1998 Honda VTR250

There’s probably someone at Honda who’s furious about all the Cub copies but they can’t really complain, they’ve made their share of clones too

Fair to say that 1998 was quite a year for Honda. As well as it being the 50th birthday of the Honda Motor Company and them winning every race but one in the 500cc GP championship, they released the Hornet 600 and VFR800 – two distinct models that would not only be hugely popular but that captured the essence of this defined, standalone brand.

Oh, and they launched the VTR250, a bike so clearly influenced by the Ducati Monster the owner’s manual should have been in Italian. Honda previously showed they had an eye on Bologna. In 1988 they’d wheeled out the VT250, a naked sportsbike with a four-stroke 90˚ V-twin in a beam frame. Finished in red paint with gold wheels and with ‘Spada’ emblazoned on its fuel tank, it looked… well, Italian. But ten years later the new VTR250 went the whole hog. From the 249cc eight-valve motor to its trellis frame, bodywork and footpeg hangers, the Honda looked every bit the mini-monster. Early ones even had similar clocks. From 100 paces the red version fooled anyone into thinking it was a Ducati without the need for poor light or squinting.

Where earlier VT250S (and faired VTR derivatives) nudged 40bhp and spun to*13,000rpm with six gears and a sporty feel, the new VTR250 was cuddly. Its less revvy motor eventually reached 32bhp and had a ratio removed, the suspension and brakes were basic, and with a lowly 760mm seat and weight of just 139kg the Duca… sorry, Honda, was clearly aimed at new riders and city types.

But it was what customers wanted. Released in Japan in January ’98, the featherweight VTR’S flexible thrust, ease of use, high quality and claimed 110mpg made it an instant hit. So the VTR was sold across Asia and exported to Australia too. It got model updates including new clocks, tweaks to the bodywork and fuel injection arrived in 2009. In answer to demand a few made it to Europe in 2011, and there was a faired variant in 2013. And the mini-monster stayed in production until 2018 – apart from the Cub, we can’t think of another Honda from the 1990s that survived so long.

Not only was the VTR a weird bike for a company as proud as Honda to make, it’s also strange that nobody scoffed at its Monsterness. Imagine if Ducati had churned out an inline four aping the CBR600F.

Keep an eye on a certain auction website and VTRS crop up. Clean examples go for around £1750. What a wonderful way to confuse everyone at the local meet.