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/127676
1995 Honda CR125,250 and 500 Bruce Ogil vie: Welcome, members of the motorcycling press. As you know, we at Honda have called you here to... Rep ort er 1: Does the new CR250 have Kayaba suspension? Ogilvie: Why, yes it does, as a matter of fact. It also has a new 19-inch rear wh... Rep orter 2: You've done away with the Showa boingers? Ogi lvie: Yes, we have. As you can see, the bike also has stylish new plastic and a nice purple col... Reporter 1: So what you 're saying, Bruce, is that you're absolutely positive that the 1995 Honda CR250 has a Kayaba fork and a Kayaba shock? tube is 8rnrn taller. In ad dition, the head pipe is now gusseted by one large, wraparound piece instead of the tw o smaller pieces which were previously used. New triple clamps are designed to be ligh ter, and also give the fork legs a 7rnrn wider span (192rnrn total). This change rnirnicks the Kawasaki KX's wide stance, and is designed to in cr ease rigidity a nd improve steering. So that the bottom of the fork ma tches the stiffer trip le clamps, a 3rnrn larger axle (2Omrn d iameter) supports the front wheel, which means tha t a new h ub and la rger bearings are also required. Spoke angle was also increased from nine to 10 degrees. As mentioned above, a new Kayaba fork was slipped into the wider triple clamps. The inside walls of the fork outers have been coated with a slippery layer of Teflon, and stiffer .41 springs take the place of the .40 units . There are 18 positions of rebound da mping adjustability, and 20 clicks of compression damping. The plastic extenders are no longer needed on the bottom of the fork. (Lett) New bodywork and graph ics are the most visual changes on the '95 CR250, but not thli most noteworthy••• 22 hough w e ma y have overdone it , th e cause for our concern was somewhat warranted . Year after year, Honda has continued to build bikes that outshine the competition in every category except for one - suspension. Sure, Showa's performance has improved from season to season ; the '94 Honda had the best suspenders to grace -a CR in years (seven years, to be exact). Still, th e competition improved at th e same time, and Honda continued to be embarrassed when attention was focused on suspension. Last year, Honda put Kayaba suspenders on their CR125, and while it didn't immediately outclass its competition in that department, it did fare better than its big brother. This season, Team Honda/I-8OO-COLLECT rider Jeff Stanton has used works KYB suspension on his factory CR250. But enough with the history lesson; you're more interested in what's in store for the future, and so were we when we showed up at Honda ' s June 17 press introduction of the '95 CR motocrossers. (That's right, June 17; we could ha ve shown you the bikes five weeks ago, but Honda made us sign a contract agreeing that we wouldn't). The switch to KYB suspenderS"isobviously the biggest news, esp,ecially considering the fact that Showa is a d ivision of Honda. Ogilvie says th at when Honda started development for th e '95 bikes, they were given free reign on which suspension would be used. "We just wanted wha tever was best," says Ogilvie. That cla im is supported by the fact that the 250 and 125 have differen t tapers on the outer tubes, when it would obviously be less expensive to spec the same tubes for both bikes. On the 250, the fork has a gradual taper, but on the 125 the taper is more abrup t. Th e reason? According to Ogilvie, the two d esigns simply work better on th eir respectiv e machines. Ogilvie claims that the shape and length of the fork ou te rs have a greater affect on fork act ion tha n the actual valving. Interestingly enough, the American, European and Japanese CR versions all share identical sus pension settings. Normally, each gets suspension designed specifically for its own market, but Ogilvie claims that all three distributors liked the same setu p t his time around. ***** It's no secret that Honda' s main goal with the CR250 was to improve the suspension, while focusing on small refinements for the remainder of the package. The same basic frame geometry has been retained fro m the ' 94 m od el, though changes were made to increase rigidity. A huge header pipe now graces the bike, along with the ac compan ying la rge r bearings and races. Diameter of the steering head is now 4mm larger , and th e (Right) •••That honor goes to the new Kayaba fork, which replaces the tradit ional Showa unit. (Below) The CR125 enjoys anew. stronger frame.