From the midrange
upwards the 250RX
is a little rocket – it
revs to the moon and
really hauls arse
Let’s get riding then. Firstly, I took the Honda to
the Woodhill Bike Park, a very sandy forest with
a mix of open and tight riding. The number one
thing we all ask ourselves with 250 four-strokes
is, is it fast? Well, undoubtedly the answer is
yes. Is it torquey too? Hmm, not so much. From
idle the power is strong and responsive, then
in the early midrange the delivery is a whisker
flat and I found myself left wanting for a bit
more punch. From the midrange upwards the
250RX is a little rocket – it revs to the moon
and really hauls arse! In the more open sandy
terrain, it’s easy to keep the Honda on the boil
and ride quickly. In tight going the clutch needs
to worked to keep it in the meat of the power,
but it’s not really a hardship. The only real
down side I noticed at Woodhill was a little buzz
through the bars at high rpm and those twin
pipes are quite loud.
On a suspension front, the RX is reasonably
plush and offers comfortable riding, with
only the rear being a little soft and prone to
40 KIWI RIDER
bottoming in Woodhill’s faster sand whoops,
but bearing in mind I’m 100kg in riding gear
this is really only to be expected. Riding on
Riverhead’s hard pack the shock could give
some harsh feedback under acceleration on
square edged holes and would benefit from
a turn less on the high-speed compression
damping. The 49mm Showa wire spring forks
work well and are both plush and bottom
resistant at the same time.
The engine has three power modes, which
are adjusted via a button next to the kill switch.
Hold the button in for few seconds and the
blue light flashes once, hold it in again and you
get two flashes and so on. One flash mode
feels torquey with a softer top end, two flashes
felt the slowest to me while three flashes
seems to have the most grunt everywhere and
the highest revving top end. I preferred riding
the bike in mode three in all of the conditions I
encountered.