Brief : Naza Blade 250R EFI aka "Black Stallion"

Can you tell the 250R apart from the 650R?

Known as the Hyosung GTR250 EFI in other parts of the world, the Naza Blade 250R EFI ("Blade") was one of the sportiest and prettiest modern sports bike that you could get at its price. It looks very much identical to its bigger brother i.e. Naza Blade 650R EFI.

An easy way to tell the difference of the 2009-2012 version to the 2013-current version by cosmetic was to look at the frontal headlamps- with the previous version being more round while the latest version had a sharp kink at the top similar to the Yamaha XJ6 Diversion. And of course, the carburettor upgrade to EFI had also modernise the handling of this bike.

Retailing in Malaysia at RM14,300, the Blade gave Kawasaki's Ninja 250R (RM22,000) and Honda's CBR250 (RM20,000) a serious run for its monies.

The standard bike came out from the factory looking like this :

The service schedules were at 1,000 km, and every 4,000 km after that. Warranty period as given by Naza was 1 year.

1 year on, the warranty on this bike has since lapsed with accumulated mileage of 7,220 km as of today with the next servicing scheduled at 9,000 km. There were a few e-mails from fellow readers requesting for real world pictures of the Blade.

Well, sharing is caring, so hope you guys and gals enjoy the attached pictures below depicting my Black Stallion from various angles :

From the above pictures, you could see that Black Stallion was still fairly stock-standard with the exception of the following :

- Black-colour front windscreen to give it a more menacing frontal look;
- Fully-debadged like my Toyota Harrier;
- Front stacked headlamps tinted blue for a contrast against the black profile;
- Seats re-wrapped in racer red for contrast yet again; and
- Stock S&T Hyosung exhaust can replaced with an aftermarket slip-on designed to bring out the growls of the V-twin engine.

You could easily change your Blade to the same match with some investments. Not bad at all as it really changed the Blade into a more menacing machine.

Going forward, I have a few other minor mods to be introduced to the Blade, and I would update them on this blog as and when the mods came into place.

The bike rides well, although its very racy profile may not be up to everyone's taste. Compared to my previous Green Hornet (Kawasaki ER6-f) and Silver (Aprilia Tuono), Black Stallion's riding position would have more pressure placed onto one's wrists so it does take a bit of getting used to it if you were coming to this bike from the said other bikes.

I would update further in other entries to come; and as usual, ride safe and let the good times roll!
  

The Story So Far... Sym VTS200 and Hyosung/Naza Blade 250R

My last blog entry was in November 2013, and I would apologise that I have not been active hereabouts as my job has been increasingly demanding as I rose up the ranks, and having the fortune of being blessed with another sonny.

Juggling between career and family meant that biking had to take a back seat, so I partly indulged in my other hobby that was safer and could be indulged at times when the brood had gone to sleep. I am of course referring to my horological journey @ http://andywristwatches.blogspot.com.

Switching to and fro between Japanese and Swiss watches, it was a hobby that was neither time-consuming nor demanding compared to my previous hobby of dabbling with 2-wheelers.

But as bikers would know- once a biker, always a biker.

To keep things simple, I am now dabbling with smaller runabouts that would be easier to maintain and would be nimble in the city-traffic.

My main 2-wheeler garage would be mostly based on the Sym VTS200 maxi-scooter that I fetched my wife for the occasional movies at times, and a Hyosung GT250R (otherwise known as Naza Blade 250R locally) that would be useful for the occasional spin during stressful times.

Both these were relatively affordable bikes in Malaysia, with the following prices:

Sym VTS200 : RM10,000
Hyosung GT250R : RM14,300

I may just keep this blog active again, God-willing; and hopefully, we'll have good adventures together again. Till then, ride safe and let the good times roll...