I've now put a few miles on the Honda CB250RS. It's light, manageable, handles well and now at least has decent brakes. However it's a bit on the sluggish side. I was expecting it to be a bit down on the Norton but whereas the ES2 accelerates, the little Honda could better be described as gently gathering speed. Theoretically they have similar power outputs but I do appreciate the Honda develops its 26bhp around 85000 rpm whereas the Norton's quoted 24bhp is probably at around half that. Actually both have similar "real world" top speeds around the 70mph mark but in a drag race the 30 year older Norton would leave the Honda in its dust.
I understand that it may be working quite hard to lug my 110kg or so around but was hoping for a little bit more. Talking to my younger brother, he tells me that when he was an apprentice one of his mates had a 250RS and he wheelied it everywhere - there is little chance of mine achieving that.
So as I say, am I just expecting too much from the poor little thing? I do like it otherwise......