Camping tips and tricks

This ain’t no big and fancy motorbike, but don’t let that put
you off. I bought my CMX 250 Rebel after my bike accident, due
to it’s light weight, forward pegs which reduced the bend in my
dodgy knee, and the fact it was for sale at a cracking price.

The bike was delivered to me and I took the thing for a ride,
first time in 7 months. I was all scared and nervous…for about
3 minutes then it all started to fall back into place again. I
remembered why I liked to do this, what it meant to me and why
I’ll risk everything again.

I had some understanding of what to expect from the motor,
having owned a CD200 “Benly” from where the CMX 250 motor is
derived. It’s a small and compact motor with 2 pistons rising
and falling together and only 1 carburettor. Having 1
carburettor is unusual for a twin, and it does reduce available
power, but in return you have no need to balance the carbs, and
GREAT fuel economy. I could easily return 90mpg whilst 2 up with
camping gear, 97mpg was the best I achieved. The motor is quite
buzzy, not very fast and not very powerful. But it is smooth,
solid and feels like it will take you on forever…slowly. But
this bike was never meant to set the road on fire!, it’s a
cruiser, for cruising. You can’t get the motor running slowly,
well you can but you’ll only be doing 20mph.

It’s difficult to comment on it’s comfort, as I was still never
comfortable from my accident on or off the bike. That said I was
no worse on the bike so I guess it can’t have been that bad. I
didn’t do any great distances but I could take an afternoon out
with the gf and not suffer later. 2 up the bike was just fine, a
little less power but still stable and easy to ride. I would
suggest for regular pillioning a “sissy bar” of some kind would
be required. The laid back position of the rider causes the
pillion to lean back, which means they have to crunch thier
stomach muscles to avoid falling backwards. Might be handy if
the pillion’s tummy is getting flabby…

Ren Withnell
http://www.articlesbase.com/cars-articles/review-of-the-honda-cmx-250-3064.html