Great Bike full stop, for a 4 cylinder 250, its the pick of the bunch, and here is the reasons.
We as in Donna and I have had 2 of them.
Donna got hers as her learners bike.
I later got one as a courier bike for the cbd work.
Now being the pick of the bunch, with my involvement in the shop, and being freindly with a couple of the wrecking yards, I tell you Its rare as rocking horse shit to see a fzr250 a cbr 250 or a ninja 250 with more than 60,thousands k's on it with out having at least 1 major rebuild.
But I personally know of quite a few across's, including the 2 units we had, with well over 100 thousand k's still going strong.
Down falls. hmm not to many but the fuel tank is a bummer 12 litres, not good, if touring that little handbag of a fake fuel tank holds a 5 litre gerry can. You need it. Pretty easy to work on and maintain. Now I do beleive ya young fella is a tall one, sorry to say if he don't mind riding with his knees up around his ears, it could be a bit of a pain for any touring. Great motor with a little tweaking 185 kph can be seen, and touring at 120 to 140 no problem, just like a 2 stroke gotta keep them up in the rev range.