'08 CRF100 still running street and I'm impressed.

[JmE]

I'm really impressed by this 2008 CRF100 that I plated and have been running as a street scoot for a few years now. I'm also grateful for this forum and those users who take their time to post information. Thanks TT and thanks fellow users!

 

Armed with little else than information provided from here mainly, the CRF has been an awesome street ride year round... sun, rain, ice, and snow. I've followed as much basic maintenance as I could based on instruction, opinion, and advice here. The CRF is half of my primary transportation "fleet" (CRF and a Honda street bike) and it does about 65% (maybe more?) of my local travel for groceries, visiting, etc. I'm surprised that it has held up so well.

 

I'll use the search function but since I'm posting now, anyone have ideas or opinions on maintaining the stock exhaust for external rust? More specifically, is there anything I can do about surface rust or should it be left alone (perhaps acts as its own protective layer for the deeper metal)?

 

Anyone else still running these Honda 100s plated for street?

[emidd27]

Glad to see someone is doing this with a xr100. Cheap and reliable I wonder why more people don't use them the way you do.

[JmE]

I'd imagine that one of the reasons more don't is because of speed and size of the rider. I chose the CRF100 for low weight (the CRF150 was a huge jump in spec weight for some reason) and I wanted drum brakes. I'm a small guy so the 100 does all that I need and simply sips fuel. The MPG is phenomenal on this thing. A few hours ago, my son called me and said that on the way back through West Virginia there was a pack of about five riders with plated XR100s & CRF100s rolling through a gas station so I know there are others out there.

 

Perhaps if Honda would bring back the XL100, CL100, and SL100 or at least bring in some of the modern small Japanese bikes  then we'd see more of them on the road. With a 120 kit and a small battery pack or smoothing capacitor then these bikes would be great for a range of rider sizes and ability. A six speed transmission would be a bonus but the five speed works well enough. I assume the scooter market is too lucrative for the Chinese manufacturers to mess with 100cc enduro stuff. I had a 200cc Redcat with a Lifan engine but the bike was so heavy that it wasn't as much fun as the CRF100. That Redcat has been through several hands and abused mercilessly with little to no maintenance. Different people have brought me parts that have fallen off of it (like the luggage rack and the toolbox) but it still runs great. It's a 1999 or 2000 I think. If they're made right, it's hard to kill those push rod 200cc Honda clones. They won't rev high but surely will tractor through the mileage and years.

[ickfinger]

As far as surface rust goes, take the pipe off once a year and wire brush then spray with bbq paint

[JmE]

I'll try to do that before winter. Thanks for the tip! I was afraid of taking off some coating or something from the exhaust but if it's rusting then the coating, if any, isn't there anymore.

[JmE]

For those who might stumble on this thread later; I've been reading at http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/I_want_to_repaint_my_exhaust_pipes. The information is pretty straight forward.

Edited October 1, 2013 by JmE

[tracecom]

I'm really impressed by this 2008 CRF100 that I plated and have been running as a street scoot for a few years now.

 

I have a 98 XR100R and would love to make it street legal, but I have no title or even a bill of sale.

 

Can you post a picture or two of yours?

[JmE]

Sure, I can try to take a couple of photos and post them this week. I'll try to take them so that they show the back, front, and behind the headlight shroud. The bike is pretty much stock except for the rewound stator, 15T (?) drive sprocket, turn signals, headlight, horn, mirrors, voltage regulator, and associated switches/wires. Obviously, the more of a DIY parts build you do and less of a kit type, the more you can potentially save in costs.

 

The things I need to do still one of these days are replace the voltage regulator with a regulator/rectifier, add a smoothing capacitor (aka 'battery eliminator') as it operates completely off of stator for now, change out the incandescent turn signals for LED, and add a speedometer. AFAIK, in order to use LED turn signals without the waste of a ballast resistor, one has to be running DC instead of the straight regulated AC that I'm currently running. I'll probably eliminate the air box (may be requires a re-jet) and use that space for the capacitor and regulator/rectifier. A larger rear sprocket would be nice too.

 

I'd like to keep the air box if anyone knows of a good place to mount a smoothing capacitor on the CRF.

[Freestyle-MX-Racer]

That's be cool to have a plated xr.. Were are you located?? Am what tires do you run?

[JmE]

I'm currently in Ohio and run the stock tires. They stopped wearing fast after the knobs rounded off but after so much pavement they are finally now just about shot. I had to be easier on the thottle when taking off otherwise the rear had a tendency to peel out on pavement. I didn't realize I was spinning the rear until someone told me. Otherwise, they've been just fine. They have done very well each year on road ice and in snow. I will eventually go with Shinkos when I replace them.

 

(I have replaced the tubes a couple of times through the years, though.)

[Terminatr]

I want to do the same thing. People are going crazy over the new Grom. I figure I can make a street legal CRF 100 that's better than Honda's Grom.

 

What kind of top speed do you get with that sprocket combo? 

 

Can you keep up with urban traffic acceleration?

Edited October 21, 2013 by Terminatr

[burton23]

i have a 05 with a title in ohio how did you get plates there so strict where im from. as for the rust i oil all the rust on my bike every oil change done all my bikes this way for years i rub the used oil out of the bike on it. if your really rusty the oil will smoke for a bit the first few apps (the more you rub off the less smoke) this technique will save bikes left outside or worn from use works great on rusty chrome get it wet with oil use your finger nail to remove rust use old (clean) socks to polish off the oil free FREE and looks great

[Smacaroni]

Rust: there's a product called something-phor, I forget what the name is, commercially available to treat rust. Sometimes this is called "pickling", depending on the application method. The active ingredient is phosphoric acid. I'm not saying what you should or shouldn't do with phosphoric acid, but maybe Google knows?

 

I have a XR100 that I'd love to plate sometime in the near future. I currently use it as a road race bike. Yeah, a top speed of 43 mph kind of sucks, but you could change the gearing and get more speed out of it at the price of acceleration. I beat this bike like it's a rented red headed mule that owes me money.

 

Sadly most of the small and medium displacement bikes went away with the "Harley Mentality", where an 883 is a "girls bike" and the culture of squids where 600cc I-4 is a "starter bike" and you're not a man or inexperienced if you're riding anything less than a litre bike. I don't think you're going to see these come back any time soon, but it wouldn't hurt to press the manufacturers by emailing them.

Japan got a street legal DR-Z125 with lights and turn signals from the factory. There's no reason that bike can't be available here or at the very least, an upgrade kit one could buy for a few hundred bucks from the dealer and install himself.

 

The cheap scooter market is saturated with Chinese knock-offs, so there's no incentive for manufacturers to bring, say the Yamaha Jog or Honda Dio in any large numbers. But the small displacement 'round town bike, I'd love to see come back. In fact, there's the Kayo MR125, which is similar to the Honda NSF100 is to be distributed here in the US very soon. There is still a chance that these bikes may have a place after all.

Still, it can't hurt to write the manufacturers or ask your dealer to mention it to the factory rep that you want to buy these types of bikes.

Edited October 22, 2013 by Smacaroni

[Terminatr]

Honda Japan offers a factory street legal CRF 100 motard.

[Smacaroni]

That's got some wide rubber on it. Any idea what size they are and what width rim the factory motard runs?

[Terminatr]

http://world.honda.com/news/2005/2050214.html

Front 120/80-12 65J

Rear 120/80-12 65J

[Smacaroni]

Thanks, compared to the 90/100-19 we're used to that's quite a difference. I'm running a 110/70-16 on a 2.5" wide rim on the rear of my miniGP XR100 and I'm still not able to use all of it. Almost, if it's really hot I can get close, but for the most part, there's a good 3/8" on either side that'll never see the pavement.

 

Edited October 23, 2013 by Smacaroni

[jjjrickey]

Sounds fun. I think street riding is a little better for the XR100. I know that everybody who rides them off road is at WOT most of the time and in third or fourth gear. They run a little cooler on the street because you tend to be moving faster and at a lower RPM.

 

I'm always at WOT when riding my XR100, and it can only pull fourth gear on a grass field. Half the riding I do is in a yard or tight woods so I'm doing hard accelerations but not really going that fast, so it runs pretty hot. (sometimes the skid plate is too hot to hold my hand on).

 

Maybe someday I'll pick up an XR650L. I can see my self having that as my main method of transportation.

[Terminatr]

I would want a street legal 100 for commute. I only commute about 5 miles, so using the car puts a lot of wear n tear on the engine. They say starting and running a cold engine does the most wear and tear. All those short trip will add up to kill my car. So a little cheap disposable 100 would be awesome and save me a lot of money cuz my car would last a lot longer.

Edited December 19, 2013 by Terminatr

[rufio0205]

Anyone know if the tires sizes Smacaroni posted will fit an 04 crf100?