Honda Hornet > Reviews > Honda Hornet 250-The Original Hornet

Author's product rating:   

Comfort	Good
Handling	Excellent
Looks	Excellent
Features	Good
Fuel consumption	Satisfactory

Advantages:	Cheap to insure, pretty nippy, rarity value
Disadvantages:	Rare !  Parts hard to find, costly if you find them !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

What can I say? The 250cc Honda Hornet was the first of the Hornet range although nobody seems to know it! Many have never heard of it, or say "Sorry, 250? Never knew they made one." when you tell them as it's a Japanese domestic model, and never imported to the UK officially. It was demand for these 250 models that made Honda think there was a market in the rest of the World for these funky streetfighter bikes with their fat tyres (even on the 250 it's a 180x55/17 back tyre)and they decided to produce the 600cc version, and then the 900cc one, but they're different stories!

The thing that appealed to me most was that the insurance was so much cheaper than for the 600cc version, and the bikes are virtually identical apart from the engine. Many parts are shared by the two bikes but it's the ones that aren't shared that are hard to source. I didn't really care about this beacuse i paid £537 TPF&T at 18 years old, whereas the same cover on the 600cc version was £1800. Quite a big difference you see!

I love the bike in every way, it's great (but then i would say that!). The engine's a peach but need looking after well because it's a very high-revving unit, the redline's at 16,000 rpm which makes it a little screamer! It's very technologically advanced for such a small capacity with four cylinders each with four valves, and two camshafts, uniquely driven by gears for low maintainence, which also gives a characteristic whirring.

The basic specs are:

4 cylinder 16v DOHC 249cc liquid cooled engine
6 gears
16 litre tank
180x55/17 rear and 130x70/16 front tyres

Oh yes, and the small matter of 43bhp, yes FORTY THREE Brake Horse Power @ 14,000rpm. This isn't a lot really in bike terms, but to say that the engine is only 250cc it's pretty good! The fuel economy is not bad, and the small tank makes it seem worse. Not sure about mpg but I usually get 160km (100mls) to a tank before reserve (after 12 litres).

The bike's pretty fast but you do need to give it revs to get away fast. Power really only starts to happen after 10,000rpm but then again that's how the bike's designed!

I've raced bigger bikes (and lost) such as an RSV Mille R which blew me away (completely and utterly! I think their 0-60 time is 2.9 secs?) but the 125 lads on their "120mph" two strokers don't really get a look in,(strange that as they seem to be the fastest bikes on earth according to reviews!)It is difficult to race the 125 brigade, you don't notice them at first and just assume the sound is that of your fan cutting in! I would give a conservative estimate of about 4 1/2 seconds to get to 60 from a standing start, and that's being honest, which is all I've set out to do in this opinion! The bike's geared short which helps this (in Japan the maximum design speed is 112mph which is why the speedo only goes up to 180km/h, which, coincidentally is 112mph!) so in top gear at 80mph you are doing 10,000 revs which makes for noisy cruising so don't forget those earplugs! The top speed as tested by 'Bike' magazine is 119mph, and i'd probably agree with this as I've only just managed to get it off the clock (flat out on the tank, tucked in!).

This bike is not about top speed though, it's about having fun, which you get delivered by the bucketload. You've gotta thrash the proverbial breasts off it to go anywhere and you sound like you're going much faster than you really are! Handles really nicely, (experienced riders have told me after riding it, I've only ridden this bike after scooters so wouldn't know, although I have had my knee down!)and this is down in part to the 16" front wheel.

Anyway, I've been as honest as I can with this one, if you can find one, snap it up as they're as rare as the doo-doo from a rocking horse! They hold their values incredibly well because of their rarity. I paid £2700 for my almost mint '97 model with just 17,000km on the clock.