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With an excellent all-rounder like the Honda CBR 250R raring to prove its mettle it was but natural that Bike India should put it through its paces. And what better occasion than the sixth anniversary of the publication?

Story: Adhish Alawani
Photography: Sanjay Raikar

It was that time of the year when everyone at Bike India was in the brainstorm mode in an attempt to come up with novel ideas for the sixth anniversary issue. So while a track test to pit the CBR 250R against three other highly potent motorcycles was being finalised, we also thought of actually riding this Honda from Pune to the race-track in Chennai and back to see how this bike could prove itself to be a real all-rounder – in congested traffic, on highways and, finally, on the track.

The idea was that while my colleagues drove in a car to Sriperumbudur, I should hop on the CBR to cover this distance of approximately 1,150 kilometres in one day. In spite of everyone warning me that it was not advisable to ride for that long a distance in one single day, especially considering that the monsoon was round the corner, I stuck fast to my idea of leaving in the morning and reaching the destination by night. It was going to be a long chase, and a timed one with 1,150 km to be covered in approximately 17 hours.

On May 28, I left Pune at 4.00 am sharp. My initial calculation was to travel 75 km per hour to cover those 1,200 km in 17 hours safely. However, I soon realised that I had to cover at least 90 km every hour – taking into account the numerous breaks for fuel, food and rest – so as to make it to Chennai by nightfall. As I covered 80 km in the first pre-dawn hour of riding, I realised that I had to quicken my pace if this time chase was to be successful. With the sun now starting to peep out of the horizon, the second hour of riding proved to be quicker as I covered 180 km by 6.00 am. Another 40 km later, at 200 km on the trip meter, I took my first halt at hotel Sai International, where my colleagues in the car had promised to catch up with me for breakfast. However, a phone call to them revealed that they were still 100 km behind me. Should I stick around, waiting for them, or head further on alone? It was risky both ways, but I decided to wait, have breakfast and then start again with my car-borne colleagues.
Unfortunately, the car got stuck in traffic around the Khambatki Ghat and my colleagues reached the hotel by 7.30 am. A quick breakfast and we left the hotel at 7.50.

Almost an hour-and-a-half of sitting idle was a big setback for me. There was a lot of catching up to do time-wise and twisting the throttle a little more was inevitable. By 10.30 am I found myself crossing Hubli in Karnataka. A distance of 460 km had been covered in six-and-a-half hours and the average speed was now pretty much close to my target. The credit for this goes to the CBR, which showed no hint of nervousness or stress even while cruising at 120 km/h.

The speed dropped once I rode past Dharwad where the road narrowed down to two lanes. Heavy truck traffic made it a little difficult to maintain a constant speed. Now there was a different problem I had to face. The fuel tank of the CBR holds just about 10 litres and owing to the high speeds that I was constantly doing, the bike was returning a fuel efficiency of not more than 30 km per litre. This necessitated a tank-up after every 250 km. Moreover, the inlet of the fuel tank is such that it has a metal strip across its diameter from inside that prevents the dispenser nozzle from going in completely. The attendants at every petrol pump grumbled about it.

As I neared Chitradurga, the road improved drastically and the four-lane, straight highway incited me to test the top speed of the CBR. Going flat out, ducked down, I managed to touch the 158 km/h mark on a slight descent. On the flat surface, the bike reached 153 km/h. The second problem of the day arose now: the right hand side mirror’s allen-key screw fell off. The mirror started rotating around one screw and what a rotating mirror can do to your speed is quite surprising. One, it distracts you and, two, it restricts your ability to ride confidently and execute safe overtakes. Since the road had opened up, the car was going great guns and there was no chance of getting the mirror fixed until we stopped for lunch. Just after Chitradurga, we took a break for a quick (and bland) lunch after which I used a duct tape from the car to fix the mirror temporarily.