Honda CBR250RR MC22

Honda CBR250RR MC22

August 2024

Text and Photos by ©TYGA-Performance

Maybe you can remember seeing a particularly outstanding new model for the first time and it having such an impact that it became a lifelong dream of owning that model close to your heart. For many people of my generation it was a lust for a classic such RC30s, RD350LCs, R1s and Katana’s after seeing them at a bike show or race track. For me I had that moment and the object of my affection was the relatively modest MC22 CBR250RR.  I remember it clearly, it was 1991 and I was living in Bangkok at the time. In my free time I used to like to explore the city and on this particular day, I was far off the tourist beaten track on the opposite bank of the might Chao Praya river wasling around Wong Wian Ya district. At that time, it was a very busy commercial area with full of the hustle and bustle with countless small shops, restaurants and businesses which crowd the Charon Sanit Wong Road area. You could say it was an assault on your senses but not at all in a bad way. So, I was maneuvering my way through dawdling foot traffic and fresh vegetable vendors, zig zagging this way and that attempting to make some forward motion among all the noise, smells and commotion and then suddenly, there it was. In front of a small, scruffy and unremarkable motorcycle shop was an MC22 on a podium right next to the pavement. It was quite unexpected because at that time, 99% of motorcycles were mundane commuter bikes of 150cc or less and the remainder was mostly choppers or Harleys. I'd never see anything like it, the diminutive size, the perfect proportions, and the intricate frame with its beautiful welds. The pert little butt with its bold at the time twin taillights, mirroring the twin headlights up front. This was an early launch edition in black, silver and red. It had bright red 6 spoke wheels and to me this bike was perfection in every way.

I wanted it so bad but alas my bank account said no. Actually, I don't even think I had an account at the time! A sales guy oblivious of my financial situation saw me drooling and thought he would move in for the kill despite an obvious language barrier. There was much smiling, pointing and gesticulating. I needed to find a way out of the embarrassing situation, so pointed out it had no pillion foot rests and was not complete so I couldn't possibly be interested. The sales guy with a beaming grin reached over and demonstrated the Honda JDM party piece of the miraculously appearing and retracting foot pegs.

This simultaneously impressed me and destroyed my bargaining position. I think in the end, I just said I'd think about it and promptly ran away. About a year later, partly due to some persuasion from others and partly due to my stature, I ended up buying an NC23 CBR400RR from another long gone dealer across town. This was nowhere near as pretty but it too had the clever foot pegs but it had a lot more bottom end power and ergonomically was a lot more practical.

So that was the end of me and the MC22 for a decade or more. Except the memory of seeing one for the first time never faded and the feeling of needing one never really went away.

The years went by and I loved my CBRs. The NC23 became my daily commute and my means to explore Thailand, Samui, Phuket and Kanchaburi all the way to the 3 Pagodas Pass and to the Burmese border, (two up with luggage). After the NC23, I traded it in for the NC29 and a couple of days after purchase I  undertook a grueling  spontaneous 3000km in 4 days round the North of the country. . No ideas where I was going but it was fun riding in the twisty forests up North. Eventually, I ended up doing the return 800km run to Bangkok in one hit which was covered at a 160km/h pretty much the whole way less fuel stops. In the 1990s, it was an adventure riding anywhere in the Provinces and even to to get to Pattaya was not an undertaking to take lightly. The road was treacherous and littered with the wrecks of the trucks of the daring and foolish. On every other trip you would see the sobering sight of guys lying in the middle of the road in the mid-day sun under sheets or newspapers covering up the carnage with their mangled 150cc bikes nearby.

Touring in Thailand was not for the faint-hearted but the reward of the ride plus the destination kept driving us young guys on. Pattaya was a bit of Wild West town in those days and had rows and rows of rental bikes lined all along the beach road. It still does, but that was pretty much the only place in Thailand in the 1990s where you would see large numbers of 'proper' bikes in one place. The most popular model was the NC29 which catered for tourists who wanted to ride like lunatics from one night life area to another. There were also GSX-R1100s, FZR750s and the occasional Kawa. As far as I can remember there was just one MC22 and it was still in original Honda paint (rare as most rental bikes were crashed nearly as often as they were washed). It was in the launch colours of red, white and blue,

you could see it around town ridden by random tourists, wearing a plastic bucket type helmet, flip flops and shorts. It's little motor whizzing away and just about keeping up with the songteaw taxis. It had a race pipe of unknown brand installed from when it was imported from Japan and this exhaust howled and shrieked above the general cacophony of belching diesels and ring -a-ding two strokes. I had a perfectly good NC29 but I had to scratch that itch and I rented the little 'blade' for the day. For kicks and giggles, it was right up there. Most of the controls were familiar to me as they pretty much apped the NC29 and I quickly settled in for the ride. The engine though is somewhat different in nature. To get it to move at all, required a fist full of throttle and a lot of noise. It attracted attention from non motorcycle types which invariably means disapproval, but hey, this was 1990s Pattaya, anything goes and I revved it up to the full 19k at every opportunity. Handling was very precise and light but stable. Overall, I couldn't fault the baby CBR but as I handed back the keys the rental shop, being a cc snob at the time, there was no thought of me trading in my 400 for a 250. Actually, I did the exact opposite and traded the 400 for the big brother of the series and bought a series of 3 original model CBR900RR Fireblades. So that got rid of the MC22 itch; or so I thought.

Fast forward to 2005 and TYGA Performance was just starting to pick up business around the World. We had made some body kits for the NSR250, the NC30, followed by the NC35 and it seemed logical to make one for the NC29. Word got around what we were doing this and an Aussie mate suggested that TYGA make a similar kit for the MC22. I assumed wrongly that the MC22 was a largely forgotten model but this couldn't have been further from the truth and the MC22 kit was a huge success.

Due to learner restrictions in Australia, the MC22 fitted this niche perfectly and there were thousands of them everywhere down under. In fact, Honda even officially imported them such was their popularity. Not only that, but the mostly younger crowd who were riding them wanted more modern styling than Honda had given them, so we obliged them with our body kits. In no time, we had importers and dealers bulk ordering and our MC22 body kits were selling in their hundreds. We widened our range of products and made rear sets, slip-on exhausts and other parts and even built a couple of highly modified project bikes which are on our website here. We had we had a good run until the manufacturers eventually caught on and filled this gap with Ninjas and MC41s. It was nice while it lasted and we still have the project bike we built in 2011.

Afterwards, TYGA Performance moved on to other things and so did those youthful learners. It has only been the last few years that there has been a resurgence of interest in the model. In Australia, XCite Bikes caters to this market and the owner of the business, Omar is extremely enthusiastic and knowledgeable about his market. The market has changed since the late noughties and nowadays, the emphasis is on restoration and nostalgia.  TYGA Performance is always happy to adapt and, with Omar's and other customer's suggestions, we have increased our product range for the MC22 and are still doing so.

The final piece of this story is the bike you see here (eventually!). It seems that my dream of owning an MC22 after my first sighting of an MC22 in Bangkok had not totally died. I had been increasingly turning my attention to online advertisements as well as viewing some great MC22 videos on YouTube. Fortnine in particular extols the technical achievements; the 1 billion revolutions in the engines life or the near 3500 G’s the piston pulls at 20K rpm is just astounding. Go checkout his video but not until you've finished here ;) .

Inevitably, as a result of all this praise, I ended up acquiring the black 1992 model you see on this page.

As with most things at TYGA, this is not exactly stock and has a lot of modifications. However, and importantly, this is a survivor and not a nut and bolt restoration. I changed a few fasteners and  it is apparent that some of the panels have had a professional respray at some stage in its life but looking at the brakes, the engine, and the swing arm, this bike has been well looked after and looks fantastic for its 32 years and 23,000Kms. It does have its battle scars too such as on the right mirror and engine casing but this just adds character  in my opinion and does not detract from its desirability at all. A nice reminder this bike is a 32 year old survivor!

Let's just pause and admire the design for a moment. Personally, I still love the original launch colors and a bit of me wishes our bike was the red, white and blue model with the red wheels but this 1992 black livery is stunning too. It really exemplifies the amazing frame and beautiful swing arm. It also makes it a bit of a bitch to photograph trying to get the exposure just right in the tropical sun. Anyway, in a similar vein to girls in lycra (or boys I suppose), if a bike is in monotone with minimal graphics, it better have a good shape to get away with it. In my opinion, the styling is one of the best examples of that late 1989s early 1990s design language.

The upper cowling has the round headlights but they don't dominate and are devoid of the covers of the 400s. The air inlets and huge side air ducts, emblazed 'Direct Air Intake' serve non function but 'look' purposeful and to prove that marketing BS was alive and well 30 years ago as it is today.

Being a 250cc IL4, you might think the bike would appear wide but this is not the case. The engine is almost completely enveloped by the narrow lower cowling with just the round side covers exposed for visual affect. The sleekness and the clever frame design, consisting of castings and extrusions all beautifully welded together, would embarrass any modern sports motorcycle under 1000cc. I'm sure the new steel trellis frames work fine but you can know the bean counters made the engineers do it. Conversely, the engineers were in charge when the MC22 was born! 

Then there is the fuel tank, of course we can only see things through our own eyes but I love the relatively wide front and narrow rear with the flat top which looks integrated in stark contrast to the blobby fuel tanks on it modern namesakes. Moving to the rear, there is the attractive tail cowling.

Some bikes from this era look like they have a seat cowling styled from pieces of plywood. Yes I am looking at you FZR250! Somehow the MC22 derriere manages to look sleek while remaining practical. It holds a cavernous luggage compartment as well as a useful passenger perch. Perch being the appropriate term because it was uncommonly high for motorcycles back being quite audacious and even extreme.

Nowadays it just looks stylish. The previously mentioned folding out foot pegs, first introduced with the MC18  accentuate the clean design when retracted and the final tail piece with the NSR500 mimicking round taillight holes finish off the main bodywork.

Surprisingly, Honda chose to make a new front end for the MC22 when they could have just as easy grafted on the MC18 or MC21 version. I guess they wanted to crawl back some money from the massive amount it must take to manufacture what is essentially a miniaturized superbike engine for a learner model. Anyway, suffice to say, the front end got the NSR wheel and brake rotors, even if it had to make do with nonadjustable 39mm forks and twin pot calipers.

You might think the swing arm and rear wheel looks like it has been retrieved from the MC21 too but you'd be wrong. Again, Honda chose to start from scratch and the 'gull arm' swinger, rear shock, 4 inch rear wheel and associated parts are all bespoke. Rear brake disc and caliper are from the parts bin but the overall affect is a motorcycle which looks sturdy and stylish and not at all spindly like some more modern models.

I think it would be remiss of me not to mention all the other familiar components to the V4s and 2 stroke sports bikes that Honda were churning out at that time. The instruments are essentially MC21 , NC29, NC35 or SC28 except for that give away redline. Switchgear, turn signals and mirrors are all variations on the theme. As stock, the MC22 had to do with a basic looking master cylinder but apart from the fork tops, the master cylinder was the only thing which immediately gave the bike away as a budget alternative to its more expensive brethren. That reminds me, we still have MC22 fork preload adjusters to put into production. Coming soon!

So let's talk about the engine for a moment because this is particularly outstanding and the main reason people want an MC22 in their collection. In the late 1980s, there was a war on in Japan between the manufacturers on who had the best sportsbikes. Isn't there always? Well yes, but this was different because at the time the Japanese market was easily the most important prestigious. Even the US market got less attention. Due to licensing laws in Japan, the 250cc was the most important class as this was the most popular engine size, so sportsbike, Japan, 250, that was the focus and every year, one or other of the manufacturers brought out a new model to move the tech to the next level. All the big four had two stroke 250s but they also had screaming four strokes and the best way they could make more power was make more revs and the best way to make a piston not pull itself apart with G forces is to make it smaller. So by the time the MC22 came along, the class format was for a liquid cooled engine with 20,000 rpm, 4 cylinders and 16 valves.

Honda also incorporated gear driven cams which certainly helps for accuracy when your piston is rising and falling at 330 times a second! This is remarkable enough for a race engine but this was a mass produced affordable street bike and many of these engines are still running sweetly after 30 years of teenager abuse. Certainly this particular bike is silky smooth and it never even crossed my mind to concern myself with worrying about the condition of the motor.

As alluded to earlier, the power delivery on one of these tiddler 250s requires a fist full of throttle to make any impression in forward motion from a standstill. Granted, the designers didn't have a 95kg rider in mind when the designed it but, let's say compared to an MC16 or an VTR250, or even its close relative, the 250 Hornet, it feels gutless when moving from a standstill and requires judicious use of clutch and throttle to make a respectable get away. However, as the revs rise, it moves at a deceptive pace being exceptionally smooth and linear in 'power' (use the term loosely when you might have 40 ponies to play with tops). For me, and I think most riders, the limiting factors are riders' mechanical sympathy and riding habits. It just feels unnatural to change gears at 18,000 rpm. It takes some bottle to scream the motor to where it actually delivers. You also need to be oblivious to how ridiculous it looks and sounds, seeing a grown adult screaming a multi cylinder motorcycle in first and second gear and barely breaking the built up area speed limit. I exaggerate but you get the idea. Anyway, I found it is best to spend a few minutes to adjust to the power delivery and in no time everything comes together. It is like a parallel universe where everything is happening at a slower speed than it feels and sounds. This actually makes for a very satisfying and rewarding riding experience on public highways where high speeding is dangerous and illegal. Add in the lightweight, narrow tyres and smooth delivery and you can actually hustle along at a very respectable average speed while feeling totally in control and involved. After all, isn't that the most important thing with sports bike riding? The actual speed doesn't matter especially if you are not the competitive type.

We all thought the days of the high revving IL4 250s were over, and then along came Kawasaki in 2020 with their ZX-25R. On paper, there are a few similarities but it was quite a coincidence when one parked next to the even rarer in Thailand MC22 the first time I rode it to my favorite coffee shop. I was able to compare the two models separated by 30 years of development and take in the different approaches to a similar concept. The Kawa is larger and looks better ergonomically and has modern conveniences like a decent dash and LED lighting.

On the other hand, lacked any of the exquisite components making do with steel and off the shelf budget components; trying to hide them by enveloping the package in the latest Ninja design language. It wasn't ugly but I wonder if people will invest in them in 30 years’ time like we do with our beloved MC22s? The owner, a Gen Z, showed up when I was there and we exchanged pleasantries. The funny thing was I was all excited about the CBR meeting its spiritual successor. The Kawa rider was oblivious of the CBR's similarity and significance with his bike and I gave up explaining; the Philistine!

I don't want to give the impression that the MC22 is slow because it is not, especially relative to other traffic you are likely to encounter. It is very easy to wind it up to an indicated 160km/H and 180 can be seen before any major contortions of the body are required. Above that, it is pretty irrelevant but I have it on good authority that it will see 195 and in a race with an NC35, the MC22 won. To be fair, this was more down to the NC35 speed restriction but rest assured, it is happy to keep company with 400 four stroke and 250 two stroke sports bikes. It is one thing going fast but control is just as important as power. In this regard, the budget suspension is adequate even after all these years. I haven't pushed it hard in the corners because it is still riding on the Dunlop GPR 300 tyres that we bought it with. I am too tight because they are still good but I don't want to push my luck. Anyway, it is very light to change direction, which it should do with similar geometry and stature to a 125. What's more, because of the lack of mass, the budget pot Nissins are up to the job. When we first bought it, it had a 14mm master cylinder which gave the brakes a wooden feel. I switched it out first for a Grom master and that worked fine being only 12.7 (1/2 inch). However, it was not really in keeping so I decided to install one of the NX4 RS125 master cylinders that we had recently sourced for our RC30 tribute bikes.

This not only gives a nice new braking feel but looks the part and, importantly, the reservoir is tucked out the way and not obscuring the temperature gauge which was another issue with the master cylinder the bike came with.

One thing I haven't mentioned is ergonomics and without wanting to sound sexist, the MC22 was always considered a 'girls bike' back when political correctness hadn't been invented. This attitude was based on the ergonomics and easy of control. It is true that despite the high tail piece, the rider's seat is low, not NC29 low thank goodness, but the lack of height and the clever design of the frame with its narrowness makes it easy for the 'vertically challenged' to put their feet on the ground.  I'm not particularly long in the leg but I am almost 6'. It is not the roomiest bike, and I have not done any long distance touring yet but I don't feel it would be any worse than NSR250s which I've done plenty of long trips on. As a concession to keeping things spacious, and because I wanted to show case the TYGA carbon heel guards, the bike has stock foot pegs installed.

At one stage, we had a TYGA step kit fitted and I'll probably install them later, after the photo shoot as they do give more precise gear changes and look fresh.

Having sung Honda's praises for most of this long write up, it's high time I promoted the other TYGA Performance products used in this build. As touched on above, we offer a choice of CNC machined rear sets step kit) or replacements for the now crumbling white plastic Honda original heel guards to use with the Honda set up. We also provide replacement epoxy fairings and tank panels which can be made in GRP or even carbon to special order. As explained though in this build they were not needed. That said, I may get a second set of TYGA fairings painted in the launch colours for nostalgic sake. TYGA also makes the mirror stay and the bar end weights, which are installed on our bike and seem to be a big hit with customers.

Omar at XCite Bikes encouraged us to make a bunch of other parts and we ended up with air ducts, fairing stays, both chain guards, engine armour, instrument surrounds, tank filler cover and tank protector all in carbon and you can source them from us or direct from XCite Bikes if you are in Australia.

We already had a few slip-on exhausts and we decided to install the one shown in the photos. It is stainless with a carbon end cap to keep with the theme of bare metals and black.

The overall concept was to go for a more conservative build and I hope we achieved this. You be the judge. From a few paces away, it just looks like a tidy MC22. When you get closer, the carbon parts become apparent. In my opinion, the air ducts, chain guard etc. look much classier than the cheap plastic items. After decades of UV exposure, the plastics are generally faded and scratched and this makes for a quick and easy way to freshen up the details.  One other thing, Honda kindly welded threaded inserts on the swing arm and allowed us to install TYGA race bobbins so we could make some nice shots of the bike on its stand. The keen eyed might have spotted the 520 chain conversion and braided brake lines. These were already installed when we bought the bike and work fine. We at TYGA are not finished with the MC22 and I'd like to see some more MC22 parts under the TYGA name. Rear sprockets in either 428 or 520 and some pre load adjusters machined come to mind, but right now, we don't have any spacer machining capacity so these will have to wait. We are also contemplating a carbon rear hugger which will stop a lot of the muck being thrown on the rear shock and look pretty. Maybe we will make a passenger seat cover if time permits and eventually, a full race exhaust system. I'm pretty sure we can get a bit more power out of the screamer and if not, well it will save weight and  the bike will look a lot prettier than it does with the black steel headers. That's for another chapter. For now, I hope you enjoyed this read and if you have any new product requests, please don't hesitate to let us know.