I know this is a dumb question, but i cant get a straight answer from anyone! People tell me its was cause the sales fell (yeah right) and that people were killing themseves because they didnt know what they were buying. Also how did the 250r compare to the yamaha tri-z 250 and the lt250r?

 

I have heard they stoped making the 250r and also the three wheelers because peaple that didnt know how tto ride where riding them and killing themselves and then sueing honda for their mistakes. Honda couldnt afford all the lawsuits and just stoped making high performance two strokes.But that is just what I have heard I dont know if any of this is fact or not. And I couldnt tell you how they compare cause I have never riden any of them.

 

Although I too could never find a straight answer for the reason they stopped making the 250R, I doubt that it was because of people killing themselves on the machines. There must of been clear warnings about getting hurt and risk of death on the machine.
I LOVE THE TRX250R[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]
John Fahey
1988 Honda 250R

 

Back in 86-87 all the manufacturers where being sued due to 3 wheeler accident, at the top of the list was Honda because they where the most popular. On the top of the list was the 250r because drunken redneck where killing them selves on the weekends on these high power machines. in 89 any the manufacturers paid out large amount of money in lawsuits and agreed to not produce 3 wheelers for 10 years. Honda got out of the sport market altogether. The sport market is coming back due to two things, one education, drinking and riding are now socially less acceptable , people now know these are not toys and they wear more helmets. Two, during the late 80s ATVing was viewed as a dangerous sport. But during the 90 extreme sports became popular. With people snowboarding off cliffs, mountain biking down steep hills, Skate boarding and bike and rollerblading 12 foot half pipes now make ATVing look tame. I for one was into mountain biking and hardly ever came home with out some kind of injury, on my 250 the injuries are few and far between.

 

They stopped making the 250r because the CPSC (Consumer Products Safety Comission or sumtin like that) forced the manufacturers to stop making them due to injuries. Another reason production of the lt250r, quadzilla, honda 250r, tecate4, were emissions standards.

i read that in dirtwheels quite a long time ago - and im not entirely sure thats what it said - but thats to the best of my recallection there..
trin

 

One reason i heard is that the goverment banned them from any more research and develpment of high performance machines. That is why Honda stopped making the 250R and the Banshee went pretty much unchanged except cosmetics over the last 15 years or so.

 

That wouldn't be the case since new two-strokes have been developed (Bombardier or Polaris) and 2-strokes are still being R&D for dirtbikes. It's just politically incorrect to produce a two stroke now a days. Dirtbikes get away with it barely by calling them "closed circuit " bikes. They pollute too much and rip up the terrain but I would never give mine up. I've yet to ride something that could give you the thrill of a 2 stroke. The sound, the power and the smell is so aggressive.
BTW does anyone now where i could get a two-stroke .wav file, preferably a 250R?

 

You guys are right on the money...

Back in the late 80's, the US Gov/CPSC put a halt to all imports of 3-wheelers into the US due to underaged kids and inexperienced (or intoxicated) riders hurting or killing themselves these machines. Unfortunately, hi-performance ATV's were lumped into this category, so they also forced the manufacturers to stop putting money into R&D on new sport/hi-perf quads. This all occurred in 1988, and was put in place for 10 years.

The end result of these actions:
- manufacturers stopped making 3-wheelers, period.
- some manufacturers stopped making performance ATV's as well, to save face and keep their names from being associated with death
- other manufacturers kept a few sport machines, but put zero money into developing new technologies for them. Hence, why we only saw graffix upgrades on the sport machines all thru the 90's.

Then, finally in 1998, Honda knew there was money to be made in the US sport/hi-performance ATV market, so they built a moderately powered SPORT quad--the 400EX--to test the waters. Obviously, sales skyrocketed, soooo...some (but not all) of the old manufacturers (and some new ones) jumped on the bandwagon.

I kind of doubt that we'll ever see the hi-performance wars between the manufacturers like we saw back in the early 80's. Every model year, they made engine tweeks, suspension tweeks...anything to make their quads FASTER than everyone else. Today, its ALL ABOUT SAFETY...and it will take a while for the manufacturers to focus on speed again...

my $.05 worth (I wrote a bit more than $.02 worth)