Honda Gets Dirty
HONDA GETS DIRTY
MUST BE BUSY OVER at the off-road side of Honda R&D these days, as new stuff is appearing on an almost daily basis. Most unusual is a new downhill mountain bike. This pedal-powered high-flyer is said to borrow extensively from the company’s championship-winning motocrossers. Honda’s first “zero-emissions” model, the so-called RN01 features a twin-spar aluminum frame, Kayaba suspension, disc brakes and a unique, frame-mounted “gearbox.” Honda is even fielding factory rider Naoki Idegawa on the Japanese downhill mountain-bike racing circuit.
If parts-bin playbikes are your thing, check out the new XR250-or should we say XR250L? For the moment a domestic-only model, the lights-and-tumsignalsequipped machine features a CRF-inspired gas tank, shrouds and seat, an inverted fork and electric starting. This bike is prime for the Amerimarket and its current vel off-road boom, as a CRF250F.
And what about the muchheralded CRF-Xs? While the and CRF250R (X off-road, F is a playbike, R means racing) are being readied for early 2004 releases, is there a 450cc version? If the design team project leaders photographed at the recent Baja 1000 with a CRF450R-based are any indithey’re testThe rigged-forbike sported many common motocross-to-offroad conversions, such as an oversized gas tank, skidplates and handguards. But what you can’t see is the pumped-up ignition that puts out enough juice to run big lights, and wide-ratio four-speed transmission. Only four speeds on an off-road bike? “Big power,
long power,” was the answer I got. Don’t look for the CR450X in 2004; ’05 is more likely. And it may not even resemble the tester seen here, as even the ’04 CRF450R is rumored to have undergone big changes. Official word coming soon...
—Jimmy Lewis
