Why modify? Why tweak? Why tune, tinker and tool? Because we're dirt riders and we can. But more so than just being able to, we customize our rides in an effort to reach a place more gleeful than the standard manufacturer baseline and right in tune with our personal tastes. For 2008, the 250F class was a sweet bunch of bikes to rate. All are solid and capable in stock trim. But being regular riders like you means we have regular rider complaints. So instead of just sitting around whining about a loud pipe or unsupple suspension, we went to work. This is how we turned a class of stockers into our perfect track weapons.Ready... set... mod!
Make Mine Evil
Modified 2008 Honda CRF250R
The new CRF250R looks plain but runs evil. Yeah, complaining got me to this point, but making this bike mine was just a matter of transformation.When I saw the One Industries Massacre kit, which looks like a white version of the limited-edition black CRF, I knew what I wanted my bike to look like, regardless of what my staff thinks. Even the freestyler! Now it was just matter of getting it to run more of my style. Look evil and run plain!
Since Karel called big bore before I could do anything, I was left with a tuning issue: Taking the insane power of the CRF and making it more usable, something big bores often accomplish. Let's face it, if every track was running up a 30-degree incline the whole time, the CRF is just fine. It loves a huge load on the motor. But for me it spins up too fast and burns through its power way too quickly on level ground or in low traction. The suspension is probably the best in the class for me and I'm learning to like the aggressive handling of the bike, just keep the steering damper cranked to near full stiff!
The simplest thing to do, in my opinion (as well as the Dunlop guy), was to put a larger 110/80-19 rear tire on the bike. More traction, more drag on the motor, right? Well, this was correct as the D756 Race Replica tire I threw on the back did just that. But what it did wrong was get too much traction too soon, making the bike prone to bogging in the turns if the revs weren't up where they needed to be. It was a nice easy try, yet unsuccessful-sort of.
Another easy fix might have been the pipe. My experience with Dr. D exhausts has been great as they seem to favor a ridable powerband over what numbers they can squeeze out of a dyno. I feel the stock CRF sounds a bit raspy as well, so I slipped on a full Ti Dr. D pipe and header ($779.95), single muffler of course. The folks at Dr. D were quick to point out the two-pound weight savings; I replied asking if they had a spark arrestor and a quiet insert as well. What the pipe did was simple: It boosted the already great low-end of the CRF into an even better low-end pull. The throttle response got better everywhere and the bike was quieter at real-world riding rpm. It fixed the wrong end of the power spread, but it also pulled the bigger tire better! The top-end was still fast and ferocious. The spark arrestor changed nothing, and adding the quiet insert killed off any of the bottom-end gains but would allow me to be off-road-legal if I had the need.
My next step was flywheels. Steahly Off-Road makes complete bolt-on flywheels ($149.95), and I ordered up both a 9- and an 11-ouncer to see what they would do. First was the lighter of the two. With the special flywheel puller it was a 15-minute job to switch it out, and the resulting change in the power was instant. It slowed down the rate of rpm increase through the power spread. This was what I was looking for. The added weight surprisingly didn't hurt throttle response one bit and actually seemed as if it aided the bike in finding traction exiting turns. So if 9 ounces was great, 11 ounces must be better. I had the cover back off in a couple of minutes and dropped in the heavier flywheel-I'd gone too far. Now there was just a bit of lag if the rpm dropped too low and the upper end felt mostly the same, except the bike did pull a little better at the very top of the power spread, yet the 11 just wasn't worth the trade-off.
In the end, my Massacre CRF was a hit. The tire, pipe and 9 extra ounces of weight combined to tune the bike's delivery into a way more usable power spread for me. Jesse Ziegler agreed with me on all accounts that I'd made the motor way more usable. Ad sales guy Damian Ercole almost pulled a couple of holeshots at the White Brothers Vet World Championships in a field of 450s, claiming that he was pulling them on the monster uphills, too, because of the great traction and being able to use all the power the bike had, never worrying one bit about the handling. He was even able to pass 450s on a 250, which, he said, made him "feel big." Sure, the white CRF was a love it or hate it in the looks department, but now the engine character wasn't that way for me or anyone else who rode this project.
Parts List
Dubach Racing Development titanium full exhaust system
Steahly Off-Road 9 oz. flywheel
One Industries White Massacre kit
Jimmy Lewis attitude
Tires
Dunlop D756 Race Replica rear