Peter`s fab article

tested
race-ready
50 |
april 2013
www.drd.co.nz |
51
tested
race-ready
Whipped!
T
ake a look at the bikes
the semi-privateers
that are getting top ten
results in this year’s AMA
Supercross series are aboard, you
will notice many of them riding
red. In fact, as of writing this story
and not counting Wil Hahn who
won the thing, Honda took up
over half of the top 10 in the latest
round. Honda’s ability to build a
competitive and reliable bike that
will last a season without needing
an excessive parts replacement
budget is key to this decision.
choices
There was a series of choices I had
to make this year, the first being an
important one, whether to race or
not. It takes a lot of commitment to
do well so when I decided that was
a ‘yes’, the second question was,
which bike to ride? Don’t be alarmed. There was
never a moment when I thought
it wouldn’t be a Honda. I have
officially been on the NZ Honda
Racing Team practically the whole
way through since the tender age
of 16. This year team manager
Peter Findlay approached me
with the option to go out on my
own with the support from Blue
Wing carrying on unchanged, the
only difference being I would be
under my own tent with my own
special sponsors. It sounded like
the ideal situation so I jumped in
whole-heartedly. Back to the question: 250 or
450? Now, as keen as I was to
ride the latest and greatest i.e.
the new air fork/ twin exhaust
CRF450R, I chose to once again
run the smaller CRF seeing
as the MX1 class was already
teeming with riders on red rides. A
reason that would not have been
enough to sway me had I not
been confident that we could get
the bike running fast enough to
compete with the 250 two-strokes
on a very limited budget. STARTING FROM
THE TOP
• Tag Handlebars, medium
Honda bend
• Tag grips set with Renthal grip glue
and grip wired
• Tag Triple Clamp Adaptors
• Works Connection Clutch Perch
and lever
• BP Ultimate Fuel
• Castrol GPS Engine oil
• Custom Workshop Graphics
Decal Kit
• Custom Gripper Seat by
DR Trim, Morrinsville
• Scorpion Radiator Braces
• 2010 Side Plates
• FMF 4.1 RCT Stainless Mega Bomb
Header and Muffler
• Flowed Cylinder Head by Pro Circuit
• Pro Circuit Cam • High Compression (14.2 to 1)
Pro Circuit Piston
• Pro Circuit Titanium valves, Valve
Retainers and Spring Kit
• Pro Circuit Cam
• Vortex Igniton
• Over size BRAKING Front Disc
• Moto SR Valving in Forks and Shock
• RK Chain • RK Sprockets, 13 tooth front and
49 tooth rear
• Bridgestone Tyres and Heavy Duty
Tubes at 12 PSI
Big thanks to Botany Honda and
Castrol Oils!
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52 |
april 2013
tested
race-ready
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unchang
I was fortunate enough to get
advice from some of the best
in the business, and combined
that with what I have found to
work best for me over the years,
I ended up with the Broxy Racing
CRF250R for 2013.
Ponies
In 2012, the advice I received
was that unless you want to go
the whole hog and spend a lot of
money, the best thing you can do is
increase the compression and leave
the rest of its internals as they are. Shaving a small amount of metal
from the bottom of the cylinder
head was the easy and low cost
option. We could have bought a
high compression piston, but then
would have needed to keep doing
so every time it had completed its
15 or so hours of hard use, which
is why we stuck to the standard
pistons and shaved the head. Next time around including
my current practice bike, to
keep things even cheaper while
achieving the same result we
actually shaved the barrel instead,
a more simple option that cost
around $150 in total. It worked
well, giving the MX2 bike plenty
of torque while keeping it reliable
enough that it continued to run
well long after Nathan Evans, son
of Botany Honda’s Danny and
Donna, had taken possession of it. This year I wanted to take it to
the next step, and on the advice
of the same experts did the PC
thing… Pro Circuit, that is. The combo was a head flowed
by Mitch Payton himself with a
Pro Circuit cam, high compression
piston and titanium valves matched
to titanium valve retainers and spring
kit. To run all of this I purchased a
Vortex ignition, a high quality unit,
which are manually adjustable
using screws that point to certain
numbers. Pretty cool, so long as no
one decides to have a fiddle. On the track I noticed straight
away that it now continued pulling
hard way up high in the revs where
it used to need another gear. The
best thing about that was I now
didn’t need to be so fussy on
gearing, because second gear was
more useable and third had loads
of pulling power. I hooked this new engine up to
an FMF Factory 4.1 muffler that
was literally a breath of fresh air.
It is no secret that the standard
muffler holds it back no end,
so I was glad to pass that off in
exchange for the slightly louder
but lighter and more powerful one.
Unfortunately the FMF MegaBomb
header didn’t arrive for some time,
but on arrival it definitely added
to the low down torque. To be
honest, any of the major exhaust
brands would have been fine, but
the main thing to watch out for is
fresh muffler packing at the first
hint of it going off. Welcome to the Showa
Surely with enough practice this
engine would be enough to get me
down the start straight out front,
and combined with the ever trusty
Castrol oils that I love, will no doubt
be as reliable as you could hope
for. Next? The suspension…
While the suspension setup that
the Performance Factory has done
for me over the past few years
has suited NZ conditions like a
dream, I had all-round nice guy and
suspension guru Ritchie Ebbett
from MotoSR do a similar setting
to what he did to my CRF450R
practice bike last year. I had been
very impressed by the forgiveness
of that setup that he thought was
54 |
april 2013
on the firm side but is exactly what
I needed to be able to hit the track
hard and still avoid the arm pump.
We met up with Ritchie and Scotty
at the Rotorua MX track for a day of
testing, along with teammate Kieran
Scheele and Team Honda rider
Michael Phillips, where he did the
work on my 250’s springers.
Sure enough the suspension
was plush, but perhaps too soft on
the front, so after we couldn’t get
enough firmness with the clickers,
the boys then did an overhaul in
the van. The improvement was
instant and I have continued with
that setting, basically unchanged,
ever since. As Ritchie says, “The standard
Showa forks and shock are
excellent components and
combine with a good frame, steep
steering angle for sharp turning
and HPSD steering dampener
for stability.” The next thing to try
will be one of their RG3 linkage
kits, which I hope to test soon,
and something I haven’t been
game enough to try yet is a tighter
steering stem nut. That would
be to help stabilise the bike even
more in ruts like I know a fair few
people do in the GPs, but I figure
it is too late to try now that I am
halfway through the nationals. tested
race-ready
Bubba Bum
Since my photoshoot with Alick
Saunders there has also been a
change in seat cover thanks to
the whiz known as DR Trim. On
our test day at Rotorua I was
introduced to his folded style
that did a brilliant job of keeping
me from sliding back on the seat
under hard acceleration. On
request, Roger made me a special
black with red stripes customised
version along the lines of James
Stewart’s black with yellow striped
seat. It blew me away, and despite
my initial thoughts that it might
tear my bum up, has proved to be
the best of both worlds, keeping
arm pump down by not letting me
slide back easily and avoiding too
much in the way of chafe.
Accessories time and introducing
the tapered type Tag handlebars
that I have never been able to
bend a set of, which is saying a
lot, seeing I have literally snapped
every other brand over the years.
On the clutch side you might
notice a Works Connection clutch
lever. Its bearing system coupled
with excellent leverage makes for
such a nice pull that I just had
to have it. Also when it comes
to stopping, the standard Honda
is about average, so I chose a
BRAKING front disc that has
been excellent without requiring
much effort.
Down on the ground I now run
a Bridgestone combo of 202/204
tyres for practice on race day
before switching to the excellent
404 mid-hard terrain tyres when
the track hardens up at all three
rounds of this year’s nationals. The
standard Dunlop tyres and Renthal
handlebars are fine for practicing
on at home but not my choice
come race day. Which is not what
I would say about the standard
Honda chain that I immediately
replaced with an RK unit to get the
most out of the standard sprockets
(no matter what type of riding I do). Airy Fairy?
Sucking the air comes through
NoToil – both the filters and oil –
since the system is so unbelievably
easy to use and I don’t think I could
ever go back to a petroleum based
product without shedding some very
real tears. Still worried that water
might get through? Jimmy Ashton,
my most excellent mechanic and
mental advisor needed to test its
water shedding capabilities before
committing my bike into its trust and
no matter what he did, the water
would not go through the NoToil,
until he had added the powder that
effectively disarms it which then
comes out like a breeze. Brilliant. Topping the look off is a sticker
kit courtesy of the very capable
Darryl of Workshop Graphics. His
work is fast and lasts well despite
the punishment I tend to dish out
on decals such as these. The bike
is a serious looker already so this
just added to what was already
very cool.
Everything else is standard on
this bike, including brake pads for
their ability to stay silent, and foot
pegs wide enough even for me. The
only other addition that I use, and
swear by, is the Scorpion radiator
braces that have proved their
worth many times in protecting my
radiators from certain death. I’d feel
more sorry for whatever is hitting
my braces than I would worry about
my radiators bending. While all of this still added up to
a price high enough to make you
think twice before going whole hog,
when it comes to a competitive and
long lasting race bike you just can’t
go past the strong package that
is so easy to build from Honda’s
CRF250R.
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56 |
april 2013