Phil Reeve shows us his fourth Honda CRM250r.
In total I’ve had 4 Honda CRM250r’s, a Japan only model never officially imported into the UK.
However, a few made it into the country and proved very capable on the green lanes and Enduros. As such they were brought in by the container load as a grey import.
Enjoy more Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Magazine reading every month.
Click here to subscribe & save.
They are great off-road, with a more linear power delivery than a CR250 and very reliable with it.
My current one, a 1993 Mk2.2 I call my Phoenix bike, a few years back I had an attempted theft which resulted in the criminals setting fire to my garage after I disturbed them, most likely due to leaving DNA evidence.
Four bikes were destroyed; RD400c, DT175mx, XR650r and you guessed it a Honda crm250, which id rebuilt and converted to Supermoto.
Out of all the bikes the CRM to me was the biggest loss.
At the time I nearly gave up biking. But time moved on, and 5 months later with support from my girlfriend Lizzy I bought another DT175mx, this helped my love for bikes come back. I now have 9 bikes this includes another RD400 as well.
My current CRM I acquired in 2018.
We were at Stafford bike show for the weekend when the bike came up for sale on eBay. As we didn’t want to miss it, we took Saturday afternoon off to view and ended up buying it.
When I get chance I do a few track-days a year mainly with Classic Bike Trackdays, one event I took my regular zx6r, but it had a issue with no rebound on the forks. Fortunately, I had the CRM with me, unfortunately it was in enduro trim wearing knobblies! To make track ready I removed the high front mudguard ha-ha. I had booked in the intermediate class, as I was to use the CRM, I asked to drop to the novice group. On track I could feel the tyres squirming as I pushed it as hard as I dared, with the frame feeling as if it was twisting around the corners! It did well and was a blast to ride, even on the highly unsuitable tyres! Afterwards in the paddock area, a mate walked up to me “hey Reevo, you’re famous, I just overheard a guy talking to his mate. He said he couldn’t believe it! A trail bike overtook him, on the outside of a corner and it was on F***ing knobblies!” ha-ha quality!
Busy with renovating houses I haven’t the time to do a full restoration on it, but I wanted to build another supermoto to stick 2 fingers up to those you took mine from me!
A mate had a pair of Talon hubs which I had another mate lace some SM Pro rims to them, then shod them with some sticky ContiAttack SM tyres.
The suspension on the standard bike is rather soggy, I’ve fitted a YSS rear shock (listed for an XR250 which are the same size). The front I tried to fit some forks off a CRF, the tops are the same diameter, but the stanchions are thinner, I had to fit a different bearing as the spindle shoulder is different, after all that I found the wheel alignment was out. The way to cure it would be to change the offset on the wheel, which would mean altering the spokes, as I want the option to change to the Enduro wheels I didn’t want to do this. So, for now I’ve decided to stick with the original’s forks. These are currently with KAIS suspension, where the stanchions have been re-chromed, they are fitting stiffer springs and lowering by 30mm. Consequently, I’ve had a set of rear bones made by a mate to lower the rear by the same.
A 320mm braking front disc has been fitted with a caliper relocating bracket and braided hoses from Cobra. The engine is standard but with a full DEP exhaust system and a V-Force reed block. The front mudguard has been replaced by a shorter supermoto item. Gearing has been raised for this supermoto setup.
It’s too late this year to use it but I’m hopeful it will be good to use next season, its road registered but it will definitely be making an appearance at Cadwell park again!
