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| My 'Pre-loved' Suzuki Gixxer SF250 Review | Fulfilling my childhood dream Hello all As much as we all love cars, we have to agree at some point of life all boys have a strong desire to ride a motorcycle and I personally feel I'm not a complete man if I'm not owning and riding a motorcycle ![]() For long enough time now buying and riding a motorcycle was in my bucket list of things although I could never give it a priority due to some reason or the other since my primary means of transport are my cars and scooters. However since past couple of years the itch to ride a motorcycle grew really strong and I couldn't resist myself from visiting showrooms and checking out some swanky new motorcycles. Some of the motorcycles I did check out were as follows
Apart from all the above mentioned bikes I checked some other bikes viz Harley X440, Honda CB300F etc too and as you can understand I didn't have a specific segment or body style which I had in my mind while choosing a motorcycle because honestly speaking, I just checked them out on the basis of whichever bikes I liked in terms of look irrespective of whether its a cruiser, naked or faired one and whether its a 150cc or 400cc. I just wanted something with 2 wheels that I could make of my own and fulfil my childhood desire of owning a motorcycle. Therefore upon giving some deep thought I decided to go for a pre-owned route instead of new one because, firstly I would get an experience of a motorcycle, build experience of riding and maintaining one which would help me understand better when I upgrade to a higher capacity, more sophisticated machine and secondly, a lot less damage to my wallet since there a thousand things more important in life which one needs to spend upon. While going through the pre-owned route I fixed upon my own set of non-negotiable rules, first the bike should not be more than a couple of years old, owned by a single owner only and preferably less than 10k kms clocked on its odo, plus the service history should be thorough and clean. While there are infinite second hand dealers of both cars and bikes in my town, most of them I will raise my head and say, are fraudulent, for the lack of better words. They hide many a things, deceive you into believing they are selling you a genuine vehicle and its only when you take your machine home, you realise you've put your hands into a can of worms and upon complaining to the same very dealer who was once so polite to you suddenly becomes totally ignorant to you and show their true colours. Don't go by their Google reviews since most of them are made by them and their close circle only. Still, after a lot of online research and in-person visits zeroed in upon a store which seemed genuine enough, was run by the owner singlehandedly, a nice chap and frank enough about everything. He had some good collection of motorcycles too which matched with my criteria. Among all the bikes shortlisted two options, the Hero Karizma XMR and the Suzuki Gixxer SF250, both the bikes were MY2023 models, the Karizma was almost factory fresh with just 2000kms on odo while the Gixxer was a shade under 5000kms. Since I already mentioned the big disadvantage with the Karizma, selected the Gixxer, also the dealer himself said Suzukis are more in demand while Karizma is sitting idle with ZERO enquiries for it even after discounted prices. Took a short TD of the bike, everything felt alright, at least according to my limited knowledge, just observed some debris on the chain, requested him to get the chain cleaned and lubricated, do some final touchups and make it ready. While conversing with him, the discussion quickly changed from bikes to cars as I mentioned I'm a BHPian ![]() Even though I paid the non-refundable token and despite the dealer's reassurance of 6months warranty I decided to get the bike checked thoroughly before going ahead and also get my hands on the service history report. For the former, I took help of Droom's Eco Bike Inspection service, I chose the premium package which costed just 300Rs incl. GST. Initially I didn't get any confirmation about the service except for my token number, also Droom's customer care number was defunct, and their WhatsApp support was useless. I thought I lost my money, disheartened, left a couple of mails to their customer care email ID and gave up. In the meantime called up Suzuki ASC, shared the vehicle number, asked for the service history and credit where it's due they quickly sent me a PDF with the complete service report, which thankfully was clean and regularly carried out at the same ASC. Later during the day, received a message from Droom conveying me about the date and time of inspection along with contact details of the technician. Called him up, explained the whole saga and sent him the location of the dealer, asked him to carry out the inspection in my absence and inform me about his opinion about the bike since I personally had some work commitments and won't be able witness the inspection to which he agreed. Subsequently, called up the dealer to inform him about my inspection request by a 3rd party independent mechanic via Droom to which he was totally cool, a big green signal IMO. The mechanic reached the place on time, carried out the inspection and even took a TD of the bike. He informed me the bike was in absolutely perfect shape with aspects like engine oil, battery and exterior in excellent condition. I even got a thorough PDF report of the inspection soon and bike was rated a good 8/10 rating. A huge sigh of relief and IMO these kind of inspection services are totally justified of their nominal costs especially when its a question of parting with substantial amount of your hard earned cash. In the following couple of days arranged the required cash, asked for some last bit of negotiation and closed the deal. I requested him to drop the bike to my residence as the showroom is located 20kms away and I wasn't confident of bringing the bike home myself navigating through the nasty traffic and worst of all, the bike has just a 3rd party insurance as of now though I will be applying for a zero dep policy ASAP. The dealer to his credit, arranged a Porter cargo van which carefully packed, transported and dropped the bike safely to my residence, also he was kind enough to accompany himself with the cargo van and as a token gave the bike with a full tank gas! Even though the day was very exhausting, I woke up very early next morning to just see the motorbike, and it still gave me chills that I FINALLY bought my own motorcycle! Took it for rides multiple times throughout the day just to enjoy the machine and carried out a small puja during the evening. While its too early to review since I myself feel incompetent as of now to judge a bike I intend to keep this thread active as I spend more time with it. Still, have planned some upgrades in the following months
Looking forward to lifetime memories as I enter into the world of 2 wheel motoring! Some pictures of the bike, still can't believe I have finally owning a bike now! At the showroom along with the Karizma and RTR310 ![]() Along with my Duet ![]() During the daylight, the silhouette is very reminiscent of erstwhile CBR250R which IMO was the best quarter litre sports bike India got along with the Ninja 250. ![]() Another closing shot ![]() Thank you for reading my post! As of now I'm still in an awe that I OWN a bike, sorry if it sounds repetitive but please try to understand my excitement, its my childhood dream come true! Thank you Tony Last edited by Tony2298 : 22nd January 2025 at 00:44. Reason: Typo, Proof reading |
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BHPian ![]() Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Pune
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| Re: Fulfilling childhood dream:My 'Pre-loved' Suzuki Gixxer SF250 Congratulations on your purchase! Wishing you many enjoyable miles ahead. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your experience. Getting back to motorcycling is always a special moment. No matter how many swanky cars we own, riding a motorcycle on open roads offers a completely unique and exhilarating feeling. Could you please share the price breakdown? I'm sure you must have compared to New Gixxer before finalizing. And don't forget to post some more pictures. I believe I know this used-bike dealer since I had enquired with him a few times when I was looking for a pre-owned KTM Adventure. However, I found his prices to be on the higher side. While narrowing down on a trusted dealer is a challenging task, buying directly from the owner is usually a better option. That said, it does come with the hassle of handling everything yourself. Nevertheless, it’s often the price you pay for peace of mind. Last edited by mp417 : 22nd January 2025 at 10:20. Reason: minor edits |
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| Re: Fulfilling childhood dream:My 'Pre-loved' Suzuki Gixxer SF250 Quote:
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Today I completed a short 30kms round trip across the town and here are my initial impressions of the bike:
These are some of the very early impressions about the bike and as mentioned the more I spend time with the bike the more I'll keep the thread updated. Since more pictures were requested, I've attached some with even more to come. The front, the matte black shade looks stunning IMHO. ![]() The stance looks befitting of a 250cc bike without being too much flashy. ![]() The rear seems eerily similar to the erstwhile CBR250R, not a bad thing at all! ![]() At the Pirelli Performance Centre ![]() The Metzelers which cost upwards of 25,000INR! ![]() The Pirellis which cost a little less, personally interested in these, will reserve my judgement till I see the Michelins. ![]() Yours truly wearing a Suzuki apparel. Somehow reminded me of the Road Rash video game, the game I used to play endlessly along with my elder brother back in the day ![]() ![]() Thank you Tony Last edited by Aditya : 22nd January 2025 at 23:18. Reason: Taking live. Thanks! | ||||
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Team-BHP Support ![]() | Re: My 'Pre-loved' Suzuki Gixxer SF250 Review | Fulfilling my childhood dream Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing! |
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| Re: My 'Pre-loved' Suzuki Gixxer SF250 Review | Fulfilling my childhood dream Tony2298, congratulations on acquiring your Suzuki Gixxer SF250. It is a very capable and fun motorcycle that should keep you happy until you get that ZX6R. As a fellow owner, I will chime in on the tires question. Honestly, the stock MRF tires are fine for most regular Indian users. Also, while a set of great tires will help improve a drive / ride experience, given that you are still new to motorcycling, throwing on the most expensive set of tires might be a waste of good money. Why dont you try riding with the MRFs for some time and then see if you really need to replace them? Even if you dont want to have MRFs on your motorcycle (a lot of enthusiasts arent keen on MRF tires) and feel that you must change the tires, then you should look at the TVS Protorq Extreme and the Apollo Alpha H1. They cost almost the same, give or take a few hundred rupees and are the go to choice for serious enthusiast riders. These are also half the cost of the imported choices. If money is no bar and you absolutely must have the best tires available, then get the Road 6. |
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| Re: My 'Pre-loved' Suzuki Gixxer SF250 Review | Fulfilling my childhood dream While the Suzuki Gixxer SF250 is indeed a very good choice, I won't trust any dealers in India. I have had experiences of buying motorbikes from dealers in Pune, where everything was perfect when we checked and took test rides. 2 weeks after the engine developed issues and required major work. This wasn't the only time, every time we got a motorbike from a dealer this was the case. I hope you got a good dealer who's promise actually means something as repairing this bike will be a nightmare. |
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| Re: My 'Pre-loved' Suzuki Gixxer SF250 Review | Fulfilling my childhood dream Quote:
Having said that, I totally agree with Neil here 🫡, there's only so much of an improvement you can expect with a tyre upgrade on a 26BHP bike. I would say it's not worth spending more than 13k for a set of tyres for on a 250. | |
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| Re: My 'Pre-loved' Suzuki Gixxer SF250 Review | Fulfilling my childhood dream Quote:
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Thank you for guiding me on tyres' aspect and as per your advice would be sticking to the OE tyres only until they wear out and then change to Michelin Road6 since more than anything else I just wanna try out Michelin bike radial tyres because I've been using their car tyres and my experience with them is fantastic therefore keen to try out their 2 wheeler Radials too, also these retail much cheaper than both Pirelli and Metzelers making them an interesting proposition. Thank you once again for your nice comments, this is what motivates me to deliver more to this forum regularly! Quote:
I've heard good things about Apollo Alpha tyres and these are quite VFM too but as mentioned I really wanna try out some elite brands like Michelin since I'm very satisfied with their car tyres and want to experience their bike Radials too. Pirelli is also one of my favourite brands and sadly I couldn't procure a set for my SUV but since they're readily available for my bike I'm a bit tempted towards them but for now I'm sticking to stock tyres only based on suggestions of all respected members as I enhance my riding skills and experience. Thank you Tony Last edited by Tony2298 : 24th January 2025 at 23:48. Reason: Spacing | |||
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| Re: My 'Pre-loved' Suzuki Gixxer SF250 Review | Fulfilling my childhood dream As much as night drives are one of my favourite hobbies, night rides have been exciting me more nowadays, maybe due to novelty factor but yeah, I waited for these moments so long, I still remember back in the day when all my friends used to have a nice motorcycle and used to go for long night rides often with their GFs and whenever I used to ask someone to let me borrow their bike for some time so that I can enjoy a night ride too, everybody refused and I was left alone at my hostel room whilst everybody is enjoying, during those days, I used to see bike posters and imagine myself wearing a riding suit and enjoying my OWN motorcycle, one day. It took time but it did ![]() Coming to some more observations, which go as follows
The riders' POV. Really love the light throw, this is low beam as I never ride with high beams on public road, be it bikes or cars and never recommend from doing so to others as well ![]() ![]() The front end looks striking! ![]() The rear looks mean too! ![]() My personal favourite angle of the Gixxer! The dual exhausts give some character to the bike, similar to my SUV! ![]() Thank you Tony |
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