Service Honda has a reputation built on wedging 500cc two-stroke engines into modern aluminum chassis. But is that reputation for resurrecting the 500, championing two-strokes or for building what the manufacturers can't or won't? Certainly the company is still firmly behind the 500cc two-stroke with both a Honda and a Kawasaki version. But just as the Service 500s filled in for extinct OEM models, with 250cc two-strokes vanishing faster than two-dollar gas, there was room for new, modern 250cc two-strokes. But building one isn't easy. Japanese manufacturers rarely sell complete engines. Service starts with a latest-generation 250cc four-stroke chassis, but sells the stock engine or slots it into a different project. Next is ordering every single part to build a 250cc two-stroke engine from scratch and machining a partial engine cradle from billet.
We actually spent time on three units. One was a Kawasaki-based unit with a 2009 KX250F chassis and a 2007 vintage KX250 engine. Then we sampled two different Hondas. One was based on a 2009 250X chassis, and the other was surrounded with a 2009 CRF250R skeleton, but both featured 2001 Honda CR250R motivation. We tested all three bikes as many two-stroke owners use them: on the track and on trails. On one of our rides we had a Service Honda CR500AF along, so we ran the gamut of custom pingers.