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There goes my chance at getting one at a normal price.

This was my learner bike, drove it up to redline 5 days a week to and from work for 3 years. Rain, hail, or shine. Never let me down or had any problems. Had 50,000km on it when I bought it. Loved that bike

I absolutely miss the look of double round headlights on sport bikes they are basically the popup headlights of the bike world.

I had an mc22 cbr250rr back in the day. Tyga kit (the original one), custom metal CBR dash surround, rpm shift lights, custom heel guards, and a custom exhaust. When it was at the end of its life, we created a custom intake manifold and fuel injected the thing. Last I heard it had been left outside by it's new owner and water got into the cylinders and seized it. I've got fond memories of it and I learned a lot about fixing motorcycles from it.

I had a 1989 Yamaha FZR250RR Exup 25 years ago. My initial mechanical sympathy went out the window quite quickly as there wasn't much power below about 10,000 rpm. I fitted a race can & it sounded insane at near 20,000 rpm. Amazing engineering because they were production bikes with normal service intervals & yet remained reliable even with those insane revs.

I’ve got an unhealthy addiction with these bikes. I own two mc22’s and a mc19. So much fun and so cool looking

I was able to ride my brothers FZR400 back in, oh, 1990 or so. It “only” revved to 14k rpm, and that was pretty exhilarating for a kid who had never been over 100 MPH much less only been in vehicles that revved to maybe 6000 rip’ems.

Great video. As an older, vertically challenged woman, I ADORE my MC19. Hitting the quiet, country roads is just the best and throw in some twisties and it makes for the perfect, fun ride - every time. We have another we are setting up for the track. Our shed has many bikes (as my son and hubby ride too) and only one of them is mine. And I'm perfectly alright with that.

The dual headlights that this bike has got is iconic

Kawasaki kept the dream alive by producing zx25R in my country. It's around $7,600 USD and the zx4RR is base on it just bored up. The Yamaha R3 can keep up with it up to 140kph. Whats very hard to convey is the way it sounds. It's the most glorious thing you'll ever hear on 2 wheels. It's really high pitch like the Lexus LFA but better. The closest thing you can get to an f1 sound of the past.

I owned a 1985 GSXR 750 in 1986 (Canada). I wanted a GSXR in 1985, but none were available, so I settled’ for a 1985 Honda NS400R, loved that bike, but when a brand new 85 Gixxer became available I sold the Honda for the Gixxer. In 1990 I moved to Japan. I’ve done a bunch of motorcycle training with Honda affiliated riding schools, I’ve been to various tracks to help coordinate track days with US servicemen and Honda, and I’ve ridden a lot of Honda bikes. The Honda Hornet, CB250F, had the same motor as the CBR250RR, just ‘De-Tuned’ to only rev to 16,000 RPM. One of the Honda engineers at a track day event told me that with just a little re-wiring the Hornet could red to 21,000 RPM… I never did pursue this, now I wish I had. I enjoyed the video. Cheers.

I rode most of those bikes! I lived in Bangkok for years and there was a motorcycle repair shop on the corner of the block that let me ride more than a few of these bikes (but never the CBR400 which was very rare). RGV250, NSR250, CBR250, VFR400, GSX400F, and more than I can't remember, but mostly 125cc 2-strokes. And Vespa's which I rode more than any other bike at the time and which to this day is a great urban bike. What I can say is that the inline four 250cc were unpleasant to ride especially in the city. They just weren't good at being bikes, and most riders who bought them quickly moved to 400cc bikes. It was the 400cc inline fours, not the 250's, that sold best, rode best, and had the bragging rights. So what I remember from riding the CBR250 was just that they were "front-heavy" bikes. With 400cc bikes, you can whack open the throttle and ride the bike off the rear tire but the CBR250 was so powerless and difficult to ride that it always felt like you had to enter each turn on the brakes. Most "balanced" bikes feel like you can exit the turn about as fast as you can enter them but the 250's were dog slow out of turns despite their soundtrack. Like their 125 cc 2-stroke counterparts, they were all front-end. Curiously, one of the most popular track/race bikes at the time was a bike that wasn't even intended to be raced. The Suzuki GSF400, known as the Bandit. I remember there were some races which the top 5 would all be the GSF400. I ended up buying two of those Bandit; more than any other bike I've owned before or since those bikes taught me how to ride. Now in the US we have/had 600cc bikes which are very closely related to the 400cc bikes of Asian (at the time). And I think the 400/600cc class is about the skill limit for most casual sportbike/trackday riders. At least it was for me.

When I saw this video I got so excited. I love those bikes. As a matter of fact I just got my first bike, which is a yamaha phazer fz250, its so cool seeing my own bike on here!! Now I just gotta restore it.

A major reason that the new Kawasaki 400 four does not rev as high has to do with passing emissions at lower engine speeds. It would take variable valve timing to solve this. Getting power at high revs requires a large amount of valve overlap (when both the intake and exhaust valves are open). This overlap is a big problem at lower revs since a lot of unburned fuel exits the cylinder through the exhaust valve. When the overlap is reduced, power output at the top of the rev range is reduced dramatically, so there is little point in strengthening and lightening moving components for those higher revs.

Kawasaki also made their own, the ZXR-250R, it was made until 2004, (Malaysian Market), it also revved to 20k rpm. Kudos for this kind of videos! I really like your channel, keep it up dude!

always wanted one since many years... because of the amazing craftsmanship they made back then.... im still fascinated by those high revving masterpieces

Watching this video on the way to Suzuka 8hours 😂 One thing about the cbr250rr (mc22) that's always overlooked is the luggage capacity. It has 3 points on each side for tying bags to the pillion seats. A knob right by the seat, a hard plastic hook by the numberplate, and a metal hook formed into the fold away pillion footpegs. I use mine to go camping now and then with a big 60L bag strapped to back. Cruising along at a comfortable 6-8k rpm.

Both of my sons owned the same MC22 at different times. Amazing little bike, super reliable and fun to ride. Regularly saw 20,000rpm on the tacho and didn't care one bit 🙂👌 They sold it to a friend of theirs who still owns it. An odd thing about the engine is that cylinder one is on its own, then there's the gear train to the cams and then there's 2,3 & 4 after that.

My mate had a ZX250r it was so much fun to ride, the sound was awesome sounded like you were doing 200kph but really doing 50 haha

My first road bike was a NSR250RR, while stationed in Okinawa. She was in horrible shape, and I used her to commit all of the "new rider" mistakes. My second bike was a 1989 Honda 250, from the beginning of the video. Rode it for a good year, then introduced my now wife of over 20 years to motorcycling. She had bad experiences in the past, but after getting over that, going through the MSF course on Kadena AFB(Thanks, Cookie!!), rode bikes for years, until after the birth of our twins. She got the Aero, and I found an immaculate 250RR off base, an rode the crap out of it until getting stationed back in the states in Las Vegas, being told you couldn't import them, and/or it would cost thousands of dollars to do it, and you couldn't ride it on the road, etc.. Flash forward 6 months after we got there: I'm at the DMV, registering my newly acquired 1982 CB650, and I hear a familiar sound come up behind me. Oh look, a 91 CBR250R. I ask the rider how did he get it here and all the questions with my mouth flapping in the wind. He was a Marine Ginny, just back from Japan. He slipped the movers 80 dollars and they packaged up his little girl and marked it as an end table, or something like that. "But, how did you register it, without importing it? Etc, etc..." He said he put new tires on it, swapped the headlights around so they shined to the right instead of left and added a 0 to the middle of the VIN number(16 instead of 17 in Japan at the time) and the DMV people were none the wiser. It was registered as a 600, which were sold in the states, thank you very much. Argh!! I could've..... I should've.... I didn't, but still remember zipping around Awase at 15k, with my wife not far behind, having a blast. Pulling into gas stations, having someone immediately greet you and ask you which fuel you wanted. "I'll take the 106 octane premium, paying a lot of yen for absolute quality fuel, and having them pump it for you, wiping off any spillage instainioualy. Then wiping the dead bugs from the windscreen and front of the bike. Great memories!!!

I live in Australia and granted, there are a handful available but not as many as you would think. The biggest issue with these older bikes is the question of whether they are worn out or not, and the problem of parts availability. I’ve been looking for oversized pistons and rings for my Suzuki GSX250FW for years now, to no avail.

love when you post these on early weekends takes me back to the my classic car offroad tv hotrod tv etc days

I really appreciate the effort put into these videos! Superb! I learned so much from this video! Thanks!

Whether you ride bikes or not you gotta appreciate the high reving F1 sound. And the fact that whatever ss you buy in the past 30 or so years will look amazing. Just like a hammer hasn't changed the ss bike was a perfect design for decades.

When I was 18 I moved to the big city of my country and took up being a motor cycle courier full time. I started on my old GSX 450 then bought a VFR400, which I loved. My insurance company found out I was on a learner license and they made me drop down to a 250. To keep them happy I bought a FZR250 - I liked it for the job I was doing but I remember being sad trying to get the front wheel off the ground. I remember it revved quite high but it was a 4 cylinder 4 stroke, so …. My friend had a NSR250 (that right?) two stroke bullet. It was smokey, light and so fast. You could get the front wheel up easily and it was truly a bike that was impossible to keep under the speed limit. It was a terrifying bike to me. I spent 40 hours per week on the bike for 2 years and enjoyed most of it. I quit to save my life. I’d had two accidents and a colleague was killed. The money was not good and I made a decision to live. I then didn’t ride from aged 20 until recently at 47 when I bought an electric Surron. I was so happy to find out that my brain had stored the muscle memory and I can still ride :)

I owned a 250 rr fireblade back in the early 2000s. Great little bikes and gave many a 900 a run for their money through the mountains.

first bike I ever owned and always regretted selling it. One popped up cheap a couple of years ago and I had to have it. 1991 Japanese import model with near 70xxx on the clock she still screamed to 20k on the regular and loved every minute of it. Great little bikes

Another awesome video Bart! This channel is very underated. I would love a video on the Suzuki GS bikes and Kawi KE100s

Honda will always be my favourite company. Ever since my first little 50cc Honda dirtbike to my first car (92 Honda Prelude) ❤❤❤

Moving to Australia.

Still enjoying my '88 Yamaha FZR 400 GENESIS. The engine is literally immortal!

Disagree with not being able to be riden daily and comfortably on the street, my aus mc22 which is an ex p6 historic track bike and is still setup for track as it visits here and there runs great on the road. I had set it back to factory setup and tune at one point and it was very comfy to ride between the 5-10k rpm mark and made enough go above 7k rpm. When you compare it to modern 250 it makes nearly double the power so even down low its more then enough

6:45 im constantly amazed at how modern my 75 CB360 really is........... . Honda just got all the LITTLE details right on that family of bikes......(plus, they just work.... a few design flaws like the cam chain guides and oil pickup tube.... but otherwise SOLID) like.... that CB360T feels like a modern bike to me . starts RIGHT up....... runs great..... very fun (wish it was a CB750, but.....LOL) easy to work on..... parts are still available..... relatively low maintenance...ETC ETC ETC

I started watching in hopes of hearing some revs. However the amount of history I just learned almost made up for the fact there wasn’t a single sound track of any of the high rev bikes. And I still followed.

Bart - Your material is consistently excellent! Your delivery style/tone is top caliber young man... Cheers from British Columbia, Canada 🇨🇦

Great video Bart. And, yes we should all consider moving to Aussieland or at least visiting. The Phazer 250 was unreal when it came out. Not surprisingly even Tamiya made a plastic model kit of the bike. The Phazer was the genesis of the genesis of the FZ 750. Great to see you focused on that 1FM bike early on in the video.

Preordered the new ZX-4RR with 400cc and almost 80 HP here in the EU... Cant wait to get my little 16000 rpm Screamer 🤗

Had a VFR400...Great fun bike. Sounded lovely and handled sweet.

My first bike was CBR250RR and to this day it’s one of my favourite bikes I’ve owned unfortunately I had to sell it to pay legal fees/fines after getting caught doing 170km/pr in a 70 zone on my gixxer 750

Really appreciate your content. Thanks for the research.

Hey mate would love to see a deep dive into Yamaha, their use of sound waves etc when designing heads and how Toyota were so impressed by their inline-4 twin cams that they had them design the heads for the 4A planned for the now famous AE86 and more!

I love small displacement bikes. Id love to zip around on the new 250rr or the kawi. Its exciting times.

Nice video Bart ! You know, somewhere in the mid-70's (I am 67) I saw a Honda CB350-4, and I was blown away. I had seen the first models CB750-4 and the CB500=4 before, but......................a small 350-4? There was no internet to inform us, and we depended on Cycle World and Cycle Guide magazines to inform us in this little Caribbean island. I was always intrigued by multi-cylinder machines. I owned much later, a Suzuki GT550 and in 1980 a Honda CB750K. What I did find out during that time, is that 400cc was in Japan the hot class in 4-cylinder bikes, and much later, that there were 250cc 4-cylinder machines too ! While the general public in my country do not like motorcycles, the tiny bike community have had some interesting machines. In the early 90's a Japanese guy living here imported some used JDM bikes that were being bought by the young bikers. But soon they petered out for one reason or another mainly because of spare part issues. None available here, and JDM spec seals, bearings etc. are different from US spec parts..................our main source of bike spare parts ! But they were real eye-candy for a a starved bike-population. We come from a culture of "Fix-the-unfixable", as everything mechanical has to be imported in our country at great cost, when it comes to import taxes and duties. So we keep vehicles for very long times. ( My JDM Corolla wagon, imported as a 4-year-old vehicle is now 21 years old !) Up to now everything bike is super expensive. I have an Indian-made-and-market 2021 Yamaha FZ25. Earlier this year, I bought the two pairs of disc pads for the bike at the dealer............at the equivalent cost of US$132. !!! ( One US$ is $6.80 of ours) I still love the multi-cylinder machines. I am not impressed with traditional bikes now coming in single-cylinder iterations. Recently I was on the Japanese Honda website, and I could not find a 250-4, The bike I would love to have is the 400 Super Four. But as a pensioner, the high cost of motorcycles in Japan, and our high import taxes, it will be prohibitive to import it. I will be riding the FZ250 into the great beyond ! Nice going Bart ! Trinidad & Tobago. West Indies.

There are alot of us that wanted super-screaming 400s in the 80's, (like Japanese Gpz 400s), that were a blast to ride but couldn't be had in the states.

Brilliant video thanks!!

I had a GSXR250RR, I remember the redline was set at 17,500 ,as It had to have a custom ECU made for it after the factory one died. You had to drop a gear sometimes two in order to get it to go. It was just too much hard work to ride it above the 12,000 mark where it came alive and stay somewhere near legal speeds! Round town and rural roads it was not as much fun, as my old two strokes. Also the parts were really hard to get. This was phoning round places in the days before the internet was a thing. After a year or so I sold it and got a CBR400RR

You know for talking about all these sport bikes and revving to 20K rpm... YOU DIDN'T PLAY ANY SOUNDS OF THESE BIKES! That sucked, so yes you were informative, but we ALSO want to hear them go!

The 400s were fun...used to love my NC29 The CBR400 was actually the first CBR in the Honda product range.!

I used to get to ride a homie's 97 CBR 250 RR. Crazy riding experience. Fun.

I feel so blessed to own my 1991 suzuki bandit 400, everything you said in this video reminds me of my bike. Only, the gsf400 is a naked superbike, and revs to about 15k

i had a toy model of this bike growing up and it was what got me into motorcycles, so nostalgic seeing this again after many years lol

Hi Bart, after watching quite few of your vids, I have convinced myself to finally subscribe. You have a very awesome way of documenting your videos that makes me excited for every new thing I learn about motorcycling from your videos. Thanks for these videos, really grateful you got me more on motorcycling (especially on two stroke motorcycles :))

What a great channel!! Thanks.

Got this bike as my 20th birthday present, and it's an absolute dream to ride on. ❤

In various motorcycle shops, I was a mechanic from the sixties to 90s. Worked mostly on Japanese bikes. Honda had the highest quality Kawasaki. It always had the most horsepower. Suzuki always had the best handling and Yamaha's were all around good. These bikes were not so re-buildable and we're more like disposable. I have owned dozens of them. Now I ride an old triumphs and an old BMW just for fun

Im from Ireland originally. Moved to Australia last year and I've bought one of these beauties. Absolutely incredible bike and a lot of fun. Thinking off shipping it home for when I do go back as they are gold dust in Europe 😎

Great video man, cheers for video credit ✌️🏍

When Yamaha was developing the FZ750, the prototype had a 20,000 rpm redline. The problem was that it idled at 5000 rpm.

I still use my firs bike, I'm from hungary, and it's a grey import gsf250, and I was noob, I shouldn't buy it, I'm still struggling to get parts, but I never regret it, with custom exhaust it sound like an f1 car from the v10 era, and I love it.

Not mentioned was Hondas oval piston four stroke V4 NR750 that turned 20,000 RPM.

I had the pleasure of owning an RVF400 what a gem V4 18,500 RPM after HRC upgrades and put out 65hp linear delivery 3500 up and up Joy

I have a 1989 CBR250r MC19. It's beautiful to ride, especially when it's out past 12k rpm it sounds amazing.

I had a FZX250 Zeal. She was a screaming 4Cyl with redline of 15k RPM. Other than a spongy front end for my 120kg rear end it was kinda fun to run around on. We also had laws in Australia that restricted learners to a 250 for their learning and provisional periods. This has been bumped up to 650CC but they have power to weight restrictions instead.

I have a CBR250R(J), great video on them. Forgot to mention that the RR has double front disc brakes. But otherwise wonderful video.

well made video lacking only one thing. THE SOUND

"Soh-each-ee-roh ("So" + "Ichiro," [just like Ichiro the baseball player]) Ir-ee-muh-jeer-ee" (8:13 & afterward). Because Japan has an entirely different written alphabet, English spellings of Japanese words are usually spelled nearly phonetically - they're written specifically to help us sound out the words, step by step, just like in school, to get the reader pretty close to the right sounds. Two bonus things I learned about Japanese, that can make it easier: first, there's no accented/emphasized bits of words (Nagano, for example, isn't "na-GA-no;" it's just a flat, evenly-paced "naga-no"). Second, Japanese words are made using a basic set of sounds. These individual sounds are always pronounced exactly the same way. Any time you see "ir," "ta" or "ka," for example, each of those always represent one single sound, no matter where you find it in a word. It's way easier than English, at least in these areas. Combine the stuff above with a basic idea of how spoken Japanese usually sounds, and you're already most of the way there. If you listen to what common Japanese names typically sound like, you'll probably be able to tell why the way you said "Ear-muh-jeer-eey" was so noticeably off-kilter to my ears. I don't speak Japanese, nor do I consume Japanese media. Still, before even seeing the spelling (Irimajiri), I would have bet my life that "Ear-muh-jeer-eey" was not right. Maybe somebody in the Middle East has that name, but not a Japanese dude. Just take a few extra seconds, and slowly sound out the letters of unfamiliar words (and/or just find the pronunciation on the internet) before you just decide you've got it, and you go on to repeat something that tells viewers that you don't care if the information in your video is accurate. If you're interested in Japanese manufacturers, and you're going to be making more content about them, perhaps you might just look at some Japanese names and compare their spelling with the way they're pronounced. Watch a few videos of people talking to or about Nintendo's Japanese game designers, for example; usually peoples' names are shown on screen, as well as spoken by the narrator or interviewer. Also, camhaft drive gears can be stronger, and hold accuracy well, but gears are decidedly _more_ friction than a chain setup, particularly as RPM goes up. Just the axial (with helical-cut gear teeth) or transverse (w/straight-cut teeth) thrust load involved with gears creates way more heavily-loaded bearing surfaces (and more of them). Compared to what's needed to support a chain- or belt-driven OHC setup, a gear-drive arrangement often requires a substantially redesigned, heavier, more rigid, stable crankcase, to keep the gears from pushing away fom each other far enough for something to fail. While a geared cam drive is fewer moving parts, especially considering the individual moving pieces in a chain, a hydraulically-tensioned chain drive is less friction at high RPM, and absolutely accurate enough to keep timing in check. Perhaps in the '60s it was harder to keep a chain drive from coming apart or losing accuracy at insane revs, given the metallurgical inconsistencies and manufacturing tolerance limits of the time, but there are plenty of examples of gear drives a-'splodin' at speed in high-RPM race engines back then, as well.

thanks god u made this video i was waiting for it

When you said you’re choosing American sponsors that make products in America, I subscribed immediately

Always appreciate the credit. If you want to see more on my bike, let me know. Great video! Guy I bought my bike from also had one of those Kawasaki 250s with the ram air. He had a nice collection.

I have the 1992 cbr250rr mc22. I love it. And it still go's so hard. And it black and yellow

Well that was trippy, looking at those pics of these honda 250's I could smell mine when I first got it, the brain is weird

Had one of these mc22... what a bliss to ride

I'm enjoying these videos.

Thanks for this video..... amazing bikes & you never know where you might find one laying around? peace

Honda was the force those days. I always loved them because of the excellent engineering which lead to performance and reliability.

Was lucky enough to have a ZXR250R, a CBR250rr, an FZR250R and a couple of VFR400Rs. Those bikes were just epic!!

Ive heard we cant get many 4cyl bikes under 650cc or even 1000cc because of emissions. The heat causes more emissions and based on the way regs are written its difficult, at least in the west/US, tho Kawi just released that ZX4rr so it is possible to some degree, but yeah. I just love their sound even at 10k RPM, and would love to have one as a beginner bike just to rev out, then tune it once I got better. (I love bikes but havent owned one, just love engineering and crap lol) And im not alone, which is why I think Kawi made rhat one and others want to depending on region released in, people want to just rev high cyl counts without breaking all speed limits in 1st gear lol

I have a 250 twin ninja. It's a 90s bike which is exactly the same as the 80s bikes were... It's useless under 9K. It's fun as hell over that! It'll do 110 in fifth and 105 in sixth. Lol! I had a guy ride it and he said it was pretty fun I yelled at him about not reving it enough and made him go out again. This time he got up to and stayed over 9K. You wouldn't believe the grin when he came back from that ride! It's better to ride a small bike fast than a big bike slow.

I do miss my old ZXR250C. RIding through tunnels and multi storey car parks in London during my teens was absolute gold. It's a shame I had to get rid of it, because spare parts were getting stupidly rare and had to be sourced from Australia. The NC22 was slowing down production just as the ZXR250C was probably at its peak. Tech-wise, the Honda had a lot more desirable features in the engine (gear driven cams, like you say), but there's no denying the looks of the ZXR250/400/750 family in the early to mid 90s.

I'm not a bike guy but I've been wanting this bike for a while now

Seeing that Yamaha Phazer, I think I know what KeithinAsia’s unobtainium Asian Cycle EX250F Ninja 250 flushmounts were originally intended for. A quick search and it seems replacement Phazer signal housings may be just as unobtainium. :(

My first bigger bike was a 93 cbr400rr and I'll never forget the first time I took it over 9000 rpm

I love my 250 gullarm dam it sounded so good these needs a come back.

if i ever start riding bikes i think a CBR250RR would be my dream bike to own. ive only started being interested in bikes recently and the CBR250RR reminds me of an Integra Type R or an S2000

WOW! Thank you.

i still have my honda cb-1. 400cc i four 13.5k redline. i love em since you can rev them out through the gears and not be going straight to jail speeds. gear whine from the cam gear train and exhaust note is intoxicating

the reason these were popular in australia is because up until 2013, you werent allowed anything bigger then 250cc for the first few years of your motorbike licence, and all the other 250cc bikes at the time were so lethargic they could barely make it up a hill

Top vids bart love from uk

Hey man great video, just wrote off my 1996 Honda Hornet 250 last Friday because some muppet pulled out Infront of me. Looking at a 1991 Yamaha FZR250 this Sunday love the 250 screamers and yes in order to properly ride the Hornet you had to shift above 10k otherwise coming out of some corners you get terrible throttle roll on.

It's emission as to why the current batch of 250cc bikes don't rev past 14/15k rpm, I think it was a fortnine video where he explained and showed the amount of ignition pulses per minute and the new Kawasaki inline 4 250 screamer has a laughably low amount of ignition pulses per minute so it complies with emissions, any more rpm and it wouldn't pass, remapping them brings out a lot as they run very lean as well.

takes me back to my teens,, RG250 KR1 and i had an FZR400RRexupSP ,,, then went onto 600s and 750 GSXR,s before getting into 1000cc bikes where ive stayed .

God it looks gorgeous in black🤤

Yep. Got one. Never getting rid of it.

Even for '84 that Phazer is an eyesore. Those turn signals look like universal fit aftermarket crap found in a bin someplace..

You forgot to mention the most important thing these little pocket rockets led to… The NR750!!!! It was a marvel of modern engineering at the time of its release and it still holds a few records. the Oval Pistons were a thing of engineering beauty and everything else around the entirety of the bike, down to its body panels were flawlessly executed. They were so rare that there were only 3 in the states and Motorcyclist magazine had to borrow now from a Hollywood star who was gracious enough to lend them his to do speed run tests, but it was so expensive and so rare that he didn't allow any testing from a dead stop. I think it was Jay Leno, but the personality was never revealed.

It was a test bench in exploring the limits of a 4 stroke engine piston traveling @ F1 speeds for road use. 20+m/sec.

My dream bike, my learner bike, and the bike i kept way into my full license. I'll buy another one, one day. The 05 CBR600RR I have, revving to 17,000 RPM isnt such a bad thing either though ;)

I bought an MC22 at the end of last year. I need to recommission it (tyres, brakes, carbs). Fancied one for decades due to the red line. Not expecting it to be quick, but just occasional fun. I expect my tzr250 will leave it for dead! They are not common in the Uk. The Japanese market 400s were fairly common 20 years ago, but not the 250s . Think quite a lot of the import 250 4 strokes landed up in Ireland.

At least Kawasaki have reset the micro high revving 4 cylinder bikes, ZX2R and ZX4R, surprised Honda does not join in again with its CB400 Vtec Engine to create the CBR400rr. The RVF400rr and CBR400rr was the ultimate bikes of this era IMO. One thing you did not mention, the micro 250s especially for learners was a extremely frustrating to learn on, riding in the hills on tight twisty roads meant a thousand gear changes. My girlfriend at the time had a Kawasaki ZZR250, it was so easy to ride, could be in the completely wrong gear but the bike would still pull you out of the corner. The ZZR suspension was crap, was heavy and a very upright riding position but easy to ride at a good pace.