late model cr250's

FWIW, I remember there was an old thread ages ago where someone wanted to turn an '02 into an offroad bike. If I recall correctly, they were unhappy with the lack of low end, but loved the bike otherwise.

The end result was porting the motor for low end made the owner very satisfied.

Right, as long as you plan to alter the porting you can make it whatever you want. Turning any close ratio tranny MX bike into a smooth woodser will require some work. Porting, power valve adjustment, pipe and gearing should get you close, engine wise.

It seems the rider has the biggest impact on reliability. Maintenance and riding style can cause big variences in service life.

I have a 05 that I use off road only (no mx). In stock form I hated the power. crappy transition from low end to top end, hard to jet and finicky.

The JD jet kits work well, but they still are finicky to temp changes with the JD kit.

I had been running it with a 38mm keihin from a 2000 cr250, that ran very well and more easily jetted. I then installed a 36mm keihin from a 2006 ktm300. This is the carb that honda should have installed. Easy to jet, pretty smooth transition from bottom to top.

I also added the typical woods stuff: 10ounce flywheel weight, re-geared sprockets, oversized tank, boyesen power reeds and spark arrestor.

I initially bought the bike cheap to resell for extra cash, but I like it too much now. Ranks up there on the fun factor scale with my ktm 200.

And I love the handling of the cr.