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/128611
We, as in m y self and Cycle News T est Rider Rick Dani el , began buildi ng th e dr eam m ach in e in the confines of the Daniel m ach ine shop , wh ich has all the amenities one co uld want while building or fabricatin g m ost any thing. lf .it weren't for th is facility and the help of Ric k , I m ay have spent Sunda y , Febru ary 27 near hom e at Glen Helen Raceway Park pra cti ci ng m otocross instead of co mpeting in Arizona . With the exception of the fork and shoc k revalv e, th e CR250 was sti ll a m otocross bik e less tha n a week befor e the event. It was definitely ham m er time, which was why Rick and I were in the shop night after night, until mi dnight on some occasions, add ing pieces and parts to the bike. Mounting up parts li ke an IMS tank , Acerbis handg uard s and headlight, BRP trip le cl am ps , a Tag Meta l handl ebar, a Wor ks Enduro Rider ski dplate and tim e kee ping equip me nt sounds sim ple enough, but it' s tim e co nsum ing. However, the am ount of tim e you spend in the shop bullet -proofing yo ur bi ke ca n save yo u all ki nd s of val uable tim e wh en you' re racing aga inst the clock. It wasn 't actually plugged in , but for that enduro look I installed an Acerbls Blitz headlight. [B@(J(]@[j}) (j)Dw0DD@!?f) W@(J(]@!?O 0 0 A s m entioned befor e, the only thing tha t was ready for Arizona earl y on was the Wor ks Enduro Rider Show a suspension m od ifi catio ns that multi -time ISDE gold m edallist D rew Sm ith and corn pany had perfo rme d on th e bik e n earl y a m onth earl ie r . I se nt W ER m y fo r k l eg s an d sh ock and , in a short turn around period o f l es s t h an tw o weeks , th ey sho wed up b a c k at th e office . Drew actually ha d the suspensio n done for m e in ord er to r i d e round one of the series in Coalinga. Californ ia, but as luck would have it , I co uld not m ake it to th e event. Choosi ng a New J ersey -based company like WER to do suspen sion set-u p for a west coast event may sound like a bad idea, b ut if you k now any thing about Drew Smi th , you know he's fu lly ca pabl e of setti ng up suspension for terrain and co nditions all ove r th e world. Dr ew and you nger broth er Chris have both had very suc cessful enduro racing ca reers in the stat es and abroad while riding No enduro rider should even leave the starting line w ithout som e sort of handgurads. T hese Ac erbis Rally guards t oo k m uc h abuse f rom the cactus, trees, rocks a nd c rashes t hat make up the Desert Mountain Nationa l Enduro . The biggest change to the suspension was in the Showa fork. A total fork rebuild equaled softer springs, shims and a revalve. The shims and revalve in the shock worked equally as well. Both the WER fork and shock worked wonders on a ll three loops of My dashboard consisted of a Dugas Engineeri ng Watchdog computer and two tried and true ICOs for back up. After the first loop there wasn 't much need for these babies, due t o the difficulty of terrain. the race. Hondas. Drew even spe nt a lot or' time in California working wit h the late AI Baker on his Honda XR pro gram in the '8 0s, so I knew that the Sm ith b roth ers and WER were the right guys to tum to and , in the, end I was right. Although the CR250 was ou r top m o t oc rosser , it was not the exact m odel that we had punished in our th ree-day shootout, so m y bike was still reaso nab ly fresh. Nev ertheless, off-roa d susp ensio n set -up does not come close to motocross specs, so Drew started from scratch, yanking t he st o ck Showa fork springs fo r starters . These BRP t rip le clamps worked great and allowed me to mount my computers to the handlebar clamp while using a Tag Metal handlebar. Th is 3.6 gallon IMS tank looks big and bulky, but It doesn't feel that way while riding w ith it. The design is larger on top allowing riders to scoot up on the seat for tight turns. The bottom portion where the radiator shrouds connect to the tank, frame and radiator is as narrow as the CR Is in stock form. To create a pl usher, sm oother ride , softer fork sp ring s were installed along with special fork shim s th at Drew uses according to use and rider request. The sto ck fork oil is also drained and repl aced with 375cc of Bel Ray five-weight Cartr idge Fork Oi l. Th e WE R shock set -up req uires that the stock spr ing be salvaged. Instead of go ing with lighter spri ngs, Drew revalves and shims the shock to work hand in hand w ith the new for k settings. With a rebuild, shims and a revalve, the shock requi res Bel Ray five weight HVI oil and a nitrogen p ressur e setting of 145 PSI. A susp ension instruction sheet with recommended front and rear setti ngs showed up in the boxes with m y newly bu ilt susp ension . WER does th is for every customer. of co urse . At the event, I ende d up run ni ng the fork at a co mpression setting of 12 out and the rebo und at II , which was in the range that the instruction sheet recommends. With race sag set at 100mm, the shock received 12 out on the rebo und and low -speed co rnpres sion. Fo r th e high-speed co m pression I opte d to go in between Dr ew's recommendations of two to four turns out and stop at thr ee. In the actual race, the cli ck ers and the WER suspensio n m od s work ed very well . Th e geog raphy of Lake Pleasant is very rocky and very san dy wi th some hard -p acked slic k trail s and hill sides as well , so the terrain var ies qu ite a bit. Th e CR handled ju st as well in a tight, roc ky , slow- go ing sand wash as it did on the treachero us rocky goa t trail s of the A ri zona desert . Th e suspen sio n di dn't beat m e up or tire m e out, it j ust allowed every thing to flow very smoothly. On the faster jee p trail sections of the course, the co m press ion co uld have probably been tume d in a bit in the fron t and rear. I leamed rath er quic kly th at hit ti ng high -speed g -outs with real enduro suspension isn't always the sma rtest thing to do. I de bated on making a comp ression change after the first loop , bu t I'm glad I didn't because t he seco nd and third loops were not fast enough to warra nt sti ffer spring action. If I had to do it again , I'd do nothing different fro m sending the Showa com po nents to WER to ru nning the setti ngs th at I ran at the actual rac e, it was great to say the lea st. cue I e n e vv s MAY 3 , 2000 23