Still dabbling in the odd race, Adam was supposed to have a KTM 300EXC for the 2012 Australian Four-Day Enduro but it didn’t show up. There was panic stations [not unusual for Adam] before he decided to buy and race an older bike and film the journey.
With the clock ticking and the A4DE at Warragul in Victoria fast approaching, Adam knew he had to find something, and find it fast. He saw a reasonable-looking Honda CR250R in the classifieds which was owned by a kid in Picton, NSW. Knowing that the bike would be up to the job while also being affordable, Adam decided to make the drive and check it out. It looked a tad beaten down but a test ride suggested it was good to go!
“The kid and his family were trusting enough to accept a digital payment for the bike on the spot and allowed me to take it without the funds being cleared,” Adam says. “With only days up our sleeves, a road trip to Warragul ensued for the race, and I was constantly stopping at different suppliers to prep the machine.
“The first stop was a Geoff Ballard’s shed, where GB ripped off the standard seatcover and went to town on the foam. He raised it and put a step in it for me [this is before gripper seats]. The original seatcover was quickly thrown back on and GB also hooked me up with a Tag tapered ’bar, handgrips and a set of mousse tubes.”
Back on the road and heading towards Victoria, Adam placed an order with Honda that included a complete top-end kit, wheel bearings and a set of rear spokes and nipples (because the originals had seized). Glenn Hoffman Racing was the first stop south of Sydney to pick up some DBR brake rotors, which were some of the first wave discs available. He also managed to twist Glenn’s arm for some indestructible DBR sprockets and plastic chainguide, which are still on the bike. “From there I legged it across the border to Choice Suspension [in Kyneton] where Anthony Giles threw an ‘off-road’ setting into the old bike, along with new fork seals and bushes and I was off without any testing to go race this thing,” Adam says. “I’d also contacted Ringmaster Images for graphics and the Polisport importer, Link International, who sorted me with some plastics and a headlight.
“I ordered a set of RHK handguards from Titmans and a couple of other little bits and pieces, all of which were supposed to arrive ahead of time at Daniel Milner’s place, which was my final destination to prepare for the Four-Day.”
The plastics, along with the top-end kit, had arrived and Adam found himself out in the garage doing the top-end build. He couldn’t rebuild the wheel because there was no sign of any spokes from Honda. But more about that later!
“My main memory of racing at the 2012 A4DE was coming into the event pretty bloody confident that I could get this beat-down Honda CR250 up on the Over 35s’ podium, which would have been my first class podium at a Four-Day,” Adam says. “And then, a few days before the event, off-road legend and Gippsland local David ‘Flea’ Fleming pops in an entry and my chances for a podium are looking a tad slimmer. All in all, the event was an absolute blast and I found myself fourth in class going into the Final Test.”
Adam didn’t even think the CR was going to make it out to start the Test as the rear wheel was about to implode. Ballard helped him out by tying the spokes together with cable ties. It held together to complete the event but Adam’s first podium at an A4DE would have to wait another 12 months, when he finally got the job done with a third in the Over 35’s class in Harvey, WA, on board a 300EXC just like the one he was supposed to race at Warragul.
Despite all the last-minute effort that went into that CR250 build, it was dumped in Adam’s Sydney shed for over 12 months without even being started. Fast forward seven years and Adam had moved back to WA, bought a farm and, for a minute there, the CR250 was like a dead weight being dragged around the country while he tested the latest and greatest for YouTube.
“I was close to either selling it or tearing it down for parts,” he says. “It has since become an iconic bike and the benchmark that every bike gets tested against for The Dirt Kitchen. It really is incredible to think that this 2007 Honda CR250 two-stroke that was almost turfed into the moto cemetery has generated 15.5 million views.”
I was at Riemann’s remote property south of Perth, the secret location for all his Dirt Kitchen videos, to record an episode for that show about the 2020 Honda CRF450R (ADB #486) and have my fastest lap clocked and compared to those who had come before me. But, having heard so much about this CR250, I also got to throw a leg over it.
They say that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but having just swung my leg off the latest CRF450R, the 250 looked like it might have done a moto or two, shall we say. The gleaming metal had faded to a dull silver but you could tell that there was still life in the old battle axe.
The stepped seat had mercifully gone and there was a VForce 3 reed block, but the newest things on the bike seemed to be the Motology Films graphics kit and the paint on the expansion chamber. The moment I kicked her into life I had a flood of memories from the good ’ol days.
The sound of a crisp 250cc two-stroke is one of the great things in life and, when combined with the sweet smell of castor oil in racing fuel, you can almost close your eyes and find yourself back on the start line of the Supercross Masters at Melbourne Park, then called Flinders Park, in the mid-’90s.
I snapped back to reality, put my goggles on and did some warm-up laps with Riemann smiling like it was his first time at a motocross track. As soon as I took off I was so pumped with the sharp, crisp sound coming from the FMF Shorty muffler. I was like one of those kids who gets on a 50cc race bike for the first time and wants to make as much noise as possible. But, just as quick as I was smiling about the sound, I found myself looking down at the bike wondering if something was wrong with it! Nope, the bike was fine!
Just the reality was setting in of the huge difference in horsepower from the CRF450R. The 250 two-stroke is exciting, lively and fun to ride but in comparison to a late-model 450 its power curve is aggressive and it’s rather difficult to keep in the meaty part. After a couple of corners I started to realise how fast you could turn on the 250. Particularly in the tighter turns, where I really noticed how much lighter it was than a 450. The lower seat also seemed to really help with shifting my weight for the switchback, flat corners.
Despite the relative lack of brakes, I had an absolute blast riding Riemann’s Honda and when the lap times were logged I had managed a 2min 54sec on the latest Honda CRF450R and was only 2sec slower on the 2007 CR250 with a 2min 56sec. In doing so I surprised the heck out of myself and Adam. Proving just how deceptively fast an old two-stroke can sneak around the track … maybe the dodgy brakes had something to do with it.
WORDS // LEE HOGAN PHOTOS // ADAM RIEMANN
