I doubt Honda would use another aircooled motor, with the current top machines all utilizing liquid cooled engines.

 

The bikes are redesigned yearly. A new 250R? Totally unrealistic. What is realistic is a warmed over 400ex with 10% more power and 15% price increase. Probably have a new color available too.

 

You can not compare what's happening on the dirtbike side of the buisness with the quad side. Two different ways of doing things. If you did, we would have radical new light-weight 4-strokes, with aluminum frames, and fuel injection. Not gonna happen.

Why not air-cooled? Honda likes to keep things simple. That's how thier products retain the high reliablity records. If it was up to me, I would love to see a 4-stroker that weighted in at under 350lbs. But I don't think that's going to happen.

All things aside. We know for sure that it will be a 4-stroke, and most likely from the XR dirtbike family.

 

I dont remember where I saw it but honda has a 2 stroke motor that gets better (or as good as) emissions than a 4 stroke. I think it is in one of there baha bikes I'll see if i can find the site that had it in it.

 

Here is the link:

http://www.motorcycle.com/mo/mchonda/exp2_tech.html

 

Just a couple of points: Didn't Honda anounce a while back that they weren't going to produce 2-strokes anymore (except for closed course racing), then they go and redo the 250 AND THE 125 this year. Maybe this is their last harah to hold them over until they can bring the 4-stroke development up to speed?? I would be willing to bet that we will NEVER see another 2-stroke quad! For one thing, California has very restricted rules on when you can ride (red sticker) 2-strokes. You "can't" ride in high polution areas in summer, except on a closed track or private land. (This was a BIG COMPROMISE, because they VERY NEARLY BANED 2-STROKES ALL TOGETHER!) That said, let me say that NOBODY ENFORCES THIS RULE ANYWHERE I HAVE RIDDEN, THANK GOD!!! Anyway, they would have a tough time selling red sticker quads here in Calif., which I know is a sizeable piece of their market.

And, nobody is just going to throw a 2-stroke dirt bike engine in a quad. Have you ever seen a CR or YZ engine in a quad?? No, and for good reason, because these little things wouldn't hold up long under the abuse a quad dishes out. (I know, were rebuilding our YZ250 right now). The new generation of 4-strokes can cut it! Just look at how wildly popular the YZ250 4-stroke is.

And what ever happened to the EXP-2 project?? They started that a long time ago, and we havn't heard anything about it in years!

One of the magazines said we can expect BOTH a 650 AND 450 form Honda, and BOTH WITH ALUMINUM FRAMES!! The aluminum thing makes sense, seeing that they have gained a lot of experience with 3 generations of aluminum framed CR dirt bikes (the XR650 is aluminum also). And, the engines already exist, so what's the big deal! I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!

 

No way is Honda gonna use another air-cooled "proven" pre-historic 4 stroke engine in a new quad! Get real here buddy. It's going to be either the 450 or the 650. As far as the two stroke engine in the CR, I would love to see this in a quad chassis. Honda is smart. Come on now, with the huge interest in quad racing now, you really don't think they'll blow everyones tops off with an updated 250r? I see it in a couple of years. My prediction is going to be a new high proformance 4 stroke with liquid cooling. Then they will come out with an updated 250r strickly for racing. With the same restrictions as the bikes. No warranty or anything like that. With Cannondale building specialized quads, and the VOR quad, and the 450ex racer beinging built, Honda will take action. They don't like losing. Look how long Honda dominated the Supercross and Motocross circuts. Now they've been losing the last couple of years, pow there comes the new 450 bike and the updated CR engine.

If another manufacturer gets into the "racing only" side of quad manufacturing, it's going to be Honda. They are the leader of the industry, and that would prove it. I don't think it'll be too long before we see this. And if Honda doesn't, then Yamaha is going to. They've been spanking Honda in the Supercross and Motocross circuts, and it looks like they are serious about racing.

I just hope Cannondale has opened up someone's eyes!

 

Dont you think that if Cannondale is the company to "wake them up" that it is Cannondale that deserves our support? Think how many people will rush out and buy a cr450f when its not proven, its not tested or tried except by a few pro racers, yet thousands will buy it without a care. Think how many people rushed to buy a yz 400f when they came .. they had their problems yet the sales climbed..(to my knowlege, yamaha never "gave" any free kick starters away even though it was clearly their fault....You people out there on the bubble for a new quad should give the guys in Pennsylvania a try. In my opinion they've earned it.

 

Some of you people need to wake up! Honda and Yamaha don't care about ATV racers and high performance machines. Neither company sponser's anyone on a factory level. Not even the Pro racer's have any connection with Honda or Yamaha. 90% of the Pro level race quad's are Honda 250r's, or super-trick aftermarket quad's that feature dirtbike powerplants. Neither which are advailable today to buy brand new off a dealer's showroom floor. Most of us "weekend racer's" have our 400EX's, 300EX's, Banshee's, Warrior's, Blaster's, etc, so tricked out that they aren't even close to a factory specs. Why? Because no factory quad could take that kind of abuse and survive. Do you really think the next big thing from Honda(or the other big 3 jap companies) is going to be anything different. Not likely......

If you want factory high performance, I have only one word for you.



Cannondale

 

You guys are being very short-sighted about what a company will and wont do to make money.

Honda is not stupid. With the 10 year ban on R&D for new sport/hi-performance ATV models being over with, Honda KNOWS how much money is to be made in this market. They KNOW how big the hi-performance ATV aftermarket is, and they KNOW that to this day, the 250R frame/geometry & engine are still the dominant product used in all quad racing events. This being the case, they CAUTIOUSLY re-entered the market with the 400EX. Seeing the booming sales of that quad, and the obvious shift in American culture to EXTREME SPORTS, they will not sit quietly while Cannondale and others take over the hi-performance quad market. They will develop something IF there is big money to be made.

Granted, Honda does not want another black eye like they (and all manufacturers) received back in the 80's--thanks to the 3-wheelers. And that being the case, they ALL will be slow to come up with new sport/hi-performance quads. BUT, the fact that they are still sinking BIG money into new 2-stroke engines says they could and might drop one of those engines into a "closed-course-only" racing-specific quad.

Yeah, 4-strokes seem to be the politically correct way of making a new quad nowadays, BUT Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawi are ALL still making 2-stroke motocross bikes...and Yamaha still has the Banshee, which they actually put R&D money into re-designing its 10+ year old problem with its airbox system. A company doesnt do that if its going to scrap the product.

None of us knows what is going to happen over the next few years. As long as the Gov't doesn't step in again and put the kaibash on the manufacturers because the tree huggers start complaining about atv's again. But I am sure of one thing, there's going to be a LOT of surprises...in quad frame and engine design...Cannondale re-started the competition for us...