Sad day, and a bad taste in my mouth from Hondas

[J.D.]

Talk about a real downer, you always hear people brag and brag about Hondas awesome reliability. I finally get one, and it blows up within 2 hour of riding....dunno what happened exactly, tore it down to the crank and this is what I found......all kidding around though, this was a really disheartening experience. I loved this bike, suits my style of riding perfectly and I loved the power and way it handled. Now, hopefully it can be fixed without having to sell a testicle!

[250rfan]

Talk about a real downer, you always hear people brag and brag about Hondas awesome reliability. I finally get one, and it blows up within 2 hour of riding....dunno what happened exactly, tore it down to the crank and this is what I found......all kidding around though, this was a really disheartening experience. I loved this bike, suits my style of riding perfectly and I loved the power and way it handled. Now, hopefully it can be fixed without having to sell a testicle!


When was the last time the 20 + year old engine was stripped and rebuilt?, if it was like - last week, i would be very disheartened to, If however you have just bought this trike on the recomendation from it's previous owner that the machine is Mechanically sound, they i guess you have just learned a valuable lesson my friend,,,,, HONDA engine are practically BULLET PROOF in my experiance, when serviced regularly

Then again when i buy a new bike/engine i rebuild it so i know exactly what am dealing with - possibly thats because i raced for years and learned the hard way, there's no point in guessing when it comes to engines ect, better to spend a small amount before you have to spend a large amount, IMHO

[chris200x]

When was the last time the 20 + year old engine was stripped and rebuilt?, if it was like - last week, i would be very disheartened to, If however you have just bought this trike on the recomendation from it's previous owner that the machine is Mechanically sound, they i guess you have just learned a valuable lesson my friend,,,,, HONDA engine are practically BULLET PROOF in my experiance,

Then again when i buy a new bike/engine i rebuild it so i know exactly what am dealing with - possibly thats because i raced for years and learned the hard way, there's no point in guessing when it comes to engines ect, better to spend a small amount before you have to spend a large amount, IMHO

Well said. :beer only 2 hours.. obvioulsy the previous owner wasn't honest with you. I know of many Hondas are still going on thier 22+ year old original motors.

Sorry to hear about your misfortunes..

[Huffa]

Well how many hours are on it, how many owners had it before you, how was it taken care of before you, was it rebuilt before and if so by who ?

I would not blame it on Honda, it obviosly needed attention in some way or that would have never happened. Did a crank bearing let loose or what ?

[Huffa]

Well said. :beer only 2 hours.. obvioulsy the previous owner wasn't honest with you. I know of many Hondas are still going on thier 22+ year old original motors.

Sorry to hear about your misfortunes..

Well he said "I finally get one, and it blows up within 2 hour of riding" we don't know yet what the previous owner told him?

[Jason Hall]

Thats my engine, I traded him that R for the 86 500. I have never seen a honda crank do that In my life. I just talked to SSJ3Goku on the phone & I will fix the motor for him. I can't for the life of me figure out why the outer cover would come apart like that unless It was rubbing the case. This engine ran great, and made no noise. I would'nt BS anyone. Anyway he will be taken care of, no matter what.

[J.D.]

Whoa whoa whoa...you guys need to back off the "previous owner" here for just a sec, I won't say who was the previous owner but he's a reputable and well liked member, I'm not blaming him a bit...I just wanted to poke fun at Hondas a bit because everybody screams about there reliability, this instance here....it's just one of those "sh!t happens" moments. My personal theory, either the left side crank bearing let loose, or something got down in the crankcase. But that's my luck to have something like this happen. It happens, but the previous owner was honest with me, and the bike was awesome til this happened. Either way I'm fixing it and love this bike!

[Dammit!]

Man it hurts just looking at that.

That is definitely the exception rather than the rule though. Honda made a great motor with the 250R.

[badasskfx]

mr hall thats a stand up move. kudoes to you.

[KASEY]

mr hall thats a stand up move. kudoes to you.

I AGREE!!! thats a awesome response to that for sure!!!! i have never seen that happen to a honda crank either,,,, HMMMMM

[84honda200s]

props to ya hall. thats a good thing to do. only if there were more people like you.



thats some crap luck man. sorry to see it happen. just think...if it were a yammie it woulda done it after 4-10 min. of riding. (joking guys)

[Billy Golightly]

I've heard of this happening before, but this is the first time I've seen pictures to back up the "theory". My 270 flat tracker motor gave me similar fits for the first few months I owned it, total PITA and I too was pissed about the "honda reliability", I was almost ready to go back to my Z. The difference though is you can actually GET PARTS for the 250R hahaha. I'm sure Jason will get you patched up which was awesome of him to offer for. This'll get resolved, and down the road a few other kinks that might come up will and then you'll have a stone reliable build.

[1bad450r]

ouch that sucks. i kinda went through the same thing when i first bought my 250r. seller told me that it had a fresh rebuild on it and that he had just got done breaking it in. well i rode it for 20 mins and blew the top end. tore it apart and from what the guts were like it looked like a drunken 4 year old did the work. that jerk wouldnt do anything for me so i cut my losses and rebuilt it myself the right way. runs like a top now and has been for a long while. keep the faith, these machines cant be stopped if they are built and taken care of right. mad props to jason for taking care of the situation.

[Dirtcrasher]

What piece of that motor is actually jammed in that crank?? Jason said "outer cover" is there a thin outer cover on a 250R crank itself??

It's simply awesome that Jason will take care of you. Thats the thing with a 2stroke, even if it's nice and quiet it can be close to launch time. But I think in this case, something just let loose.

[Boss]

That happened to me also. Had a flash back when i looked at that whoa! Anyhow the reason that had happened to me was that there was a small piece of the piston that had jammed up in the bottom end and tore the hell out of the crank! Any who i say Hot Rod Crank it and build your dream machine. Good Luck!

[Rustytinhorn]

That happened to me also. Had a flash back when i looked at that whoa! Anyhow the reason that had happened to me was that there was a small piece of the piston that had jammed up in the bottom end and tore the hell out of the crank! Any who i say Hot Rod Crank it and build your dream machine. Good Luck!

Is there really any advantage to running a Hot Rod Crank, besides the fact that its brand new? No offense meant, just curious.

[Jason Hall]

Thanks guys, I can't see leaving the guy hanging like that. He Is a very understanding person and that means alot. I could hardly sleep at all last night trying to figure out why that outer cover wadded up like that. He did say a small piece of the piston broke off, but wow that looks BAD.

I've heard good and bad about wiseco cranks. But I've never heard anything bad about a honda crank. They are very TUFF. I know when you could still buy the short rod cranks from honda, CT and a few other aftermarket engine builders would use stock honda cranks In there big bore motor's.

[Bryan Raffa]

Finally..I can get back at you honda guys,, :lol: :lol: :lol:

Jason ..your a stand up dude in my book!:beer

[Yamada]

Raffa, wanna sell a couple of these????:lol: :lol:

[ColeTrickle]

Here are some pictures of a 97 cr250 that I'm working on in the shop now. No Idea how this happened either but the guy was riding it, put it away then next time he went to ride it the bike locked up while he was trying to kick start it. I didn't know that the Honda cranks had those covers on them. This one already had a Hot Rod rod kit.

[oldskool83]

sorry to see that...anytime i get an older cycle now i have the motor fully rebuilt so this does not happen. most trikes out there are not taken care of, outta sight outta mind....oh it runs yep it does til this happens.

[brapp]

i have totale bent rode the the shape of a j before on a banshee but never on a 250r. and i have had 2 tri-z's that droped pisces of piston skirt in bottom ends.

[gaukel350x]

hey you would get alot of money for that testicle

[cr480r]

These cranks must be perfectly pressed together in a jig... Because of that tin cover there is no persuading them back to true with out damage occuring... Its impossible to know who and what has been done to these machines in the last 20 years...

[SpeedyTide]

Well said. :beer only 2 hours.. obvioulsy the previous owner wasn't honest with you. I know of many Hondas are still going on thier 22+ year old original motors.

Sorry to hear about your misfortunes..

Yep!! My 'ol '85 Big Red is still going on that 'ol stock motor! I'm 3rd owner. :w00t:

[NINJA]

I guess that soup can crank finally went. That sucks man! Hot rods cranks are good though. They have a stronger rod on them, just check the runout before you install them. I've only seen two that were too far out for my tastes, but that's two too many. Can't go wrong with a stocker, they're always spot on in my experience. Kudos to you Jason Hall, I've personally never dealt with you, but I won't think twice of doing business with you now.