• How does a bike that hasn’t been produced
or updated for over a decade maintain such a fanatic following? We’ll get to the bottom of that in this
video. Frickin Jim here and this is an in-depth review
of the late model Honda XR250R. • The 1996 through 2004 XR250R is an air
cooled, 249cc, carburetor-fed, dry-sump, four-stroke single with a 6 speed transmission and cartridge-damped
suspension. Honda intended it to be the lightest, most
economical, and most beginner friendly of their full size XR bikes. As I’ll explain in this review, the bike
accomplishes these goals quite well. • I’ve owned one of these interesting
and fun bikes for ages and have put countless miles on it. Now that my 1998 bike is almost two decades
old, it’s finally time to give it a thorough review. • This review will discuss and demonstrate
a variety of topics, including: Ergonomics and comfort, suspension, brakes and handling,
load bearing and passenger carrying, electronics and lighting, engine, transmission, and fuel
efficiency, reliability and maintenance, upgradability, and I’ll wrap up with the final opinion
I’ve come to after owning the bike for much of my life. Ergonomics and Comfort
• The level of comfort that the XR offers is something you will never find on a modern
dirt bike. • Most bikes now are made to be ridden standing
on the foot pegs with only short breaks of sitting added in during cornering. That means the foot peg to handlebar distances
are spread out to accommodate a rider that is standing, hunched in the attack position
while riding and the seats are thin pieces of mediocre padding that provide no comfort. • The old XR takes a different approach. It was designed with both standing and sitting
in mind. • The foot peg to handlebar relationship
is not aggressively skewed toward standing riding. Instead, it’s a compromise between being
set up for riding while standing and riding while sitting. However, it’s a compromise that more accurately
reflects the actual amount of standing and sitting that people on long, semi-aggressive
off-road rides will actually do. • The seat on the XR is actually a true
saddle, wide enough and with enough padding so that it is actually comfortable. In my experience, the original seat on this
bike is actually more comfortable than most aftermarket seats for other bikes. • Now, of course, the seat doesn’t allow
you to really sit up on the fuel tank to grab aggressive front end traction like modern
bikes do. Oddly enough, because of the geometry of the
frame and suspension which I will discuss later, getting up on the tank is really just
not all that necessary on this bike. • The clutch pull is very easy when maintained
properly, and can be controlled all day with one finger, however if the cable is never
cleaned or the lifter linkage is never lubricated, it will eventually seize up and the cable
will be at risk of snapping. • The brake controls for both the front
and the rear brakes are engagement point adjustable, just like on most hydraulic dirt bike brakes. • Overall, this is a very comfortable bike. That is simply not something you will hear
someone say about a modern dirt bike. It simply doesn’t happen anymore, which
is just one reason why this bike is so special. Suspension, brakes and handling • The XR is no motocross bike. It will not perform well in environments where
there is lots of jumping or other types of huge G-outs applied to the suspension. • Instead, the combination of relaxed suspension
action and forgiving frame flex provide a very enjoyable ride under the conditions found
in typical trail riding and desert wandering. • While modern bikes are being designed
to allow maximum control when ridden ultra-aggressively, the XR again takes a different approach. • The XR is of course very comfortable and
compliant when being ridden in a relaxed manner. • But the most interesting thing happens
when attempting to ride the XR aggressively. On modern bikes, I’ve learned that the more
you wrangle and wrestle the bike, the faster it will take you. • The XR is almost the complete opposite. When you try to ride the XR aggressively like
a modern bike, it will punish you and put you on the ground quickly. Instead, to get the XR going really fast,
you kind of have to let it do its own thing. You just have to loosen up, roll on the throttle,
and let it work its magic. I’ve found that when I do this, the XR will
just sort of plow through everything like a tank. This makes it really good for blasting through
the desert at high speeds. You just have to get it up to speed and let
it do the rest. I always find myself laughing when applying
this method, because it pretty much just doesn’t make sense… it just works and I can’t
complain about it. • On top of this, the XR has what seems
like an impossible combination of high speed stability and low-speed maneuverability. Again, another thing about the XR that just
doesn’t make sense, but just works. This combination makes the XR an absolute
weapon in the desert. It has the stability to blast 80 miles per
hour in the open, but when the trail tightens up to single track it is ready to corner hard
and flow through the turns like no other. Like I said before, to get this bike maneuvering
quickly, you somehow don’t even need to get up on the tank. It is just strangely well balanced on its
own, and once again you just have to let it do its own thing. I just don’t get it, but I love it. • The actual suspension on this bike is
relatively low-tech but actually offers a decent level of adjustability. The front forks are 41mm KYB cartridge forks
with 10 and a half inches of travel as well as externally adjustable low-speed compression
damping. Aside from the low-speed compression damping,
all other adjustments can only be made internally. Adjustments to the overall fork damping can
be made by switching to different viscosity suspension fluid. High speed compression damping can be adjusted
by adding or removing shims on the base valve of the forks. Rebound damping can be adjusted by adding
or removing shims on the damper rod valve of the forks. The air spring effect, which controls the
majority of the bottoming resistance in the forks, can be adjusted by using more or less
suspension fluid in the forks. • The rear shock is also a KYB unit. It features an attached reservoir, externally
adjustable compression damping, externally adjustable rebound damping, spring preload
adjustability, and allows for 10 and a half inches of travel. The external damping adjustments offer the
widest range of adjustment I’ve yet to see on an OEM shock. On my XR, both the compression damping and
rebound damping can be taken from literally rock hard to basically no damping with only
the use of the external damping adjustment clickers. OEM suspension units generally don’t allow
this wide range of adjustment because people could get themselves killed by messing up
the settings, but for some reason Honda allowed it on this one bike. The internal shim stacks can also be modified
to provide different damping curves. • Overall I’ve been happy enough with
the suspension and I haven’t needed to upgrade it beyond simple tuning. Eventually when I do a build series with this
bike I will be upgrading the suspension, but for ages I have just left it as-is and it
has been good enough to provide countless hours and miles of fun riding. • I’ve found the brakes on this machine
to be excellent. Both the front and rear are Nissin hydraulic
disc brakes. • The front has a dual-piston caliper and
the rear is a single-piston caliper. Both provide the right amount of control and
stopping power in the dirt when kept in good condition. I’ve simply never had a problem with these
brakes, other than one bent rotor which was very easily replaced. • Overall, the handling on this bike works
well enough for what I do with it, which is ride all sorts of trails. It’s just an easy to ride, light, and fun
handling machine. Load bearing and passenger carrying
• Oddly enough for a dirt bike, it almost seems like the XR was designed with a bit
of load bearing in mind. The sub-frame extends pretty far back, and
is fairly beefy for a dirt bike. There are racks available which take advantage
of the sub-frame, but I’ve been happy enough with using a Giant Loop Mojavi saddlebag system
and Green Chile Adventure Gear Soft Rack when I actually want to carry stuff with the bike. It is certainly possible to carry quite a
lot of gear on this bike. • For minimalist trail exploring, it is
definitely possible to add a small repair kit under the seat on top of the airbox, but
I’ve used this extra space to attach a battery since my XR is a dual-sport conversion. • With the under-seat space taken up, I
simply keep my repair kit in a cheap front fender pouch which I’ve found to be very
reliable and unobtrusive. • I’ve taken passengers on this bike a
couple of times just by adding these cheap passenger pegs, but this is definitely not
the first bike in my garage that I would choose for two-up riding. Electronics and Lighting
• The XR comes stock with a simple AC lighting system which powers a headlight and a tail
light. There is no battery, light switches, or other
electronics; it is just a bare bones running light system intended to keep the bike visible
in dusty or low-light conditions. The stock headlight is not good enough to
do any serious night riding. • Upgrading to a higher wattage headlight
bulb doesn’t do much good either, since the original system just doesn’t have enough
power to really make use of a bulb with more draw. • Luckily, there are easy and inexpensive
ways to convert the bike’s lighting circuit to DC which then allows for much better lighting
and the ability to add whatever electronics you want. • This can be accomplished by either wiring
the AC power to an off-the-shelf rectifier, or by upgrading to an aftermarket stator and
using the accompanying regulator rectifier that comes with it. • Using the cheap off-the-shelf rectifier
method, I’ve been able to add lighting to my XR which is adequate for moderate night
riding while maintaining the stock stator. I’ve found that LED and HID lights are the
best to run when using the stock stator. Engine, Transmission, and Fuel Efficiency
• The engine is a four-stroke, air-cooled, 249cc, oversquare, single overhead cam, radial
four-valve, single with a dry sump oil system and a 30mm carburetor, mated to a 6-speed
transmission. • What all this translates to is basically
one of the most unique engines ever found in a dirt bike. • The combination of an oversquare short-stroke
ratio, four radially-aligned valves feeding a hemispherical combustion chamber, and the
light rotating mass of a single overhead cam all come together to make a quick-revving
and free-revving engine with plenty of potential. • In bone stock form the engine lacks the
low RPM torque that most people expect from an air-cooled single, but the healthy mid-range
power makes up for it. However, with just a couple of cheap modifications,
which I’ll discuss in the upgrade section of this video, the bike can be transformed
to have excellent low RPM torque and exhilarating all-around power. • Absolute acceleration will of course depend
on lots of variables, including rider skill, weight, riding elevation, and final drive
ratio, but to give you an idea of what kind of acceleration to expect I went out to record
some numbers. Measuring several
0 to 60 mile per hour runs on my XR at 3,000 feet elevation, I achieved a fastest 0 to 60 mile per hour time of 6.97
seconds. • Compare that to a couple other bikes that
are currently produced in what used to be the XR250R’s price range, and we can see
that it really is not slow. The 2013 KLX250S is over a second slower at
8.4 seconds, same with the CRF250L at 8.6 seconds. The XR would run circles around an XT250 at
10.5 seconds, but it wouldn’t quite keep up in a straight line with the WR250R at 6.7
seconds or the DRZ400S at 6.3 seconds. • The highest speed that I’ve been able
to eke out of my XR was 85 miles per hour on a highway. Though these kinds of numbers don’t matter
very much on this type of bike. What really matters is how useable and broad
the power is in the dirt, and the XR really does well in that aspect. • The dry sump lubrication system on the
bike uses the frame’s front down tube as an oil reservoir. This system allows a large oil capacity without
having extra dead space in the crank cases. It also puts the frame to work as an oil cooler,
so the whole system works out well to prevent all sorts of oil related issues that happen
on wet sump engines where the oil is solely stored in the crank cases. • I should also note that the engine on
this thing is somewhat noisy due to the sub-rocker system used to actuate the radially configured
valves which all point in a different direction. This valve configuration requires what Honda
has called a sub-rocker arm for each valve. Most single overhead cam engines only have
two rockers total, but this engine has a total of 8 rockers and four cam lobes which can
literally make the bike sound like a bucket of bolts sloshing around at times. • The Keihin PD round slide carburetor on
this bike is probably the one thing that most people complain about, and I have to say that
I agree with most people. • Starting the bike when cold with the kick
starter can sometimes take a strange ritual of applying the full choke, pulling in the
decompression lever, giving the bike 10 kicks at wide open throttle, offering the bike its
choice of fine European chocolate, then releasing the throttle and giving it one good full kick
from a couple degrees past top dead center on the compression stroke. It sounds like a joke, but sometimes it’s
the only way. • The carburetor is also very flood-happy
and after pretty much any drop it takes another ritual to get it started again. • You’d think that after owning the bike
for so long, one would have the jetting dialed in but the carburetor on my bike is so sensitive
to every change in the atmosphere that I’ve just given up. Besides, I’ve become pretty good at the
starting rituals. • Most owners have reported that all starting
and jetting issues go away completely with a switch to basically ANY other carburetor
than the Keihin PD that comes stock on the bike. • The 6-speed transmission on this bike
is probably the best kept secret in the dual-sport and off-road world. With almost all other dirt bikes, people complain
that they can’t get enough overdrive out of top gear while maintaining usable gear
ratios for low-speed technical riding. • This is simply not an issue with the XR’s
6-speed transmission and exceptional gear ratio spread. I have my bike geared to where it can maintain
plenty of speed on open roads, yet 1st gear still remains a crawler gear. With this transmission, there is a gear for
every situation and it really does help out. • The only down side to the transmission
is that the original clutch springs are a bit weak for more aggressive riding, and this
leads to the clutch burning out often on a modified engine, but this is very easily fixed
by shimming the original springs or using heavy duty Barnett springs. • Fuel efficiency on this bike is exceptional
for a dirt bike. Of course, off-road conditions vary wildly
so off-road fuel efficiency numbers are somewhat arbitrary, but I’ve seen everything from
40 miles per gallon to 65 miles per gallon off road. • On the road, fuel efficiency numbers that
I’ve recorded have been between 50 and 80 miles per gallon, still a really wide spread. I used this bike as my main mode of transportation
for about two years and during that time the most common figures that I recorded were between
55 and 65 miles per gallon. • With the original fuel tank which holds
about two and a half gallons, the bike is generally good to go for over 100 miles off
road and that is what really counts on a dirt bike. • Overall, the power plant offers plenty
of get-up-and-go for most types of off-road riding and is certainly acceptable for on-road
riding if needed. Reliability and Maintenance
• This is probably the biggest selling point of the XR and the biggest reason for its cult
following; it is just dang bullet proof and simple to maintain. • On my bike, the regular maintenance is
simply to change the oil and filter every once in a while and clean the air filter at
the same time. That’s about it. • Checking the oil level and performing
oil changes can be a little bit tricky for people who are unfamiliar with the dry sump
oiling system because the oil must be warmed up and the bike must be idled for several
minutes standing upright, not leaning too far to one side, to get an accurate oil level
reading from the dipstick on the frame. I’ve seen countless forum posts about people
saying they had to add several liters to get a full reading on the dipstick, but it’s
just because they were all doing it wrong. Either not letting the bike idle for long
enough or letting the bike lean over too far while idling is usually the problem. • On the other hand, the air filter is one
of the simplest ever to perform maintenance on. The airbox has a door on one side. By simply opening this door, the air filter
can be accessed and removed. • The only other maintenance is to replace
the drive chain, sprockets, and tires as needed and sometimes lubricate cables, or grease
the steering stem bearings and rear suspension linkage bearings when they start to feel a
little clunky. • The valve to rocker clearances may need
adjustment on occasion but they generally shouldn’t. If they do require adjustment, it’s not
a good sign because it means something is wearing down in the valve train. • Luckily, when any kind of engine maintenance
is required, it can virtually all be done without removing the engine from the frame. Honda made this bike ridiculously easy to
work on, and anyone who ever has to dig into it will quickly come to appreciate that fact. • In an ironic fashion, my XR always seems
to have some new strange noise coming from it. Over the years, I’ve learned to simply ignore
new noises. It’s just not worth the worrying because
I’ve come to find that it just doesn’t matter. There’s going to be strange noises, I’m
going to ignore them, and it’s going to be fine just like it has been for years. Maybe the stubborn thing will give out some
day, and if it ever does I’ll probably just celebrate because it will mean I can rebuild
it with upgrades. Upgradeability
• There is so much potential and support for upgrades on the XR250R that it is actually
simple to discuss, because it can be rounded up by saying that with this bike, the sky
is the limit. If you can imagine it, it has probably already
been done to one of these bikes. • The suspension can be swapped for the
modern suspension that comes on the latest race bikes, the engine can be turned into
a 315cc 40+ horsepower monster, and the geometry and seating can be made into a modern configuration. • Honestly though, I’ve had so much fun
just enjoying the bike as it is that I haven’t had much of an urge to upgrade it that far. • I would recommend just a couple of simple
and cost effective upgrades. The uncorking mods, which involve removing
the plug at the top of the airbox and drilling out the baffle at the exhaust are basically
free to perform. A big bore setup is around 200 US Dollars
in parts and when I had mine done, I was only charged 60 dollars for the bore and hone on
the single cylinder. Going to a 277cc big bore setup makes all
the difference in the world, and at just under 300 dollars in cost it’s something that
should definitely be considered. • Do it yourself internal suspension tuning
can also work wonders, and Racetech’s Goldvalve kits can make it even better and easier for
a relatively low cost. • If you’d like TONS of information on
all of the modifications available for this bike, check out this website called XR250R
mods. I’ll leave a link in the description of
this video so that you can check it out at the end. Final Opinion
• After owning this bike for a LONG time, the opinion that I’ve developed is that
this is an excellent bike with huge potential that Honda never should have stopped developing. • For me, the kick starting is the one reason
why it isn’t my primary dirt bike. If Honda simply updated it to electric start,
it would be 10 times more fun. • Everything else about the bike is excellent
for its intended purpose and, of course, it is just ridiculously reliable. I’ve been waiting for this thing to die
for years and it just won’t happen. This is an absolute contrast to modern bikes
where people have to really be careful in order to not have the bike fail catastrophically. • This bike is very practical, and if there
are any for sale in your area, they can make a great investment or project bike.
