3000 miles on a Honda CRF250L

[Chris Scott]

After riding one for a couple of days in Feb I thought the CRF-L might make a good lightweight travel bike, despite it only being an 18-hp 250.

Having just come off a six-week ride around SW USA, I have to come to the not so startling conclusion that - with my bulk and an overland load - 18hp is only just enough (though 2500 miles was over 5000' - perhaps a factor).

Still, it sure was fun finding this out ;-)

Long version + more pics here: Honda CRF250L 3200-mile review | Adventure Motorcycling Handbook

So, back to what I thought all along: an injected 500-650 single or parallel twin is the perfect all rounder, just as long as it's light.

Ch

[tigershel]

At altitude, back in the days of carbs, we used to lean out the fuel, to match the lower oxygen levels.

In Johannesburg at about 5500 feet, vehicles lose about 18% power. Enrichening the mixture will lose you even more.

Another 250 that would work is the Yamaha WR250X,several more hp than the Honda and better suspension, although I'd expect spares to be more widely available for the Honda as it's sold in a lot of countries.

Another issue is that your bike seems to have been geared too tall, that would explain the poor performance.
250s (and 125s) need to spin to maintain progress.

Here, a fair number of XR200 owners are moving to the CRF and some comments are that it feels down on power especially in the low and midrange. The XR is substantially lighter and the motor makes more of its power lower down.

Having said that, ultimately this market may move to India and China. Some of the bikes they are producing now are very robust, and approaching Japanese levels of quality.
And you can find them in many parts of the world, especially Africa, Asia and South America.

Particularly some of the business/delivery/ag bikes are strong and easily modified to carry lots of luggage, if rather crude in terms of suspension and motor.

I am currently running a 200cc Chinese dual sport, in some ways quite similar to the Honda.
Ergonomics are some of the best I have experienced on any bike, standing or sitting (I am 6'2).
It's the easiest bike to stand on I've ridden, including my TE610E Husky.

It came geared very short, but that meant it would pull 5th gear and not lose speed up some pretty steep hills. The downside is that 112 km/h was redline in top...

I've regeared it with 2 extra teeth on the countershaft, geared redline would be about 124 km/h, and it will still accelerate to 110 km/h on a slight uphill.
With the balance shaft, cruising speed is in the 85 to 95 km/h range.
Speedo is about 5% off, so make the necessary calculations. Altitude is 0 to 3500 feet.

Negatives versus the Honda are slightly crude suspension (but still Showa, monoshock and beefy USD forks).
Suspension travel seems a bit limited, but the stiff springing means I hardly ever bottom it out.

Another negative is the 6.5l tank, and the twin spar frame means a bigger tank is hard to fit.

Lastly, spares are an issue, although this bike is sold in various iterations in several other countries, support will never match Honda.

Pluses are that it's really robust, I've crashed it 3 times quite hard. Damage was a slightly bent aluminum fatbar, the footbrake lever tip broke off as designed, I had another fabbed and screwed in for $2.50.
And a mirror broke.
Slight rashes to front fender and footpeg bracket, and a chip out of the rear fender led to a fenderectomy.

The motor is surprisingly grunty for a 200cc, only 15 to 16 hp, but with a lot of torque available from low down and through the midrange.

At a price that is 33% of the CRF250L here (which is close to the USA price), that's an unbelievable bargain.

If I was going to RTW it, I'd strip off the motocross styled bodywork to make space for a fuel cell or two, and provide direct access to the frame for attaching luggage fittings instead of relying on the stock luggage rack.

[Chris Scott]

Interesting to confirm about altitude power loss. The obvious only dawned on me out there: efi may self adjust to keep the mixture correct, but up high the reduction of available oxygen still adds up to power loss.

Must say I never considered a WR250X anymore than I'd consider Honda's CRF250X or CRF250R. AFAIK, all three are expensive, high compression, high performance, high maintenance dirt racers which would be wasted on my sort of riding.

A lot of rec CRFL dirt riders drop from 14T to 13 and claim great results when allied with Stage One power mods (that's how mine came). I'm not convinced it would have made that much difference for my sort of loaded cruising, though I will admit I don't like running an engine hard.

What is this mysterious 200cc Chinese dual sport you speak of?

[Big Yellow Tractor]

Originally Posted by Chris Scott

Must say I never considered a WR250X anymore than I'd consider Honda's CRF250X or CRF250R. AFAIK, all three are expensive, high compression, high performance, high maintenance dirt racers which would be wasted on my sort of riding.

Sorry Chris, I think you might be mistaken, the WR250X is a fully road legal, supermoto version of the WR250R (2010 Yamaha WR250R - Top Speed) using a completely different, FI engine than used in the WR250F.
It would be a great trail bike but failed to sell in great numbers because it was priced about £2k too much

[Chris Scott]

Pardon me - at least I got the expensive bit right ;-)

Same confusion occurs with CRF L/X/R...

[tigershel]

Originally Posted by Chris Scott

Pardon me - at least I got the expensive bit right ;-)

Same confusion occurs with CRF L/X/R...

Easy to get confused, I got it wrong as well, I meant the WRF250R.:-)

It's 2k more expensive, but to get the CRF to the same power and suspension standard would cost more than the difference in cost.

The Chinese bike I referred to is a Zongshen 'Fly' (depending on the market) 200. They make the same bike with aircooled 200 and water cooled 150 cc models among others, and it's sold in different countries under various brand names.
They sell this series as a world bike, and it can be had with even better suspension and motor components. The designed and manufacturing quality is very different to anything I've seen in the US or even the majority of other Chinese bikes around here.

Mine came as a Motorstar MSX200-II, even more confusing because that exact model name was used by the importer in the past to label a bike from a totally different manufacturer, with a Yamaha-based motor rather than the Honda CBB one in mine...

It gets even more confusing as several Chinese manufacturers buy in Zongshen motors (which are regarded as higher quality) and then put the Zongshen name on an inferior product.

One of the things the Chinese need to sort out is the marketing, distribution and branding aspects. That is probably their biggest issue right now.
Some of the Chinese bikes are plain junk, some are adequate and some are quite decent, but without quite a lot of research you have no idea which is which.

However, once they get that sorted, they could be a big player in the market, as they have huge economies of scale, especially smaller bikes.

I look at mine compared to the locally produced Honda XR200, which is really an XRL dating to the 80s and 90s, and have no idea how they can sell it for half the cost.

The Honda makes no more power, the frame and welds are cheap and tend to rust, components such as footpeg mounts are cheap and flimsy. The suspension is worse, the only good things about the bike is the Japanese built motor which is very reliable if low tech (2-valve) and the design is so old school it is easy to weld up stuff for the steel tube frame and for bush mechanics to repair.

[Steph jeavons]

Hey Chris

Thanks for posting this. I'm taking by 250L around the world in 5 months time. Any advice is very much appreciated! Still trying to figure out how to fit my new kriega system!!

Steph's Diaries - Bikers Guide to the Galaxy

[marcm]

Bubble wrap and parcel tape for the seat..cheap,makes it bearable on Tarmac stretches and you can just peel it off and toss it away when off road and you want to stand or move around the bike..