Decades of Dominance - A history of the Honda TRX250R

Before I begin posting the details of my rebuild, I thought I should first try to give a brief history of the Honda TRX250R, to better help my readers understand why I chose such a vintage machine for a project like this.

In 1986, Honda unveiled the TRX250R as a competitor to the Suzuki LT250r released a year prior. The TRX shared many commonalities with Honda's ATC250R three wheeler including the rear suspension and the two-stroke engine. However, because of endless legal battles, three-wheelers were beginning to die off and four-wheeled ATVs were the newest and hottest thing on the market.


The 1986 model-year 250R.




The 1987 model-year 250R



The 1988 model-year 250R



And finally, the 1989 model-year 250R



As you may have noticed, the TRX250R was only produced for 4 model years. The reason behind that is still a mystery to many, but most believe it has to do with Honda's disdain for two stroke motors.

Even though it was only produced for four short years, it was clear that Honda hit a home run with this machine. From 1986 to 2003, the Honda TRX250R won every single professional GNCC XC and AMA PROATV MX championship. It was the undisputed winner of 17 straight championships in the two most popular professional racing circuits. Some of you may be wondering, "What happened in 2004?" The AMA (American Motorcycle Association) created new rules that only allowed production ATVs to race in their events, thus barring this legendary beast of a machine from winning any more professional races. 27 years later, the Honda TRX250R is still the benchmark to which performance ATVs are compared. In those 27 years, the combination of power, weight, handling and suspension geometry introduced with the "R" has never been surpassed.

Check out these videos of my very own Honda TRX250R: