I had a 3 1/2 sport in 1979 when I lived in the trough of bowland, apart from rusting BADLY before my very eyes due to cow muck on the road, it was an RD250 killer, but only a 350 killer on the bends. I recently looked it up when somebody said they saw a silver one & it was mine (mine was red). Sure enough it still lives & is now a silver strada!! I traded it for an SR500 Yam, now long gone. Never mind, it was good whilst it lasted. 🏍😁
The Benelli - pretty impossible to see the clocks in a full face helmet. At least around this period Italian bikes were known for being fast and handling well but with dodgy electrics and poor finish.
in 1971 I splashed out on a 250 Triumph, loved it but it wasn't the most reliable. Often wonder if I had got an Italian bike would I still be the owner of three Triumphs, well down to two just recently but can feel a 500 daytona coming on.. Just goes to show if you start em early on a marque they stick. Have had a few Honda's and Kwacka's in between but never yet owned an Italian bike, lusted after a few but never had one
Hard to say Ital bikes are like a gateway drug Started on Guzzi Always had a Guzzi but it did lean me towards sampling Brit bikes Hence my 650 BSA Golden flash
ahhhh noooo a XS250 lol carbs going out of sync and electrical gremlins that were hard to find other than that a good little bike came in the custom SE made and standard and i do remember the XS budget model with drum brakes and spoke wheels , most were crashed or thrashed to death on the courier circuit , longest ride on one was London to Bridgewater on a courier job and as it was a Friday then up to Wolverhampton for the weekend motorway all the way at 60 .65 mph
Absulute gutless wonders, glad i never wasted my money and went straight to bigger bikes. Hilarious that people now pay good money for these boat anchors just to do a "cafe racer" conversion on them!...
Had a Morini 3 1/2 back in the day, wish I still had it, didn't fully appreciate it back then. Swapped it for an Aermacchi 350 which I pushed more than rode!
A video on the Suzuki GS range would be good to see. I had the GS550 and loved it. I always wanted (and still do) the GS850 which to me is one of the best looking motorcycles ever made.
Thanks for another interesting selection. I owned a two stroke Benelli 250 2C from 1977 to 1979. Quite an experience but a bike with many flaws and quite poor mechanical longevity between rebuilds. One of the worst things for the Benelli was spares availability in the UK. Rather than relying on useless local agents I found that the best way to get spares was to visit the UK importers in person and get them there. As an overall package, the Scorpion was a much better proposition. My brother had one for a time, but a SMIDSY put him off motorcycling so that was his last ever bike.
The dealers had to understand how the Italian companies worked, the smart ones stock pilled, the not so smart didn’t Much easier these days courtesy of the internet of course
I found the same problem with mine in Australia. Luckily it took the same headlight and taillight bulbs as the 6 volt V.W beetle so you just carried a box of each with you. Also the pistons were the same size as the Suzuki 125 bike of the same time so you could use them.
I owned one in 1981, paint run on tank, choke for carb on wrong side on right hand carb, six volt electrics, exploding silecencers and blown crank seals, from Richardsons in sheffield , but all part of my bike history. Wouldn't change a thing.
@@bikerdood1100 the 250 , I had the 650 ( well sort of because I married it to a t140 frame ) 750 and 1100 all competent bikes but the 250 what a sloth that was , about the only thing that I could say in its defence was it was comfortable 😂
The XS250 was my first bike! YOU said reliable ??? not the weigh I remember it, it would either start after 20+ kicks on the kick starter then press the electric it would start or vis versa + I forgotten the number of times I had either to walk or push the bloody thing to a public telephone box for recovery! My Father bowwered it a couple of times and wished he hadn't. It was part exchenged for a Suzuki X7 which never let me down, with the added bonus it could keep up with traffic.
My younger brother owns a 1979 (V reg) Bennelli 2C. He owned a 1978 (T reg) XS250, back in the 1980's, replacing it with a 1976 (P reg) GT380M, which he sold after making the mistake of getting married. The Bennelli 2C was bought long after the divorce.
The opening/closing sequence looks like you are a friend of Dorothy (Nathan I mean, not any slur) . I've seen the bigger Benelli/Moto Guzzi (I thought someone had put a Honda engine into the frame!) but never the 250. I think the Yamaha still looks nice.
As I say in the video, generally solid, with essential a 400 bottom end it should be. Square tanks can rot at the bottom so definitely a bike I’d drain the tank on over winter
What was most unusual about the Moto Morini was not the manner in which the camshaft was driven. Its most unusual feature was the Heron combustion chambers. In this configurations the heads are completely flat and the combustion chambers are part of the pistons which have an inwardly curved top. Besides the Benelli 250 2C, the Moto Guzzi 250TS also existed as a Motobi 250 2C. There were also 125 2C versions of all three brands. I would know, because although I'm Canadian, my parents hailed from Italy and in Italy is where I keep a Motobi 125 2C. At the time in Italy the lack of oil injection wasn't a big issue because many gas stations had premix pumps that allowed you to chose the percentage of oil to mix with your gasoline. Of course, it did mean you had to trust the owner of the gas station to fill the oil tank with clean and fresh two-stroke oil as opposed to dumping in it the oil from the latest car oil changes he performed...
We never got any of these bikes in the U.S. I didn't even know about most of them. I would be very interested in purchasing an XS 250 Yamaha or the Kawasaki twin if anyone is selling one.
I also owned the Moto Guzzi TS250 Eletronica 2 stroke. My experience of the 6 volt electrics was similar, with weak lighting and blown bulbs gallore. I think the lack of automatic oiling led to an early bottom end demise on my bike. I also remember the end caps of the silencers coming adrift more often than was funny, sending the oily baffles down the road behind me. The previous owner included a disassembled Benelli 2c as 'spares' when i bought the bike and i still own the frame, front end, tank, seat and side panels to this day.
It’s hard to get an accurate mix, given that Scott fitted automatic oiling in the 20s you wonder why more than 50years later machines were still available that required pre mix
I didn’t know that a couple of these were ever made, as a few of them never made it to the US. I got my license with my older brother’s Honda CL72, which I would love to have today! My brother later sold it and got an HD/Aermacchi 350, because it had the HD labeling. For in town and green laning, a 250 is not a bad choice. I’m taking delivery of a new XR150L next week for just those purposes. Riding a big bike for errands isn’t nearly as fun(to me), and I really wish that the bike makers would bring back really nice small bore bikes that aren’t “cheaped out”, but I also realize that profits are the bottom line, so that’ll probably never happen🤷🏻♂️
I used to see quite a few of the Benelli 254s. The UK imported had their warehouse on the area where I served, so you'd see them outside. The 2C 250s were also seen there. I think it's worth mentioning that the XS250 was a very comfortable machine. Several friends of mine and my wife had them.
Late mate had a xs250 special nice looking bike but like you say slow and heavy it was still the best bike bike among us or newest anyway.great video.🇳🇿
I’d like to see videos featuring Yamaha XS 650 ( my first bike) and Yamaha XJ 600 Diversion ( my first bike after the “I founded a family and should not ride a bike anymore”- intermission) Anyway, I like to be taken to your motorcycle worlds and I’m happy with your choices.
@@bikerdood1100 Sorry I don't mean to make fun of your video but the XS250 really was garbage. If you talk to anybody who remembers them they will tell you the same thing. They are far from "classic".👍👍
The XS was a sleeved down 400 as apposed to the others being actual 250,s , i have an LTD 250 and a CM 250T , when new both of which could be ridden by learners ( just !! ) at the time....yes im collecting all the bikes i used to have 😄 also have a dream 250 T and CB 250 NC , all getting hard to find now ,,,,good video .
The XS, the CB250N and the GSX were ALL sleeved down 400'd the only one that wasn't was the Z250 twin At the time the German market had a 400cc/27hp limit for learners, these were restricted by taking home market 400's and putting tiny carbs on them For the UK market it was just a simple case of sleeving them down, they made hardly any less power and were sellable over here as learner bikes Then you had the option of passing your test and buying the "full fat" variety...same as the Japanese home market ..so 43hp in a CB400N If you do end up with a German market 400 from the period, it's not much quicker than our 250....but a set of "proper" 400 carbs gets them going The XS was pretty bad in 400cc form tbh though
Would love to see a video about the big 1000cc+ sports bikes of the late 80's, 1987 onwards. Keep up the great content, love watching your videos, so good to see the Z250 from my youth here too. Really enjoyed riding that after I passed my test before moving onto 400's and then 750's and upwards.
My 1st bike was the Suzuki GT 125. The "hornet". Was given the Yamaha XS400 for a test ride from a friend. WoooW! I had problems to hold on to the the handlebars! That one pulled! When I came back, the friend looked at me with a sad face: "I should have told you: the speedo is defect. You've been revving it to some 10.000." Those where the days, my friend...(citation: Mary Hopkin)
My very first bike back in 77 was a Benelli 250 2C. Great fun and only slightly slower then the Yamaha 250 ( one of my mates had one at the same time before he updated to the 500) but with much better handling on windy roads . Italian 6volt system and every time you missed a gear you would either blow a headlight, taillight or both. When I bought it it only had an Italian manual but luckily we found a friendly Italian guy to decipher it. It said to use 20w40 oil instead of 2 stroke oil and it was always great fun when you went to a servo and had to get out the measuring cup, put the oil in the tank fill it up and shake the bike from side to side to mix it. It was a very small tank and used to cost about Aust. $2 to fill from empty ( great days).
@@bikerdood1100 The headlight and tail light were powered directly from the flywheel alternator/magneto, just like may mopeds. A small battery was provided just to operate the brake light. On the model I had, indicators were not fitted as standard equipment. So the supply to the head and tail lights was unregulated. Mine ended up with a Morning 350 headlight after I broke the original in a crash. Running a 12V halogen bulb mitigated the problem of high revs blowing bulbs and worked well enough as a headlight.
lecturer in college had a morini 31/2,which made him the coolest guy on campus
Hate him already 😂
Amazing what a bike can do!😉
I had a 3 1/2 sport in 1979 when I lived in the trough of bowland, apart from rusting BADLY before my very eyes due to cow muck on the road, it was an RD250 killer, but only a 350 killer on the bends. I recently looked it up when somebody said they saw a silver one & it was mine (mine was red). Sure enough it still lives & is now a silver strada!! I traded it for an SR500 Yam, now long gone. Never mind, it was good whilst it lasted. 🏍😁
The Benelli - pretty impossible to see the clocks in a full face helmet. At least around this period Italian bikes were known for being fast and handling well but with dodgy electrics and poor finish.
Seems a Dumb place to put the dials
A position so stupid Harley do it
Says it all really
@@bikerdood1100 In the 90s there were Honda cruisers with the dials in the same place. 'Hey it's a cruiser. Let's copy Harley.'
@@bikerdood1100 The speedo/warning lights on my 2011 Suzuki VL250 Invader are mounted on the tank, too. Damned stupid place to put the things!
Boy, there's a collection that just about entirely skipped the US market.
Not all about America
Other countries are available
😂😂
i would like to see 250cc race replica bikes from the late 80s onward.
Got a few decades to go yet
I loved my old XS250, I road it all over the North York Moors.
Good solid transport
Sporty
No
But did it matter ?
in 1971 I splashed out on a 250 Triumph, loved it but it wasn't the most reliable. Often wonder if I had got an Italian bike would I still be the owner of three Triumphs, well down to two just recently but can feel a 500 daytona coming on.. Just goes to show if you start em early on a marque they stick. Have had a few Honda's and Kwacka's in between but never yet owned an Italian bike, lusted after a few but never had one
Hard to say
Ital bikes are like a gateway drug
Started on Guzzi
Always had a Guzzi but it did lean me towards sampling Brit bikes
Hence my 650 BSA Golden flash
ahhhh noooo a XS250 lol carbs going out of sync and electrical gremlins that were hard to find other than that a good little bike came in the custom SE made and standard and i do remember the XS budget model with drum brakes and spoke wheels , most were crashed or thrashed to death on the courier circuit , longest ride on one was London to Bridgewater on a courier job and as it was a Friday then up to Wolverhampton for the weekend motorway all the way at 60 .65 mph
Standard Japanese fair then
Same comments about my z250, GS 125 would apply
Absulute gutless wonders, glad i never wasted my money and went straight to bigger bikes. Hilarious that people now pay good money for these boat anchors just to do a "cafe racer" conversion on them!...
🙄
Had a Morini 3 1/2 back in the day, wish I still had it, didn't fully appreciate it back then. Swapped it for an Aermacchi 350 which I pushed more than rode!
Oh dear
Not you best move then in the end
I didn’t see 2 of the most beautiful 250cc made.
- Suzuki 250 X7
- Kawa KH250 triple
That’s a shame 😥
Should probably wait for part 2 and focus on what a video includes rather than what it doesn’t 🙄
None of these bikes can hold a candle to Ducati 250 singles in my mind. And they are all downright ugly in comparison too. But, that's just me.
Hmm
But the do run reliable and some of them don’t cost the earth either
I too had a mate with an XS250 (I had a GT250 at the time). It was heavy and slow. I referred to it as 'Constant Speed - Variable Noise'.
Yeh
A video on the Suzuki GS range would be good to see. I had the GS550 and loved it. I always wanted (and still do) the GS850 which to me is one of the best looking motorcycles ever made.
Have considered that actually, love the GS range and have featured them quite a few times so far
Loved my 1979 Z250, all the opposition looked old fashioned
Well they looked heavy
My Benelli 250 2C is 1974 but I had a B reg one so they were made at least up to 1984
Well or it means it sat in a show room until 1984
Z250 scorpion was a fantastic LPlate bike
Not bad
A lot less bloated than the opposition
Thanks for another interesting selection.
I owned a two stroke Benelli 250 2C from 1977 to 1979. Quite an experience but a bike with many flaws and quite poor mechanical longevity between rebuilds.
One of the worst things for the Benelli was spares availability in the UK. Rather than relying on useless local agents I found that the best way to get spares was to visit the UK importers in person and get them there.
As an overall package, the Scorpion was a much better proposition. My brother had one for a time, but a SMIDSY put him off motorcycling so that was his last ever bike.
The dealers had to understand how the Italian companies worked, the smart ones stock pilled, the not so smart didn’t
Much easier these days courtesy of the internet of course
I found the same problem with mine in Australia. Luckily it took the same headlight and taillight bulbs as the 6 volt V.W beetle so you just carried a box of each with you. Also the pistons were the same size as the Suzuki 125 bike of the same time so you could use them.
I owned one in 1981, paint run on tank, choke for carb on wrong side on right hand carb, six volt electrics, exploding silecencers and blown crank seals, from Richardsons in sheffield , but all part of my bike history. Wouldn't change a thing.
I like smaller displacement motor bikes!😊
Generally on road I find 250 to be a great capacity and no one needs a little plus 150hp bike
I'm new subscriber and I really enjoy your channel.
Thanks.
Welcome
Welcome
The XS has got to be one of the worst bikes ever built
Which one ?
There are several
@@bikerdood1100 the 250 , I had the 650 ( well sort of because I married it to a t140 frame ) 750 and 1100 all competent bikes but the 250 what a sloth that was , about the only thing that I could say in its defence was it was comfortable 😂
The XS250 was my first bike! YOU said reliable ??? not the weigh I remember it, it would either start after 20+ kicks on the kick starter then press the electric it would start or vis versa + I forgotten the number of times I had either to walk or push the bloody thing to a public telephone box for recovery! My Father bowwered it a couple of times and wished he hadn't. It was part exchenged for a Suzuki X7 which never let me down, with the added bonus it could keep up with traffic.
Seems even the Japanese had Friday afternoon bikes 😂
My younger brother owns a 1979 (V reg) Bennelli 2C. He owned a 1978 (T reg) XS250, back in the 1980's, replacing it with a 1976 (P reg) GT380M, which he sold after making the mistake of getting married. The Bennelli 2C was bought long after the divorce.
That was a silly thing to do 😂
Love you to do one of Kawasaki kr1s
Planning later two stroke video
The opening/closing sequence looks like you are a friend of Dorothy (Nathan I mean, not any slur) .
I've seen the bigger Benelli/Moto Guzzi (I thought someone had put a Honda engine into the frame!) but never the 250. I think the Yamaha still looks nice.
You are correct about Dorothy
I have a 79 honda superdream love her
As I say in the video, generally solid, with essential a 400 bottom end it should be.
Square tanks can rot at the bottom so definitely a bike I’d drain the tank on over winter
What was most unusual about the Moto Morini was not the manner in which the camshaft was driven. Its most unusual feature was the Heron combustion chambers. In this configurations the heads are completely flat and the combustion chambers are part of the pistons which have an inwardly curved top. Besides the Benelli 250 2C, the Moto Guzzi 250TS also existed as a Motobi 250 2C. There were also 125 2C versions of all three brands. I would know, because although I'm Canadian, my parents hailed from Italy and in Italy is where I keep a Motobi 125 2C. At the time in Italy the lack of oil injection wasn't a big issue because many gas stations had premix pumps that allowed you to chose the percentage of oil to mix with your gasoline. Of course, it did mean you had to trust the owner of the gas station to fill the oil tank with clean and fresh two-stroke oil as opposed to dumping in it the oil from the latest car oil changes he performed...
I’ve discussed this in a previous video featuring the bike
In the 60s Ford UK used it on some of their motors and the small block Guzzi’s of course
We never got any of these bikes in the U.S.
I didn't even know about most of them. I would be very interested in purchasing an XS 250 Yamaha or the Kawasaki twin if anyone is selling one.
Oh dear
What a pity, never mind. We had lots of, well the Japanese bikes mostly
Of course
I also owned the Moto Guzzi TS250 Eletronica 2 stroke. My experience of the 6 volt electrics was similar, with weak lighting and blown bulbs gallore. I think the lack of automatic oiling led to an early bottom end demise on my bike. I also remember the end caps of the silencers coming adrift more often than was funny, sending the oily baffles down the road behind me. The previous owner included a disassembled Benelli 2c as 'spares' when i bought the bike and i still own the frame, front end, tank, seat and side panels to this day.
It’s hard to get an accurate mix, given that Scott fitted automatic oiling in the 20s you wonder why more than 50years later machines were still available that required pre mix
I didn’t know that a couple of these were ever made, as a few of them never made it to the US. I got my license with my older brother’s Honda CL72, which I would love to have today! My brother later sold it and got an HD/Aermacchi 350, because it had the HD labeling. For in town and green laning, a 250 is not a bad choice. I’m taking delivery of a new XR150L next week for just those purposes. Riding a big bike for errands isn’t nearly as fun(to me), and I really wish that the bike makers would bring back really nice small bore bikes that aren’t “cheaped out”, but I also realize that profits are the bottom line, so that’ll probably never happen🤷🏻♂️
Well no market gets everything
Plenty of interesting US only bikes after all
I used to see quite a few of the Benelli 254s. The UK imported had their warehouse on the area where I served, so you'd see them outside. The 2C 250s were also seen there.
I think it's worth mentioning that the XS250 was a very comfortable machine. Several friends of mine and my wife had them.
Those Benellis are so rare now, like every bike from that period prices had gone stupid
Xs was a fair size for a 250 so was always quite roomy
'vs are not aesthetically pleasing imho!
?
I meant V's!😁
Late mate had a xs250 special nice looking bike but like you say slow and heavy it was still the best bike bike among us or newest anyway.great video.🇳🇿
👍
Gotta love this stuff !
Well we try
Small bikes are a ton of fun
Nice to see some old 250s,I went down the 2 stroke route I did have a 27 year old gsx 250 for a while though until it got stolen👍
A lot of the Japanese two strokes in the first video of this series
Hiya,what would you like to try? B KING? RD500? Vertemati 570 S? RL325? TDR 250? SUPER SIX? RV 125? :-) All near Derby UK.
Of course
How do you go about it? How do we communicate?
I’d like to see videos featuring Yamaha XS 650 ( my first bike) and Yamaha XJ 600 Diversion ( my first bike after the “I founded a family and should not ride a bike anymore”- intermission) Anyway, I like to be taken to your motorcycle worlds and I’m happy with your choices.
Well the XS is in one of my videos on middle weight 70s bikes
@@bikerdood1100 thank you, I missed it obviously.
As far as the XS250 is concerned you have got to be kidding, the biggest pile of gutless junk is has been my misfortune to own!
Not your favourite then 😂
@@bikerdood1100 Sorry I don't mean to make fun of your video but the XS250 really was garbage. If you talk to anybody who remembers them they will tell you the same thing. They are far from "classic".👍👍
@@gunnyhartman2 you realise its not a top 5
Right ?
Actually the second of a series
🙄
Yoo should have classed it as forgettable rather than classic!
@@gunnyhartman2 yawn 🥱
Motor Guzzi best
As a rule I’d say yes
Although not necessarily the two strokes
The XS was a sleeved down 400 as apposed to the others being actual 250,s , i have an LTD 250 and a CM 250T , when new both of which could be ridden by learners ( just !! ) at the time....yes im collecting all the bikes i used to have 😄 also have a dream 250 T and CB 250 NC , all getting hard to find now ,,,,good video .
Now the Superdream is a 250 that shows it’s 400 roots
The XS, the CB250N and the GSX were ALL sleeved down 400'd the only one that wasn't was the Z250 twin
At the time the German market had a 400cc/27hp limit for learners, these were restricted by taking home market 400's and putting tiny carbs on them
For the UK market it was just a simple case of sleeving them down, they made hardly any less power and were sellable over here as learner bikes
Then you had the option of passing your test and buying the "full fat" variety...same as the Japanese home market ..so 43hp in a CB400N
If you do end up with a German market 400 from the period, it's not much quicker than our 250....but a set of "proper" 400 carbs gets them going
The XS was pretty bad in 400cc form tbh though
@@DomRivers67 they Germans gave the same treatment to the BMW R45
Which would have made for a miserable ride, in standard trim it was hardly rapid
More bikes of my yoof......got to watch it again 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it
A biker mate had an x reg xs250 so i assume one of the last made? He had an x7 before but he thought it too revvy and wanted a more relaxed ride.
We’ll definitely that, two very different bikes
Would love to see a video about the big 1000cc+ sports bikes of the late 80's, 1987 onwards.
Keep up the great content, love watching your videos, so good to see the Z250 from my youth here too. Really enjoyed riding that after I passed my test before moving onto 400's and then 750's and upwards.
Well it’ll take me a while to get there
The mid 80s that is
My 1st bike was the Suzuki GT 125. The "hornet". Was given the Yamaha XS400 for a test ride from a friend. WoooW! I had problems to hold on to the the handlebars! That one pulled!
When I came back, the friend looked at me with a sad face: "I should have told you: the speedo is defect. You've been revving it to some 10.000."
Those where the days, my friend...(citation: Mary Hopkin)
Z250 was my first love
VEES! 😁
✅
My very first bike back in 77 was a Benelli 250 2C. Great fun and only slightly slower then the Yamaha 250 ( one of my mates had one at the same time before he updated to the 500) but with much better handling on windy roads . Italian 6volt system and every time you missed a gear you would either blow a headlight, taillight or both. When I bought it it only had an Italian manual but luckily we found a friendly Italian guy to decipher it. It said to use 20w40 oil instead of 2 stroke oil and it was always great fun when you went to a servo and had to get out the measuring cup, put the oil in the tank fill it up and shake the bike from side to side to mix it. It was a very small tank and used to cost about Aust. $2 to fill from empty ( great days).
I’ve heard of the blown light bulb thing before
Regulators must have been pants, easy fix today though I expect
Nice to hear from owners
@@bikerdood1100 The headlight and tail light were powered directly from the flywheel alternator/magneto, just like may mopeds. A small battery was provided just to operate the brake light. On the model I had, indicators were not fitted as standard equipment. So the supply to the head and tail lights was unregulated. Mine ended up with a Morning 350 headlight after I broke the original in a crash. Running a 12V halogen bulb mitigated the problem of high revs blowing bulbs and worked well enough as a headlight.
@@derekp2674 well that’s just silly
@@bikerdood1100 Don't blame me, I didn't design that bike! :)
👍😎🆒!!
😎👍🏻