Honda CRF250R motocross

If you ever had doubts Honda could put together a shit-hot motocross bike, consider the amount of silverware sitting in the trophy cabinets of David Bailey, Ricky Johnson, Jeff Stanton, Jeremy McGrath and Ricky Carmichael. Each of these guys were, or still are, light years ahead of the rest of the world, and the fact that they all wiped the floor with their rivals while perched atop a Honda can't be seen as coincidence. The plain truth is that Honda is one of the world's foremost automotive manufacturers, and yes, they build shit-hot motocross bikes.

The release of a new CR model, therefore, carries a huge weight of expectation, and the recent release of the all new CRF250R is no exception. Held at the Dargle motocross/supercross riding academy, Honda's official release for the CRF250R gave us access to fantastic riding areas encompassing all the riding styles from natural terrain to supercross. It was just the place to put the CRF450R's little brother to the test.

The first thing that struck me was what a cool-looking bike it is. Honda's attention to detail would put Vanessa Wagner's make-up artist to shame. I'm not saying I want to pick out curtains or anything, but this bike cuts clean lines that would be hard to improve on, even with a big-buck sticker kit. The front flows cleanly into the rear, thanks to Honda's attention to detail on the side-plates and seat, and the standard of finish is excellent. The Honda comes standard with quality Renthal bars and good grips, a Gripper seat cover and a very clever adjustable clutch perch. If you think back just three years, this sort of stuff would have cost you an extra couple of hundred bucks on top of the sticker price.

Jumping on the CR, I noticed that the bar position felt well forward, in fact it was a little too forward for me. This is a mount positioning problem and could be fixed by rotating the clamps or fitting an accessory triple clamp. Out on the track, when I was moving around on the bike to absorb impacts, I thought the seat-tank junction felt wide between my legs. It was okay after about 20-minutes but riders new to this CR will certainly feel the same thing.

With the variety of terrain available at Dargle, I was able to hit the Honda with everything. Early in the day I thought it felt soft, as though it would just fall through the stroke, but instead it absorbed small bumps under braking and acceleration very well, and resisted bottoming. The only place it made me nervous was on the supercross track, but remember, the CR was set up for motocross, for an average rider weighing 75kg, not my 83kg, and was tested with stock settings which can be adjusted to sit individual preferences.

The bike responded predictably all day and that stirred my confidence, so much so that I felt it my duty to test the Honda's "durability". Some people will tell you I did that by attempting a 360 flat spin backflip off a small ski jump, followed by a massive tank-slapper, then a high-side in front of the Honda team transporter. When Ashenhurst's laughing died down, nothing was bruised or bent but my ego.

KEEP ROLLIN'

Starting the bike was no problem, hot or cold. Even after the durability test, it fired up straight away with the hot-start button, and the standard muffler is very effective in reducing engine noise. I've been riding a kick-arse 450 all year and stepping down to a 250 took some getting used to. I thought the CR's bottom-end felt sluggish, although bringing the motor back to the boil with the clutch was never a problem, in fact once the CR was humming it really was a blast. The clutch was impressive in that it didn't suffer any of the fade I've experienced with the 450, and if you do experience fade, the superb on-the-fly clutch-adjuster makes fine tuning a breeze. My only real gripe after blitzing the Honda was that there seems to be too much of a jump from second to third gear. That's gonna be a pain on tight tracks and something that might require a gearing change to fix.

Will the next motocross or supercross champ emerge riding a CRF250R? I don't see why not. It's at least as fast as its competition, and with a few personal setup issues sorted, it'll carve.