Do It For the Children
DO IT FOR THE CHILDREN
See the Gregg’s CBR250R at the show, buy a ticket, win it
This year’s Cycle World/Ride for Kids bike to benefit the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation really does combine a few of our favorite things.
Put together by Gregg DesJardins of Gregg's Customs, this one starts out as the excellent little Honda CBR250R, loses a little bodywork, gains some cool bits, including CRG mirrors, and Dunlop tires, and winds up being a dirttrack-inspired street urchin/scrambler that looks like it would be right at home almost anywhere.
Sportchrome (www.sportchrome.com) helped manage the project and contributed design work and paint, which, along with custom graphics, was applied by ColorZone Designs (www. colorzonedesigns.com). DesJardins himself took on the task of making the front numberplate and sidecovers from aluminum, with the “toroidal” shape of the little CBR’s speedo used as a theme throughout the bike.
Performance Machine wheels and brakes for a pre-2K Harley were close to the axle size and hub width of the CBR250R’s, so DesJardins performed a little machining to hubs and rear sprocket to make them work. Then it was time to fabricate a radial-mount front-caliper bracket and a rear one, mount gauges to triple-clamp, remove unnecessary tabs and brackets, attach a custom LeoVince exhaust and about a hundred more details...
And if the CBR’s too rich for your blood, behind door Number Two we have a Honda Ruckus completely artistically fortified by master moto-artisan Troy Lee. Both bikes will be on display at all the Progressive Motorcycle Shows across the U.S. and will be won by two lucky entrants following a drawing to be held in May. If you can’t make it to a show, go to www.rideforkids.com to make a donation and/or enter to win.
—John Burns
íí ■^■■aking It to the Nines” I blared the I cover w lii , in big red type,
a description of the staff's attempt to co erce the era's three fastest production bikes from the
sub-11 -second
quarter-mile level r T v down into the 9-second bracket. After quite a few carefully selected modifications, two of the three (Yamaha V-Max at 9.69; Suzuki GSX-R1100 at 9.84) succeeded, while a turbocharged Kawasaki 900 Eliminator came up .06-second short before spinning a rod bearing. We never suspected that 25 years later, a few completely stock bikes would be capable of mid-9-second times.
•Lots of tests and impressions in this issue, headlined by a fivebike 125cc motocross comparison in which Honda’s CR125R trounced the competition. Honda also got a full test of its V-Four 700 Magna cruiser, while all four of Yamaha’s 1987 “sport” models—FZR1000, r—FZR750R,FZ700 jl and SRX250— were treated to riding impresI sions. So was a I i bike in its inauI gural year: the I fy dual-purpose I .
Kawasaki i ¿
KLR650, which not only beI J"jj came a fave of ——— adventure-touring riders but is still in production today.
hi'ct1 Supe,bikes In Qwst I v~; H-WeA
•Speaking of dual-purpose, contributor Steve Ballmer wrote a historic piece about one of the most important motorcycles of the past half-century: the 1968 Yamaha DT-1 Enduro, the first modern dual-purpose bike. The DT-1 provided an ideal platform on which newbies could learn how to ride, and at the same time, it demonstrated, as Ballmer put it, that “a good dirtbike makes an okay streetbike, but a good streetbike makes a lousy dirtbike.” —Paul Dean
