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tings, we felt the fork was soft for riders over 160 pounds and the front end felt unstable at speeds when not accelerating. Basically, the rear-weight bias of the chassis overloaded the front when we shut off the gas. Nearly any time we weren't throwing roost, the bike's front wheel could feel un- settled. On braking and cor- ner entry situations, the bike stopped being unsettled and started to push or grab for most of our test laps before we adjusted a few things. To address the unsettling and push, we started with fork compression, and that helped. The bike was more stable overall but the corner performance wasn't totally there yet. It was pushing here and biting there. So, we dropped the sag a lot (in the 109mm range) to keep the fork from being overwhelmed even more. And that worked really well. But, at 109mm of sag, we knew we were skirting the edges of negative shock performance. Zaca Station wasn't a rough track by any means so we didn't feel it that day, but we'd rather get this chassis working with less sag re- gardless of bumps. So, we dropped the forks in the triple clamps 2mm (from 5mm to 3mm above the top clamp) and put the sag back to a normalized spot of 106mm. That was the magic setup for Zaca that day—adding three clicks of fork compression, dropping the fork 2mm in the clamps and running shock preload at 106mm sag. This same setting could have possibly been accom- plished with some shock compression and rebound tuning, but we didn't have an issue with the shock all day, so we felt it was prudent to adjust up front and with chassis balance. It worked well for us. We're looking forward to a few more bumps on the next tracks to see how the bike reacts there. The setup story for the 2018 Honda CRF250R ends with this: the bike needs a proper base setting to be close to perfect. Then, it responds well to small in- puts. That's a great sign that the bike is going to work for a lot of people, in our minds. FINAL THOUGHTS (AS OF NOW) There are a lot of good things going on with the new Honda motocross bikes and the CRF250R is following suit. A great suspension package and intriguing motor performance look to keep it competitive in this year's shootouts as well as on the racetrack for pro teams and average riders alike. CN VOL. 54 ISSUE 44 NOVEMBER 7, 2017 P87 2018 HONDA CRF250R ($7999) ENGINE: ...........................Liquid-cooled single-cylinder 4-stroke DISPLACEMENT: ......................... 249cc BORE X STROKE: ........79.0 x 50.9mm COMPRESSION RATIO: ................ 13.9:1 FUEL DELIVERY: ........... Programmable fuel-injection system (PGM-FI); 46mm Throttle Body STARTING SYSTEM: ...........Electric w/ lithium-ion phosphate battery TRANSMISSION: ...................... 5-speed CLUTCH: ....Multiplate wet (5 springs) FRONT SUSPENSION: .................49mm fully adjustable leading-axle inverted telescopic Showa SPG coil-spring fork REAR SUSPENSION: .... Pro-Link system; fully adjustable Showa single shock FRONT WHEEL TRAVEL: ............ 12.0 in. REAR WHEEL TRAVEL: ...............12.4 in. FRONT TIRE: ..............Dunlop Geomax MX3S 80/100-21 w/tube REAR TIRE: .....Dunlop Geomax MX3S 100/90-19 w/tube FRONT BRAKE: ................ Disc 260mm REAR BRAKE: ...................Disc 240mm RAKE: ............................27 degrees 22' GROUND CLEARANCE: .............. 12.9 in. SEAT HEIGHT: ........................... 37.8 in. WHEELBASE: ............................ 58.3 in. FUEL CAPACITY: ....................... 1.6 gal. WEIGHT (claimed, full fuel): ..238 lbs. S P E C I F I C A T I O N S