CR250rx - street legal 2 stroke finished

[Steve St.Laurent]

Well, Honda's not making them so I did. Thought some of you might be interested in a minimalist street conversion. I just had it inspected by the sheriff and signed off for all of the on road equipment required by the state of Michigan ( http://www.michigan.gov/documents/TR-54_38480_7.pdf ).

I bought a used CR450x headlight off the auction site and bought the CRFx headlight mount kit from applied racing ( http://appliedrace.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=3&products_id=1380 ). I had to modify those mounts slightly because the holes didn't line up with my cr250 triple clamps. I filled in the bottom hole with my tig welder and redrilled it. I made a custom bottom bracket that attached to the two holes in the bottom of the CRF headlight and has a single hole at the back that slips over the single post on the cr250 bottom triple (the CRF has two on there). That took care of the headlight.

For the taillight I went with Baja designs led taillight kit - https://www.bajadesigns.com/NET/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=600709 . For the brake light switch I used a replacement banjo bolt from ( http://www.kandstech.com/index.php?page=brakeswitches# ) that has a built in switch on the rear brake.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Then I needed to do something for the switches and electrics. For the battery I got a 10 cell AA NiMH battery pack and a charger from http://www.batteryspace.com . For the switches I got a KTM headlight switch to power up everything and a boating 3 position switch that has a rubber cover to seal out dirt, water, etc. (you have to have high and low beams). An extendable dental mirror would handle that task. A regular 12v motorcycle horn and an engine kill switch would handle the horn. I built an aluminum box that would fit behind the headlight to hold all of the electric and I made it so I can change the battery easily by pulling off the front plate (there's no charging system on the bike) and glued a cut up tire tube on the flange for the front plate to seal the case - the only way water is getting into the case is if it enters from the bottom through the grommet that the wires go into the case though. I used weatherpack connectors for all connections and put disconnects near the box and at the rear sub section so that I can remove them easily. I also threw a fuse holder into the aluminum box for protection. The mirror simply clamps to the back of the aluminum box and sits behind the headlight (I won't ever use it - it's just there for legalities). Here's some pictures of the box up front:

The battery pack can run the headlight on high for 40 minutes. I'm guessing I could get 2 1/2-3 hours out of it with the headlight on low. All day if it was just powering the taillight and horn (the headlight switch allows me to have everything powered up and have the headlight off/low/high). All told I have about $200 wrapped up into the project. I'll only be using it for cross connectors between trails (you have to be licensed to use these), for short road runs between camp and the trails, and to be legal to enter enduros (starting next season).

The only thing I don't have on the bike that is required in MI is DOT approved tires but foretunately the sheriff didn't check for the DOT numbers. Everything else is to the letter of the law.

 

[adam728]

:cool:
Why did you go battery-only power? Just because of cost?


When I had my KDX inspected (I'm from Michigan) the Sheriff looked at the tires and said "I sure wouldn't ride on the road with those, but I'm not you" and checked off the box. They were stock Dunlop 739's. My lights were not working because I was waiting for a new lighting coil, but he never even asked to seem them work, just was happy they were on their.

It sure is nice how many more trails are opened up when you are on a dual sport! By where I grew up it was the difference between having 30 miles of trail or 3000 miles of trail. :laugh:

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Because I'll almost never actually run the headlight. I'll be surprised if I run it more than 30 minutes in an entire year. No need to go the route of a lighting coil for that little use. This Sheriff wanted to see everything work - high and low beams, tail light, brake light, license plate light, mirror, horn.

 

[JWW]

Thats a nice setup.

 

[Someone]

Sweet, great job. The coil for lighting would have been 2x's or more what you have invested.

 

[KXtrailrider]

My KX is street legal here in Nevada. I did a battery only also but we also have to have turn signals too. I used a switch from and old streat legal Suzuki and put my battery in the airbox. I used a 12volt codeless drill battery, UFO taillight and headlight with built in turn signals. I had to make everything work at the DMV here for my inspection. I just use it to get out of town and back and to legaly ride down county roads. I love my bike and plan to keep it forever. Ed

 

[KiwiBird]

Nice job!

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Thanks guys. BTW, for anyone doing this (at least in MI) make sure you save your receipts for parts. I got somewhat of a hassle at the secretary of state because I didn't have receipts for the parts I used for the conversion. If you haven't paid taxes on the parts you have to pay them at registration time. If you have receipts and have proof of the taxes being paid then you don't. I had to make a statement listing the parts I bought, where I bought them, and the price I paid for them, then I paid the sales tax on what I claimed since I didn't have the receipts. They didn't seem too happy about doing it that way either but they did. I listed them all as being bought from **** and the person who was checking me out when she came back from reading the book (they don't do these often) to figure out how to get it all done and talking to someone else (supervisor I presume) she said that the person she talked to didn't like me having it listed as **** but she said he's a nice guy, why don't we give him a break.

 

[D.LEATHERS]

Hey Steve,
You Must Have Gone To The Sos. In Delta Twp. On Saginaw?? When I Went To Get My 2001 Cr250 Switched Over The Lady Had To Get The Book Out Also. I Didn't Go Through Near The Hassle You Did Though, With Proof Of Receipts Etc. Just Got The Title Switched From Dirt To Street, Showed Them My Signed Green Form From The Police Officer, My Proof Of Insurance, And I Was On My Way. My Set Up Is A Lot Less Complicated Than Yours As I Switch B-tween Enduro Set Up And Mx/hs Set-up. Someday I Hope To Have A Bike For Each Venue. Nice Job On Your Set-up , Looks Very Clean And Well Thought Out.
Dave Leathers.

 

[adam728]

Wow, I had no such hassel with the whole tax thing. I did mine at the Caro S.O.S.

The problem I did have was no one there knew how to switch the title over from off-road only. I spend almost 2 hours there, and probably at least 6 calls were made to the Lansing head quarters before everything was cleared through. I felt bad because it was a Wed evening and the place was packed. I had 2 gals helping me almost the entire time I was there. I'm pretty sure a few dozen people wanted to kill me.

 

[jason33]

nice-
hey is that a rag top gto/tempest or firebird in the back ground?

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Sounds like the lesson is there's a good possibly you'll get a hassle of one kind or another but you'll get through it :) .

Jason - it's a '69 GTO. It's sitting tranny and engineless right now because when I tore into the engine to rebuild it I found a large weld in the lifter valley between two cylinders where they repaired the block and I didn't want to dump any money into that block. The tranny is also busted (M-20) and I've been searching for a service manual for the tranny for years before I tear into it (still haven't found one). We now have kids and that's taken a front seat to spending money on the goat but I know it's there once the situation changes.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

My Set Up Is A Lot Less Complicated Than Yours As I Switch B-tween Enduro Set Up And Mx/hs Set-up.

Yes, it was the Sos on the west side of Lansing. BTW, I set this up so as to be easily removable if I want to lose the extra weight. Everything except for the button for the horn is attached to that aluminum box and it's attached to the bike with 2 screws (one into the top triple clamp where the number plate bolts to it) and the other to the right side headlight mount. I can remove the headlight with two bolts, unplug the two plugs from the horn button, unplug the connector to the rear harness and plug in a plug to it to protect it, take out the two screws and remove the electrics box, then put the number plate back on and put the one screw in. Total time for conversion would take maybe 2 minutes. Unless I wanted to remove the rear fender and taillight too, that would add a few more minutes to remove the seat, unplug the harness, unbolt the four bolts holding the rear fender on, and put the seat back on. The only things left on the bike from the conversion at that point would be the horn button, the two small aluminum headlight brackets, the brake light switch on the rear brake, and the harness from the airbox up to the front of the frame. Maybe a few ounces.