was just looking on the honda website, and I seen something that i don't understand why they did it at all. and it just suck I think. so here it is i was looking at their crf250r dirt bike and the engine in it is a actual 250cc liquid cooled and fuel injected engine. while the engine in the trx250ex is a 229cc air cooled carb feed engine. so now let me ask this what's up with that? i don't rally understand the logic behind this. why didn't they make the engine in the trx 250ex an actual 250cc engine instead of a 229cc engine?

 

Well, to start, that dirtbike is a racer, and manufacturers generally are going to produce an engine with max cc for the intended class. The quad is a lower tech fun machine, not a racer. There have been 230cc machines almost since the beginning of quads, but 250 sounds cooler than 230.

 

Price!!! The little EX is nothing more than a basic entry level machine. Thus....it is thousands of dollars less then a CRF250R! The EX is more the equivalent of the CRF230F in the dirt bike world, so that should make you appreciate the huge price/performance difference.

I would dearly love to see the CRF250X engine in a medium size quad frame! This little thing would scream. (I would expect the basic engine/fuel injection from MX bikes (450 and 250), to filter down to the CRFX bikes soon...and also the 450R quad). Performance wise, it would make the Raptor 250 look like a Craptor, but price wise....no.

 

no, no you dont want the crf250r engine in a quad- I just sold mine and yes, its a fun screaming 13,000 RPM 4 stroke but overall useability in a quad would be even less than a 2 stroke would be as you just cannot lug the engine without damage to its slipper pistion and it makes very little power below 8,000 RPM. Oh, and oil changes every ride and rebuilds every year.
Now- a new engine design of awesome power but quad like torque would be great- yamaha did it!

 

wow thanks for the info, so here's one more question for you guys do you think that we will ever see a fuel injected trx 300ex or 400ex?

 

EFI will filter down eventually. Both of those machines are overdue for a true, complete overhaul. I wouldn't wait for it if I were in the market for a new machine in those classes today however.

 

Probably the same thing would happen if Yamaha put in there YZ250F motor but that will never happen as these engines are to high strung for ATV use! Motorcycle engines rarely EVER make it in a ATV's and if they do there cam profiles are totally different.

 

The displacement not matching matching up with the model name has been around forever and it's rare that you see them matching up no matter what brand you look at.
You want to see some waaaaaay off numbers?...Look no further than ArcticCat.

Yes,..Honda could build the Recon to be a true 250,..but with that required bore and stroke with engine they have now,..what would the power be like?? That's the issue. Other than racing machines, they design an engine to do what they want it to and pay attention to displacement details in the end. This is apparent due to the odd numbers that machine displacements come to in reality. Nothing at all wrong with it. Besides,..it's only a number and hardly the only thing to pay attention to when trying to determine an engine's power.


Regarding the 250F engines in a quad frame,..I've not had the chance to ride one with the CRF, but have ridden quite a few with the YZF and built one using a WRF. They do ok and they are not weak, but in my opinion they arent anymore thrilling than a slightly modified 400EX. However the light weight was something I fell in love with.
If Honda, or Yamaha, or any other OEM was to use their 250F engines and tune them for more low end they might have something. But the one I used was a WRF and it's got a lot more low end than the YZF,..but it still fell short of what one would expect. It just felt like a light weight 400EX...only with slighly more zip in the midrange.