VOL. 51 ISSUE 31 AUGUST 5, 2014 P45
saki's is that the balance cham-
ber is mounted internally instead
of externally. Why? It's simple:
Because Honda just wanted it
that way, according to the Showa
rep. No other reason was given.
Unlike the Kawasaki's fork, the
Honda's outer chamber, which
holds ambient pressure (com-
pared to the inner chamber's 174
psi) and plays a minor roll in the
fork's overall performance with
both bikes and is also where the
fork seal resides, is not equipped
with a valve for adjusting. Howev-
er, there is a plug where a shro-
eder valve can be installed if you
want to add a little pressure to the
outer chamber for extra fine-tun-
ing, but then you're risking blow-
ing a seal if the fork tube gets
nicked by a rock or damaged by
contact with another bike during
a race. Even then, a blown seal
probably won't result in a DNF,
just a small change in perfor-
mance. Honda, it seems, doesn't
want to risk any performance
change while you're on the bike.
Perhaps the second-most im-
portant change, or addition, to
the 2015 Honda CRF250R is
the Engine Mode Select Button
that is mounted to the right han-
dlebar. It allows you to change
ECU mapping on the fly…well,
almost on the fly (the motor has
to be at idle). Via the button, you
can toggle between three pre-
programmed settings: standard,
soft and aggressive. Adjustable
mapping isn't new anymore but
the way Honda goes about it with
its CRF250R is new.
The third biggest change is the
Honda's new 260mm oversized
front-brake rotor. We haven't
been great fans of Honda's previ-
ous brake lately, so we are happy
to see the change.
A few other notable differenc-
es between the 2014 CRF and
the 2015 are revised EFI/igni-
tion settings, a lighter throttle re-
turn spring, and larger-diameter
exhaust openings for the dual
mufflers to improve low-end and
O N A I R
Honda upped the
ante with the 2015
CRF250R and its
new Showa TAC
SFF-AIR fork.
The new Showa
air fork inspires
confidence.
of the 2015 CRF250R
TAC SFF-AIR forks
