Confused between a Honda Hornet and a Yamaha FZ25

Being fed up with fueling and reliability problems, I am considering to sell it to exchange it with something more reliable from the house of Honda and Yamaha.

BHPian PranavJoshi recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I am an owner of a Royal Enfield Classic 350 (2014) since the last 5 years. Being fed up with fueling and reliability problems, I am considering to sell it to exchange it with something more reliable from the house of Honda and Yamaha. My current considerations are Honda Hornet 2.0 and Yamaha FZ25. Both are priced in the vicinity of 1.5 lakhs on-road. I have noted a few pros and concerns about both bikes.

Yamaha FZ25 advantages over Hornet 2.0

• Higher Power
• Oil Cooling as opposed to Air Cooling
• Dual Channel ABS
• Higher Comfort

Yamaha FZ25 Concerns

• Low sales Figures (Jan 21 -159 units) may cause discontinuation
• Only one FZ25 in our city currently

Honda Hornet 2.0 advantages over Yamaha FZ25

• Switchgear and Instrument Quality
• Better Looks (subjective)
• Mileage
• Smooth Operation (clutch and gearbox)

Honda Hornet 2.0 Concerns

Niggles like heating, loose body panels, oil leakage, etc. as per many ownership reviews.

Please Help me decide.

Here's what BHPian Researcher had to say on the matter:

From the two you have shortlisted, I will prefer the Yamaha over the Honda. Seeing a few old Yamahas and Hondas, I found Yamaha plastics age better than Honda (approximately 10 year old FZ and Stunner as my reference). I will suggest you to please speak to the Yamaha guys to check regarding part availability and sharing with other models, especially consumables and then decide if it is worth it. The risk of a higher downtime is obvious, but you do get rewarded with more power and dual channel ABS, the latter of which is a must for me no matter what my budget is.

Now to confuse you more, how are Suzuki and Bajaj in your area?

The Gixxers are worth looking at before you finalise on anything. Being a Japanese, it should be reliable. Suzuki has been great in aftersales for us. We own a 2012 Access and so do many in our extended family, with no complaints at all.

The Dominar 250 also got a recent price cut. I had been looking at the Dominar 400 for myself a few months back as it has been out for a while with no dealbreakers in the product (postponed due to lockdowns). A close friend owns a 2012 200NS and has been very happy with the reliability as well as cost of ownership. In fact, both of us were surprised at the low cost of maintenance at the authorised centre itself and the way the paint has been shining on the plastic parts for 9 years now!

Here's what BHPian Samba had to say on the matter:

What I understand is, you are looking for a reliable machine.

It would have been great, if you could share your other needs. For example - are you looking for more city rides or long riders or is pillion comfort a criteria, your riding style, etc.

Anyways, I own a FZ25 and have clocked around 6,000 km in 3 years, which is ridiculous mile crunching!

My take on the bike:

Its reliable.

Returns a good mileage, if ridden sanely.

Quite fast till 100 km/hr.

Gear ratios are short. 5 gears in place of 6 is a deterrent.

Low-end and mid-range grunt is excellent. One can actually start from 2nd gear, though it's not recommended.

Not too comfortable at revs above 7,000 rpm.

Top-speed is poor in comparison to other 250cc bikes, the bike is slow above 120 km/hr. Its more than decent till 120 km/hr.

The riding position is upright.

Its great for city usage.

On highways, its a good cruiser.

Brakes are good.

Long rides are just comfortable, my previous Karizma R or my Unicorn were more comfortable for long rides (more comfortable seats), but the FZ25 is excellent for intercity commutes. Its more of a street bike.

Handling is good, replacing the stock tyres will improve the handling further.

Mine is the 1st gen bike and the headlights are poor, I have no idea how the headlights are in the new BS6 model with projector.

If the above points suits your need, you can consider this bike.

My ownership report.

As mentioned above, do checkout the Suzuki Gixxer 250 and the Honda Hness CB350 too. Coming from an Enfield, the CB350 should be the ideal choice for you (if its available at your place).

Here's what BHPian ashwinprakas had to say on the matter:

1. Stay away from Honda, the spares availability and customer support is simply not worth enduring for something like the Hornet which is basically a revamped Unicorn which is a motorcycle that made sense a decade or two ago. At times, I feel sad seeing new Xpulse owners trying to extract power out of this dead platform, trust you me it's better to stay away from it. To reiterate, stay away from Honda in general and especially from anything that comes from the CB150 platform.

2. The FZ25 like the Hornet is a recycled motorcycle, though the engine platform is more than a decade old abroad, it was first introduced in Indian in the form of the FZ25 so we'll give it some leeway for that.

It is basically a trail bike engine and it shows the same character Courtesy it's solid torque down low. But staying true to its nature it lacks top end performance.

But Yamaha's customer support and spare availability is the best among the Japs so you have that to look forward as well.

As someone said, the MT15 is the better motorcycle but it is a Liquid Cooled motorcycle and a modern one at it with consumable change being a bit cumbersome like any other modern offering, I personally hate having to spend more than a couple of minutes to swap out an air filter.

3. Why haven't you considered the Suzuki Gixxer 250? It has good low, mid and top end performance, spare availability is worse than Honda and customer support is so..so.. but the product is really worth consideration.

The Gixxer 150 is also a good product. Buddy owns one, keeps pace with my P220 on the interstate, quite impressive given handling is also good.

4. Considering where you come from any Japanese Motorcycle would be relatively more reliable than your RE, but if absolute reliability is what you seek, then it has to be an Indian.

The only people who disagree are those who've not owned and ridden one in the past decade or those who've done so way back in the early millennium when the CB150 was the benchmark of reliability.

After all this is 2021, we're better than those before us who used to put blind faith on second hand perceptions.

P.S. Hero is the same as Honda, their current offerings in the "performance" category are iterations of the Honda CB150 platform. They offer better spare availability than the actual Honda's, but the inherent irritants still remain the same.

Hope the above adds some perspective.

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