Buy a 250 these days, and usually, you’re buying a budget bike. With the exception of the Yamaha WR250R (which appears to be cancelled for 2021, although we’ve heard nothing official), the rest of North America’s 250 lineup is designed to be affordable. Generally speaking, these machines are low on performance.

But, back in the 1980s and 1990s, you could have a lot of legitimate fun on a 250, if you bought a two-stroke. We’re not talking the “Oh, I guess any motorcycle is exciting,” kind of fun. The ’80s and ’90s were the glory days of the 250cc race replica, bikes like本1992年本田NSR250.

口袋火箭

The NSR250 series came to life in the mid-1980s, with the ’86 Honda NSR250R MC16 model. It was very much a bike of its time. The big-bore two-smokers were all cancelled at this point (with the exception of a few off-road models), as riders had rightly decided that a four-cylinder, four-stroke 750 was much easier and safer than something like Kawasaki’s H2 series. Small-bore two-strokes still made sense for a few reasons, though. Environmental regs hadn’t quite killed them off yet, and using a two-stroke engine was an easy way to make lots of power out of a lightweight motor. Plus, if you wanted to make a scaled-down sportbike that looked a lot like a race bike, well, two-strokes fit the bill, and there were several classic Japanese and Euro bikes along these lines.

当NSR250R首次出现在'86时，它应该看起来像本田RS250R生产赛车。它是同样的主意，本来使用它的Repsol和Dive Models。

CBR300的REPSOL版本仍然是一个PRODDER，但NSR也没有PLODDERS。与陈规定型懦弱的四分之一升四冲程电机不同，NSR有一个液冷的90度V-Twin发动机，簧片阀感应和Nikasil衬里的孔（两个行程中的智能移动;这会保护气缸生活）。设计人员使用本田的RC-阀系统拓宽电力带，并减少典型的双程峰值输出。发动机在股票装饰中大约45马力制作。据称，据称符合政府法规。

然而，由于任何齿轮都知道，一旦您解除限制它，就有许多方法可以从两冲程中获得更多的电力。如果您开始与发动机修复，NSR250R据称能够达到至少60马力。这甚至不仅仅是现代川崎忍者400.目前，来自日本的最新和最大的四冲程250，ZX-25R，速度仅为50马力。

NSR250只有330磅湿润，所以60马力很多。即使是45马力也很多，只要骑手轻量级。

Although this was designed to be street-legal, there were still race-friendly touches. Honda put a six-speed cassette transmission into the NSR250R. Even though it was tiny, it got dual disc brakes up front. Honda used an aluminum frame, and you can see the rider accommodations were spartan. The minimal padding barely passes for seating, and you certainly wouldn’t call this bike an all-rounder. There’s a pillion pad, but if you took your boyfriend or girlfriend for a ride on this, they’d probably dump you shortly afterwards.

因为它是1992年的模型，这个特殊的NSR250R在Moto2进口时出售is an MC21 model, a few generations removed from the original. There were several mechanical updates over the years, and the MC21 was a complete overhaul of the bike, from the ground up. Honda put its PGM-III ignition on this machine, with separate ignition mapping for each cylinder. The MC21 models also came with a dry clutch, just like a Ducati 90-degree V-twin.

冒烟的乐趣

As a result of the trimmed-down design, these machines were still very popular race machines in their own right. Honda sold more of them to people who wanted to look like racers, though—particularly this Rothmans SP machine. The early ’90s were the last days of cigarette sponsorships in motorcycle racing, but it was still a thing. It sounds funny now, but if you wanted to look like a high-performance rider, you had a cigarette logo on your bike.

只有1,500种Rothman SP型号，它们非常非常可接受。这就是Moto2进口的进口能够在这辆自行车上投入25,000美元的美国价格标签。这是罕见的，全原，在里程表中只有9,500英里（虽然，在一个双笔运动场，那仍然很容易！）。Moto2已经拥有了文书工作，也有进口自行车到美国，这使得买方更容易。

I understand why the price tag is that high, but it makes me sad to see these machines becoming unobtanium to the average rider. Where I grew up, these machines were surprisingly common. A local grey market importer had a nice business of shipping containers of old American muscle cars to Japan, and getting containers of weirdo 250-400cc Japanese bikes in return, including NSR250Rs. JDM regulations meant riders were mostly restricted to machines in this class, so once upon a time, these bikes were cheap as chips in Japan, and a good way to get around learner laws. Those riders moved on, and were happy to ship their tired bikes to North America.

奇怪的是，我们从来没有真正尊重这些自行车，因为我还是个孩子，直到最近，他们最近的价格可用。我看到出售的最后一个是2,000美元的CAD，但这几乎10年前现在，我从那时起就没有见过。我怀疑基于Web的使用汽车销售网站的出现结束了任何机会在便宜的奇怪上找到这些古怪的自行车。

But I still dream of finding one on the cheap, sometimes. Unfortunately, if that happened, I’d still have to dream how to convince my wife we needed it, and then dream up a way to actually squeeze myself onto the bike. My DR650 may be a lot less exotic than this NSR250R, but at least it nicely fits a North American-sized rider …