Honda CRF250 Rally – best mods / upgrades

[rbailey]

I managed to get the lower engine guards and sump guard fitted over the weekend.





As far as the lower engine bars were concerned, there were no real problems and they were on within 30 minutes.

The sump guard came with 4 fasteners that are similar to dzus fasteners but not quite the same, along with 6 screws, 6 washers and one nyloc nut (should have been two). Again, fitting is easy and quite straight forward but the two rear screws and nuts are a pain as they're really close to other bits which make it difficult to get fat fingers in.

I did attempt to fit the upper bars but, for some reason, I think the design is flawed and no matter how much I tightened the nut and bolt, the lower fixings were still loose... Because of this, I just didn't install them for the time being.

Hey @OB1 - looks a good setup! My lower bars (same as yours) are now on the bike, and bashplate has just turned up (no fittings, so will pick something up local). A quick couple of questions...

1. When I fitted the bars, try as I might, when I tightened down the right hand bar (when looked at from front of bike), the bar just touches the plastics at the front (near front mounting point). The other side has a gap of 3mm or so. Did you have that issue?
2. The moutning points on the bars for the plate, seem to be not square to where the plate mounts? Did you have that issue?
3. When you fitted the plate, did you fit it to the bars, AFTER you tightened the bars up? Or did you fit it all lose and then tighten the crash bars with the bashplate in place?

Thanks in advance matey!

Roy

[OB1]

Hey @OB1 - looks a good setup! My lower bars (same as yours) are now on the bike, and bashplate has just turned up (no fittings, so will pick something up local). A quick couple of questions...

1. When I fitted the bars, try as I might, when I tightened down the right hand bar (when looked at from front of bike), the bar just touches the plastics at the front (near front mounting point). The other side has a gap of 3mm or so. Did you have that issue?
2. The moutning points on the bars for the plate, seem to be not square to where the plate mounts? Did you have that issue?
3. When you fitted the plate, did you fit it to the bars, AFTER you tightened the bars up? Or did you fit it all lose and then tighten the crash bars with the bashplate in place?

Thanks in advance matey!

Roy

Hi Roy,

The crash bars went on quite easily, although it did really need two of us to do it comfortably. Everything was fitted loosely and then tightened up once it was positioned. Nothing is close the the plastics and everything looks even.

I fitted the sump guard after the crash bars, once everything was all tightened up. The tabs didn't really square up for me too but I just forced it to fit! I didn't fit the rear nuts and bolts as one set was missing and it looks like a very tight fit... not something that I want to keep removing for an oil change!

Hope you get it all sorted.

[rbailey]

Hey @OB1 - looks a good setup! My lower bars (same as yours) are now on the bike, and bashplate has just turned up (no fittings, so will pick something up local). A quick couple of questions...

1. When I fitted the bars, try as I might, when I tightened down the right hand bar (when looked at from front of bike), the bar just touches the plastics at the front (near front mounting point). The other side has a gap of 3mm or so. Did you have that issue?
2. The moutning points on the bars for the plate, seem to be not square to where the plate mounts? Did you have that issue?
3. When you fitted the plate, did you fit it to the bars, AFTER you tightened the bars up? Or did you fit it all lose and then tighten the crash bars with the bashplate in place?

Thanks in advance matey!

Roy

Hi Roy,

The crash bars went on quite easily, although it did really need two of us to do it comfortably. Everything was fitted loosely and then tightened up once it was positioned. Nothing is close the the plastics and everything looks even.

I fitted the sump guard after the crash bars, once everything was all tightened up. The tabs didn't really square up for me too but I just forced it to fit! I didn't fit the rear nuts and bolts as one set was missing and it looks like a very tight fit... not something that I want to keep removing for an oil change!

Hope you get it all sorted.

Thanks @OB1... Something you said (that they are no where near the plastics) has made me think, and I think I know what the problem might be, but it would be great if you could confirm for me, before I mess with it again tomrrow.

So, I am fitting them myself, and as you say, its not easy to hold them in place and bolt it all tight at the same time. Looking at min where the U ring bolts at the front of the bike, they bolt near a slight bend in the subframe bars. Where they are currently mounted, they U ring bracket is just below that bend. I am thnking, perhaps it should mount just above that bend (which would lift the lower part away from the plastics). If you get a second, would be be able to confirm if you have mounted the U ring brackets just above, or just below the bend in the sub-frame bars?

Thanks for your help, appreciated (its a pain mounting it on your own, when you cant see one end whlist bolting the other lol).

Cheers,

Roy

[OB1]

Thanks @OB1... Something you said (that they are no where near the plastics) has made me think, and I think I know what the problem might be, but it would be great if you could confirm for me, before I mess with it again tomrrow.

So, I am fitting them myself, and as you say, its not easy to hold them in place and bolt it all tight at the same time. Looking at min where the U ring bolts at the front of the bike, they bolt near a slight bend in the subframe bars. Where they are currently mounted, they U ring bracket is just below that bend. I am thnking, perhaps it should mount just above that bend (which would lift the lower part away from the plastics). If you get a second, would be be able to confirm if you have mounted the U ring brackets just above, or just below the bend in the sub-frame bars?

Thanks for your help, appreciated (its a pain mounting it on your own, when you cant see one end whlist bolting the other lol).

Cheers,

Roy

Hi Roy. I thought it would be best just to photograph the area. Sorry about the mud on the frame!

IMG_1551.JPG (102.25 KiB) Viewed 3204 times

[johnnyboxer]

Thanks @OB1... Something you said (that they are no where near the plastics) has made me think, and I think I know what the problem might be, but it would be great if you could confirm for me, before I mess with it again tomrrow.

So, I am fitting them myself, and as you say, its not easy to hold them in place and bolt it all tight at the same time. Looking at min where the U ring bolts at the front of the bike, they bolt near a slight bend in the subframe bars. Where they are currently mounted, they U ring bracket is just below that bend. I am thnking, perhaps it should mount just above that bend (which would lift the lower part away from the plastics). If you get a second, would be be able to confirm if you have mounted the U ring brackets just above, or just below the bend in the sub-frame bars?

Thanks for your help, appreciated (its a pain mounting it on your own, when you cant see one end whlist bolting the other lol).

Cheers,

Roy

Hi Roy. I thought it would be best just to photograph the area. Sorry about the mud on the frame!

IMG_1551.JPG

That downpipe looks like it won't last long in mild steel

[Slowboy]

That's lucky it's stainless then

[johnnyboxer]

Are they?

[minkyhead]

sadly not ..mild steel same as me old drz ....dont really matter as you dont see it and it keeps so hot they dont rot ..the only reason i changed mine is that you can see it and as you ca see the onitial mock up looked a bit bad tbo .. i aint that fussy but the o/e had to go
the whole thing sticks out a lot and weighs a ton more than it needs to ... make no difference with the panels on though ....got a power box on mine it make a extra 15bhp now

it has a three pronged advantage its saves quite lump of weight ..its enables a much narrower rear profile which in turn make the luggage much narrower and easier to fit

of course the power box is the crowning glory ....in truth it was the only header avaiable two years ago ..i shipped it from china and grafter a end can on ...its actually prett well made for 64 quid ..got banged for 22 quid import charges though ....loads of choices out now and if i kept the lowers id keep the header and link a better can on .....



a1 by minkyhead56, on Flickr

p by minkyhead56, on Flickr

DSC_0355_edited-1 by minkyhead56, on Flickr

[catcitrus]

high Minky--interested in the "power box"--is that claim with a complete system or just the front pipe. It seems that they have copied KTM by fitting a closed Helmholtz resonant chamber (basically resonating like blowing over the top of a milk bottle--which we both remember!)---the KTM idea is to provide a positive reflected pressure wave (due to the resonance) back at the valves in the MID RANGE to push fresh charge back in (lost by the large valve overlap tuning for power at high revs)--basically it improves cylinder filling and torque in the MID range, and not at the top end. Its a crude attempt at variable valve timing (and has a fixed resonant frequency so can only "come in" in a narrow RPM band due to the fact that the wave travels back against the flow at the speed of sound and is largely independent of engine revs--it needs to arrive as a positive pressure just before valve closure--its really using old two smoke spanny tuning )---, but with the Honda tune (compared to KTM) I would have thought that any gain was marginal---but stand to be proved totally wrong with a dyno curve!

[boboneleg]

Yes it's mild steel but all of this bike is built to a price. The upside is that you can get parts from Honda Thailand (where it's made) at half the price.

Rear brake pedal from my local Honda dealer £54.04 , Exactly the same pedal , same part number together with a genuine gear lever from Thailand £25.95 with free shipping