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Is This What a Modern Honda NSR250R Would Look Like?

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The Honda NSR250R is a special machine. When the 249cc, tw0-stroke, 90° v-twin GP bike with lights first hit the streets of Japan, it cost roughly $7,500 in hard-earned American dollars — a tidy sum back then, especially for a 300 lbs machine that made 40hp stock.

A coveted item for motorcycle collectors and discerning track riders a like, you can pick one up for over $10,000, the limited-production road-going version wasn’t terribly different from the 250GP World Championship bikes that factory teams were racing. A topical reminder, if we do say so ourselves…

So how do you improve upon such a great machine? Ask the folks at TYGA Performance, who have been tinkering with NSR250R sport bikes since they opened in 2000.

All that effort and expertise has culminated in the ultimate NSR250R, an M28, which will almost make you swear-off large-displacement four-strokes for the rest of your life.

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Bikes

Yamaha MT-25 Debuts in Indonesia

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As expected, the Yamaha MT-25 naked street bike has broken cover in Indonesia, thus adding a fairingless option to Yamaha’s small-displacement lineup. As the name implies, the machines is powered by a 249cc parallel-twin engine, the same one found in the Yamaha YZF-R25 sport bike.

This means the Yamaha MT-25 is good for 35.5hp, and 16.7 lbs*ft of peak torque. The quarter-liter machine tips the scales at 363 lbs, just one kg lighter than the R25, and include a 3.7 gallon gas tank.

Made in Indonesia for most markets (we hear India will have local production), the MT-25 will go head-to-head against bikes the Honda CB300F and Suzuki GW250F, and provide a more upright alternative to the current crop of quarter-liter sport bikes.

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Bikes

Report: Hero HX250R Launch Pushed Back Because of EBR

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Word out of India is that the Hero HX250R, the quarter-liter sport bike that Erik Buell Racing helped design, will not be arriving later this year, as was originally intended. Rumors instead suggest that the HX250R will debut in 2016.

The delay is said to be directly linked to Erik Buell Racing going into receivership earlier this year, and it’s a fair bet that the delay is due to something in the design of the HX250R.

However, we would also bet good money that Hero realized there was no point in releasing a North American bound model without a North American distributor with which to sell it.

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Bikes

First Shots of the Yamaha MT-25

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If you like your small displacement machines sans fairings, then this might be the bike for you, as the first clear photos of the Yamaha MT-25 are hitting the internet, courtesy of Indonesian blog TMCblog.

Based around the same 249cc parallel-twin engine as the Yamaha R25, the MT-25 will go up against the other quarter-liter naked bikes on the market, like the Honda CB300 and KTM 200 Duke.

As we can see from the photos, the MT-25 shares many of the same parts with the R25 — most notably the chassis, suspension, exhaust, seat, and engine. Added is a new headlight, fairing chin, and air intake tubes.

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News

Benelli Coming Back to the USA

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In an interview with Cycle World’s Bruno de Prato, Yan Haimei, the CEO OF Benelli, announced that the historic Italian brand will be returning to American soil.

Haimei says that Benelli will make its US return by the end of 2015, though she was not clear on what models the Chinese-owned brand would make available.

“Returning to a market as competitive and selective as the American one will require that we further refine and increase our efforts, adding more personalized models and looking back to our history,” explained Haimei to Cycle World.

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Bikes

Kawasaki Trademarks “Ninja R2” with USPTO & Others

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Let the rumors fly as to what Kawasaki has up its sleeve, because Team Green has registered “Ninja R2” with the US Patent and Trademark office, as well as similar offices internationally.

The trademark application is fairly broad in what the name can be used for, but knowing Kawasaki’s product line, a new motorcycle can be expected from the “Ninja” name.

What that motorcycle could be, is up for debate. Some draw a line between the “Ninja R2” name and the recently revived “Ninja H2” model, and thus see another supercharged machine to come from Kawasaki. Others hear the whispers of a small-displacement sport bike, perhaps one with a stratospheric rev-limit (our pick).

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Bikes

Benelli BN251 – Return of the Small-Displacement Italian

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Brands like Ducati, Vespa, and Benelli can trace their roots back to post-WWII Italy, where infrastructure and roads were shattered, and the country desperately needed a cheap, reliable, and effective way to navigate from Point-A to Point-B.

Enter the rise of the motorcycle to meet those needs; and from that, what has become over half a century of motorcycle culture in Italy. The first Italian motorcycles were really just bicycles with motors, and as more proper machines came into being, they were still tiny in displacement.

Therefore, the quintessential Italian motorcycle was what we would call today a small-displacement bike. Benelli is getting back to those roots now, introducing the Benelli BN251 at this year’s EICMA show.

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Bikes

2015 Suzuki GW250F — A Fully-Faired 250cc for the USA

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Suzuki has finally brought a full-faired small-displacement machine to the US market, announcing today the 2015 Suzuki GW250F. As the name implies, the Suzuki GW250F is really just the GW250, with full-fairing bodywork.

The move is perhaps the mother of necessity, as Suzuki doesn’t have a proper motorbike to go head-to-head with the Kawasaki Ninja 300, Honda CBR300R, or Yamaha YZF-R25.

With the small-displacement war well underway in the United States, Suzuki Motor America surely felt that something beyond just the Suzuki GW250 was needed, and hence the GW250F was born.

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Rumors

Kawasaki Working on a 250cc Four-Cylinder?

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According to the Indonesian publication TMC Blog, Kawasaki is working on a performance-oriented 250cc four-cylinder…and they have the supposed photos to prove it. The news should be well-received by those who remember the high-revving small-displacement Japanese machines of just a few decades ago.

Southeast Asian markets, like Indonesia’s, are driven by graduated taxes on motorcycle displacement. For the Indonesian market, machines 250cc to 500cc in displacement receive a 60% tax rate, while machine over 500cc are taxed at 75%. Unsurprisingly then, bikes under 250cc are accounting for the lion’s share of motorcycle sales.

Working against that taxation plan is the growing middle class in these regions, with consumers able to purchase more expensive motorbikes, and looking for more performance in the process. This trend is what helped bring the Yamaha R25 to market (and production) in Indonesia, along with the slew of other ~250cc machines we’ve seen from Honda, Kawasaki, and KTM.

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