Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

1998XR250R By Matt Freeman Ph otos by Kinney J ones and Matt Freeman w& hen the FIM'deci ded to add the 250cc Four-Stroke class to this year' s In ternational Six-Day Enduro, na tu ra lly the AMA was quick to follow suit and ad ded the class to its ational Reliability Series. The FIM's decision seemed a bit od d, considering that th e re a r e only a few m o d el s throughout the wo rld that competitively fall into the 250cc four-stro ke category. But the fu tu re of fou r-s tro kes , on the w ho le , look s b ri ght, a nd the FIM is prep aring well for the fu tu re. It was not 00 0\ 0\ . too lo ng ago th at th e same governing ,...... body ad ded a 400cc Four- Stroke class to , the ISDE, and si nce then the class has oo:::t' ,...... skyrocke ted in ternationally and locally. Since the annou nceme nt of the new, l-< OJ sma ller stro ker class wa s mad e rela tive.c ly late an d close .to the start of the Reliao ...... b il ity Se ries in Ma y , I kn ew I h a d a u greater cha nce to qua lify for this year's ISDE in Aus tralia if I go t the ball rolling qu ickly. Let' s face it: The re ar e not a lot o 46 of people out there rea dy to jump on a 250cc fou r-s troke and race one at the Nationa l level. Si nce its incep tion, a n d especially after its major makeover in 1996, the Hond a XR250R has bee n considered a fu n trail bike, no t a se rious race bike. There have been some exceptions, howe ve r, such as m ult i-t im e ISDE gold med allist Drew Smith, who took the XR250 to new heigh ts in the late 19805, a nd Scott Su m mers, w ho nearly won this yea r's torturous Illinois' Moose Run on a stroked Summers Racing XR280R. Italian Luca Tru ssardi an d IMS were faster to commi t to the new class tha n I was: Within da ys of the announceme nt, they had sleeved down a 1998 Kawasaki KLX300 to leg al 250c c s pecs , a nd Trussa rdi was ready to ride. Buthow (Above) Cont ributing Cyc le News edito r Mall Freeman ch arges through the wo ods at the Idaho City Qualifier. (Right) Project Aus t ralia: Freeman mod if ied this Honda XR2S0R in hopes of qua lify ing for th is year's ISDE. reli ab le w o u ld th e trick IMS KLX250 be ? Isn 't that th e w h o le idea of havin g a Reliability series, any way? As already pro ved b y Sm it h a n d Su mmer s, th e du rabili ty and reli ab ilit y of any XR can go a long wa y, especially w hen it comes t o two-d a y ISDE qualifiers, so when it came down to ch o o sin g a b ike , Honda's XR250R was the o n ly re a s o n a b le cho ice for me. I received th e bike fro m H o nd a o n ly a month before the first Western Region Qu alifie r in Id a ho C ity , Id ah o . On e wee k later, the series wo uld move north for ano ther two-day in Bellingh am , Wa s hington. The AMA scored eac h rid er' s bes t thr ee days of qu alifyin g to ch oose th e 40 or so Am erican s for the ISDE, bu t because the seri es wa s split u p in to regions, o nly J 0 spots from ih e Western Region were op en for qu alifyi ng . In the month prior to th e Id a h o Ci ty eve nt, I spent as much time on t he bike as was hu m a n ly possible. I even rode it at a local gra nd prix on a jum pinfested motocross circuit in the Unclas. sified race and finished mid pack. A few trips to Ho nda 's secret testi ng grounds I in the Californ ia d e sert wit h John n y Ca m p bell made testing and bike se tu p a lo t easier than d oing it with ou t the factory's help. Ca mpbell, the Baja 1000 champ and the 1997 ISDE Bron ze medallist , kn ow s all of the XRs inside and ou t, and with his help and knowled ge we began to set the b ik e up for the tigh t tr ees of th e Northwest. To co nd uc t a tru e tes t of man and machine, we opted to leave qu ite a lot of th in gs o n th e XR250 R in s toc k tr im . Exha us t, motor and susp ension wo uld remai n untou ched thro ughout the test, with the exception of some fine-tu ning in the fork- and-shock departme nt. The fork w as good to go in standard form, but th e s hock required some a dj us tmen t, as can be ex pec ted . A cou ple of clicks in on the rebound mad e the ride smoother. After the short break -in period , race sag was set to 85m m (3.4 inches). My m ach in e was a 49-state mod el wi th a s tandard m uffle r, but I had the op tion to ru n H ond a ' s quieter, mor e rest rictive Califo rnia spa rk-arrestor core ins tead of the free-flowi ng 49-state core that came on the bike. Both met the US. Fo res try req u irem ent s for so und a nd safety, but, to meet the Reliability Series ru les, the bike had to be no lou der than 94 d ecibels. To pl ay it safe, Campbell and I installed the Californ ia core, which required tha t we rejet the 30m m pistonvalve Keihin carbu retor. Dropping the ma in-jet size from 132 to 130 and the need le from groove three to two made the bike ru n much crisper and clean er with the new exhaust core. We also added a K&N air filter, wh ich also helped a great deal. lSDE ru les requ ire each rider to have a working brake lig ht. Luckily, I ha d Ca mpbe ll and the res t of th e pa rts departme nt at Ameri can Ho nda at my dis posal. Campbell hooked a rear-brakeligh t switch from an XR650L and then spliced the wire into the existing ligh ta nd -electrica l syste m of the 250. The result was an Ultraclea n insta llatio n that could have passed even the Department of Mo tor Vehicles' stric t standa rds .

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