Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

2000 Honda CR1251CR250 Honda's new line of CRs have bee n drastically chan ged and are beller than ever. Both the CR125 and CR250 are new from head to toe. After riding the 2000 CR250 (left and below) we are convinced that Honda's second generation of aluminum- framed motocrossers are ready to win. (Left) Since switching to an aluminum frame and a five-speed gearbox In 199B, the CR125 has had mixed reviews. The new CR125 is proof that Honda Is well on its way to the top of the podium aga in. The entire eng ine was refined to be smoother and to produce higher rpm power out put By Malt Freeman y flight fro m Lindbergh Field in San Diego to SFO Airport in Sa n Francis co w as dela yed b y a n hour, and to make matt ers worse I had a connector flight to the Eureka Airporf that wa s sched u led to depart less than an hour after my original arrival time in San Fran cisco. I also had two test rid ers, Lan ce a nd Tim , wh o were sla ted to depar t out of Ontario Airport to San Fra ncisco and then up to Eur eka, wh ere th e three o f u s wou ld meet up w it h Honda's Greg Wright. The original plan fro m t he re w a s fo r th e fo u r of u s to drive an hour so u th, where we would ge t th e pl easure of riding the totally red esign ed 2000 CR125 and CR250 on one o f the m ost beautiful motocross tra cks on the West Coast, smack dab in the middle of the red woods. That is if any of us could get off the ground . With close to 100 poun ds of rid ing gear, came ra equipme nt and clo thes , I stood aro u nd the airport tryi ng to figure o u t m y op tio ns . I ca lled G reg's ce ll ph on e. I called the cell ph one number th a t bel on g ed to Hond a ' s R&D gu ru . Dave Arn old . All I go t was voice mail. Fin all y a w oman ' s voi ce ec hoed th rou gh ou t the termin a l wa rni ng a ll passen ger s that the fog hovering over San Francisco ~as burning off and that our flight was going to board. I still had tim e to mak e it to Eureka on sched ule bu t I had no id ea whether my test riders wo uld make it or not. M ~ !!Iii :::Iii ~ iii III .. Q ~ Q • '" g: ;;;. ]: E CD g. en 26 attempting a 90-foot triple jump, but once I got use to the constant turbulent motion of the fus elage and co nv inced myself that I would p robably live, I s ta r te d daydreaming about the new CRs. Hopefully they would be a lot ' smoo ther than the plane ride was. I touched down on the qua int Eureka airstrip nearly two hou rs late, an d was g ree ted by Greg, who was as ca lm as could be. He obvious ly has more faith in the airlines than I do, and 'he never ge ts exci ted too m uch, exce pt w he n Hon da wins a n AMA Nationa l eve n t o f o ne for m or a no ther. He wasn ' t even pe rturbed that my two test rid ers were missing in action . There was only on e mo re flight from San Francisco to Eureka schedu led to land after mine, so we [ m issed m y co nnec ting flight and had to sit aro und the com mu ter terminal over an hour wai ting for th e next fli ght north. Wh en th e time ca m e to b oard th e p lane I realized tha t I had n ev e r flo w n in a co m m u ter pl an e befor e. When we go t in the air, the ride was eve n sketchier than I anticipated . At one point th e thought occurred to me th at th e r eas on I was s ti ll alive wa s because I had never flown in a plane sma ller than my dad's motor ho me. The flig h t wa s a bout as comfo rta b le as sat around hopi ng to see Tim and Lance get off the next plane. _ Tim and Lan ce we re nowh ere to be found , so we we re off to the track. When we arrived at the track, Honda's Bruce Og ilvie, Erik Crippa, Dave Arno ld, Drey Dir ks an d a h ost o f eng ineers were p reparing bik es for the next two days of rid in g . With d a yli ght burning, Dirk s mounted the CR250 and I sho t ph otos of him since I had no test ride rs of my ow n to s hoot. Wha t better rider to phot ograph on a Honda, th an a Hon d a test 'rider? I was impressed right off the b!i.t wi th the new machines, so I hu rri Jd through the photo se ssion so I could rid e before it go t too dark. .' Th e track was beautiful, bu t not the best fo r te sting a motorcycle. It was smooth and on ly ro ugh in a couple ~ f spots, so m y goal was to ride as much as possible hoping to roughen up the track a bit. I wa s full y rested fro m sitting a round all da y and th o u g ht th at i t wo uld be crucially im po rtan t w hile testing a motorcycle tha t, over the last three yea rs, has been labeled as too rigid . As H turns out I rode the rest of the day and d id not tir e at all . Th e 250' s handli ng an d engin e wer e mu ch smoother th an the plane ride. It took us a while to ge t the suspen- sio n set up corr ectly for me because I'm on th e' lig h t s ide a n d Ho nd a' s s toc k spring rate is gea red for someone slightly heavier than featherw eigh t. Once we go t th e clicks an d turns figured ou t [ was happy and rea dy to concent ra te on the per formance of the new fra me and engi ne . The ergonomics of the new machine ar e much more comforta ble and put the rid er in mor e of a natural rid ing position. A new ha nd leba r bend is just as good as ' any previous Honda bend , if not better. The new fra me , front end and ba ck balance ou t fine for rid ers 0'£ all sizes, and it also helps that the bike has bee n slim med down, making it easier to rid e aggr essively. On th e flip side, the new motor is actuall y e asie r to h andle and less aggress ive. A smoothe r low- and mid ran g e p ower delivery is a huge improvement on the new CR250 . Like the redesign of the frame, Ho nda gained grea t ground with the mo to r on their new 250cc machine. It shares the power . characteris tics of past CR250 motors that w e a ll love, on ly without th at unsusp ected m ean streak that throws u s off the bike w hen we eas t expec t it. Smooth and fast ar e the keywords when it comes to the new motor . I ro de until i t go t dark; th en we packed up and headed to the Benbow Inn w here I was hoping to see Lan ce and Tim waiting in the lobb y ready to ride the CR125 the next morning. When we arrived at the Victorian-s tyle struc ture, in st ead of Lance and Tim I saw food, drink and a nice, firm bed. I wast-

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