Brodie Waters, younger brother of Suzuki road racer Josh Waters, and fellow junior hotshot Ryan Dymond were both lucky enough to have been invited by Honda and the MRRDA to attend their Junior Development Day on Saturday 26 January at Broadford, Victoria, for the purpose of testing Honda’s newest addition to their family – the Moriwaki MD250H.
Young Ryan wrote a ripper of a yarn about his experience that we thought prudent to pass along. Take it away Ryan!
Although I had competed in last year’s MRRDA series, until now I had actually never attended one of these come and try days. The number of newcomers who attended really indicated that the future of junior road-racing in Australia is looking very bright.
Honda Australia had supplied a number of CBR150s free-of-charge for the day, with the manufacturer’s National Brand and Product Planning Manager, Phil Reynolds, as well as the factory’s Race Team Manager, Paul Free, there to provide support and answer any questions that would arise throughout the day.
California Superbike School (and MRRDA partner) provided training for those who were contemplating entering the awesome world of road-racing. And with Woody and Motorcycling Australia’s, Ross Martin, on-hand, the day had a really good mix of industry representation.
From the 13-odd-tracks that I’ve ridden on, Broadford wasn’t one of them. So when I was asked if I wanted to participate in the race school on the CBR150, I lunged at the opportunity. My plan was to cut laps on the 150 and, continuously slice lap times on the 250.
At around 10.30am my right thumb hit the MD250’s engine defibrillator (start button) and the circuit again came alive to the sound of a high-revving 250cc 4-banger. A logical next step progression from the Honda CBR150, I’ve been itching to have a rip on the Moriwaki for a very long time.
In the cockpit it felt very much like its half-brother, the well-known RS125. Light-weight with slim ergonomics, it definitely felt nimble. And the electronic start button certainly made firing the 250cc 4-stroke into life as easy as hell.
From a handling perspective, I felt that corner entry was sensational, as was mid-corner handling. The bike demonstrated ability to generate serious elbow-scraping lean angle. Although, at times, I must admit I did struggle keeping the front wheel grounded on exit. Brodie confirmed my thoughts after his stint saying, “The MD250H handles better than my 125.”
When you combine the brakes on this bike with its engine’s compression braking, there’s massive amount of one-finger stopping power available.
The thumper’s torquey power plant, not surprisingly, was very user-friendly. For a standard bike, its terminal speed too was quite impressive. Particularly if you consider the lap record on a GP125 2-stroke stands at around the 1.00 mark, I recorded a 1.05 and Brodie dialled-in with a tidy 1.04.
With the right gearing and a fiddle with the suspension (zero adjustments were made), it would be really interesting to see what this baby can do – it’s definitely got plenty of potential.
Thanks to all of those involved for this awesome opportunity.
Editor’s Note:
high specification twin tube chassis derived from Honda’s 125cc Grand Prix machines. USD forks, radial caliper, dry weight around 85kg.
It is intended that the bike will be available for competition in the 125GP class in Australia in 2008. Images by Trevor Hedge. MCNEWS.COM.AU
