Honda Vtr250

That 90-degree V-twin pulls hard from 8,000 rpm and genuinely screams to 15,000 — on a 250, that still surprises you every time. The chassis is taut and trustworthy; I've carved mountain roads on this thing that embarrassed much larger bikes piloted by lazy riders. The bikini fairing is more aesthetic than functional — highway wind blast above 130 km/h gets tiring fast — and parts sourcing in 2024 is a legitimate headache, particularly for the cooling system and carburettors. It's a 35-year-old machine, so mechanically it demands respect and regular attention, but nothing about this bike feels like a compromise the engineers made — it feels like they meant every single rev.

I put nearly 12,000 km on a '91 VTR250 and that engine never stopped surprising me — pull it past 10,000 rpm and that liquid-cooled V-twin genuinely sings, delivering a chest-thumping urgency that feels absurd for a 250. The Gen 2 bodywork is a marginal cosmetic refresh over the original; don't buy it expecting a new motorcycle, because mechanically you're getting the same bike with slightly smoother carb response off idle and a fractionally more composed front end through mid-corner. At 159 kg it's heavier than the single-cylinder competition, and you feel that mass when you're pushing it into tight car parks or filtering through a standstill commute. The real weakness is fuel economy at high revs — keep it in that sweet spot above 11,000 and you'll be stopping at the pump more than you'd like for a bike this small.

I ran a VTR250 as a daily commuter and weekend canyon bike for two years, and the thing that surprised me most was how the V-twin character — that lumpy, mechanical pulse at low revs — actually made me a better throttle hand. You feel every input through this engine in a way a parallel-twin or single just doesn't deliver. The streetfighter redesign works; it's not pretty exactly, but it's honest — wide bars, upright seating, a bike that wants to be thrown around rather than pampered. The weaknesses are real though: above 140 km/h it's running out of puff fast, and the lack of fairing means highway stints are an arm workout in crosswind.