Voted most helpful review
Reviewed on December 17, 2012
First off, let me state that anyone who says this bike will cruise comfortably at 60 mph. is in fantasyland. The Tour 250 is geared for city driving, which means it has good acceleration off the line at the expense of top end or high speed performance. This bike is not designed for "Long Trips",...
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First off, let me state that anyone who says this bike will cruise comfortably at 60 mph. is in fantasyland. The Tour 250 is geared for city driving, which means it has good acceleration off the line at the expense of top end or high speed performance. This bike is not designed for "Long Trips", no 250 is. What the Chinese designed this bike for is urban commuting and this task it does very well indeed. The speed "comfort zone" for this motorcycle is around 45-50 mph. Anything past this and you start to get the inevitable v-twin vibration. For a bike at this price point, it has many creature comforts and features only seen on more expensive cycles such as self-canceling turn signals. However, it does have some "quirks". For example, as of yet an unknown to me reason, the Chinese, instead of using both exhaust pipes, have routed the exhaust from both cylinders to the lower pipe and left the upper pipe as a "dummy" pipe. I don't know why they have chosen to do this and you really can't tell unless you look underneath the bike but it is a little weird. However, it sounds just like any normal 250 would and has a quite pleasing note. This bike likes a slightly loose chain so don't overtighten. The gearbox clangs like pots and pans but so do a lot of other bike brands out there. The functionality of the gearbox however is flawless as is the clutch. As with any air-cooled v-twin, you will be tightening bolts and I suggest locktite in critical areas such as axles, sprockets, etc. To wrap this up the Q-Link Tour 250 is an outstanding bike if you use it for what it is designed to do which is "City Driving". If you plan on taking long trips, especially on highways with a speed limit of over 50/55 mph., you would be better served buying a used Japanese model with higher displacement.
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