So after whole 3 months since i owned the GT250R here is detailed review, and sorry that it took some time to publish this review due to my busy schedule. so Here it goes :
Before starting detailed review , let me inform you few things about this write up, first i may time to time compare the GT250R to some bikes in order to give clearer picture of how it behaves, so don;t go in deep about the comparison. and second, few of the pics posted in this blog are from our fellow bikers and credit to those pics goes to them.
Since from the beginning i was more oriented towards sports bike and the fact which allowed me to pic this GT250R instead of CBR or Ninja is very clear , i needed twin engine sports bike and bike which looks like super bike, period.
Now which one is good overall look/performance/handling --> Ninja>GT250R>CBR will discuss some aspects of GTR in below review , so no discussion will be entertained on comparison who is better than who. so plz bare with me.
The Start
Finally my GT250R arrived after a long wait for years and this is how it arrived :)
Review
Lets starts with its highest earning points of GTR and no prices for guessing correctly , yes its look.
The design wise i must say its very appealing and eye candy, although some may say its design is dated but look closely as of now nothing comes close to its looks in Indian market, and it combined look of Ducati/Suzuki , there is no doubt that its a star on road and headturner.
The build of bike is good but still need some more effort and parts and fit and finish is good, if not the best, you won;t complain about it trust me and more than that you will get really surprised of its look and build once you physically check it [those bad talks on quality/build on internet don;t justify].
In depth if you check the aesthetic of the bike these are the think you will see:
Starting with Paint quality , its really good and much better than my R15V1 there is no downers here and not to forget one of the most expensive thing in GT250R is its paint [DSK planning to source it locally in next 24 months]. its metallic finish.
The Tank is biggest heighlight of the bike and its provides lot of advantages, the capacity is of 17ltr and 3ltr will be in reserve, tank is sculpted in such a way that the shape of it nicely blends with riders legs and its very comfortable to grab the tank with your legs. and don;t worry it won;t crush ur family jewels in case of sudden or panic braking.
The frame of the bike is twin spar/delta/pressed [what ever you call it] and it provides excellent feedback and stability although the frame is bigger than the normal 250cc bike but this size also provides some advantages [which we will see later].
Details
Start with engine , its one hell of a power and its very friendly , the power delivery is very linear and in no rpm range one finds any kind of difficulty. there is one downer here , the first 2.5k rpm is very lousy, mean to say they take at least 2-3sec to get dashing power , so don;t expect Duke like pullaway from stand still.
Engine is Air+Oil cooled and there is very little Heating of ENgine when compared to 650, so unless your in heavy snail like moving traffic , there is nothing to worry about engine heat.
As said above the frame is solid and very responsive and provides good stability, due to its size and weight it offers some advantages in Highway riding and specially in heavy cross winds which won;t bother the rider in any way and that's a good point. and due to its size there is less strain on body in un-even roads and small humps and path-holes won;t bother you.
The front of the bike has nice cowl/mask which holds twin projector head lamps and 2 dummy air scoops alone with side mirrors and visor. the shape is very much airodynamic and it cuts through winds smoothly. the mirrors provides the best view of the rear and good thing is it won;t be masked by rider arm much [unlike R15 where half mirror is covered by riders arms blocking the view]. the Visor is excellent when compared to any Indian Bike , due to GTR extreem racy riding position all the wind blast will fly over your head and thus allowing the rider body to cover behind the visor which helps one to avoid body fatigue.
Now the projector lamps are the best in class the power and view of the light is almost near to Bajaj P220 projector light. so night driving is a bliss.
The side faring and rest of the body panels have good quality and there is nothing to write about it, except in some places the distance b/w body and faring is more [but not uneven], i think being a Air+oil cooled engine this gaps helping to allow air to cool the engine.
The foot pegs have 3 way adjustment and tires are excellent grip in both dry and wet conditions , earlier i was skeptical about the tiers performance, but after riding 4000km i am convinced that they are good.
Breaks are adequate [just adequate] and little bit of improvement would have made a wonders, that doesn't mean that they are lousy , they have good bite and if compared its almost 5 times better than my R15 breaks [if you ride Ninja you might feel GTR breaks lacking a bit].
Notice the V-grill which is absent in both Ninja and CBR, it helps to avoid much to sprayed over engine and exhaust pipes
Riding position is pure racy and one with the taste of R15 riding position will love it and remember once you ride the GTR then riding R15 seems like splendor position, its far more race oriented position. and now due to this riding position it has some advantages also [later u know]. the Seats have good space for both rider and pillion, but the foam on the seat is soo hard that you feel like your sitting on the rock and very soon your butt starts to pain.
till one used to this riding position your might find the riding position really pain in wrists and ass.
There are lot of hooks for bungee chord , so its perfect for the touring luggage
The gears and clutch of the bike was very hard and after 2 services it was like butter smooth and engine is even more smoother than even my R15.
one thing noticed is the gear ration is such a way that , there is no need for additional gears and in all the gears one can easily ride all most all the speeds , due to v-twin linear power delivery one will notice same feel in all the gears, the bike pulls in almost all the gears at what ever speed you give, and this i found really special.
Handling
The bike handles excellent and the handling is much better than any bikes here , and yes it handles much better than Ninja also, the main reason is the riding position , once you ride it and then you understand that why all racetrack bikes handles so much better than others ... the riding position is the main reason along with others things, it allows one to concentrate more on road and due to its position of riding the rider will be able to flik the bike quick and in case of fall in no way bike will topple on to the rider, as due to above the bike riding position will separate bikers and bike.
In city the bike riders very well and as i said better handler than others, but there is one area where it will be beaten badly even by TVS XL is the turning radius , its like turning a tipper lorry, you need whole road to take a U-turn.
the actual fun really begins on highways the bike is very solid and no shakes at all , the cross winds won;t bother and small pathholes won;t worry you much.
the Fun will increase many times once you hit the curves, well now i can say its better in curves than the legendary R15, in GTR there is no need to stress much to take corners in rossy style, its in its nature and due to again its riding position the corner carving is way better in GTR than Ninja,CBR and even than R15.
So can we call GTR as corner King ?? my ans is NO , the title still goes to R15 , yes that's correct , eventhough GTR handles better than R15 in single corner that doesn't mean that it will behave same in back-to-back corners or quick multiple corners, this is where the track machine titled R15 will shine. due to GTR heavy weight quick turning b/w the immediate corners is difficult and the riders has to work lil more hard to switch the leaning position of the heavy GTR. but the R15 is so light that its bliss to switch b/w corners.
positive points
Due to its weight the cross wind won;t affect and bike is highly stable on road or on corners or on speed runs, due to its weight also the fish tailing due to sudden apply of back wheel break is rare, and that's a big plus.
Riding position will give lot of advantages such as quick handling and better control of bike.
Broader tiers offers lot of traction and it rarely slips or slides in slopes.
headlights are really good.
Sound of the bike is best in India and once crossed 7000 rpm the note will changes to semi inline sound.
There is absolutely no vibration or what so ever in entire range of power band, and once will love it [except 4700-to-5000 rpm (300rpm) where power kicks in the foot pegs vibrates].
Fuel efficiency i am getting in city is around 27 to 30 kmpl constantly , and in highway getting around 33-35kmpl.
Tank capacity to carry fuel, 17ltr and less fuel stops.
very easy to ride irrespective of its size and weight, infact two of my friends felt very comfortable riding this in first try only and they really appreciated its handling.
The bike comes withe default insurance of 0% dept which means all parts are covered 100% under warranty means even plastic and labour charges bourn by the insurance comp.
Two years unconditional warranty means all spares parts replaced free of cost till 2 years or 24k kms.
Now with all these positive points don;t be in illusion that it doesn;t have issues .... and here it goes.
First weight [yes its both +ve and -ve] due to it the performance is little less with Ninja
Riding position [again +ve and -ve] due to super sports position one might find very uncomfortable till he adjust to it and if you had bad back simple this bike is not for you. in fact the first 1 week i didn't even enjoy my bike due to wrist pain and back pain and most of time i was concentrated on setting up my riding position. [once used to this position , you will never buy any other bike than super-sports bike].
Some of the parts of the bike, like rectifier/horn are of sub-standard, other than that no issues.
due to its front mudguard is short than other bikes, ride in rain/mud the whole bike will be covered in mud due to splashing of water/mud from front wheel, although the radiator is kept very high still due to front short mudguard, it will get dirty.
Horn is more than enough [compared to R15], and GTR simply hates normal petrol, put the normal petrol and sure you will face some problems , its needs at least 91-93 octates [premium petrol], once i put normal petrol and caused Engine excess heating , as i found normal petrol increases the heat of the bike [Engine]. put the premium petrol or octane boosters for normal petrol the bike not only runs smoother but also very less Engine heat.
Now what happens if excess heat develops ?? well once i tried that also , there was snail like moving traffic for 20min and due to slow moving i couldn't able to switch off/on again and again and i kept the engine running whole time, as bike surrounded by traffic and there is little air to circulate and bike heated soo much , the fuel in fuel lines became vapor and engine didn;t get liquid fuel, so bike shutoff and after opening the petrol lid and let it cool off for 10min the bike started again and there is no problem. so 2 thing GTR hates is Normal petrol and heavy slow moving traffic, so my advice is to avoid both.
Servicing and show room support
well in Bangalore the service and show room present and if i want to rate it out of 10 points then , for the sales team i will give 2/10 , yes they are worst of all , they lack professionalism and very lazy. they won;t call you but u need to bug them every time if you want your work to be done.
Service i will give 6/10 , why 6 only ?? well they are good and responsive but the fact is there is very less man power they have. so its only 6 , for example for each servicing i have to leave my bike for a week as there are only so less service Engn that they are always overloaded.
so i have covered 4000km in less than 2months and completed 2 services and due to unknown reasons one of sensors gone so still the bike in service center[waiting for spares] [in whole 40 odd GT250R sold only my bike have this prob,and its first time any GT250R come for any parts change, anyway they will sort it out] although its not big one , just my bike giving jerks in 3000-4000rpm range and other range its working properly , so the guess is TPS sensor might gone [its very sensitive device and prone to fail if subjected to heat/vibration/water]. so with all these bike was in showroom for about 3 weeks in 3 months . although this is not a big thing but due to less man power the availability is less for me.
Final words : its very powerful and fun bike , highly recommended if one wants sports bike.
any question let me know , will ans
