Reviews Part 2: Hurricane Kit & Honda Front Brake- YZ250.

[HollywoodMX]

Bike is a 05 YZ 250 and this is my second year riding.

Items being reviewed this time:

Honda Front Brake Caliper

One Industries Hurricane Graphics and plastics kit

I am going to start with the caliper first because the Hurricane pics steal the show.Haha.

2008 Honda CRF 250R Front Brake Caliper

I bought this on ebay for 60 bucks with shipping. The caliper was "as new" but the pads did not even have any wear on them, so good deal for me.

So I'm not sure how different the 2008 was compared to other years, but this was not plug and play as I thought this swap was going to be, someone who has done the swap on older honda calipers chime in if my 08 is any different.

The caliper like most are 2 pieces, the main housing which houses the pistons, the other part I am going to call the bracket piece.

Between the two the housings they are very similar, there are a few differences form both calipers. First the bracket is different and unusable. The bolt that bolts on the brake banjo is different by just a little the hole in the bolt is a tad bigger, and its a different metal and painted, the crush washers are different as well, the honda's are polished unknown metal something harder, the yamaha's are copper. I ended up using the honda banjo bolt and honda crush washers as they are native to the caliper and there were differences. The main front bolt that holds the braket on (middle of caliper under pistons) is also a different bolt, metal is painted, and is 3 millimeters shorter than the yamaha, the yamaha bolt is zinc which I like much better so I used that instead.

Oh and the weight...hmmm I don't know how much lighter the honda is supposed to be but to me it was a wash. They were pretty much the same, but the honda bracket had 1/3 less metal to it over the yammi.

So I started by taking off the break line, let it drain, then I zip tied the line on a spoke to keep it out of the way. Then I removed the yammi caliper. I separated the braket from the housing on both calipers. The main center bolt on the honda was a huge bitch to loosen, it had a form of lock tight on it. I had to heat it from underneath in the tapped threads with a pen torch to loosen it, I REALLY had to strong arm it.

After the both calipers it gets easy from here, just take your yammi bracket and put it on the honda housing. Again I used the yammi center bolt, and the honda banjo bolt with the honda crush washers. Im not sold on the honda washers yet, so we will see, because copper is the standard as it crushes. You can also heat up the copper washers to reuse. To put the bracket and the housing fully together you have to take off that little black screw then there will be a allen bolt inside, take that out too. Now put your pads in and install your center bolt. Now put back in the allen screw and the black screw.

Put the new assemble caliper on the bike, and bleed the brakes, it will take a little extra pumping at the beginning as the fluid will take time to pressurize.Took over an hour total.

Performance:

Well the feel of the brake handle is pretty close to stock after a fresh fluid flush, so no real difference. The brake power seems to be around 25-30% more over the stock yammi. I bought this break to start practicing endo's. This setup will get me there for sure. The progression of stopping power of the honda caliper was also better. It also has a newer age look to it as well. So was it worth it? For 60 bucks and with a brand new set of pads...Hellz ya!

One Industries Hurricane Graphics and plastics kit

This is a nice kit that's for sure. Cost me $230 shipped. For plastics, seat cover and graphics its a good deal. The yellow is not the same as Suzuki's, it's closer to school bus yellow than banana yellow. It's well packaged in the box. I also picked up the matching bar pad separately.

First I dyed my gas tank black with my process, this was on a separate time line.

First of all I will say after doing this, installing graphics sucks. It was a pita for sure to try to perfectly line up all the lines. Fort the Install I decided to do the front, rear fenders and the wings off the bike. I used the thumper talk heat gun method ignoring the instructions. After installing those pieces on the floor I installed them on the bike along with the number plate, DONT Forget, to reuse your metal washers that come on all your stock plastics. Then I put on the graphics on the remaining area's as I needed the seat and the wings on to match up the lines on the gas tank and air box. Took around 3 hours to fully install. I forgot I sent the seat out to get done, I also had them drill these cones in the foam to make the seat softer, that cost me 75 bucks.

Performance:

Well the plastics are a good quality as well as the graphics, the fit was pretty good from plastics to graphics lining up but for me I want perfection so it could have been a tad better. But the end result the bike looked better than I expected actually, I was impressed.When you compare the pics to ones with a blue tank you can see the pay off on the tank as it looks more natural. All said in done this is an expensive en devour especially if you send out the seat to get installed profesionally, got to pay to play on this mod, there are cheaper solutions out there.

[mxjosh]

Your bike looks very good.

I'm a little confused by your explanation of the problems you had with the caliper. The bracket on the 3 honda calipers I used just slid right off. There were no bolts to undo. As far as the banjo bolts, again I didn't notice any difference that would matter. Kind of makes it sound like a big hassle when its really only a 20 min job at most, not counting bleeding. Although that should only take 20 mins as well. I just installed a brand new Honda caliper that was bone dry with a brand new line. It was bled in 20mins.

[xr1million]

The bike looks awesome!!! Tank looks like it came out nice... real nice!

[HollywoodMX]

Your bike looks very good.

I'm a little confused by your explanation of the problems you had with the caliper. The bracket on the 3 honda calipers I used just slid right off. There were no bolts to undo. As far as the banjo bolts, again I didn't notice any difference that would matter. Kind of makes it sound like a big hassle when its really only a 20 min job at most, not counting bleeding. Although that should only take 20 mins as well. I just installed a brand new Honda caliper that was bone dry with a brand new line. It was bled in 20mins.

HAha, you know what, your right! I did it wrong because the center bolt allows you unlock the pads, and swing the bracket off... But in reality taking off the allen bolt would have been the same thing but faster as I could have removed the pads and pulled out the bracket. Loosening the center bolt is what chewed my time. Lessons learned.

But there was a noticable difference in banjo bolts.

The bike looks awesome!!! Tank looks like it came out nice... real nice!

Thanks man!

[Yamaha4lyfe]

how do you like the pro circuit exhaust??

[mks yz]

wow that looks good, great right up, i did the honda caliper mod as well, it was done while i was doing the fork seals but total time into the caliper couldn't have been 45min bleeding them out was the hardest part the rest was just as mxjosh describes, i use an 07crf250 caliper and pads.. and i really noticed a difference

[mxjosh]

With bleeding, how are you guys bleeding them?

[phil-coley]

hi hollywood mx i have the hurricane kit on my 07 250 the best looking color for sure i have the yellow plastics from ufo in italy some of the fitting is not great and the yellow side panels are a different shade of yellow, can you tell me what make of plastic is supplied with the one industries kit as maybe i can order a kit from them. thanks in advance and great looking bike. phily cee

[8675309]

love the hannah kit

[SpDyKen]

Are the Honda banjo bolt crush washers aluminum, like they use on many oil drain bolts?

Perhaps one less different type of metal to reduce the dissimilar metal galvanic effect (corrosion.)

Larger holes in the banjo bolt mean you need to be more careful to use the proper torque when tightening.

All just conjecture.

Thanks, HMX, I'm hoping to do the same, but demand for the Honda brake components has raised the going prices, I've noticed.

[babyarmholdingapple]

I love yours and mx josh bike.

No trick Plastic for a 2000 or

I would jump on that bandwagon.

[HollywoodMX]

Are the Honda banjo bolt crush washers aluminum, like they use on many oil drain bolts?

Perhaps one less different type of metal to reduce the dissimilar metal galvanic effect (corrosion.)

Larger holes in the banjo bolt mean you need to be more careful to use the proper torque when tightening.

All just conjecture.

Thanks, HMX, I'm hoping to do the same, but demand for the Honda brake components has raised the going prices, I've noticed.

They are not aluminum, they are harder than that.

hi hollywood mx i have the hurricane kit on my 07 250 the best looking color for sure i have the yellow plastics from ufo in italy some of the fitting is not great and the yellow side panels are a different shade of yellow, can you tell me what make of plastic is supplied with the one industries kit as maybe i can order a kit from them. thanks in advance and great looking bike. phily cee

It all comes in one box supplied by one industries, not sure who makes the plastic.

how do you like the pro circuit exhaust??

Seems good to me, but after I put in the 9oz flywheel in my reviews part 1 thread, I'm not sure I feel the power of the bike as much as I would like to. I had the Ti-4 on my old WR with a fill titanium pipe and power wise it was pretty strong like 57hp with a rejet.

With bleeding, how are you guys bleeding them?

Same as a car! That's why I did the install weird on the caliper, cause I did not know that center bolt just come out... I really am learning dirt bikes, but I built my own race car back when I used to race solo2, drag, and road course. So I'm just transfering my mechanical experience on to bikes.

I love yours and mx josh bike.

No trick Plastic for a 2000 or

I would jump on that bandwagon.

Thanks, I like MX josh's too. I actually was in discussion with the company that make josh's kit and they discontinued them due to lack of interest.

[akpilot7]

I think we have a candidate for another "who's got the best looking bike" contest. VERY nice job. The only thing I would change is either a white front number plate, or a white number plate background. Otherwise......Sweeeet!

[mxjosh]

Ok, thats what I thought. A little trick I learned is to not do it like a car. Some may disagree but it works on my bikes. When refilling yout brake system with new fluid or putting fluid in a new caliper or line for the first time, leave the bleed nipple open. Start pumping the lever until the brake fluid is leaking out continuously and consistently the same. Then close the bleed nipple and start bleeding it the normal way. You should be done in 10-20 minutes.

[dtkiko]

your bike is so smooth and clean, man.

i'd surely want to get those hurricane kits someday and that gorgeous black tank... with matching AFAM sprockets and chains

[BRM]

Ok, thats what I thought. A little trick I learned is to not do it like a car. Some may disagree but it works on my bikes. When refilling yout brake system with new fluid or putting fluid in a new caliper or line for the first time, leave the bleed nipple open. Start pumping the lever until the brake fluid is leaking out continuously and consistently the same. Then close the bleed nipple and start bleeding it the normal way. You should be done in 10-20 minutes.

I pressure bleed mine, only way to travel, or should I say stop.

[HollywoodMX]

Ok, thats what I thought. A little trick I learned is to not do it like a car. Some may disagree but it works on my bikes. When refilling yout brake system with new fluid or putting fluid in a new caliper or line for the first time, leave the bleed nipple open. Start pumping the lever until the brake fluid is leaking out continuously and consistently the same. Then close the bleed nipple and start bleeding it the normal way. You should be done in 10-20 minutes.

Oh that is the way I do it..the first part anyways thats it though, 5 minutes and it's done.

I think we have a candidate for another "who's got the best looking bike" contest. VERY nice job. The only thing I would change is either a white front number plate, or a white number plate background. Otherwise......Sweeeet!

Ya I might change a few things we will see.

[RCannon]

I bleed mine the same way MX Josh does. It works well. No idea why this does nto work well on the bar, but on the bike its a great way to do it.

The last thing I do is stick a screwdriver in the swing arm pivot bolt, right side, and use the handle to hold the brake lever on all night. For the front I tape the lever close to the grip with brake pressure applied. This really makes for a solid feeling lever or pedal. Its as if leaving the compressed allows the last tiny bit of air to leave the system.

[BRM]

For the front I tape the lever close to the grip with brake pressure applied. This really makes for a solid feeling lever or pedal. Its as if leaving the compressed allows the last tiny bit of air to leave the system.

A cable tie does the same trick, no sticky stuff to negotiate.

[Denn10]

ive had some luck with letting gravity pull the fluid down and out the caliper on the front. its not slow like you may think, just put a hose on the bleeder valve and into a plastic bottle and keep fillin er up and let it gravity feed, only pump it a few times after ive ran a bit of fluid thru it. Done it a few times but i need to get a syringe and try pushing up from the caliper one time also.