Info Ride Impressions - RS125 & RS250

I was recenly lucky enough to be invited to test some Honda GP bikes at Baskerville Raceway. Both are being raced in Tasmania this year in the Tassie Lites class. It's primarily a development class to get more juniors on track and racing, but its also a great class for racing on the cheap for anyone who has a couple grand to build a race bike from a 4 cylinder 250, 80's 2 stroke etc. That's what I did, built a GSXR250 which I chanced upon and thought it would be a good way to get more track time. So far it has been heaps of fun, just having issues trying to keep it cheap though, damn eBay! But any road or race based 250 is allowed, so Aprilia RS, Suzuki RGV etc. For 2015 capacity limit has been raised to 300cc to make the Ninja 300 eligible. This is pretty much the only performance restricton, anything else goes so long as it meets the MA safety rules.

The 2 stroke GP bikes are the ones to beat of course, and the RS250 racing with us is like taking a machine gun to a knife fight, so in an effort to stop my constant wining about "the spirit of the competition" and "how about a power to weight limit" I was kindly invited to try out the 250, but I did some laps on the 125 as well, and the results were not quite what I expected from both bikes...

I always thought there was no chance in hell my 6'2" frame would fit on a Honda RS125, but what a surprise, it was actaully pretty comfy apart from the really high pegs. I even fitted behind he screen. The real shock was just how unforgiving and hard work they are to ride, just slipping the clutch to get out of pitlane was a challenge! With a powerband about 3k RPM wide, if you drop a fraction too low or miss a downshift its like they start going backwards! I am ashamed to say that I didn't even manage a single lap without bogging it down somewhere, I just couldn't get down the gears quick enough at the end of the straight with my lanky legs. But I can see the appeal in riding them, they will actually corner without rider input, thought processess seem to be enough, go where you look and all... and getting the gearchanges right results in impressively fast corner exits compared to my 4 stroke. As soon as I got a little used to it and upped the pace, I quickly got the feeling it was on a bit of a razor's edge and it would be waaaay easier to crash than mine. The skinny tires and super light weight definitely amplified the bumps and one rippled section of tarmac which is sometimes a problem on my bike at full lean if I'm not super smooth. The 125 had both wheels sliding sideways when I felt nowhere near full lean. It was setup way too soft for me but obviously these bikes need well dialed in. Then I forgot to change gear and nearly stalled it! Not a bike you can just jump on and get down to some decent laps quickly, I have a new found respect for 125 riders, hard bloody work but must be rewarding when you get it right. We have two junior riders on these bikes new to road racing, I don't think it will take them too long to get into the groove, my only hope will be to beat em off the line to turn one then hope they miss a few downshifts from time to time trying to find a way past. Will be fun to see..!

Finally, the time has come! A 2002 Honda RS250, proper GP bike, has been raced as a wildcard at the PI GP a couple times, recently returned to Tasmania after being campained in SA for the last couple years. The bike is owned by a good friend of mine but circumstances have consipired against me several times to miss out on a ride! But today it finally happend, and yes it was awesome! But not quite what I was expecting...

As the bike is warmed up, the crisp, raspy snarl is noticeably different to road going 2 stroke 250s to which I am more familar. I've ridden a few RGV's in my time so this is the best reference I have, but with 30 less kilos and 30 more HP I know it's going to be on another level. Sharper and much louder and definitely a bit menacing, with every blip of the throttle I get the feeling the bike is yelling " Oi! this is serious OK, don't **** around!" It needn't have worried, I was well aware of the seriousness of the situation. We all know the reputaion the 500cc bikes had as cruel vicious beasts, only able to be tamed by the very best. The 250's never had this reputation but anyone who follows racing knows they are still the 2nd sharpest tool around and very, very fast in the right hands and conditions. In fact the lap records for Superbike and 250GP at Baskerville are only seperated by a few tenths of a second. This was set back in 1997 and the track surface has degraded a lot since then, so a superbike would proably smash it these days. I wasn't going to let a few bumps put me off, but wondered how would it handle them with the massively rigid frame, how vicious would the power delivery be? I naturally expected the worst but I wasn't scared. Well maybe just a little as I slipped the clutch in a screan of revs and took off up pit lane.

Half a lap, and I knew what was up. The bike was actaully heaps easier to ride than I was expecting, I'd have to say the 125 was more difficult in many ways. There is a decent spread of power for a 2 stroke, with clever electrics and power valves the power band is wide enough to not be a constant worry of dropping out of it like the 125. There are a couple nice kicks in the delivery but nothng to worry about unless you are right on the edge of the tyre, but I wasn't going there yet on the cold slicks. I also race a CBR6000RR and far from the savage beast I'd anticipated, it was more like a smaller, sharper version of my 600. It makes about 85hp vs over 100 for the 600, but the lighter weight made its accleration feel about equal to me. The bike runs on Avgas and was jetted rich to make it a bit softer and keep things safe. I imagine tuned to make max HP, that would unleash the beast and after a couple laps I was wishing I had the full monty delivery to really get the GP experience. But on the other hand it was great it was so user friendly and familair to me I was able to get comfortable very quickly.

You can't be lazy on the gear changes like a 600 though, keeping it on the boil was the biggest difference to the 4 stroke 600. In the go-zone the motor just plain rips! I forgot to take my earlugs so I got the full effect of the awesome noise and it revs so quick it's sometimes hard to keep up feeding it gears. Again I struggled most on downshifts by not dropping that extra gear and loosing the drive, but I got the hang of it OK and made a few decent laps with no bog downs. It was now a difficult situation, I was expecting a wild fearsome animal but instead it felt heaps like my 600, it braked and steered in the same manner just that little bit easier. So with my conficence up a bit the racer in me came out and now I wanted to push it a bit harder and try and do a decent lap. But then I remembered that this was not my bike and it was also not a bike I coud pop down to the Honda dealer and buy another if I trashed it. While the bike's owner is a good friend, no way did I want to test the freindship by returning such a rare, expesive bike in anything but pristine condition. So I uped the pace a bit but kept away from the very edge of the tyre, just concentrated on keeping it smooth and getting the gear changes right to keep the motor buzzing. And what a buzz it is when you get it right! I have no doubt with a solid day's testing time to set it up to my liking I could go faster than my 600 which I have been riding now for over 3 years. I could sense the bike's potential lurking, at every point of the track. I wasn't braking hard enough, getting on the power early enough, I was feeling the feedback from the suspension and the chassis, saying go faster I will work better if you do! It was taking the piss and I didn't like it I really wanted to unleash the beast, but luckily there was some fear lurking down there too. Not the fear that it would suddnly spin up and highside me. It was the fear that I would have to sell all my bikes and probably most of my worldly posessions if I had to pay for it in the event of a massive off! And the whole time it wouldn't stop daring me to go faster with its crisp accleration and rediculous cornering potential. Maybe it was evil after all....

All too soon I was flagged back to the pits. I felt very privalidged to have been given a chance to ride these bikes, especailly the 250 as I seriously never would have thought I would ever get the chance. As we know the 250cc GP racing is globally dead now with few bikes still active and any ex championship GP bikes that pop up go for stupid money, I suspect driven up but weathly private collectors. After getting a taste for what these bikes are like to ride, I am sad they replaced them with Moto2. Maybe as a TV specticle they were not as good but from for the riders perspective, even a humble club racers like me, I would much rather race a 250 than a Moto2. Bring back the 2 strokes!!!!!!