88Pro Thinking

Disclaimer: I have no idea about bike world.

BUT, I have access to people who know hell of a lot about bikes. They own them, breath them, and live with them day in day out. So me being myself subcontracted the whole bike buying affair to one such friend of mine. My requirement, was simple to him, I want a good bike. Finally both of us decided on Honda Hornet 250 (2005 Model, 130 series).



Again, myself being myself, I started reading about Hornets on the internet and now I am beginning to fall in love with this machine.

Story Behind Hornet 250

This bike was launched in Japan in 1996 and it revolutionized the naked street bikes. It is fitted with CBR250FOUR engine. CBR 250 and Jade didn't do well in Japanese domestic market, so Honda used the same engine and remade Hornet with aggressive styling, and FAT 180 back tier striped from Fire-blade 900 (Yes, the 250 is fitted with a larger tier than the CBR 400 at the back) created a new appeal for this bike. Honda made Hornet only as a domestic model initially (Hornet 250 is still a domestic model). Whoever reviewed the bike from outside Japan, in 1996 - 1997 time frame, had one minus point about this bike, its not available outside Japan.



However few imported the bike to UK, and when people started loving it, for its handling, seating position, style (it has a nick name "Horny Hornet"), impressive performance, and excellent suspension, they wanted more. EVeryone wished for 600 cc and 900 cc version. No one thought Honda would make such a bike back in 1997. However Honda introduced the 600 cc in UK in 2001. Honda Hornet 250 is the Original Domentic Model, and it is still the domenstic model, and for outside world Honda makes the 600 and 900s.

It's best I link to an article printed in 1997 in a Magazine which I found on the web, which is rich in information. If you want to know more about Hornets here are the links to two pages.




These two pages were originally hosted at http://www.hornet-250.8k.com/
posted by 88Pro / Sunday, June 29, 2008