Rumor Is Kawasaki Will Build a 250cc Four-Cylinder

[admin]

Four Pots, 250cc, Plenty to Love The demise of many of 250cc motorcycles from the market has confounded me for a while now. There seems to be plenty of small 125cc machines out there and even more machines with displacements over 300cc, but the 250cc size that served so many riders well has somewhat fallen ...
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[670cc]

Why are there no 250s anymore? Because the moto press horsepower junkies test the small bikes and call the little engines a joke, and so then the 250 grows to be a 300, then it gets replaced by a 400. Then the cycle starts all over again.

 

[Randy99CL]

Four tiny cylinders make zero torque.

In the mid '70s I had a CB450 (DOHC, front disc brake) and my riding buddy the CB350F 4-cylinder. My 450 had decent torque but his 350 had none. I think Honda made the 350F more as an engineering exercise than as a practical motorcycle. A 250 single would beat him up to about 60 mph.

 

[670cc]

You don’t need much torque if you have RPM. The tiny, light pistons can reciprocate fast, so you get get your horsepower by way of RPM rather than high torque. That moves you don’t the road all the same.

 

[Randy99CL]

You don’t need much torque if you have RPM. The tiny, light pistons can reciprocate fast, so you get get your horsepower by way of RPM rather than high torque. That moves you don’t the road all the same.

To each his own.

So you'd be happy having to keep your bike engine buzzing above 6000 rpm constantly?
That 350-four was heavy for size and a PITA to ride. Slow acceleration, not fun. Keeping it at high RPM through town sucks.
Those tiny multis that Honda raced in the 60s were fast...cause they were on the racetrack where they could hold the RPM high. Not accelerating from stoplights IRL.

Even in cars; older Honda SI/VW GTI with high-rpm power = great on racetracks but PITA to drive on street. Newer versions with super/turbochargers and torque = fun fun fun! My current Acura has the 2.3L V-Tech that screams above 4K but is slow down low. I probably don't rev over 4K once a month.

One of the biggest reasons I bought my NC is because of the wonderful torque and I bet everyone on this forum loves that in theirs.

If you haven't ridden something like that 350-4 you don't realize just how slow it is. It's too much work keeping it up in the power band. The 350 twin of the time didn't have a lot of torque but was much more fun to ride IRL.
And a 250 would be worse.

Edit: Hey, I'm not bashing any bikes, I love them all. I'm advising that if Kaw does make a 250-4 that anyone interested should ride one around town before they buy. And I'm afraid that beginners will buy them when they'd probably be better off with fewer cylinders.
My friends' 350-4 was as smooth as an electric motor and the heavy weight made it ride like a heavier bike but once he rode my CB450 he admitted he much preferred it and wanted to sell his to buy one like mine.