With the rising cost of everything in 2022, the desire to find your fun in less expensive ways is even stronger than ever. If you’re the type of rider who can’t resist the thought of a good deal, then talk of a dual-sport bike that retails for $2,300 new is likely cause for a serious eyebrow raise. That’s a shipped price, by the way—anywhere in the U.S. except California (where it’s not legal).
The bike in question is a 2022 Bashan Brozz 250 Recon—and as you’ve probably guessed by now, it’s an inexpensive Chinese-made machine. Some assembly is required once the crate arrives at your door—but on first impressions, it’s not a bad-looking little machine. Obviously, how it looks on a screen and how it looks (and feels) in person will be two different things, as is the case with every bike.
YouTube ADV and motocamping enthusiast Dork in the Road recently received one of these bikes for review, straight from its U.S. distributor, Peace Sports. He previously had an earlier-generation Brozz 250 delivered, and assembled it a couple of years back—but said the process was easier this time, just because he’s grown more comfortable with wrenching over that time.
The Brozz Recon is powered by an air-cooled, 229cc single-cylinder engine (a slightly altered copy of a Honda CG250 mill), which makes a claimed 15 horsepower. It’s carbureted, and has both an electric and a kick start. It comes with a five-speed gearbox, chain drive, inverted fork, mono shock, and disc brakes at both ends. New for 2022 are the larger 21-inch front and 18-inch rear wheels (the previous version had a 19-inch up front and a 17-inch in the rear, respectively). Oh, and it has stainless steel brake lines, stock.
As DitR explains, another important change is that the remote start/alarm unit found on the old version is no longer a thing on the 2022 bike. That’s good, in his opinion, because it was notorious for draining the battery if you didn’t ride this bike every single day.
By the end of the video, he takes it for a short rip around in the yard—but of course, you can’t get a good picture of a bike’s performance if you only spend a few minutes in the saddle. Although he hasn’t said how long he has this bike for evaluation, the plan is to take it out for quite a bit more riding than this so he can give a fuller assessment of its strengths and weaknesses. The previous version was a fairly solid bike at this price point, he said—so we’ll have to see if this update continues the tradition.
A bike like this is meant for inexpensive fun—not to be the single best bike you’ve ever ridden, or will ever ride. Since every bike you ride is better than one that you don’t, if that assessment holds true for this one, it’s easy to see where there’s a place for a bike like this.
