Honda’s New ‘Blade Sure Looks Like It’s Out To Kill The Ninja!

First, Kawasaki did something that most manufacturers wouldn’t even have thought of -- developing a quarter-litre four-cylinder track tamer. As soon as Kawasaki took the wraps off of the Ninja ZX-25R, there were plenty of rumours that Honda too was planning to jump on the bandwagon with its own 4-cylinder CBR. While there has been absolutely no indication from Honda about such a motorcycle, it hasn’t stopped enthusiasts from letting their imagination run free, quite virtually. Japanese media house Young Machine has made an interesting rendering of the ‘Honda CBR250RR-R’, taking inspiration from its bigger litre-class brother, the new Honda CBR1000RR-R.

According to the rendered image, the bodywork is pretty similar to the litre-class sibling but instead of the inbuilt winglets, the quarter-litre version gets a traditional full fairing. The lighting system is all-LED, which is pretty much expected from a premium small-capacity supersport.

The rendering also shows a twin-spar frame and swingarm made of aluminium, and an inverted front fork and rear monoshock, both presumed to be fully adjustable. They have used twin small discs up front with a single-piston radial caliper. Honestly, that seems to be a bit too complicated and may not be all that efficient, if you ask us. A large 320mm single disc with radial caliper would’ve made more sense, both aesthetically and mechanically. The rear comes with a small disc with a single-piston caliper. Of course, a dual-channel ABS is likely to be standard with the option to deactivate it for the rear wheel alone.

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It’s pretty much a given that Honda would want to give Kawasaki a run for its money with its quarter-litre supersport. So expect the power figures to be on par with the mean Green machine. That said, Kawasaki hasn’t yet revealed the exact power figures of the ZX-25R, but extracting around 60PS from that little screamer of a motor seems to be quite possible. The bike gets a ride-by-wire throttle and it is likely to come with multiple rider modes and perhaps even a traction control system. Expect the engine to be mated to a 6-speed transmission with slipper clutch and a standard bi-directional quickshifter that could come in handy while riding on the race track. For better aesthetics, the rendered bike sports an Akrapovic exhaust but we expect the production version to have a fat end can to help the bike comply with stringent emission norms.

If we’re lucky, we could see a production-spec Honda CBR250RR-R materialise in a couple of years as the Japanese brand had just recently updated the CBR250RR.

Source: Young Machine