Honda Cbr150

[Richard-BKK]

Just the facts, I started to inform people at the end of 2007, that the CBR150R would go out of production, mid 2008, I remember I said that 2009 would be the last year that the CBR150R would be manufactured, and available on the Thai market. In January 2009, the Honda CEO said in his new years speech that Honda will not sell carburetor motorcycle 2010 in Thailand.

Speed jump to today, some Honda dealers say they cannot order the Honda CBR150R, and some say they can get them. The main Honda dealer for south Bangkok told us, that older orders ...2009 will still be delivered but new orders are being rejected.

I was told that Honda dealers are being informed about a single 223cc (PGM-FI) budget bike (70 to 85k Baht) and a twin-cylinder 250cc (144k to 149k Baht). The gossip is that Honda will introduce the universal hot sale CBR125Ri with a dual stage fuel-injection and performance mapping on the Thai market, which brings the the 125cc to a higher level of performance then the current 150cc while costing less to produce. Manufactures now-a-day do really not care about you and me, they want to make profit and save cost on production. Selling worldwide, in more then 25 countries, the same product, with in Thailand only using a different uploaded ECU program... saves cost extremely

I also hear that Honda follows, for the CBR150R, the same path as Suzuki, both the Suzuki Raider R 150 and Honda CBR150R will still be available for another year and produced in Thailand will continue, but only for export only.

Honda want to push the global numbers, and for small bikes this numbers are 110, 125, 223, and 250cc the old 150cc does not fit into the cost saving of future development...

Below 110cc people in many countries can ride without a drivers permit. A clear target market.

Below 125cc a engine size used in countless countries as learning size motorcycle, and a daily growing market. With the 2010 dual stage injection technology in the latest PGM-FI system, Honda finally has an answer to the Italian build 125cc two-strokes still being considered the better 125cc motorcycle on the European market.

Below 250cc, ASEAN, one of the biggest motorcycle markets have set the small engine limitation to 250cc , China also adopted this rule also without being a member of ASEAN. Creating opportunity in the world biggest motorcycle market. With the beginning of 2010 motorcycle below 250cc can be traded between all ASEAN countries and China using a Free Trade Agreement. (The motorcycles obvious still need to be confirm with domestic road safety and emission rules and laws to be allowed on the road.) And the below 250cc market will soon also be Free-Trade with India. Bajaj Auto and Kawasaki already building on this future, the Kawasaki Ninja 250R was introduced in India a few months ago, while Bajaj Auto doesn't make much profit on the bikes now they hope to position themselves as the 250cc leaders in South-East Asia (Bajaj Auto is strategic partner of both Kawasaki and KTM.)

Edited February 6, 2010 by Richard-BKK

[PeaceBlondie]

The certain death of the carbureted CBR150R is still yet exaggerated.

PB: On 2008-05-16 wrote, “I wanted to wait for the naked 250 Honda sportbike, but I feared that, like the Ninja 250RRR and the Boxer 250-no R and the Yamaha 150 sportbike, we might have to wait until the end of the Mayan long count calendar.” Which is 2012-12-21

oMega 69 replied “i just read other thread that there will be no 2009 CBR 150 R . . so they are cancel this model then. . . And for sure ther will not be any FI version.

Hopefully there is coming some new options then.”

Dave boo, 2008-6-13 “here's been certain someones who have been trumpeting the fact that Honda was going to start selling the CBF(X)-250. And also that Kawasaki was going to drop the Ninja 250 on the Thai market. Obviously neither of those predictions have come true yet. Seems most of the timelines have involved late 2008.”

[Briggsy]

Thank you for the detailed replies. I am learning new stuff here which is the point of any forum.

They are still in the showrooms and if all goes to plan I'll be buying one in the second half of 2010. I'll keep watching this space.

[T_Dog]

Got my new downtube from faddybike a few days ago. Beautiful welding and will fit it on the bike this week. Nice people to deal with and the shipping to Chiang Mai was overnight

[T_Dog]

Boy, the thread has been quiet... everybody must be out riding before the hot season sets in.

Got the new downpipe put in. Fit like a glove, and there is a noticeable improvement in mid-range power up to 120 kmh. About 5 % louder if that. Kept the original muffler which is in good shape.

[withnail]

I like the new pipe as well, I think the sound is better though agreed not much louder (apologies to whoever asked me about it before). One thing my mechanic noticed though is that it's now necessary to take some of the fairing off when doing an oil change.

[CMX]

Are you certain he did not require that all of the farang be out of the way?

[withnail]

Are you certain he did not require that all of the farang be out of the way?

lol yes I'm sure.

[thaicook]

Hi,

I live on Koh Samui and I am thinking about to buy a Honda CBR 150.

In the Honda shops on this island here they ask 67.000 to 68.000 Baht for a new bike. How are the prices on the mainland? I saw a number 64.000 Baht in a previous post, is that right?

How is your experience with theft on this particular bike?

Is there any insurance that covers theft? How much does it cost?

How would it effect a CBR 150 user if the bike would go out of production? Du you see any problems about getting spare parts in a few years. I am considering to buy this bike on a 5 to 10 years horizon.

Thank you for your help

Dominic

Edited February 11, 2010 by thaicook

[oMega69]

Hi,

I live on Koh Samui and I am thinking about to buy a Honda CBR 150.

In the Honda shops on this island here they ask 67.000 to 68.000 Baht for a new bike. How are the prices on the mainland? I saw a number 64.000 Baht in a previous post, is that right?

How is your experience with theft on this particular bike?

Is there any insurance that covers theft? How much does it cost?

How would it effect a CBR 150 user if the bike would go out of production? Du you see any problems about getting spare parts in a few years. I am considering to buy this bike on a 5 to 10 years horizon.

Thank you for your help

Dominic

Hi...

Yes go to SuraThani and buy your CBR for 64k . , Shop also have Theft insurance for 2k valid 2yrs. . .,,

There will be spare parts dont worry . . ,

[Steiner]

Lovely bikes those CBRs but I was a little disapointed with the power output compared to my NSR.Maybe because I'm used to the RC valve on the 2 stroke opening at high RPMs and giving the bike a kick in the ass effect.

There is a brand new black CBR in the local Honda dealers and I must say,it looks great.

The NSR puts out 37bhp (apparently),so what about the CBRs power?

"kick in the ass effect" Come on you're talking about 150cc sewing machines here or at least thats what you'd call them in your home country. They'd be used by teenagers, 'r' drivers (UK ref) and most of you wouldn't be seen dead on one of these things.

I think the only "kick in the ass effect" would be from the guy on the 600 passing you at speed...

[PeaceBlondie]

You're not in Kansas any move. Before 2008, there were only legal bikes of over 200 cc, costing over half a million baht for sale.

[troehr]

My 2009 CBR is not even close to as fast os my 12 year old NSR. However, it has not left me stranded on the road either. As for the expensive grey book bigger bikes, where I ride mostly in traffic, you would be on the slow bike.

Tim

[jbeck]

Lovely bikes those CBRs but I was a little disapointed with the power output compared to my NSR.Maybe because I'm used to the RC valve on the 2 stroke opening at high RPMs and giving the bike a kick in the ass effect.

There is a brand new black CBR in the local Honda dealers and I must say,it looks great.

The NSR puts out 37bhp (apparently),so what about the CBRs power?

"kick in the ass effect" Come on you're talking about 150cc sewing machines here or at least thats what you'd call them in your home country. They'd be used by teenagers, 'r' drivers (UK ref) and most of you wouldn't be seen dead on one of these things.

I think the only "kick in the ass effect" would be from the guy on the 600 passing you at speed...

the kick in the ass isn't caused by the RC valve, it's because it's a 2 stroke and they have relatively poor power at low rpm that increases suddenly at a high RPM.

It's about 8000 RPM on an NSR.

any 4 stroke of the same engine displacement (or even smaller) can/will have better low end and more linear power.

the RC valve helps increase low RPM power by changing the size of the exhaust ports (making them smaller)

if you removed the RC valve you would have an even more noticeable kick.

Well, these are not exactly sewing machines - they can go 'fast enough' to hurt yourself pretty badly.

And there's enough acceleration to put a grin on your face.

And if you want to compare apples and oranges, why not suggest the guy passing you is on a 1000, either way the price you pay and what you get are totally different.

[jbeck]

You're not in Kansas any move. Before 2008, there were only legal bikes of over 200 cc, costing over half a million baht for sale.

what does this mean? In 2007 or earlier, legal bikes were 200cc or bigger and they cost 500,000 baht?

In Thailand?

[jbeck]

My 2009 CBR is not even close to as fast os my 12 year old NSR. However, it has not left me stranded on the road either. As for the expensive grey book bigger bikes, where I ride mostly in traffic, you would be on the slow bike.

Tim

I'll bet if you race them side by side and both are in good tune, they are closer than you think.

[Powerband]

Lovely bikes those CBRs but I was a little disapointed with the power output compared to my NSR.Maybe because I'm used to the RC valve on the 2 stroke opening at high RPMs and giving the bike a kick in the ass effect.

There is a brand new black CBR in the local Honda dealers and I must say,it looks great.

The NSR puts out 37bhp (apparently),so what about the CBRs power?

"kick in the ass effect" Come on you're talking about 150cc sewing machines here or at least thats what you'd call them in your home country. They'd be used by teenagers, 'r' drivers (UK ref) and most of you wouldn't be seen dead on one of these things.

I think the only "kick in the ass effect" would be from the guy on the 600 passing you at speed...

the RC valve helps increase low RPM power by changing the size of the exhaust ports (making them smaller)

if you removed the RC valve you would have an even more noticeable kick.

Incorrect, the rc valve enables the nsr to have 2 powerbands...at low-medium speeds the rc valve augments the exhaust so to provide stronger lowend by restricting the exhaust outlet.

At higher speeds the rc valve opens allowing the bike to breath better at higher rpms and allows another milder powerband to kick in at high speeds

An nsr without an rc valve is much slower at high speeds than an nsr with a working rc valve.

Theres a modification to fan the rc valve, but its for track use at high rpm's...

[jbeck]

Incorrect, ...at low-medium speeds the rc valve augments the exhaust so to provide stronger lowend by restricting the exhaust outlet.....

After saying 'incorrect', you repeated what I said: The RC valve helps low end.

An nsr without an rc valve is much slower at high speeds than an nsr with a working rc valve.

If you welded the rc valve in the High RPM position you'd have the same high RPM performance and worse low RPM performance.

I didn't mean to imply to remove the RC valve completely! that would not make sense at all.

My point -to reply the original post - was that the RC valve helps low end performance.

And Because of this, it also smooths the transition from low to high RPM.

Therefore, without it, there would be even more of a kick as the engine reaches 8K RPM.

Main point - The RC valve does not make the bike go faster at high RPM, and is not the cause of the typical 2-stroke engine 'kick'.

Anyway my bad, I forgot this is a CBR forum.

Edited February 11, 2010 by jbeck

[dave_boo]

Y'all realise that you're arguing about a (nearly) 3 year old post?

[PeaceBlondie]

My error. The first sentence meant he wasn't in Kansas any more, and we ride under-650 cc bikes here.

The second sentence meant that before 2008, the only legal 650-and-over bikes cost over 500,000 baht.

///Added: the only over 200 cc bikes.

[Steiner]

Lovely bikes those CBRs but I was a little disapointed with the power output compared to my NSR.Maybe because I'm used to the RC valve on the 2 stroke opening at high RPMs and giving the bike a kick in the ass effect.

There is a brand new black CBR in the local Honda dealers and I must say,it looks great.

The NSR puts out 37bhp (apparently),so what about the CBRs power?

"kick in the ass effect" Come on you're talking about 150cc sewing machines here or at least thats what you'd call them in your home country. They'd be used by teenagers, 'r' drivers (UK ref) and most of you wouldn't be seen dead on one of these things.

I think the only "kick in the ass effect" would be from the guy on the 600 passing you at speed...

the kick in the ass isn't caused by the RC valve, it's because it's a 2 stroke and they have relatively poor power at low rpm that increases suddenly at a high RPM.

It's about 8000 RPM on an NSR.

any 4 stroke of the same engine displacement (or even smaller) can/will have better low end and more linear power.

the RC valve helps increase low RPM power by changing the size of the exhaust ports (making them smaller)

if you removed the RC valve you would have an even more noticeable kick.

Well, these are not exactly sewing machines - they can go 'fast enough' to hurt yourself pretty badly.

And there's enough acceleration to put a grin on your face.

And if you want to compare apples and oranges, why not suggest the guy passing you is on a 1000, either way the price you pay and what you get are totally different.

The diffreence in 0-60 acceleration between a GSXR 600 and a 1000 is less than 0.4 of a second so that "kick in the ass" would be lighter than a butterfly's kiss...

Edited February 14, 2010 by Steiner

[Just1Voice]

Ok, tried to put xenon lights in my CBR 150, and found out they don't work as good as the factory lights. Too many amps. Any suggestions, as the factory lights just are not bright enough at night.

[Powerband]

Were they true xenons? real xenons have a seperate ballast to install to handle the extra current.

from what i here H4 lights are the way to go, but i also hear that the stock plugs going to the lights will melt because of the extra current.

So i would think the best solution would be to mount a foglight from a car under the front fairing wired to the battery with an on/off switch.

I don't know what they were smoking when they designed the cbr headlights.

On a different note, when i changed the stator and magnetic flywheel the lights got much brighter, for those that have read another post of mine, the stator actually fell off and i remounted it but the lights were of the same brightness after fixing it.

Since the stator fell off, it rubbed the magnetic flywheel and the coating on the magnetic flywheel started peeling off. eventually it started to score the stator until 1 of the phases on the 3 phase stator got shorted do to rubbing and finally went out.

Before the stator bit the dust, the lights got brighter because the coating was peeling off exposing the actual magnets. After replacing the stator and magnetic flywheel the lights got brighter, about twice as bright.

So it could have very much been a defective coating on stock cbr's that reduced the magnetic flux absorbed by the stator.

Apart from this the stator has 12 poles total (3 phases x 4) and there are 12 poles on the magnetic flywheel, this is probably the worst power combination you can have. The number of stator poles and magnetic poles should never be the same for good output.

I haven't had time to trace the wiring, but the lights work off the stator/flywheel...if the setup is AC (alternating current) it may be possible to install a rectifying diode to convert the AC into DC to make the lights more stable...from my brief examination the place for the rectifying diode (if there is one) would be in the switch.

The next problem would be a 0.6 volt drop whenever you pass through a diode, so the best output would be through a 6-9 volt bulb, running 'hot'

to make things easier, wiring straight to the battery would be the best bet. Or tapping into the rectifying diode that sends current back to the battery to keep it charged.

[jbeck]

Ok, tried to put xenon lights in my CBR 150, and found out they don't work as good as the factory lights. Too many amps. Any suggestions, as the factory lights just are not bright enough at night.

there's a thread somewhere on this forum about a guy who tried everything...and found the best bulbs to use...you can search for it ?

[tvh13]

Hi All,

I'm new here in Thailand and am looking to buy a bike. Sooner rather than later. And I've got a couple of questions that I hope you can help me with.

I've found a shop in Phuket town that has a couple of CBR 150R. The problem is they won't let me ride one to get a feel for it.

I am concerned that even though this is a relatively smaller bike than what I am used to riding in the states the riding conditions are much different here.

My first choice is the CBR150R and I wonder how it is for city riding? Do you find it easy to handle in city driving like in Phuket Town? Parking doesn't seem like it would be a problem or might it? People seem to park very differently here and I have had to squeeze through some pretty tight spaces to get my rented scooter out of a tangle of bikes that just seemed to appear after I had parked.

Also I just read that the CBR is to be upgraded soon to fuel injection model. Any idea when this might happen and when they will be in production? I need a bike now bt can also rent a scooter if it will be out in the next couple of months. Any idea how the price might compare to the current model?

Thanks much for any advice you can offer.

[jbeck]

Hi All,

I'm new here in Thailand and am looking to buy a bike. Sooner rather than later. And I've got a couple of questions that I hope you can help me with.

I've found a shop in Phuket town that has a couple of CBR 150R. The problem is they won't let me ride one to get a feel for it.

I am concerned that even though this is a relatively smaller bike than what I am used to riding in the states the riding conditions are much different here.

My first choice is the CBR150R and I wonder how it is for city riding? Do you find it easy to handle in city driving like in Phuket Town? Parking doesn't seem like it would be a problem or might it? People seem to park very differently here and I have had to squeeze through some pretty tight spaces to get my rented scooter out of a tangle of bikes that just seemed to appear after I had parked.

Also I just read that the CBR is to be upgraded soon to fuel injection model. Any idea when this might happen and when they will be in production? I need a bike now bt can also rent a scooter if it will be out in the next couple of months. Any idea how the price might compare to the current model?

Thanks much for any advice you can offer.

in - city riding and running errands (shopping, riding with GF) going to the beach, buy an airblade or other scooter.

For country roads, trips, pushing the limits of the street conditions and the traffic and bad drivers, flirting with danger, and wanting to play 'racer', get the CBR.

If you're not going to drive 'fast', the CBR is a waste - as a scooter will already exceed the speed limit and safe driving speeds easily and has tons of storage, you can drive with one hand, etc...

You could also get a Sonic which is an in-between bike, cheaper than the CBR, slower, but faster than a scooter, and has gears and a clutch, no storage.

Some places will rent you a CBR, have a look in Patong.

[Powerband]

Get the CBR...its atleast twice as efficient on fuel.

and you can hang kilos and kilos of groceries from the rearview mirror, while the extra power will be mighty useful to get you up the hills.

[PeaceBlondie]

And the riding position does not break your wrists. The CBR150 is great in town and you'd need to pay double you look better.

[james1desmond]

i was just wondering what modifications other cbr drivers have done to help improve performance and handling, and also a good mechanic in chiang mai who can modify the bike. thanks

[T_Dog]

i was just wondering what modifications other cbr drivers have done to help improve performance and handling, and also a good mechanic in chiang mai who can modify the bike. thanks

James1..... Lots of posts discussing this topic so start from the first one and work your way up. A lot depends on what type of rider and what type of gearhead you are. I have friends that work on their bikes 90% of the time and ride it 10. Others ride it 100% and let others do the work.

Obvious things to do are get rid of the IRC tires for something better, replace the constricting down pipe with a bigger unit, better bulbs in the headlights, and an adjustable rear shock. I ride the mountains a lot so I leaned a few jet sizes. Others go richer for riding faster in the low lands.

Great seeing all the CBR-150's out on the Toy Ride in Chiang Mai yesterday. Even got to a little formation riding with girl rider on a nice blue 150 but wasn't able to talk to her. Anybody else on the forum there besides Mark and I?