I'm thinking of buying myself a motorcycle, and I want a regular road bike. Therefore I'm looking at the Kawasaki Ninja 250R, Honda CBR250R, and the Tiger Boxer 250 RS.

What are the positive points of the models and what are the negative points.

First you have to ask yourself what you're going to do with the motorcycle, if you have an answer for that you can start looking at the riding position which suits best for your specific demand.

If we compare the Kawasaki Ninja 250R, Honda CBR250R and the Tiger Boxer 250 RS, you will find that the Kawasaki EX250 engine is basically 27 years old. The engine was original introduce in 1983 and was later equipped with a few modern patches as fuel-injection and modern ignition control system.

The Tiger is the most low-tech of the three motorcycles, but not forget low-tech is by definition not a bad thing. Imagine yourself somewhere on the Korat plateau with the nearest town about 100km away, with both the Kawasaki or the Honda you can do little to fix any problem. The Tiger will probably start and run acceptable with a spark plug you got from a farmer, or the fueling system is simple enough for even the most uneducated mechanic.

The Honda CBR250R engine is designed with a blank design sheet in 2009, and while it's a single-cylinder engine, it produces almost no vibration. The technology on how-to-build a engine has changed a lot in 27-years and therefor I can say the Honda CBR250R is the best engine.

Without modifications, the performance score will be:
1) Kawasaki Ninja 250R
2) Honda CBR250R
3) Tiger Boxer 250 RS

On fuel-economics, the score will be:
1) Honda CBR250R
2) Kawasaki Ninja 250R
3) Tiger Boxer 250 RS (with some situations being the Tiger better on fuel-economics)

With doing a few modifications not over 2,000 Baht the performance score will be:
1) Honda CBR250R
2) Kawasaki Ninja 250R
3) Tiger Boxer 250 RS

The motorcycle with the most relaxed riding position:
1) Tiger Boxer 250 RS
2) Honda CBR250R
3) Kawasaki Ninja 250R
Of course the riding position is highly personal so everybody has its own ideas about that...

The Honda CBR250R is easily modified to produce much more power, the downside is the decrees in fuel-economics, you can do this for less then 1,000 Baht by reprogramming the PGM-FI fuel-injection system. To do this on the Kawasaki Ninja 250R you need to buy a Dynojet Power Commander III for about US$ 340 (10,200 Baht with import duty or installation). The PGM-FI is basically already a programmable fuel-injection system so doesn't need a Power Commander, just a external box to save multiple fuel-maps and a few cables which cost about 1,200 Baht.

I have some different ideas about what is the best motorcycle, but it doesn't matter what anybody thinks. Important is the availability of spare parts, aftermarket parts and accessories and consumables.

Most aftermarket stuff for the Kawasaki Ninja 250R is being imported and is often high on price. Kawasaki has no support team for OEM/Aftermarket production companies, if you're for example a sprocket manufacturer or exhaust pipe welder you can contact Honda and get all relative information you need, with paying a small administrative charge you get complete basic designs including tolerances etc... taking most research work out of the aftermarket manufacturer.

For a fact I already know that more (Thai) aftermarket manufacturers are busy with products for the Honda CBR250R.

The amount of manufacturers busy with products for the, only 1 month available in Thailand, Honda CBR250R exceeds all products available on the Thai market available for the, now 3-years available, Kawasaki Ninja 250R.

Also not forget that Honda will have a big promoter behind the CBR250R, it's said that the Honda NRS250, which will race in the MOTO3, will have many of the same design features as the CBR250R.

The MOTO3 class is the replacement class for the 2-stroke GP125 class and is build on a single-cylinder 250cc engine. Actually on paper the engine of the Honda CBR250R and some early Honda NRS250 information suggest they very similar in specs. Same bore x stroke, similar body work, similar wheel design (likely not same material).

Anyway, I guess that Honda wants to makes youngsters to think that the bike they buy at the shop on the corner is the same they race in the Moto3. An European car manufacturer, Audi, once the top Rally Car manufacturer, invented this idea – they where racing carbon fiber copies of there cars. This cars looked identical but in fact none of the regular parts of a Audi production car would fit on a Audi Rally model.

What about the Yamaha MT-04 V250

Quote by: Soco

What about the Yamaha MT-04 V250

The Yamaha MT-04 is not “yet” available in Thailand. And according to Yamaha Motor Thailand they didn't even know the model existed (not that this is an indication of anything).