Bulletproof Engines: Why We Use the CG250

The CG250 gets judged fast: too simple, not enough power, wrong country of origin. We slow the whole thing down and tell the real story behind why this engine exists and why we keep backing it. From our early days messing with mopeds and two-strokes to building small-displacement motorcycles that need to survive daily riding, we keep coming back to the same question: what makes an engine trustworthy when you don’t have a dealership on every corner?

We dig into the practical constraints that shape modern motorcycle design, especially EPA emissions and California evaporative rules. That leads straight to why a clean-burning four-stroke becomes the realistic path, and why we weren’t eager to jump into fuel injection before we had the resources to do it right. We also share what makes EPA testing such a high-stakes moment for a small builder, and why choosing a known, proven engine platform can be the difference between moving forward and starting over.

Then we get nerdy in the best way: CG250 fundamentals, why the overhead valve layout matters, how it differs from overhead cam designs, and why Honda designed the CG line around low-maintenance reality in global markets with rough fuel and hard use. We talk balance shafts, long-term parts availability, and the “coachbuilder” idea of sourcing specialist components so the whole motorcycle is easier to own for decades. If you care about motorcycle reliability, simple maintenance, and what “bulletproof” actually means on the road, this one’s for you.

Subscribe wherever you listen, share this with a rider who loves arguing about engines, and leave a rating so more ramblers can find the show.

Transcript

Welcome To The Ramble Stream

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hello everyone, welcome to the Ramble Stream Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:08

I'm Richard. And I'm Jansen. Each week we sit down for rambling conversations about motorcycles, the experience of riding, design, and whatever else catches our fancy. Bring a beverage of your choice or stories, and we'll see where this takes us.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

If you're interested in thoughtful conversations, friendly and informative banter with fellow riders, and the latest dispatches from Janus Motorcycles headquarters, you're in the right place. Let's get started.

Introductions And What We Ride

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Welcome. If you're an old timer, you know what I'm about to say, which is please comment, introduce yourself, tell us where you're viewing from, tell us what you ramble with, and uh tell us what you're sipping on this evening. I'll go ahead and get started. My name is Richard Worsham, co-founder and head of design here at Janus Motorcycles. I'm broadcasting from live on air. On air. From the Ramble stream, the Ramble studio at our headquarters in downtown Goshen. Um and I I ramble. Well, lately I've been rambling with a little 50cc Vespa PK50XL.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

It's got some rust on it.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Dented fenders. No, I've been uh uh Gabe got it running main mainly, which involved cart cleaning the carburetor and vinegaring the tank extensively with chicken nuts and bolter on in it.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Yes, we experienced that last week. My name is Jansen. Also coming to you live from the Ramble Stream Studio, Ramble Studio here in Goshen, Indiana. Um I am sipping, I'm going out of order. I'm sipping on some fine uh H2O. Uh I ramble in a Ford Lightning, contrary to popular belief, and I will assume I'm assumed to be rambler on uh Jan a Janice.

A Dylan Thomas Detour

SPEAKER_00 1:55

This is the force that through the green fuse drives the flower by Dylan Thomas. The force that through the green fuse drives the flower, drives my green age, that blasts the roots of trees is my destroyer. And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose my youth is bent by the same wintry fever. The force that drives the water through the rocks drives my red blood, that dries the mouthing streams turns mine to wax, and I am dumb to mouth unto my veins how at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks. The hand that whirls the water in the pool stirs the quicksand, that ropes the blowing wind, hauls my shroud sail, and I am dumb to tell the hanging man how of my clay is made the hangman's lime. The lips of time leech to the fountain head, love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood shall calm her sores, and I am dumb to tell a weather's wind how time has ticked a heaven round the stars, and I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb how at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

I like that one. That was nice. I uh as soon as you said mine turned to wax, my brain probably did the same, and I don't really remember anything after that. So uh that that's that's a fun one to listen to, though. That's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

He he his he's like a almost like a I don't know, it just it's the almost the sound, the meaning is in the sound, yeah, as well as in the what the the the word right tell us about the engine,

Why People Question The CG250

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Richard.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

We've got a lot of people on social media who are upset about the old CG250. What do you what do you gotta say to those people? Are they up are there people upset about it? Uh mostly about the origin, and there's a lot of question as to like are these are these reliable? I mean they do they actually last a long time?

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Well, um it's an interesting story. And I'd love to see if you have any specific questions about the 250, I can you can challenge me, see if I can answer them. Yeah, if it gets too technical, I may not be able to answer it, but um I look forward to seeing some questions

From Mopeds To A 250cc Leap

SPEAKER_00 4:18

here. But um the story of the 250 engine goes back to our moped days. We'll start there. So back in when we got started, I well, other than the old Vespa that I'm riding around this week, um, that was that was the first bike that I really rode on a regular basis, um, which is a two-stroke 50cc. Um, I uh I got into vintage mopeds, and that's where Devin got his start too. And again, two stroke 50cc, uh putting out probably two and a half, one and a half to three horsepower. Why so much? Gosh. Right. Um, but that was just something that that I had a lot of fun with. Just because you're you just you're so involved, and when you're going slow, you just experience a lot more. Um so when we created Janus Motorcycles, we we went we we it didn't even cross our mind to put it like a V-twin in it. Uh so it was like 1,000 cc. It was just like completely, it was like a like a car. Right. Right. Um But we the first engine we went we went with was the Derby 50. The little 50c. So it came out of a Derby, okay. Um which is a um should do a ramble stream on on 50cc GP racing. Actually, that'd be really cool. That would be really cool. That could be one of our deep dives. That would be that would be a lot of fun. We could do Crydler and um Derby. I'm here for it. That would be a good one. Anyway, we went to Derby, which made the uh little um well, we knew we realized that we could even though the first bike we built, the Paragon, we had gone to great, we really did go to great lengths to figure out how to get pedals on it. Um, but we realized, you know, if we're gonna make a motorcycle brand, it probably needs to have a transmission um to be able to get up to speed and be more reliable. Because if you hop up a 50cc single speed engine to go 50 miles an hour, the reliability goes is in the inverse proportion to speed. It's a it's one of those extra. And if you're in one of those, if you're in one of those kind of people that enjoys that, that's fine. But you know, uh, after seizing multiple engines, I was like, eh, we probably probably should have something that's a little more reliable. And and and and a and a transmission, it it allows you to operate the engine within a reasonable RPM range at different speeds. Yeah. So we picked this derby 50cc two stroke, and that was a lot of fun. But then we realized even that was so unique, so different from what people were used to. Right. That and it was so it was a kind of a very, very small niche. Like um, obviously the halcyon is the 250 line is probably a niche by most people's standards today, but we wanted to make something that was a little bit bigger. And and for us, a 250 was just a four-stroke, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Was just a huge leap. Um, but was it a leap in like the fact that you guys didn't know how you were going to um like like make build a motorcycle around it or in the version that you built, or what was the we didn't we didn't even uh really have a clear understanding of like like how to work on a four-stroke.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Like a two-stroke, if you from if you just lived and breathed two strokes, you know how to port them, you know how to um, you know how to build an exhaust that works well with them, you understand how the carburetor works. It's a completely different combustion cycle, yeah, um, from a two-stroke to a four-stroke. Um and so the concept of using something with valves, which is like, okay, this is it was a different different animal. Right. So um we also realized that if we wanted to make motorcycles in volume, we would need

Why Emissions Rules Forced Four Strokes

SPEAKER_00 8:07

to um we would need to meet modern standards, like compliance standards. Like so today, since the mid to late 70s, um motor vehicles, highway motor vehicles are controlled by uh emission standards through the EPA. And if you want to sell them in California, California has its own um certification called California Air Resource Board, and they at least as it pertains to us, what are we looking at here? I'm looking at the the what's about to run out. 1519?

SPEAKER_01 8:41

15 minutes 22 seconds. Okay, so it's a 15-minute timer. Cool. There you go. Sorry, sorry, that's been your that's been sponsored by Janus Motorcycles.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

By the thing segment. Um talk about EPA. So for us, that means that California controls the evaporative emissions, which are like if you leave your gas tank open and it gets hot, vapor comes off that. Yeah. Um, so we realize, you know what, we're never gonna get a two-stroke through, at least with the technology that we have uh through emissions testing. So we had to go with a four-stroke.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Is it possible to get a two-stroke engine through EPA it now? Or it could be possible.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Um, there's some new technology. Well, there's two things, and we'll talk about one of them, which is small displacement. So a small displacement engine, they they they can't they they are often more clean burning than a higher displacement engine, just by virtue of their size and like the efficiency that they have. Yeah. So, like, for example, our 250 passed emissions testing without a catalyst. Nice. Because it's just so clean burning. And now that's not necessarily because the engine is higher quality than a thousandcc Japanese sport bike, it's just that those are geared so much toward performance and they're so much, they're trying to do so much that they they have to be controlled very carefully for emissions. Right. Whereas a little 250 is just kind of like putzing along in a very easy powerband. Yeah. And so anyway, yeah. So we we wanted to, we needed we had to get through uh emissions testing. So there we go. Four stroke. And so then when you're looking at what four stroke do you want to use? Um, do you want to use uh be great? We could use an American engine, we can source locally, you know, right? This is the same time then we're we're stopping, we're no longer as we go to the 250, we're saying we don't want to use telescopic fork because we have to get these from overseas. And as a really small manufacturer, that was a nightmare. Yeah. Getting these EBR forks from Italy.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Because this is like when you guys were just starting.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Yeah, this is like 2015, 2014, we're thinking about it. Um could we use uh American? Well, there are no American engines that are in this category, right? Unless small displacement, lightweight mic. Get an engine with a pool cord on it. You could try and use uh like Briggs and Stratton. Um, and we get that well, you should just use a Briggs and Stratton. Well, I mean what you're not understanding if that is, I mean Rokon has done that. Um and what you're getting is like a an engine, there's no transmission, uh-huh. Or if there is, it's very kind of very strange. Um, and these are engines that are typically more like stationary engines, they're just not really designed for we wanted something with a unit transmission that you could use with a you know manual clutch, standard motorcycle and something that also was designed for the road. Yeah.

Choosing An Engine Without A Dealer Network

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Um so we started looking, and one of the things that that immediately caught my attention was this Honda designed engine called the CG250 that was available on some other bikes here in the States, some like small bike brands. And so we knew that it could get through emissions testing. And then when I started looking into the history of the engine, that's when I really started kind of falling in love with it, was learning about the history of the CG 250, um, which I think we'll we'll talk a little bit about. Yeah, yeah,

CG250 Basics And Why It Lasts

SPEAKER_00 12:09

absolutely. So the CG250 um is a very, very simple engine. I I would argue it may be one of the simplest modern product or production four strokes that you can buy today, and probably one of the most robust engines you can get today for highway use. Um very, very low maintenance, very few moving parts, extremely easy to work on and extremely reliable by virtue of all the aforementioned characteristics. Right. Right. Um, so the the story, which some of you I'm sure are aware, is the the history of the two of the CG line was that Honda was really well known for their engines in by the you know, going all the way back to the 40s, but by the night, early, late 60s, early 70s, their CB line, which was really what they um became famous for around that era. So you have the C B750, you have the C B350, you have the C B, all the different CBs and every displacement size. But the CB125, if you're looking at like the globe, was one of the most popular Honda platforms. And the CB125 is a overhead cam, which we just put out a short video on the difference between overhead cam and overhead valve, which um is seems like it's not a whole a big deal, but it's it's uh overhead valve is uh a more both a simpler and a more kind of historic design or archaic, you could even say. Um it's still in use on more modern vehicles, but um basically what the difference is that an overhead cam engine uses uh timing gears or timing chain. Some some way of take taking the speed of the crankshaft and

Overhead Cam Versus Overhead Valve

SPEAKER_00 14:00

translating that to um these two rotating camshafts, or yeah, yeah, rotating camshafts at the top of the engine, which independently operate the intake and the exhaust valves, which is valves are essential for a four-stroke engine, unlike a two-stroke, which does not have valves. Um two strokes will use a combination of different things. Most frequently, the piston itself is the valve. Bizarre, pretty cool. Um, but the instead of that with an overhead valve engine, that's an overhead cam with these cams and a timing. Typically, you'll see a timing chain. Um, an overhead valve engine uses little rockers that are pushed by push rods from a cam which is down below, either on or directly off the crankshaft. Yeah. And so um simpler. You don't have to adjust the timing chain, all that kind of stuff. Um, and the really unique thing about the the CB 125s is that they were much higher performance than a lot of their competition. A lot at that era, two strokes were very popular. Um, they're very simple, very easy to maintain. Seems to be it. Very few moving parts. And like that Vespa, you know, it'd been sitting for over 10 years. We cleaned the gas tank, cleaned the carb, and it started on the second kick.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

Now, would you not insane? I mean, would you say that if there was no fuel in there, it would have just filled it up and then started fire.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

If we had if it had been drained properly and like winterized properly, it would have been absolutely fine and better. It's wild, you know, because we had to I have a honking big fuel filter in there right now just to catch all that because I know there's additional debris. Right. Um, but um that is their competition, and they're just easy to maintain, they just run. And uh in in America, we think about maintaining our lawnmowers and our motorcycles really carefully. Well, yeah, in the rest of the world, these are just like primary means of transportation, right? And oftentimes maintenance is performed

Honda Designs For Low Maintenance Reality

SPEAKER_00 16:09

only after failure. So you run the engine until it breaks, and then you rebuild it, and then you run it till it breaks. Um, because you just don't have time because you're this is being used as a workhorse. Right. It's like a tractor, not like a pleasure, a fun little toy, fun little toy that you're riding around. So the the folks at Honda sent two of their engineers um out into the field, which I think is just such an um kind of an interesting philosophy about how like, okay, we have this problem. We're gonna spend a year studying how these our competition works and how people are and how our customer uses the bikes. Right. Um and I should mention that the CB125 high performance, higher performance, relative, I mean, very good engine, high quality, but it had these overhead cams, the it was more susceptible to failure without good maintenance. So that's kind of the that's the that's the defining point. They were they were suffering because it took regular oil changes, it took timing, yeah, timing chain adjustment. You know, all the different little things you have to do, valve adjustments, valve adjustments, all these different things that just you have to do more frequently. Um oil changes were very they're more susceptible because it has more moving parts that need to be lubricated very consistently. Yeah. Um, even though a CB 125 is a very reliable, hard to break one. Um so anyway, uh they went out into the field, they went around the kind of the developing world, third world countries, um, Southeast Asia, Pakistan, um Philippines, all these places, and they and they basically the way that if you read the history, they were completely surprised with how little maintenance was being done. They didn't realize that people would do this to a vehicle, to an engine.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Do we have any record of like how long or like are there any uh like outliers where it's like, yeah, they have you know, they've put a hundred thousand miles on this thing without doing it.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

I don't know the specifics, but I I would say that overall they were just like shocked. Yeah. And so what they they went they went back to Japan and they set their the their design brief, basically, which was to create an engine specifically for this environment, right? This use case where low maintenance, like very little maintenance is going to be done, whether we say it in the inner handbook or not, they're not gonna do it. Right. It needs to be able to run on bad quality gas. You know, because a lot of these places they're not getting good fuel, they're not getting good oil, they're not doing the maintenance, they're you know, all this stuff. So they're like, how do what we're gonna design an engine for this application? Recycled oil, like all that stuff, right? Sure. And they were also interested from the very beginning in making these engines not in Japan, but locally in these markets. Yeah. So interesting because that would later that'll factor back into the story. Uh-huh. But uh, so what they ended up coming up with was a very it's an overhead valve, as we said. So they they decided, okay, overhead valve is gonna be much, we're gonna we're gonna sacrifice performance for reliability and and low maintenance.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

I feel like a majority of motorcycle manufacturers, and I I guess as a marketing guy, I get it, uh, but everyone rounds up. It's like 249, 229cc. Oh, it's uh it's it's 250 or like four nine. What is the other one? Four uh, it's like almost 500cc. It's like uh it's just it's a 500cc.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

I think it's just because that it's easier to unless you're Ducati and you're right, yeah, 748.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Yeah, well, see, that's so much cooler to me. So much 996? Come on. Uh yeah, I I wanted to, I I typed it in the chat, but I do wanted to bring it to you guys' attention. We should we should be fine now. Uh laptop almost died. I forgot to feed the hamsters. Companyic is correct. Uh I didn't feed the hamsters, uh, but they're fed now, so we should be good to go.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Um Richard's a wonderful talker.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

He can go on forever.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Uh anyway, back to talking.

Balance Shafts And Single Cylinder Smoothness

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Yes. Um, it's 229cc. Uh, I think it's about the basically you took an engine and they boarded out, right? They modified this engine. And then they they because it was such a low-power engine, it was pretty easy to bump it up. Um, one of the things that they also did around that time is to add a balance shaft to the engine. So the original CG 125 did not have a balance shaft. Okay. So it was so a balance shaft is an an additional uh um shaft at the front of the of the engine that has a weight on it, yeah, or or multiple weights that are timed with the crankshaft to be able to counteract the the um swing of the piston. Yeah, so you you do not achieve with a single-cylinder engine a perfect balance.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Like a good old three-cylinder.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Um three-cylinder is almost it's practically perfect. It's practically it's I think I believe a six-cylinder can be perfectly balanced. Um I have to we could do a whole episode on that. That could be fun. Um, I could be wrong on that. I think a six. But basically that's where you it the vibrations completely counter counteract each other. But it does a good job of smoothing it out. Um, my KLR650 has a balance shaft. Most big most singles will have a balance shaft if they're over a certain size. Because you gotta think every time that when that when they went from 125 to um 250 cc's that's a heavier piston, right? And heavier running, you know, all the gear is heavier. So, anyway, balance shaft added, and those are available, and then and they and those power much of the world to this day. They're still being produced in South. America, they're still being produced in Southeast Asia, they're still being produced in Pakistan. They're they are a workhorse little engine. And it I I believe that. And we went through several variants of the 250 because there's many, many manufacturers making them.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

Can you can you talk about that experience? We've got a a few more minutes here, but I'm just so curious about like what the wh why this manufacturer, why like why what were the other entities?

SPEAKER_00 22:26

Um we were hearing some rumors

Supplier Risk And Surviving EPA Testing

SPEAKER_00 22:28

through the grapevine about um one of the other suppliers. I'm not going to name names, another US manufacturer that was using, if you know your 250s, you'll not recognize it, um, that was using it, and they used um an engine from a different Chinese supplier, and that they actually blew up their engine twice during EPA testing. Oh, gosh. And because of our scale and the resources that we have, we could not afford to break our engine halfway through testing. Once you get to the EPA, you've put a lot of money into it. And if it breaks, restart, you got to restart the whole thing. So that's tens of thousands of dollars. So we we were really nervous. We're like, we have to have not just for our dear customers, but we just need to make it through EPA. Um, which is actually a wonderful testament to an engine, is if it can make it through EPA testing, that's a strenuous test that they're doing. And one of the one of the signs of a healthy engine is good emissions. You don't want an engine that's burning fuel because that signifies that it's not operating efficiently, which means that there's piston blow by or it's running rough, or there's some other factor that's taking a good old even a hundred-year-old engines, if they're tuned right and they're well designed, they burn on modern fuel pretty efficiently. I mean, they should operate well. Um, so the fact that once we got through EPA testing with our 250, which we did, uh we were really that we were like, okay, this means that this is a really reliable engine as well. Um, and that's a whole separate story. The idea that we had to, we want, we decided to use a carburetor. Yeah. And that was another reason that we we knew the CG was going to be a good decision, because we knew other people had gotten it through EPA with a carburetor. And I was just like, oh, we can have a we were not ready for fuel injection. We weren't ready for it. Yeah. So um, yeah, that's kind of the

Carburetors And Real World Ownership

SPEAKER_00 24:18

story behind it. Um, we wanted a and the other key key point was we wanted an engine for our own benefit, but also for our owners, because we don't have dealers or we have no service locations at this point, that we wanted something that people would be able to feel very comfortable working on. Yeah, and the CG is just that, it's just very, very, very simple. You can literally, if you have done it once or twice before, you can do your valves in under half an hour with time to enjoy a beer espresso or an espresso.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Nobody's ready for fuel injection.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Carbs are more fun. I completely agree. The problem is that a lot of people are are not used to carburetors anymore. And just like that old Vespa, um, if you leave ethanol fuel or any fuel really over for 10 years in a tank, it's gonna gum up. It turns to it creates uh um varnish and will become a problem, right?

SPEAKER_01 25:15

You could talk about uh piston balance, uh, but Fortnite already did. Yeah, Arlsberg, I'm sure he's done a lot of different videos around the stuff we're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 25:25

I mean, you don't get to talk to him, so yeah, right. You get to talk to Revly to You don't get to call us out for when we get it wrong.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

Exactly. That's part of the fun, it's interactive. Yeah, I I think that's really interesting. The the decision making behind the CG250. Um, I think a lot of people um either just refuse to believe um that it's a very like maintainable, simple, and reliable machine uh for for whatever

Country Of Origin Versus Quality

SPEAKER_01 25:55

reason. I think there are a lot of components there. I think we've kind of gotten past that with people.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

I mean, we if we have owners that have like you know 30,000 miles on them, right? Plus, right, and and they're just still going, I think that there's a question of provenance. So country of origin is a big sticking point for people, and I respect that. I mean, I think um that that has that that plays a part. Um the I think the thing that you have to keep in mind is just that that doesn't necessarily connect with quality. Um we get all kinds of very high-tech stuff from many different places, and what we try and do here is we try and pair, we try and we talked about Bruff Superior last week. And and and we talked about how Bruff Superior could be described as an assemblage of parts from other people, but it was done masterfully by George Bruff. And I've always taken that lots of manufacturers used to do that. It wasn't just bruff, right? They would put a JP or a matchless or whatever engine in. Um Morgan still doesn't make their own engine. They use Ford's and BMWs and all kinds of stuff. And and then there's a there's a real beauty, I think, to going to the expert for a specific component. We are like a coach builder in the sense that we build the the vehicle, and then we go to the expert. And as a small manufacturer, that's way better for us and for the customer. Because what so we we've done is we've found an engine that's readily available, that has parts that you can never run out of. You will you'll be able to get parts for the CG 250 for another 50 years. If not longer, if not longer, potentially. They're still making them. Yeah. And they've been in production since the you know 70s.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

If that's not proof in and of itself, I don't know what is. Right.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

It's like think about the KLR. Right. Which most of the KLR is made in like um Thailand. Nobody cares about that, you know. No, no, maybe that Thailand isn't communist, but uh, there's little little things here or there. Um but we do, I think it's really we we've we've found the right choice that that that works the best. Um, and I think there's something to be said there. And then and then we're not we go to Australia for our shock absorbers. We go to different places, you know, wherever we go for each different specific part, even if it's the inner world as we call it, the 20 minutes away with the Amish, making things hyper locally. Yeah, um, I think we've kind of illustrated already that we we you know we're not making these are not being made in China. Yeah. Um, these are being built to the highest levels we possibly can with domestic and and you're comparing it with like, well, by doing this, it allows us to make a vehicle with the highest percentage of domestically sourced parts, probably than Harley Davidson. Yeah, we probably make far more of our bike domestically than the other big American manufacturers. Now, I mean like I think Indian does a really good job of domestic sourcing and they're trying to bring it back, but everybody's sourcing things all over the world.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Right, right. Oftentimes it's yeah, I find that the people who are leaving comments like that are kind of biased toward another brand and can't accept the fact that, like, hey, like Janice is making motorcycles in America, building motorcycles in America, um, and just because the engine or some components aren't from America, that just completely disqualifies us, which I think is it's it's a uniquely kind of motorcycle thing.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Like, and it which I kind of like I kind of appreciate that people are like they combine patriotism with motoring. Uh-huh. Um, because if you go back, like I think there's a history of that, like you know, French cars. Like you've seen like French cars just look French. I've they're like Citroens and Fasil Vegas and Renault's and all the they just are Bugattis. They just there's something so French. And then you look at an English car, it's like very English, an Italian car, obviously. Very Italian because it's got a horse on it. And there's so there is a sort of uniquely kind of country of origin specific specificity. Um so it it makes sense to me. Um but but I think that the the proof is in the pudding.

Proof Through Miles And Long Rides

SPEAKER_00 30:09

The fact that we've done cross country rides on them, we've done multiple Saddleswore 1000s. Um that's just um pretty obvious.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

That the proof is in the pudding.

SPEAKER_00 30:22

Um it's a single cylinder engine that looks good. It just fits really well. Yeah. So yeah. It matches the bike.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

I I think um, I mean, we're we're living in the good decision now. Yeah, and of course we are biased.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

I think probably the biggest argument against it that people like don't understand is this the horsepower. Yeah.

Horsepower Critiques And Closing

SPEAKER_00 30:42

14 horsepower. Yeah, but just like that's a bigger ludicrous.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

That's a bigger problem all in in and of itself, right? Like, that's not even an engine problem. I feel like that's a motorcycling mindset problem.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

Well, yeah, and but I mean, but I mean that the the 250 takes a lot of flack for that.

SPEAKER_01 30:57

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 30:59

We're gonna do a giveaway.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

Yeah, that was uh I thoroughly enjoyed that. Well, that's the that's been the show for today. Thank you all so much for tuning in to episode 125, learning about the uh CG250. Um, this it's a little bulletproof little guy. And I and I love it. There you go, folks. I love it. That's my synopsis. We like it. That's why you should like it too. That's why you should like it too. Uh, we're a hive mind here. Thank you all so much for tuning in. We'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

Bye-bye. That wraps up this episode of the Ramble Stream Podcast. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the show, subscribe wherever you listen, share it with a fellow rambler, and please consider leaving a rating. And join us live every Monday at 7 p.m. on YouTube for our weekly ramble stream. You can also find us at ramblestreampod.com and on social at ramblestream. We'll be back next week with more conversations, more stories, and of course, more rambling. And remember, many of those who ramble may very well be lost, but that's probably the point.