Bashan X-treme 250cc Scrambler

04.09.08

There I was happily cruising along at an indicated 100km/h. The thin trail bike trapped beneath me was purring along in fifth gear and without any hint of vibration, a trait normally not associated with any four-stroke single cylinder trial type motorcycle. This to me was the most surprising thing about the new Bashan Xtreme 250; it really has a smooth power plant. Not only that, it felt as sturdy as any 250 trail bikes I’ve come across in my years of riding these things. So why would I be surprised to find that all was as it should be, if not better? It’s because this particular Bashan cost a mere R16,999, which is exactly the same price as the Leo Vince race pipe that we’ve just fitted to our long-term Honda Fireblade!
Bashan is obviously from the Far East and the same guys that retail the successful Jonway range of scooters now import these bikes into South Africa. The engine actually comes from the same factory where the Jongshen bikes come from. This is quite common with Chinese machines to use the same core components, which certainly helps with obtaining spares at short notice. The Bashan Xtreme 250 has a respectable one-year/10,000km warranty to back it up.
So you can see it’s a trail bike aimed towards the young youths who want to go to get to school, via a dirt lane. Or the older dude who’s strapped for cash and resides in a quarry. Either way the emphasis here is it’s dual-purpose, confirmed by the adoption of an attractive black-rimmed 21-inch front wheel and a same coloured 18-inch rear.
The Xtreme 250 has a single-cylinder air-cooled 249cc engine, producing a claimed 14bhp and 15Nm of torque, enough to get you up to the far side of 120km/h. It only weighs 127kg so the bike is ideal for timid newcomers to our ranks. Look it ain’t any KTM 690, but for the price the bright red Xtreme is a tempting proposition. 
Another pleasant surprise is that Bashan have fitted disc brakes front and rear, which needed bedding in a bit more as the bike was new. Connected to these were braided hoses. How many trail bikes do you know of that come with similar tubing? And this 250 has a digital gear position indicator in-between the matching speedo and rev-counter.
All to quickly it’s summary time again, which is quite simple really. The Bashan Xtreme 250 isn’t a bad bike at all for 16-grand.