dozen telephone numbers of people with whom I could swap parts. This is pretty common amongst owners of old Jap's, even better than hitting the jumbles or breakers. The only bad point was that I never came across any young women riding old RS250s. The same mix of comradeship and practicality used to exist amongst British bike owners, until the machines were priced out of the game by the greed of the classic brigade. Japanese bikes don't seem to have gone down the same weary road.
53000 miles saw the total melt-down of the motor whilst a lot of the chassis was threatening to rust through. I'm not sure which bit of the motor failed first but the result was wrecked crankshaft, melted piston and tangled valves. This is pretty common at this kind of mileage unless an unlikely amount of effort has been used to keep the bike in prime condition. Few people seem willing to lavish that kind of energy on the RS.
Foolishly, I bought a motor for fifty quid without hearing it run. It did work but the rattles were so fierce that I knew it wouldn't last for long. Top speed was a reluctant 65mph whilst fuel economy of around 40mpg indicated how far gone was the engine. I ran it like that for two months, shocked that the mill didn't actually seize up. When my vision started going from the vibes I knew it was time to move on.
The RS plus a mountain of spares was sold off for all of £90. I didn't feel cheated, I'd had a few years of good riding, met a lot of people and learned a fair bit about motorcycle engines. I'm now toddling along on a SR250.
Alan Jones