There is no criteria list for Dirt Rider Bike of the Year candidates hanging on the wall of a cubicle or inhabiting a staffer's computer memory bank. Each of the 19 previous winners had traits that made them unique in their respective year, so the recipe that makes up a winner changes a little each year. Some of the ingredients do remain the same for most winners, though. DR looks for machines that profoundly affect a class of bikes, or even all of dirt riding. The last decade has seen unprecedented changes in frame design and material, suspension innovation and engine development. For that reason, many recent winners have created or redefined a class, and our 2007 winner certainly does that. But it defines a class that none of our BOTY winners has ever come from before: the minicycle class. Yep, the Honda CRF150R is Bike of the Year. Minis and their riders make up a small part of Dirt Rider, and during the usually (but not always) civilized "discussions" that lead to the choice, more than one staffer wondered if any mini is important enough to make it BOTY in a magazine dedicated mostly to adult riders and their machinery.
After further reflection, the choice was pretty easy and the voting unanimous. The CRF150R has scrambled the mini class structure as if it were eggs for an omelet. Earlier in the year, many organizations ruled that the 150 couldn't race in the regular mini classes. But soon after, those same groups created classes for the 150. In terms of engineering, the tiny motor advances and miniaturizes existing technology. But it's the whole package that is amazing, and it has profoundly affected the makeup of the mini class-off-road and on the track. The chassis, while it looks much like a close relative to the Honda CR85R two-stroke, has jumped forward in performance farther than any recent machine in the class. Larger frame tubes and mounting points, massive gussets, larger axles and upgraded suspension internals ensure that the chassis is worthy of the engine. And now that we have more experience with the machine, especially at the Dirt Rider 24-Hour Test (in which it was an official Mini Rider entry), we feel confident that the model will prove itself reliable in most cases. Even those who are sorry to see the 150R arrive and lament the stirring it is giving the mini class can't stop talking about it. If there were a criteria list for BOTY, "buzz" would certainly be on it.
Staff Personal Picks For Bike Of The Year And ForeverIt is one thing to arrive at a decision on the Bike of the Year for the magazine and quite another to decide what our personal favorite bikes are. I doubt that any of our staff would turn down a ride on a cool CRF150R, but it won't be our regular ride. So these are the bikes that we actually would and do ride in real life.
Jimmy Lewis
Editor
Preferred Riding Mix: 60% Off-Road/40% MotoBOTY vote: Honda CRF150R. I've been trying to build this bike for the better part of my life, since the days of sticking a Honda XR80 motor into a KX80 chassis. Good suspension on a four-stroke minibike with a pumped-up motor. Honda took this to a level garage mechanics could only dream of. The bike is an outright rocket ship, arguably so fast, like a two-stroke 85, that some of that big-guy-on-a-slow-minibike fun factor is gone. But that hasn't slowed the big guys buying and riding these things, never mind the kids.
Favorite bike ever: I spent more time on my 1997 Honda XR400R this year than any other bike, owned or borrowed. I spray-painted most of it flat black and put a fresh cam chain in her, since she was a little tired. OK, she was beat. She hasn't lost a drop of water or ever needed new radiators. They don't make them like this anymore, which in a lot of ways is actually good.
Favorite bike this year: The factory 1200cc BMW HP 2 Enduro bike I raced at the Baja 500. I had one of my best racing rides ever on this 120-horsepower works bike built just for me. They (the bike and the ride) couldn't be topped, so with that I retired from racing.