Project Enduro Bikes

PROJECT ENDURO BIKES

If you can’t buy ’em, build ’em

RON GRIEWE

SHOPPING FOR A 250CC TWO-STROKE ENDURO BIKE CAN be a frustrating experience for riders who prefer Japanese brands. Yamaha and Kawasaki both have decent 200cc enduro models, but it’s been years since any Japanese company offered a two-stroke 250 enduro.

Ultimately, there are two solutions to this problem: Either buy European, or convert a Japanese motocross bike into an off-road racer.

But even though building a project bike of that sort usually is a lot of fun, it also can be an expensive, timeconsuming endeavor. And then there are the nagging questions about what accessories to use, where to get them, and the cost of all the parts involved.

There’s a good chance we can answer those and many other questions, however, since we recently built three such bikes in our shop. We modified a KX250 Kawasaki for playriding in the mountains and deserts, and for the occasional enduro event. We took a YZ250 and modified it for riding in the California desert and in Baja, and for racing in GPs. And we performed modifications on an RM250 that were aimed at only one objective: two-day ISDEqualifiers. An enduro-ready Honda CR250R was put together by Jon Stillman of American Honda and loaned to us for our examination and evaluation.

No matter who built them, though, all of these project bikes satisfy our specific design intentions. They are competitive at their assigned tasks and are fun to ride in just about any off-road situation. We rode hundreds of miles in the desert and mountains on each of these bikes while testing and/or developing them, and we can’t lie to you: We enjoyed every single mile of it.