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/125995
HONDA MR-175 The following scene is pure fiction. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental: ... By Larry Langley The setting IS an executive conference room of the Honda Motor Company. A gathering of top Honda executives look on as the Director of Project MT-125 grov'els on the floor begging for forgiveness. " Oh, ple ase, ple ase mighty Honcho, give me another 36 chance," he sniv eles. " Yo u du m, du m," Head Honch o replies, " We've got thousa nds of unassembled 125 MT engines rotting away in the warehouse because you designed a motorcycle which fell flat on its sales face." H know. I know, whines the Director I of Project MT-125, I should have lis tened to the American monthly magazines. They're neve r wrong. But, I have a brilliant idea to salvage the situation!" With this unexpected revelati on, the Head Hon ch o raises an eyebrow, " And wh at is this great idea, rice-brain?" " Well," says the nerv ous Proje ct MT-125 Director, (h e knew it was now o r never), "we take th e MT-12 5 engi ne cases , use new 175 cy linders, redesign the CR 125 frame sligh tly us ing good old mild steel, mount the :CR-125 forks and shocks, install knobby tires on our industry standard DJ.D. rims, ad d a big three gallon enduro type gas tank, small enduro lights, leave th e battery ou t, and we can produce an enduro b ike that weigh s around 200 pounds!" The executives are shocked by such a daring proposal. Why , that wou ld go against the grain of the classic Japanese on /off road concept. The Head Honcho lapses in to deep thought while the executives nervously wait. The Project MT-125 Dire ctor fidgets. Finally, the Head Honcho speaks. "It's a very interesting concept. The marketing people at American Honda have been after us for some time now to develop a true enduro bike. To salv age the MT-125 situation, well, this might just be the way." The Head Honcho turns to the MT·125 sales chart and takes it in. The sales line hardly shows on the graph. Finally , he heaves a sigh and ?,Jrns slow~y to the gathered execu tives. Why not. . .. And so the MR-175 was created. At least that's the way it could have been. And after many, many months of testing, and changing, in an Rand 0 process, the long awaited MR-I75 is now upo n ou r shores, and the big question is whether it was worth waiting for. It is. No, the bi ke is not pe rfect. But, it is the only Japanese Enduro bi ke. Face it . All the other " en d uro " bikes fro m J ap an are on/off road motorcycles which lean qu it e heavily toward on road use . The MR-I 75 is the first genuine enduro bi ke to come au t of Japan . Let's get our major complaint out of the way first so we can tell you ab ou t the MR ·175 's good points. The engine bogs when shifting from first to second and second to third. With stock gearing, n o ma tt er how ' mu ch you scream th e engine, it is a defin it e p roblem . Why ? There are tw o th eo ries. On e is the geari ng. In stead of leaving the closer ra tio MT- 125 gea rbox alo ne, Ho nda slipped in some new wider ra tio gears and th e engine, in its present state of tune, just can't pull it . One sugges tion might be a six speed gearbox . Actually, the MT-125 five speed will work just fine . Another theory is that the wide ratios would work fine if the engine just had a little more horsepower. The MR pulled aro und 14 horsepower on the Webco Dyno, whic h is hardly earth shattering. In fac t. we race d it wi th a somewha t stock XL-175 four stroke Honda an d th ey ran a dea d heat, time an d ti me again. That means th e fo u r st ro ke was ac tually putting ou t m ore horsepower, but the MR was able to stay up with a equalization (It w ei ght-to-power wei ghed 40 pounds less than the XL) . Than kfu lly, there is some easy horsepower waiting to be tapped. Some mild porting, a bigger carb , and a pipe should ope n things up. Gearing it down also helps. For the majority of riders who buy the MR-175, the stock horsepower will be ad equate with a ch an ge in gearing. For the super serious end uro types, th ey will have to pull some additional horsepower to be competitive in the desert, especially in power robbing sandwashes. For the woods, maybe ju st a gearing or gear b ox change is needed. T eam Honda rider J ay Tullis slipped a MT·125 gea rb ox in his MR , lowered the gearin g just a tad, and rode the Trask Two Day Qualifer. A nasty , bottlenecked hill knocked him off his gold, bu t he finished wi thou t any mechanical problems whatsoever. He came b ack totally imp ressed with the li ttle Honda. The MR·175 co mes equipped with a long list of go odies that would cost you a bundle if you went out and bought them. As standard equipment, th e bike co mes with knobbies front and rear, D.J.D. rims , CR hubs, three gallon pre- mix gas tank, enduro ligh ting Oust enough to get you by and no battery) , absolutely the best forks and shocks in its class, a really fine air box, excellent levers and switches and a com fo rtable , lightweight sea t. It all adds up to a ,superb package . The three-gallo n tan k is quite large for a 175, but the shape didn't draw any co mplaints. A co uple more pounds co uld be saved by goin g to a p lastic tank, bu t y ou would have to be a super weight- co nscious freak to justify the co st. While the stock four-p ly motocross rear tire gripped just fine, it's better to replace it with a six ply tire for enduros. The four-ply tire was more like a '. two-ply tire and not very resistant to rocks. We had a flat and put the tire back on so easily, we could have almost done it without tire irons. That's just a little too flexible for our enduro oriented taste. But, you can wait until the tire wears au t. Elsinore CR parts abound on the MR. Throttle, grips , levers, footpegs, are all first rate. The rear pedal snakes over the right footpeg and is vulnerable to roc ks even with the MR's generous gro und clearance. It 's made of malleable steel so it bends instead of breaking. The MR weighs in at a slim 204 pounds dry, and around 225 with a fu ll tan k of pre-mix . Not bad at all. It's the lightest Japanese enduro b ike an d may be the ligh test production enduro bike period. As for handling the Ho nda is faultless, whether you are stu ffi ng it in to a tigh t san d wash tum or flying over y ou r favo rite desert wh oopers. It turns extremely quick (bu t is stab le) , which makes it a dynam ite woods bike . It's not of ten y ou can get on a b ike that steers as qu ick as this one and still feel co n fiden t over th e wh oop-dee-dos. In fact, we took the MR over whoopers at speeds that would terrify you if you were on a normal Japanese enduro bike. The MR came through just fine even with th e shocks in the conventional position. Standard motocross CR front forks worked faultlessly. An honest seven inches of travel kept things in control and if you want more (always mo re !) there are numerous Honda fork kits available for upwards of eight inches of travel. Bu t fo r endures, the stock forks are j ust fine. The deeply padded seat was a comfort. The seat was removed with two bolts exposing just about the bes t air box around. J ust o ne wing nut holds the top of the air box on along wi th the foa m filte r. A built in rubbe r sco op facing the rear keeps wate r and dust out of the air box , making it absolutely waterproof. We forded tank deep st ream s arid no t one d rop of m ud ' or water en tered the air box. Ground clearan ce is qu ite good but, as usu al, th e Honda lacks an adequate skidplate. Gr aham Sh eet Me tal sen t over