Friday, December 6, 2013
Low fuel
The rainy weather, and subsequent light throttle inputs, has meant great fuel consumption - my last fill-up was 3.423l/100km. Sadly the little Honda has been getting quite dirty so I'll need to give it a good wash again soon.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
A quick look at the digital speedo in sunlight
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Long overdue wash
Some pictures from after a wash. It was quite a mission to clean the plastics as usual, they actually still look dirty in some of the pics! Last fuel consumption was 3.425l/100km and everything has been running smoothly.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
3 weeks without a ride
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Top speed
That long trip along with some commuting achieved my best ever fuel consumption of 3.275L/100km. That's gone back up to a more steady 3.582L/100km since then but considering the stop start riding and rather heavy hand on the throttle I'm really impressed.
I should point out that whilst it's only been 6 months of ownership and I really do love the bike, if I had to get a bike now I'd probably get the KTM Duke 390. It looks like a reasonably priced hooligan tool and it's only a bit more. I do have a soft spot for KTM though and it's service intervals aren't as long as the Honda's. I'd probably miss the Honda's ability to hit speed bumps at 100km/h but the extra power and I'd hope grip would be great.
On the grip topic I recently went through a bit of water in my road on the way to work and accelerated a little bit to much a little too early whilst turning and the rear end stepped out quite suddenly. I have some small movement from the rear before but it gave away so suddenly this time I got quite a fright. The front end so far has been rock stable. I'm going to have to be really careful when it rains, especially when it rains.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Wash day
This is the seat currently (after the wash):
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
The Test
Today was my chance to finally go for my riders test, in the hopes of not needing to redo my learners every two years. I passed thanks my little red Honda. I had to redo one of the exercises because I was too fast! The little Honda did everything perfectly with ample power to get me through easily. I'm sure fuel consumption will go up a little with all the stop start shutdown and startup again riding but at least that's behind me now. Also worth noting is the fan didn't even need to come on so it's been another great day with my CRF250L.
Monday, July 1, 2013
The little fan
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Those easily scratched plastics
The dash
A quick look at the Honda CRF250L dash. Apologies for the poor video quality, it has two trip meters, a clock, the fuel gauge and of course the speedo. I do like the white backlight, it's very easy to see at night and in the day.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
The bad things
- The grips are pretty hard, softer ones would be awesome but I suspect these will outlast the bike!
- The plastics are terrible quality. Maybe I've been spoiled by KTM's with acerbis plastics, but these ones are terrible. They have brown hard to remove scuff marks on the white plastics. Never had this issue on any of my other bikes, but I suppose plastics are replaceable.
- The shifter isn't foldable and was terrible in it's stock position if you're using riding boots. It sits a bit higher than I'd like now but at least it works with my boots. For a bike marketed as a dual sport not using a foldable shifter is really dodgy!
That's pretty much my list of negatives at the moment. Other thoughts I have:
I'm still completely stock, the exhaust is pretty quiet which I like, I wouldn't want it any louder than it currently is. It accelerates up to 90km/h very easily at which point the acceleration drops off significantly, not really an issue in the city. I have opened it up to over 130km/h but I'd say 90-100km/h are happy cruising speeds. I love the speedo, it's easy to see in the day and at night. The fuel guage starts flashing pretty early so you have plenty of time to fuel up. The suspension is on the soft side for faster offroad road but it works well on the road, speedbumps aren't something I slow down for anymore. The fuel injection is great, not having to deal with chokes and changing jetting with the season change has been really nice. Oh, and the front brake is considerably better than it was initially. I was considering replacing the brake fluid with some 5.1 but I haven't felt the need yet, it's really adequate at the moment. It's actually a pretty heavy bike on paper but you don't feel it at all on the road, it feels pretty light and maneuvering through traffic is simple. The power is great, you can drop traffic quite easily but I've gotten used to it now. The low down power lets you idle along in a high gear with the general flow of traffic quite easily.
I'll try and get some pics up here, these streams of text are getting a bit much!
First service
My fuel consumption has moved up to an average of 3.620l/100km which I'm very happy with. My 125 had a slightly higher average, and that was less than half the power!
The commuter
Decisions, decisions.
I started looking for a 250 some time ago, I really felt the extra power over my, then retired, 125 would be great. It's strictly for city riding so 250's would be more than enough. I then narrowed down the list by looking for something with a rear disc brake, I find it rather hard to modulate a drum it's more of an on off switch which I didn't like. I also wanted fuel injection, I live at altitude and the messing around with jets in my spare time trying to get a half decent mixture just wasn't working out. I don't do freeway riding so a 250 was deemed to be great. Something with low running costs and good fuel consumption. This sort of left me with the crf250l, we don't have many of the choices the rest of the world does here in South Africa. I liked the more upright riding position and after some careful planning I ordered one.
First ride.
The ride home from the dealership was relatively short so first impressions were great. The low down power was awesome and the short gearing made the forward progression seem decently quick. The brand new, essentially unused front disc was terrible at low speeds, I knew it would get better with some break in though. I took it easy on my first few rides to the office preferring to be gentle during the break in period whilst I came to grips with the bike.
My first tank of fuel lasted over 180km and my avg fuel consumption was a super low 3.489l/100km!