2000 Honda CR2 50 Enduro Conversion
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for your ex isting H o n d a , a hea vy
p rice tag ca me alo ng with it, which is
why as a st arv ing c o ll eg e student, I
never got th e CRE th at I fant asized
about.
Today Hin es' co m pany will tum j ust
about any J ap anese mot ocros ser int o
a ra c e -read y e nd u r o ma chin e , bu t
des pit e Honda 's only XR off-road racing policy I still have a cr aving to ri de
a CR th at is set up fo r th e vigors of
endur o c ompetition . I also like tink er ing w ith m oto rc y cl es , so instea d o f
turning to Hin es , I de ci ded t o buil d
my own CR250 that would w ithstand
the pun ishment of the Desert Moun -
By M A TT F REEM A N
P HOT OS BY M A RK KAR IYA
n the m id '9 0s , K evin Hin es , the
Ch am pion , began transform ing Honda CR
mot ocrosser s into full fledged enduro
rac ing ma chines under the na m e CRE
Imports. Hines ' enduro kit, wh ich he
i m p o r t ed fr om It a l y , add ed mu ch
more than j ust an " E" to the end of
t he CR , making the CRE th e mo st
soug ht after tim e -k eeping mach in es
on th e d irt. Of c o ur se, whether you
were going to purchase a ready -built
CRE from Hines o r j ust bu y a vo wel
I 1987 AMA Nationa l End uro
22
MAY 3 . 2000 '
cue I
e
n
e
vv
s
tain Enduro , th e second stop o n th e
AMA Na tio nal Enduro Cha m pionship
Ser ies, hel d in La k e Ple as ant , A ri zona .
Ch oo sing th e 2000 CR250 as m y
proj ect bik e did not st em o nly fr om
m y past. The fac t is, the CR250 won
th e Cycle News 250c c Motoc ro ss
Sh ootout th is y ear (a nd it wa s well
d es e rving o f the award a t that ).
Honda 's second g enerat ion of a lu minum p erim et er -fr am ed C R250 s
ca m e ou t fi ghting in 2000 w ith perfor mance , comfort, durability and reliabil ity definitely on its side. Those tr aits
ar e no big surprise whe n d iscu ssing
Honda motorcycles, but as funny as it
sounds, the 2000 CR2 50 is also sim ple, and that's what I was looking fo r
in an end uro b ik e. It 's extre m ely easy
to wor k on , all owin g yo u t o mak e
scheduled an d/ or un exp ected repairs
w ith ease , th e Pow er jet ca rb u re t or
wa s abandoned fo r '00, el iminating
the risk of unwanted electronic proble m s, t here 's a lre ady a p l etho ra of
aftermarket parts available fo r the red
ma chine and , did I m ention it' s reli able and durab le? T esting th e off-road
worthine ss of o ur MX Shootout winner
an d it's aftermark et parts arm y just
seemed like th e right thing to do.
