BEST 250 Motors Ever

B

bleeds

Member
Oct 17, 2005
172
0
I havent alot of other bike knowledge, but I know that my 82 CR250R Holeshoots HARDCORE. Strong!
Bleeds
 
D

dez nut

Member
Oct 9, 2005
35
0
Best 250 motor ever

:) 1979 Yamaha YZ 250. Awesome motor, low RPM to mid range to screaming. Heads and shoulders above the other brands that year. Bob Hannah won the supercross championship in 78. I guess Yamaha learned alot from it. The stock 79's were great, right out of the box.
Deznut
 
J

jrm

Member
Apr 30, 2002
121
0
As far as air cooled bikes, I have to say the '78 CR250 Red Rocket. Nothing could touch it on the starts (except other CR250s). 36 HP and 217 lbs coupled with 12 inches of suspension travel front and rear. As soon as I got that bike, my results instantly improved. It was like Honda was selling works bikes that year.

Wish I still had it for vintage racing.
 
7

76GMC1500

Uhhh...
Oct 19, 2006
2,142
1
For trail riding, I really like the 1987 CR250 motor. It has a strong and extremely smooth (older air-cooled 4-stroke smooth) midrange. When the trails get rough or technical, I just short shift the bike and cruise on through. When the trails open up, I open the throttle up. The bike pulls hard on the top end and is at the top of 5th gear as quickly as I can shift it there. My biggest complaint about the motor is that it absolutely guzzles gas. I burn over 4 gallons of gas in 4-5 hours of riding while my friends burn 2-3 gallons. The HPP power valves are prone to carbon fouling, but are very simple to remove and clean.

The chassis... It's an interesting one. The suspension is pretty soft, but is suprisingly resistant to bottoming. This is nice on the trails as I am a mostly sitdown rider but I have a tendancy to get myself in situations where I come down from a jump hard on the front wheel into a square edged hole. The fork just soaks it up and I keep on ridinging thinking of how bad that could have been. The bike is very loose on the back end. The rear tire rarely tracks behind the front wheel, it must look like I'm running a super moto race when I'm on the trails. I think this makes the bike kind of fun to ride. The Cheng Shen tire I'm running on the rear may have something to do with it. I managed to score a couple of used (some people throw out some pretty nice tires) Michelin and Dunlops, I'll see if these help the rear wheel traction. When I do open the bike up, it comes up to speed fast. I have to be extremely careful in 4th and 5th gears because the bike will bar-swap badly over the slightest bumps. I've actually hit the steering stops while pinned in 5th gear.

If trails are your thing, the 87 CR250 motor is hard to beat. It makes strong power on top, but has a smooth midrange that wont wear you out.
 
J

just_a_rider

Member
Jul 25, 2006
394
1
I agree on the KX's for sure, bottom end is great as well as the top. I can grunt mine out of a corner in 3rd with stock sprockets and the pick up is nice and clean. I only use 1st gear to put around in.
 
F

friar tuck

Member
Feb 9, 2006
190
0
I still have a lot of love for my old '79 Husky 250cr...tons of power, sounded awesome, and Steve McQueen rode one...how can you beat that? ;) (wasn't exactly the best handling machine in the woods though) :laugh:
 

VintageDirt

Baked Spud
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Jan 1, 2001
3,043
9
Wow, the top 250 motors, that's a damn long list. Isn't it usually the top 10?
 
U

uts

Member
Jan 8, 2004
305
0
I haven't ridden that many, but my favourite was my old 86 cr250. Bottom end beast- I called it the tractor.
 
J

john stu

LIFETIME SPONSOR
Jan 7, 2002
790
0
not sure witch one was the best but im positive witch one was the absolute worst!! 2002 cr250............ it was slower than a :ride:
 
J

john stu

LIFETIME SPONSOR
Jan 7, 2002
790
0
DirtRyder03 said:
I would say for the 125's the 1982 rm125 such a screaming motor for its time, will still destroy some newer 125 today in the motor department!!
Click to expand...



i had a 82 rm125 and i would say the exact same thing ...that bikes engine ripped!!
 

mx547

Ortho doc's wet dream
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Nov 24, 2000
4,784
103
john stu said:
not sure witch one was the best but im positive witch one was the absolute worst!! 2002 cr250............ it was slower than a :ride:
Click to expand...

i holeshot my second moto sunday on my '02 against a field of 250f's and 450's. i was the only two-stroke on the gate. one of them finally caught me on the last lap. good thing for them that i wasn't on a "fast" bike.
 
2

2 strokes for life

Member
Jan 3, 2007
1,860
0
I think the 2 best 250 motors are the 1996 WR250. Then, the 1985 IT250. Awsome woods bikes stock and if you wanted to you could wheely past most other 250s.
 
C

cleopatrisha

Member
Dec 16, 2006
86
0
1986 Honda TRX250R 2 Stroke engine.

The 1986 Honda TRX250R is the greatest 250 2 stroke engine ever built.In fact honda had to detune them alittle for the '87 model because they were so powerful. not very many people will argue this. I have always been curious if you can put this engine in a dirt bike. on the other hand I think it would be too much of an engine for a dirt bike. this engine is not for a beginner as it definately has the ability to put you in the hospital. but as far as a dirt bike engine I would say a 2004 yz250 2 stroke mainly because yamaha had all these years to perfect thier 2 strokes and I personally think they did quite well. just my 2 cents worth
 

Someone

Member
Mar 12, 2001
865
0
My 01 YZ 250 was scary strong. My 05 YZ 250 has the best useable power I've ever experienced.
 
7

76GMC1500

Uhhh...
Oct 19, 2006
2,142
1
Weird, the TRX250R motor has no power valve.

The fastest thing I have ever ridden was a 97 YZ250 with a long rod/cylinder spacer kit and an FMF rev pipe. I don't believe it had any port work, but it may have. The motor was a light switch.
 
7

76GMC1500

Uhhh...
Oct 19, 2006
2,142
1
I'm about to test ride an 85 YZ250 motor, I'll tell you how that goes. I like the removeable powervalve linkage cover on the 85. I had to pull my cylinder to set up my power valve linkage on my 87 CR250. I was able pull and install it in about 3 hours without removing the head so it cost me only a quart of anti-freeze and a quart of transmission oil, but it was still a pain to do.
 
M

Matt Fisher

Member
Apr 17, 2002
136
0


Not true. I owned an 86 TRX250R, and they really aren't all that quick out of the box. The top-end is based on early 80's, non-powervalved CR250 that was detuned to put into the ATC and TRX. Swapping the dirtbike cylinders on was a popular mod in the late 80's. The bottom end was quite different than the dirtbike, with 6 gears and a counterbalancer. In 87 Honda did lower 6th gear, changed the rod length, and port timing, but they amounted to minor changes. With a built motor, the 6th gear does allow for some pretty high top-speeds, but with basic bolt-on parts, you'd never see even 40hp out of one.

The most powerful (though not necessarily the best) 250cc production MX motor I'm aware of was the 03 KTM 250SX. It usually dyno'd at about 53hp.
 
K

k-ryder

Member
Feb 10, 2004
85
0
05 250sx !

Pro Circuit pipe and it's around 51hp.....no hit to speak of but amazing depth.

The 88 rm250 was fun too, but it was a light flywheeled zippy motor.

83 honda cr480 was a nice open motor
 
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