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Virago 250, Perfect starter bike

I'm new to riding ...again. I owned a 1979 Honda CB 400 about 15 years ago but never got my full license. I rode one season and sold it because I was a student and couldn't afford to have two vehicles thru the Canadian winter. Now, with a baby on the way this is my last free summer for the next 1...5 years so I figured I should finally just do it.

For mileage, insurance, and overall cost reasons I looked into the 'Big 3' manufacturers of modern 250cc cruisers in Canada: Honda, Suzuki, and Yamaha. The Kawasaki Eliminator models aren't sold in North America as far as I can tell. I decided early based on other reviews that the Honda Rebel was going to be a little weak (though to be fair I didn't really give it a chance) and it's so low-slung, I'm told, the pegs grind on the road if you make sharp turns. Then the big decision was between the Suzuki Marauder and the Yamaha Virago.

A lot more is said about the Marauder in the reviews I've found including complaints about the steering geometry. That's one of those things you can't change (unlike exhaust, suspension, handlebar config, etc) but I did Love the look of that bike! I made a deal to buy a Marauder from a local dealership, but that went sour and then my Virago 250 appeared in the bike trader. I got a slightly better deal on the Virago (included cover, windshield, jacket, and two helmets) so I jumped on it.

I got my 2004 Virago 250 with only 1004 kms (635 mi) with the extras for $3500 CAN. The seller said the plugs were bad, but otherwise it needed nothing. Plugs are like fuses: they aren't the problem, only the symptom. I got it safetied and true to that addage the plugs, while fouled up, were coating up because of oil getting into the chambers. Here's the problem: This bike doesn't have an oil dip stick, it has a nifty little sight window on the side of the engine casing. The manual says the bike needs to be sitting level to read it properly but the bike doesn't have a center stand (none of the cruisers do it appears). When resting on it's side stand the sight window is on the high side of the engine, so if you don't have your own lift at home (or a loving wife that will hold the handlebars for you while you check/change the oil) you will overfill it. That means oil will spalsh upwards into the cylinders, interfere with combustion, and foul up the plugs. This guy probably sold a bike that he thought wasn't running well. Good for me.

I hear the Kawasaki's have a neato feature called "positive neutral finder" where it will only go into neutral while stopped, otherwise it will only go between 1st and 2nd. I find my Virago occasionally takes a little rev, or slight release of the clutch lever to find neutral while stopped. In fact the shifting is brilliantly easy while it's rolling. I hear this is not uncommon among bikes though.

So then I took the Motorcycle Safety Course to graduate from beginners to an M2 license (In Canada an M2 license is unrestricted except for zero alcohol tolerance). I ABSOLUTELY RECOMMEND THIS COURSE!!! I would never have 'un-learned' a couple of my bad habits without proper instruction and observation, nor would I have had the courage to ride as aggressively with my own bike.

I rode a few bikes during the course including the Marauder. Firstly, major kudos go to the Kawasaki Eliminator 125. It's great for a cruiser learner. It's nimble and, while underpowered, a perfect balance of weight and power for the kind of manouvering exercises we were doing. It's a shame; they seem to be impossible to find up here. Anyway, on to the Marauder: It's still the beauty it always was to me, but it vibrates horribly! I had to check that my jewels were still attached. Not a pleasant sounding motor either. It corners unstably at very slow speeds, unlike the others I tried out, and it's relatively difficult to push along because it's so fat.

I had a new-found appreciation for my Virago from that point. It's got a wonderful sounding engine (relatively speaking), and hardly vibrates at all! It feels really comfortable at running speed. Some reviewers complain about 300lb 250cc bikes being too light for the freeway and that they're incapable of going a decent speed. My Virago abley goes 115 km/h (72 mph) and it feels like it might top out above 135 km/h (85 mph). I say it's a matter of how comfortable you are with the blustery ride. At highway speed you will get blown around a bit. I weight over 210 lbs so perhaps that's a factor; I don't find it that bad. I have a huge helmet (XXL) and I find my helmet gets jerked around way more than the rest of me does. A windshield is a must! Actually, I adjusted mine after a few hundred kilometers by tilting it sharply back and it's made a huge difference in aerodynamics, stability, and riding comfort. Also, spend the extra $100 and get a quieter helmet. I got the JMax cheapo and the wind just crackles around it at speed!

I read a couple reviews that said the Marauder gets 70-75mpg. I've put 930 kms (577 mi) on my Virago and used less than 28 liters of fuel (7.3 US gal). That works out under 3.0 l/100km or 79 mpg!!! Fantastic. The bike has a 9.5 liter tank (2.5 gal), which is smaller than the Rebel and Maurader, but that still gives the bike a range of almost 320 kms (200 mi) which is okay by me so far.

The bike has treated me incredibly well. I make my own brake pedal, shift lever, and chain tension adjustments easily following the standard owners manual. Excellent starter bike! I do have one complaint: After 3500kms the helmet lock device fell off on the road somewhere. It must have vibrated loose. I don't know what it would cost to replace but I never really used it except to hook bungie cords to when I carried a backpack on the rear pillion. I'm sure it isn't cheap because it has to be ordered from Yamaha if I want the unlocking mechanism to use my existing ignition key. I check things like cables and controls for tightness but I never expected a fixed anchor point to fall off. I am preparing to change the sprockets to lower the output drive ratio for better mileage at highway speeds. If I lived in the City I wouldn't consider trading up at all, except perhaps to upgrade to a bike with a shaft drive and be rid of all the chain lubrication responsibilities. Read Full Review