2005 CRF250 owners - Help needly Majorly!!

[js3324]

I'm sorry if this question has been asked many times; being as I've spent hours looking through posts, I cannot get a straight answer on the 2005 CRF's reliability. At this moment I haven't yet read of any 2005 CRF's having problems? Is it possible Honda quietely solved the problem (most likely dirt getting into the carburetor) without making a big deal over it to keep sales steady? Or is it there isnt as many people with an 05 so the problems are on a much smaller scale?

Any help from 2005 owners would be great, I am seriously considering a CRF, but 6000 dollars for something that is not reliable is not an investment I would be willing to make.

I tried a couple times for a pole, lol but I could not figure it out, if you can, please state if you have a

<ul type="square"> [*]2005 with no problems

[*]2005 with valve recession

[*]2005 with other problem ( please specify)

thank you again

Edited!! Not to make this a post on break in but how did you break your bikes in?

[angrytim]

2005 with no problems - 18 hours.

[RiddinRed]

2005 no problems to date. If you want to wait a week or two, I will be checking the valves and I can respond. But as of right now, the bike is a dime!

[RMark]

I don't count hours, but have done 3 oil changes, figuring first one was after about 2 hours, next changes were after about 3 rides each. Maybe round off to about 10 hours. Haven't checked the valves, but no issues in performance, starting, etc.

It's starting to rain out here, so if I'm off the bike awhile may get around to checking the valves.

[js3324]

How was the bike broken in? Hard, normal, easy?

[ReaperAZ]

I've got probably 20+ hours on mine. Not a single problem yet. I broke mine in hard, and still ride it that way every time.

Dano

[chrisfraser]

I'm on my third oil change with no problems. Have not checked the valves yet but, there is a race this weekend and I will check them after that. Not expecting to have the same trouble as the guys in the USA because we dont have the same weather, i.e. not a lot of dust here. ?

[crazy42wheeledtoys]

I would say it will take a few more months before we know for sure if the problem is fixed or not since the bike is still so new. ?

[zemog]

after 3 hours on the 2005 crf250r, intake valves were at .003 and the exhaust vavles were at .007...hopefully who ever put this together just screwed up i reset and will check again after 5 hours...i really do think this was just a mess up from the factory, the bike ran and runs great (we had an 04kxf prior to this bike)and we also broke it in hard.

david

[FGR01]

I have an 05-R with about 12 hours of hard MX riding. I have not checked the valves yet, but it starts and runs perfect. I broke it in hard and it does not burn a drop of oil. But, dirt is definitely getting into the carb. There are pictures of my carb in here.

[FourPlayin]

Bought my son (125 novice) an '05 about 6 weeks ago. Changed the oil for the third time weekend before last. This last weekend the bike needed about 100cc's of oil before practice on Saturday, and after a full day of practice on Saturday it took another 100 on Sunday. Not too happy about that. The bike doesn't smoke at all. Broke it in hard, and first valve check was spot on. Has about 25 hours now. I'm a bit concerned about the loss of the oil. It's not visibly coming out anywhere that can be seen. I still have 2 KX250F's, and one has had major valve issues, while the other is fine after about a year each. Such is life in the 4 stoke world.

[westladog]

If you are so worried about reliability, just go buy a Yamaha 4strokes. It's very simple.

For those who is biatching about losing oil, bring extra oil to add at the track or trails. Also very simple.

If you don't like that, sell it and get a Yamaha 4stroke.

I'm sorry if this question has been asked many times; being as I've spent hours looking through posts, I cannot get a straight answer on the 2005 CRF's reliability. At this moment I haven't yet read of any 2005 CRF's having problems? Is it possible Honda quietely solved the problem (most likely dirt getting into the carburetor) without making a big deal over it to keep sales steady? Or is it there isnt as many people with an 05 so the problems are on a much smaller scale?

Any help from 2005 owners would be great, I am seriously considering a CRF, but 6000 dollars for something that is not reliable is not an investment I would be willing to make.

I tried a couple times for a pole, lol but I could not figure it out, if you can, please state if you have a

<ul type="square"> [*]2005 with no problems

[*]2005 with valve recession

[*]2005 with other problem ( please specify)

thank you again

Edited!! Not to make this a post on break in but how did you break your bikes in?

[SoCal450]

Look, you are never going to get a straight answer on this bikes reliabilty from these forums. There are lots of people out there that have had zero problems and absolutely love their bikes. Then you have quite a few people that have had major headaches that probably will not buy another red bike for a long time.

On top of that you are asking for some kind of acurate determination of reliability on an '05 bike that has just been released in to the market. Any '05 model from any manufacturer that at this point in time has had enough problems to question it's overall reliabilty is not only unreliable but quite possible the biggest pile of crap ever made.

Further, the fact that you have tried several times to create these reliabilty poles leads me to believe you are basing your entire puchase of a product on the input from a bunch of strangers on the internet. Look, use these forums as a way to gather some more information on a product in an effort to better formulate your own decision on a bike. Don't use them as a way to find an answer and have your mind made up for you.

Also note, this post is not intended to rag on you, I'm simply trying to help. ? Here's another way to look at it. Whatever bike you buy you have to feel comfortable with the dollars you spend vs the risk your taking. If your not comfortable, buy a different bike. No matter what you can never get a 100% reliability guarantee. A great bike will still crap out on a few and a bike with serious design flaws will also still leave a few having zero problems. It's all about odds and how comfortable you are personally with your decision. If you can go to bed at night and be cool with the risks you assume in a purchase then you made the right decision.

Either way, if you pick the Honda and are fine with risks the up side is that I've never heard any negative remarks on the performance of the bike itself.

Best of luck! ?

[westladog]

[soCal450]

So what's the difference between your response and mine? ?

I was saying the same thing. ?

[js3324]

Thats just the thing though! I figure as long as there isnt like 15 people saying they have problems, then what about all the people that are silent and dont have a single problem? Obviously the ratio of people with problems to people with the bike is about 1:150 , 1 being a problem 20 being no problem. Seeing as though honda has sold thousands of these bikes and i have only read about 100 complaints.. i can safely assume there are less problems then there are perfect bikes.

hmm, well im back to the drawing board, the CRF is truly amazing looking, but this whole thing had me shaken...but you had a great point and its duly noted.

I still would appreciate people posting though if they have a problem or not.

[SoCal450]

westladog,

I know, I just thought my post would be a little better recieved by this forum as opposed to just saying go buy a yamaha.

Besides it gave me an opportunity to use " :cheers:" in a post. I don't think I've done that before ?

[Throttlejockey]

Great post SoCal450. ? Well said.

[SoCal450]

js3324,

Well, based on that logic you have to conclude that the CRF is less than perfect with respect to reliability and you have to assume that you expose yourself to more risk when you chose to buy a CRF as opposed to other bikes on the market. We all know that most posts are about particular problems and you have to put these forums in context with the number of bikes actually out there.

Knowing that we see a lot of one-off posts concerning some weird problem or failure and never hear about it again. However, with the CRF you have a significant number of very unhappy owners experiencing the same problem. Hell, people are even getting together and sending complaint packages off to Honda. To me that indicates there is a real issue that is not happening to just small group of owners and if I choose to buy that bike I am assuming a real significant risk of it happening to me. The point is are you comfortable knowing that.

Look, when I bought my YZ450 back in '03 I researched it here and I found a lot of posts on it having crappy clutch that would grab and chatter. Same thing happened, there was a lot of people that said they did not experience that problem then you have quite a few that did. Knowing that I still bought the bike and assumed that risk. Guess what happened.......that problem occured on my bike too!

My story had a happy ending though. I used this site and peoples experience on it to learn more about the problem. What happened is that partially through this site people began to learn other people were experiencing the same problem and figured out it's more than just a fluke occurence and started to make some noise. The difference is, yamaha listened to the complaints and admitted there was an issue and generated a service bulletin for a fix. They also paid for the repair on their own dime on bikes beyond their warrenty period and for people that were not even experiencing the problem but just wanted piece of mind (Yes, blue bikes do come with a 30 warrenty - what a concept).

For me this experience made me realize that a large number of posts on a particular problem on a site this size most likely represents a very real issue. It happened to me! Funny thing is there are still people with '03 YZ450's that have never had a problem with their clutch and still don't understand what all the fuss was about.

Hope this helps!

[js3324]

Well I dont want you to be right, but you are. I do acknowledge the fact that theres a very real chance I may get f'ed over. ? However, I do beleive i know the cause(dirt vacuuming thru the carb tubes) and solution to the problems, worse comes to worse, I know my sales man very very well, and the service department and I'm sure I can make a deal were they acknowledge the problme could happen and if it does exactly as I planned out, they repair it. Sounds stupid, but I'm sure I could work something out with them to put my mind at ease.

Thanks for slapping some sense into me ?

[SoCal450]

See, it sounds like you are confortable with the risks and are going to go to sleep at night feeling good about your purchase. What more can you ask for!

Best of luck with the bike and working things out with your dealer. By the way, if you get your dealer to sign off on future repairs prior to puchasing the bike like your planning - LET US KNOW WHO THAT DEALER IS! I'm sure they will get all the future business of TT'rs.