General Comments:
Extremely efficient; it's a joke how cheap it is to run!
When I first got this bike, I didn't have a great deal of on road experience, but because it was so easy to ride, I found my confidence growing pretty quick. It's a really good learning bike.
Generally pretty comfortable to ride, at slow or fast speeds, but the seat gets a bit firm after about an hour.
Really great handling. It really sticks to the road for a bike that's so light. I've thrown mine into a couple of nice corners at 70-80Kmh, pegs scraping the road, and still felt confident that I wasn't about to lay the bike down.
Acceleration from a standing start lags a bit, unless you keep revs RIGHT up, but roll-on performance surprised me. She's no Aprilia RS, but she's quick for a 250! (Dragged off a VS commodore with ease, kept up with a '02 WRX until about 120-130kmh)
Brakes are alright, they've got me out of a few pickles, but could be better. At legal speeds though, pretty good.
Reliability wise: I give this bike a hiding, it lives in the redline. It's never had any problems.
Would DEFINITELY recommend this bike to anyone.