Honda CL250 review

Honda CL250 is a model developed with a focus on young people based on the concept of “Express Yourself.” It is designed as a bike that allows you to easily enjoy a wide range of situations, from urban areas to outdoor fields.
Based on my 1 day riding, my rating for CL250 is 2.5/5.

Urban: 3/5

Riding position is fine when the motorbike goes under 70km/h.
Acceleration and deceleration are just enough.
Heavy clutch causes the muscle tiredness of left hand.
The footstep interferes with the legs supporting the ground.
Sometimes it’s impossible to shift into N gear.

Twisties: 4/5

Good directivity and inertia maintenance.
Enough low-rpm torque and engine braking.
Both brakes have great feeling and performance.
Front suspension lacks support, rear one lacks ground tracing.

Highway: 1/5

Only keeps enough stability below 75km/h.
Engine shakes like hell when above 5000rpm.
Huge drag causes by the upright driving posture.
Metal scraping noise occurs.

Performance: 2/5

Engine only performs comfortably within the range of 2000-5000 rpm.
Transmission and clutch are acting inconsistently.
Front suspension is too soft and not adjustable.
The support of rear suspension following the ground can be better.
Can provide more confident operation and driving.

Comfort: 2/5

A lot of room for improvement in ergonomics.
Riding position can be tilted more forward.
Pedal position of both feet should move backward.
Angle of the left foot shift lever can be optimized.
Handlebar is a bit too wide, bad for quick maneuver but good for pushing by hand.
Lack of slip clutch makes the clutch level too heavy to pull.
Wild vibration from the engine hurts the top half of its rpm range.
Single-cylinder engine makes a cheap sound.

Style: 3/5

Raised exhaust pipe looks fancy.
Round digital with gear position indicator is just fine.
All LED lights give a retro and advanced looking.
Seat is long, wide, soft and comfort. Tank is good for knee gripping.
Trail and adventure tires adds toughness.
NVH performance is uncool at all.

Fuel consumption from WMTC mode test is 34.9 km/L, and my ride was 127.8 km / 4.09 L = 31.2 km/L, 90% of its catalogue value.

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