Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125814
'" " i ...6' HOW TO GET YOUR HONDA ENDURO-READY N M .... '" ai .c: .., ~ W Z W -J U >- U You can turn your XL250 into this enduro machine in just a few easy hours in the comfort of your own home. by Larry Langley A lot has been written about the Honda XL-250 since it was introduced earlier this year. However, most of the verbiage has been on its racing exploits and high horsepower developmen t, such as Long Beach Honda with their mo tocrosser and the bike that won the Baja 500 (Who says Honda doesn't make -a great dirt bike?)_ Very little has been printed on what I believe most riders buy their XL-250 for: Enduro or trail riding_ This article is in tended to help you set your bike up for enduro riding_ When I decided to buy a bigger bike I took in to consideration a number of things_ Handling, power, cost, ease of maintenance and, to me, a very important part: reliability. Since everyone in m.y club (URA) owned ring-dings I was subjected to a certain amount of ridicule and kidding when I announced. I had decided to purchase the XL-250. Why go for a heavy ••• four-stroke they asked when I could have the power and ligh tness of a two-stroke. No fouled plugs, holed pistons, and none of that gawdawful noise I answered. Besides the Honda didn't weigh more more than the 250 two-stroke enduros they were riding. I checked around with a few dealers and found that the Honda could be had for a very reasonable price. Since all my riding wouJd be done off road, I ordered knobbies front and rear with a 3:50 x 21 Cheng Shin up front and a 4:00 x 18 Dunlop at the rear. The Cheng Shin has proved to be an outstanding tire and I believe it's the answer for a 21-inch wheel. The Dunlop was OK but wore out rather quickly. Picking up my new bike J had just enougb time to put a few miles on it and install a good skid plate, replacing the stock one which is worthless. The mag side cases stick ou t a good deal and the stock plate doesn't. Be selective and buy a ll"ood one. I destroyed the first one I had and finally found a good one from Long Beach Honda which runs around $30 or so. It's well worth it. Soon I was on my way to Red Mountain for a marking session of the Little Tuffy Enduro. ow if you've ridden enduros at all you know Red Mountain contains some of the most challenging terrain in Southern California. It was a rough way to break in the Honda but I figured this would be the acid test to see if I had made the rigb t choice. One weekend and 200 miles later I knew that with some small changes the XL-250 would make a great enduro bike. With the tight new engine and much too "igh factory gearing I had some problems with a couple of the steeper uphills. The bike comes stock with a 15 tooth countershaft sprocket and a 48 tooth at the rear. I went to a 14 tooth countershaft and that improved things somewhat. The stock handlebars were too low and narrow for me. I changed to bars 37 inches wide witb a five inch rise; about five inches wider than stock. This is strictly a personal choice, the stock bars might be righ t for you. Tbe stock shocks worked surprisingly well but tbe springs were way too soft. I exchanged them for a pair of 70/100 lb. springs. At this point I was pretty happy with the bike but now I was getting serious about riding enduros so I decided to find out how the experts set up a Honda 250 for enduro riding with the idea of including any trick stuff on my bike. The highest ran king Honda rider in District 37 enduro standings is Jay Tullis, General Manager of Whittier Honda. I contacted Jay and he agreed to help me set my bike up. Jay bas been doing enduro development work on XL-250's and is obviously on the righ t track as he is currently ranked number four with a chance to get number three depending