Monday, April 8, 2019

XL250R, 1 cylinder, 2 carbs, 3 chances

XL250R, Honda by name but not by soul. Granted everything other than the soul is pure Honda, like how miraculous the engineers are at hiding an extra 40-50 pounds on a bike, how much it understeers like a front wheel drive GM product, a surplus of 25 extra wires in the harness and an exhaust note at idle that is more reminiscent of a loud aquarium with a bunch of flatulent fish than anything running on petrol. Somehow with all this you go to grab a handful of throttle and instead of Honda it feels more Yamaha(that’s a good thing). There is an urgency to getting at the power, a fun of getting at the power but none of the ultra composed and manageable “are the cam lobes flat” rush of power that is too be expected. In true Honda engineering tradition you have to marry a proper motor to a shit chassis with tiny drum brakes front and rear and forks that have the same rigid dynamics of the javelin at the end of revenge of the nerds.


This is the third chance for this sweet little whip. Gone are the stock forks with the cute blue booties and in their place is a stout front end from a CRF250R, 2007 vintage. With the forks come the front disc and caliper from said bike. Steering stem from a Yamaha R1 modified by G&H cycles for the stock crf top clamp handles the back and forth of the bars. Currently trying to incorporate as much of the stock XL parts into the controls/wiring/headlight but the process is moving along. Hope to update later on tonight with a pic of it as a roller with bars and controls awaiting the custom headlight brackets to mount the sealed beam stock lamp. Usually doing a swap like this leads to a wonky unbalanced bike but I think I have the spares to remedy any awkward handling issues. There is a stage two to this suspension and brake upgrade and if the bike proves enjoyable enough with just the front end I’ll proceed to graft the cr500 rear end on to it. No easy feat but the motor is worth the extra labor I think. To be honest I’ll probably lose interest and give this bike to a friend but no need to be a realist at this stage.


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