How I bought an abused Honda CBR250r & restored it back to former glory

The bike was crying out loud for help. I understood her wails.

BHPian saitvask23 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Part 1 : The Introduction

There are many threads about Honda CBR 250Rs on this forum. Most of them are proper ownership threads, like @aargee sir's extensive thread.

This will rather be a refreshing thread, compared to all those ownership threads. This will be something like what you might hear from your friend who had recently bought his first bike. Quite anecdotal, something simple to read, see and process what's going on.

This is a story that is a direct result of my own actions. This is not a professional review. This is a personal experience.

It's got quite some twists too. Might qualify for a small short film too.

This took place during the lockdown of 2020, right when the restrictions were being eased bit by bit. Around August and September of 2020. I wanted a bike for myself as I had just turned 18, and if I had to go out, I would need my parents' rides, which often lead to clashes with their own plans. And it was also time I got my own bike. I was in my own headache when everyone else around me were concerned about being alive.

I had the clarity that I would be going for a pre owned bike only, as I was a hosteler and the bike would stay at my parents' place for a long time, and would be used only when I was at home. Taking the car out wasn't too economical, as it would give a city economy of 13kmpl. I didn't want to spend 6 figures of my parents' money as none of the bikes on the current market had caught my fancy.

So I and my dad started the hunt on regular pre owned websites like OLX, Quikr and Facebook marketplace. I am 6 feet tall, and weigh at a 100 kgs. I wanted something that has the power to move me and drive enthusiastically. Should be powerful enough to drop a gear and make quick overtake, be a blast while riding in the cities, and occasional highway rides.

We started the search and came across many bikes, few of them being sold from private pre owned dealers and few of them from owners who had plans of upgrading to bigger bikes.

The first example I had come across was a Suzuki Gixxer 150SF, in the Suzuki racing blue, with all the graphics. We spoke to the owner and got to know that the bike was too far from us and registered to an RTO very far from us. We didn't want to take all the hassle of going around and visit all the offices for NOC's and all. So we dropped that bike altogether. That was a good idea because a few years down the line, I rode a gixxer owned by a friend of mine and found it extremely cramped.

P.S : Test ride before buying was a later step because of all the movement restrictions during the pandemic. My request to all prospective buyers is that please take a test ride before you finalise a vehicle.

Still on the hunt, we came across a Honda Hornet 160 Special Edition bike. It was done in red paint and had some nice striking graphics. It had done 22,000 kms by then, and was sold to a private dealer as the previous owner wanted to upgrade. The bike came with all its original documentation, including the original invoice for the bike, and all of its servicing bills. The seat was comfortable, but I personally felt that the rider footpegs were a little bit scooted back, giving it a very psuedo-Duke like rider's triangle. This led me to slide onto the bike and hurt my crotch against the fuel tank during sudden braking, or slowing down due to speed breakers. But by god, that engine was a gem. Even for a 160cc engine, it was smooth. Its just smooth. Smoother than a freshly waxed floor. I had a nice time riding it, but I felt that the power was not adequate. The asking price for that was 70,000 rs. We felt it was too much and left the deal.

With this experience, I decided to level up the displacement levels for my search and reached the 250cc levels. Now the fresh contenders were the Bajaj Pulsar 200NS, Suzuki Gixxer 250SF, and the Honda CBR 250R.

We ruled out the 200NS as it was almost going to become a legacy model, which was already running on decade old architecture. We even dropped the Suzuki Gixxer 250SF because of the horror stories of the ASC's on this forum.

After a lot of searches, fallen-through deals and quite some disappointment, we came across a posting for a 2013 Red and Silver C-ABS Honda CBR 250R. This listing woke up the 10-year old in me, who had first fallen in love with this bike.

Part 2 : The Bird, the glory and a sentiment

It was still the September month of 2020. Movement was being normalised, masked interactions still being the norm.

As we were searching for bikes as mentioned earlier, we had found this 2013 Honda CBR 250R C-ABS model in Candy Ruby Red color. That too on OLX. This was the color scheme from the very first lineup of the model when it was newly introduced in India, way back in 2011.

The way I fell in love with this bike would remind most of you readers how you fell in love with your dream bike. This is my story.

It was around 2012. My dad had a Hero Honda Splendor+, which he had bought in November of 2002 from Mody Motors, RP Road, Secunderabad, 6 months after I was born (Yes. That's my age. Gonna turn 21 in the coming month of March). He had directly upgraded from his Chetak, which I have very hazy memories of. A bare stepney bolted onto the rear carrier, and a grey colored bland looking scooter. Yes, it was very very hazy. Dunno how but that's all I remember of that scooter.

The Glory and The sentiment :

That Splendor was a very crucial element in shaping my life, my thoughts and my professional career. I related everything to that bike, from its color to its circle dual pod speedometer. The N lights and the Highbeam lights always intrigued me as they were bright to my eyes (I was always placed on the fuel tank). The bright red worded Caution sticker on the fuel filler lid, and the bright green indicator lenses, its meek but cute horn sound, its clunky gearshifts, the sound of it coming to life when it was kick-started, the faint-ness of the headlight and the speedometer when the bike is idling, its shiny rear carrier, everything about that bike was special to me. It was a Splendor, functioned like every other unit that rolled out of the factory was intended to, but it stood out. For me. Just because of that one bike, I have devoted my life and career to the automotive industry.

Coming back to the main course (pun intended), we were looking to exchange this humble Splendor for something more modern. Something with self start. Because my dad was unable to use the kick starter frequently has his knee was troubling him. And also because the engine "became lazy" as it was ridden at 40kmph for years and years, so it wasn't giving mileage. Atleast that's what my dad had told me. We were looking for suitable options to upgrade and he wanted to check out the Honda Shine back then. I suggested that it was too much of an ankul (uncle) bike, and wouldn't suit him to his image. And also, as said before, we had a sort of trust in Hero Honda (RIP), like how middle class people have it in Maruti. So we went to Raam Honda Ramkoti, one of the good dealerships back then, in Hyderabad.

There, on the showroom floor was this beast placed magnificently. Right in the middle of the showroom floor. A Honda CBR 250R, in its striking Black and Silver Combo. My eyes lit up like a pair of Xenon headlights, upon seeing that brand in India. Right in front of my eyes. The CBR name was like a myth to me. A folktale of a legend. I had only seen the might of that model line on the internet. The mighty 600RR wrapped in its Repsol livery edition, the RC211V which was in the official MotoGP '02 PC game ridden by Valentino Rossi, these were the poster bikes which came to my mind when the word "CBR" was registered by my mind.

I asked my dad whether I could sit on the bike and check it out. My dad had asked the sales advisor, and he had agreed promptly. I immediately rushed to the bike, checked out its side fairings. So curvy, so sharp, unlike any other bike on the Indian market back then. The raised pillion seat, the windscreen which looked like it belonged to a litre-class motorcycle, the engine casing flaunting the HONDA engraving proudly, the bulbous exhaust with its silver guard, boy oh boy that bike had me by the heart. It got that 10 year old me promising myself to own this beauty one day, when I grew up.

Later on in 2014, the model had got a refresh in its color palette department, two of them being the HRC Tricolor paint scheme (white with red and blue decals) and the other one being a Repsol Livery (a full on MotoGP treatment). Whenever I passed by a Honda showroom, my eyes would frantically search for one on display. Any poster featuring that bike, I would promptly call my dad and point his attention towards it, all excited. That bike, was my phone wallpaper for 4 long years.

In 2018, the entire small segment CBR line-up in India got a sticker update. The 150R getting a star-like body graphic treatment which had the word racing in it, the CBR 250R being launched with a BS4-compliant engine and an impressive LED headlight setup, which was integrated without spoiling the original design lines of the bike.

This variant, priced at 2.4L ex-sh, was welcomed by many bikers and customers who cried foul about its relaunch, owing to its no-new tech advancements and bloated price. HMSI was called greedy, lazy and unprofessional in a way that it was focussing on its only bread-winning models, and would not invest in any real advancements in the quarter-litre segment. There were cries about the 300R being asked asked and begged about in India, and as usual HMSI turned a deaf ear towards these wails.

On the contrary, I was happy as my favourite motorcycle was brought upto the modern standards of motorcycles in India. The color palette also was looking good, but with 4 color combos this time : neon green and grey, neon orange and grey, red and black, yellow and black. This sold in measly numbers owing to its high price, and HMSI pulled the plug on it.

I had found the bike on the previously mentioned listing for 55k rupees. Quite cheap, I had said to myself. Showed my dad, he had suggested another listing for 60k rupees. But I was fixed on this listing. Already my mind was on with all the restoration plans. The pics in the listing had the bike with a faded and yellowed visor, a cracked rear-left silver body panel on the tail section, and another body panel beside the tank (on the right hand side) with a color of another model year, and an ugly tank pad. Worn out tyres were also present on the bike. I decided to give this machine a second chance to its previous glory. Because it deserved it. I'll end this section from a few pics of the bike from its original listing.

The bike was crying out loud for help. I understood her wails.

And now, here goes the ordeal and the shady story behind the owners and the listing. The Crux of the story. The twist in the plot. The lesson to be learnt.

Continue reading BHPian saitvsk23's review to know more about how he brought his CBR250r back to former glory/