Nothing beats the rumble of a big bore two-stroke, right?
Well, that may bring something like an Arctic Cat Thundercat or a Polaris Storm to mind. But for Klim's Evan Hoge, Product Line Manager for the outerwear giant, that line means just one thing: a Honda CR500R.
When the Honda CR500R dirt bike was still around, it was king of torque. The big bore made power in droves and was ridden only by those select few who couldn't get enough of having their shoulders stretched.
So, this summer when Hoge mentioned over lunch his plan to build a CR500R Mountain Horse snow bike project, he had our attention.
Hoge isnt' just finding an old CR500R bike and fitting a Mountain Horse to it. No, that would be too easy. And too boring. Instead, the plan is to take a CR500R engine out of a '97 bike, get the Cart Motor treatment from Starting Line Products, and stuff it into a 2003 Honda CR125R aluminum frame bike.
Evan Hoge's project in its current state. T-minus 6 weeks and counting...
And that CR500R SLP cart engine? It's capable of producing 100 horesepower on alcohol. However, this snow bike application on gasoline should crank out 85 horsepower. That should spin a track no problem.
Starting Line Products' CR500R cart engine with some pretty trick billet pieces. Look closely, that's no out-of-the-box Vertex piston.
Next up? All new bearings, seals and gaskets from All Balls Racing and a Rekluse Core Manual Torque Drive Clutch to hold all 85 ponies. We'll give you the update on that next week.
Stay tuned for the progress over the next weeks leading up to Hay Days. This bike will be (should be.. hopefully will be...) on display at Hay Days and all of the big snow shows this fall.
Special thanks to klim.com