Honda CR250M

Honda CR250M

The Honda CR250M Elsinore is a two-stroke motorcycle first manufactured by Honda in March 1973; it had 29 horsepower and weighed 229 pounds. It was designed by Soichiro Miyakoshi, and prototype testing began in Japan in 1971 and on California motocross tracks in 1972. The CR250M was Honda's first two-stroke production race bike, the first competition dirt bike that Honda built from scratch instead of adapting a street bike, and the first production motocrosser. A chome-moly frame, aluminum bodywork and plastic fenders contributed to its light weight, even after restyling when initial tests showed the frame to be too fragile, potentially bending after less than an hour of riding.

The Elsinore was named after the offroad race in Lake Elsinore, California, the best-known off-road race of the late 1960's and early 1970's. The popularity of the CR250M and its derivatives soared after Gary Jones rode a stock machine to win the 1973 AMA 250 national motocross series.

In 1974 the CR250M was followed by its 'son', the Honda CR125M, and the first US Honda factory that opened in 1979 in Marysville, Ohio built CR250Ms.