First Ride: 2012 Honda CRF250R

The votes are in, and the critics say "AWESOME." Take a look at what CycleNews had to say about their first ride on Honda's new 250.

"Cycle News headed back to Piru Raceway today to hang out with the Honda crew, including East Lites Supercross Champion Justin Barcia, for a day of riding on the 2012 CRF250R. Honda made the bike available today for the first time to the media, and we came away very impressed with the bike. Surprise, surprise.

 We've already been a big fan of the bike in recent years, and we certainly liked all of the changes that were made to the 2012, the bulk of those updates to the 249cc Unicam four-valve, Programmed Fuel-Injected motor. One of Honda's primary goals with the '12 was to increase the motor's bottom-to-mid performance, while (here's the tricky part) not compromising any of its already impressive top-end performance. They did this by reworking the cylinder head, fitting the intake system with a smaller 46mm (formerly 50mm) throttle body and tweaking mapping. Did it work? You betcha!

The CR is everything Honda advertised. It has excellent bottom-end and midrange torque and still revs to the moon. The powerband is extremely wide now, making the whole motorcycle easier to ride. Need instant power? Just grab a handful of throttle and the CR responds instantly, even if you're short a few RPMs. One quick fan of the clutch and the motor is back within the power-developing rpm envelope, which is easy to find since the powerband is much wider now.

And throttle response is instant, too. Honda has its PGM-FI system down pat.We found the bike relatively easy to start, but sometimes it got a little cranky when hot.

A powerful yet user-friendly motor inspires confidence on the new CRF250R.

The suspension and chassis weren't ignored, either. Honda made some refinements to the shock and fork settings, and beefed up the front axle collars, which Honda claims add front-end rigidity, thus improves steering precision. But most noteworthy is a revised rear linkage assembly, which combined with new shock valving, is supposed to keep the rear wheel closer to the ground and digging for traction while accelerating over smaller bumps. A new chain roller is said to reduce chain torque on the suspension, thus providing more active suspension movement, Honda claims.

As delivered, we found the rear sag to be a little on the soft side, but once we measured the sag to where it's supposed to be, somewhere between 103mm-105mm, things started falling into place. We preferred the ride height closer to the 103mm mark, where we felt the CR started feeling more balanced overall. At that point, the bike felt extremely stable and predictable. You just point it in the direction you want to go and you're there.

The Piru track wasn't extremely rough and didn't really put the suspension to the test, but from what we can tell so far...well, so far so good.
Once the suspension sag is set and balanced, the Honda turns on command.
Between our two testers, one weighing in around 190 pounds and the other around 175, we only made a few rebound clicks on the rear shock. Otherwise, the suspension is pretty well dialed in right from the start. The single best word to describe the suspension's action so far is - plush.We also noticed (and liked) the CR's wider (and longer) footpegs.The CR also comes with new Dunlop MX51 tires, which we feel are some of the best intermediate tires in the business.Like we said earlier, we came away quite impressed with the new CR, and we're looking forward putting a lot more time on it."

So once again, Honda has gone and made an incredible machine! Be sure to stay tuned to Heartland Honda for all the latest, and of course we'll let you know when WE get our hands on one of these!