Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

., STICKERS ~ Beer ~ For decorating Bo xes, Tool Bo xes, Bicycles, School Binders, etc. Fo r a select ion from our ex tras. rejects, and outd ated Slickers. send $2 .00 to : KI~SA~.£): SAN BRUNO, CA 94066 (415) 583 -7294 PLATES ~eDsons 6~tings to o u r custo m ers & friends 20211 Prairie Ave. ~ 0 (pO Box 653) Chatsworth, CA 91311 213-886-7878 RM SUZUKI FORK KITS Ik siwwd l.. d i"' ;Il.. I~ chal m..~ h ) It-d inK .... d th .. ~ ja,rillltj"ll. OIl thc e.... .. ru;l\d. lh.· l it pw,;do... l!irrcn:n l h )"th"lll i(· ",I\i u~• • lII .odditi,,".d I "· .. r t r.. n-I "'l c! spo: i.d w" u nd ~pri Il K" c t·.....ninlt ..lid r;l(l i n ~ ••i llpr.acIil:"U, 10." d iln ;n.. '",' !. n'·R.\ 1125 "." ... . . $29 .95 n;.·R. 1250 , 3 70 .• • • $29.9 5 \ AI u..ln KU ) 1-117-1 R.r)mcrS t. V..n :,\ " , ... ~i r. 9 1..05 2 1' ·997 ·7055 -----_. .. ........................_.-... -....... - --. .. --------............- ... ..............-.... _--_. ..... ......... _ _ ....... _ ,.. . . . ....... 101 ~_ .. _ -~ _ ~..-, -..- ..... 22 _ - . --.e.--." JIR --.~ I was packingfor my Thanksgiving trek to Baja when the phone rang. Hot damn! Finally the MR-250 test bike was ready! Trucked on over to Gardena and there it was ... sitting there all shiny and new, fire engine red. Signed the agreement (you will, you won't, Lynn Wilson M/C Specialties - ' - _ . . .. Oo By Lar ry Langley you shall, etc.] loaded Honda's newest enduro bike into the truck, bo ogied on home to finish loading u p and finally, hit the ro ad. After what seemed forever, we arrived and I anxiously unloaded the MR to take a close look at it. Walked around it taking every t h ing in . The hu ge (three point four) gal lon tank stood out like a sore thumb. Funny loo king foot pegs. Hmmmm, ni ce tu cked in h igh pipe co nnec ted to a gargantuan looking muffl er .. Let's see . it's a spark arres tor to o. Knobbies front and rear, mounted on DID rims looked impressive. Elsinore shocks moved up on th e swingann looked bu sin ess re ady. Enoug h . lime to fire it up. Mixed up some Bel Ra y 50 to 1 an d fille d th e tan k. Put a leg over the MR an d was ple asan tl y surprised to fin d it sat low. With the tre nd to long travel suspension bikes are sittin g hi gh er an d h ighe r. Eve ry thi ng fell into place. Handlebars seem ed a little lo w bu t what the hell. It's ju st what yo u 're used to, right? Throttle was th e go od Elsinore qu arter tum. Just right. Bounced up and down. Everythin g see med to dam pe n OK. Migh t as well try a nd star t it. Kick st arter is tu cked in n ice. Clears the leg with no sweat. Fol d it o ut, depress th e ch o ke lever on th e Keih in carb, tum gas o n and kick. Found out that nice tu ck ed in ki c k sta rte r lever is an abso lu te bi tc h as it reach es th e end of it s travel. The multiple fol ding joints allo w th e lever to kind of flop so yo ur foot slips off and th e leve r returns with a venge a nce. Since th e o wn e r 's manual warns th at this co uld cause case br eakage, it seems a stra nge bit of engi neeri ng. No throttle (just like a Mikuni) will ge t th e l\IR fire d up in short orde r. T wo or three kicks co ld and one or two hot wa s the usual. The exhaust was super quiet. Should be with th at huge rnvffler. Engine made more noise than the exhaust. Decided to ride with the gang over to a little bar for a beer about five miles down the road. Gonna break it in gently. Even played it cool when everyone else raced over. On our retu rn, one of the fellows brought my attention to the fr ont rim. It was no lo nge r rou nd . In fact it had a giant ding in it. I couldn't b elieve it ! 1 hit one lo us y roc k on the way over and it buggered the rim. It wasn't one of those spine jarring collisio ns either, I hardly noticed it. 1 took a close look at the rims and sure en ough. While they were OlDs (long the industry standard) they were a new design which had less shoulder on each side. They differ from the old style OlDs by having a shoulder right where the tire meets the rim. Honda saved a little weight and a little money by goin g to these imi tation DIDs but should never put them on a motoreycle destined for competition. The bike seemed like a turkey at first. The suspension act ed stiff and the engine didn't seem to have much power. Also the wide ratio transmission felt way too wide for the available horsepower. Reserve j u dge m en t, I told myself. These ring dings take a little time to break in. Sure e n o ugh after running a tankful through it, everything loosened up and it started to get with the program. It turned out to be faster than 1 thought it would be . Not as fast as a Husky or Montesa but quite a bit faster than the typical Japanese 250 enduro bike. Power was a little peaky and the transmissio n ratios still seemed too wide. The suspension loosened up also and seemed adequate if not overly impressive. The forks are the same as fo und on the CR-250 motocrosser and offer a little over seven inches of travel. The shocks are also Elsinore and are m oved up about five inches on t he swingarm, allowing around 5.5 inches o f . rear wheel travel. Damping never went away but we didn't ride it too awfully hard ei ther. All the play riding on the bike forms impressions but riding th e bike in an actual enduro- cemen ts th em and lets you know if yo ur feelings were on target. The M R had no problems maintaining th e posted averages, and in tigh t sec t io ns the bike really sh ines. I had heard th e MR was a little overweigh t but it seemed fairly light in ac t ion. The reason is th e bike seems to ha ve a fairly low cen ter of gravity, No

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