The Secret Honda Two-Stroke that changed the world

I am a 64 year-old former rider now dealing with cancer. Been thinking about a compromised, shortened future, and getting back on a bike in the dirt and mud is high on my bucket list. My history: 1970 Bug Flea minibike ($169); 1972 Honda XL 100 4 stroke, street legal, but not for long; 1974 Honda CR 250 Elsinore, riding which I joined CRC and raced 250 Beginners at Indian Dunes, Osteen's, and Saddleback; 1977 Husqvarna CR250, kept it stock except for air forks, trained briefly with Russ Darnell, spent a week at Carlsbad with Rolf Tibblin, and moved up to Juniors. Then I turned 18, left for college, and walked away from one of the most enjoyable hobbies I ever had. I used to worry about getting back up on the pegs, no longer able to walk away from the usual dumps and crashes as I did 50 years ago. Cancer and end-of-life considerations change our thinking. A broken ankle or clavicle is now an injury I would willingly risk for the experience one last tine of pitching 235 lbs. of hot metal sideways in a turn, certain that a good berm shot was a motherfucking, slam dunk certainty. When contemplating the end, actualized humans should choose joy over safety, flight over inertia, and tanned girls in optic yellow bikinis - never pass a classic ride. Peace from So Cal.

One of my fondest teenage memories was a local kid escaping a cop on an CR125 Elsinore. He calmly put on his helmet and gloves as the cop rolled up on a Harley. Fired that bike up and raced off across a field...the cop was smart enough not to try and follow. The smell of burning gas and Castol R was sublime. Love the look and sound of that bike to this day!

I was a kid when the Elsinores came out - I remember the cover of Cycle magazine with them on it. My family didn’t have the money for me to race motocross so I watched from the sidelines and dreamed. Up until then motocross bikes tended to be stripped down enduro bikes, maybe with a trimmed piston skirt on the intake side to raise high RPM power. The Elsinores changed all of that overnight. A few years later I had a friend that bought a MR250 with a CR250 engine in it, complete with an expansion chamber and working lights. That bike was a riot to ride on the street! This was a golden era of motocross.

True or false for you: If you owned a dirt bike but rode the school bus to school in the 70's, and you looked out the window of the bus as it was going down the highway,---and you imagined jumping every driveway at the bus's speed,------------------------------------------------you did not get good grades in school.

14:30 Anyone else notice the chain tensioner nut spinning about as the engine was reved? This video really takes me back and remindes me how much bikes have evolved. ❤

I raced in 1974 a CR125, and for road I had a Honda MT125 Trail Bike. For the MT125 I installed a Bassani expansion chamber, cleaned the ports up to increase flow, and put a larger main jet in. The MT125 went from lame duck to a missile. Thanks for the Elsinore story.

The thing that I remember most about the Elsinore was that aluminum tank which was just beautiful.

1974 was a year I entered Heaven when I bought the CR 125. Since that time, all my more expensive toys through the decades do not hold a candle to my time riding my Honda Elsinore.

Enjoyed the video. Reminded me of my youth admiring motocross and those gutsy riders. For the 125cc Elsinore, in my mind it was synonymous with Marty Smith who won so many races on it and represented, in my youthful mind, both motocross and Southern California. RIP Marty Smith (1956-2020).

I owned the MT250 Elsinore, which was Honda's duel purpose version of the CR. That bike was indestructible. I was stationed in Alaska and went everywhere with it, great times and a great bike...

im 54 and this brings back so many memories growing up in southern California. 7 years old running alongside my dirt bike to jump on, because i was too short to touch the ground, struggling to pull the clutch to shift gears. going from a 4-stroke bike to a 2-stroke bike was night and day, i feel in love with the sound and the pull of the powerband. man i had so much fun in the 70s and 80s. thanks for taking the time to make this video.

Thanks for taking me back to memory lane . When I was 16 years old I bought my 1st motorcycle , an SL125 , I loved that bike , learned so much with it from sliding into corners, jumping, doing wheelies , then 3 years later, feeling ready to race i bought the CR250M …raced it for 2 years…what a beast that bike was, loved the name Elsinore, loved the power, i always felt like my arms were going to get ripped off, i never had enough of that torque feeling, i eventually moved on to road motorcycle and bought a 1983 Kawa GPZ1100, thanks to the Elsinore for helping me migrate to that big bike. Today at 67 years old and think of the past i wished i would have kept the Elsinore, not only for what i did with it but for the beauty of it, yes for a motocross it was a beautiful bike, shinny aluminum tank on black… and that exhaust pipe was screaming power why i named it Dark Side ; yah i should have kept it…. Thanks for your nice informative videos 😎

I will never ever forget the first time I saw a 1975 Honda CR125M displayed at a motorcycle store. I was in 6th grade and everyday I pass by that place just to stare at it through the glass window. And wow, especially when I first heard it run and reaped on its top rpm. I could still hear it in my head.

Great story about those Legedary Elsinore's! I remember my local motorcycle dealership back in the good old days of the early 70's. My first Dirt Bike in "72 was the SL125! I didn't care that it was not the most powerful scoot in the "Hood" in rural Ga. but it hauled my 12yr old self around just fine! My buddy up the road a ways had an SL125 too, so we just owned this little part of the world. He finally moved up to a DKW 125 in 1975 and I upgraded to the XL 250 in 1974. And at the ripe old age of 15 I joined the AMA , SETRA (Southeastern Enduro and Trail Riders Assn) and my buddy and I entered our first Enduro, the Gold City 150 in Dahlonega Ga in '74. (He broke, I timed out!) I also remember the first CR125 Elsinore at the local Cycle shop. It was for the local guy the cycle shop supported some and worked on his Hodaka Wombat 100 and then Combat Wombat 125. JEEZ! A flood of memories just popped up and I could rattle on for hours! Those were some good times, God how I truly miss them! Thanks for the memories 👍✌

I was working for Honda when the Elsinore first came out. We couldn’t keep them in stock. I believe the shock of this vastly superior off-road focused bike was responsible for motivating the other manufacturers to make most of the technical leaps that we have today as the manufactures got serious about competition. Honda did not make all of the innovations. Honda just kickstarted the race for innovation with the Elsinore.

Thanks, Bart, and certainly, Suzuki earned its reign in the early '70s with European superstars, but for American teens, it was Honda and Marty Smith who showed the way and in short order showed the Europeans they had another thing coming when it came to dominating our races. It was great theater on the track and in the magazines and on bedroom wall posters. And for me as an American teen attending an overseas military high school in Frankfurt, West Germany, I was an avid reader of all the monthly motorcycle magazines sold at the newsstand next to the PX. I worked an after-school job at the commissary, so I had that jingle in my pockets for Dirt Bike and Motocross Action and Cycle and Cycle World and Cycle Guide and Motorcyclist and yeah, I was a kook about it all and no regrets, bicycles and motorcycles were my teenage life. And get this, in '76, I bought a used '73 250 Maico from a friend for $200 bucks and became friends with the local Maico dealer in Frankfurt, Herr Mueller. And one day in his shop, he casually told me that Marty Smith would be racing the upcoming 125 German GP. I couldn't believe it, asked my Dad to take the family VW bus with a bunch of us to the race, and before the race, just relaxing outside his tent from an overnight stay at the track, was Marty in a camping chair just beyond a boundary of tape. And it was so incredible to meet him and chat with him and he was as nice as any kid would want his sports hero to be. And he placed second to Gaston Rahier on a Suzuki that day and my Dad took a bunch of great photos which I shared with a motocross website a couple of decades ago. And the site host said Marty really enjoyed them and said, "I remember that guy!" when he saw the pic of me standing next to him. It was one of my favorite days. I was a fan and may Marty rest in peace. He and his 125 were simply inspirational. And let's not forget that in '77, he won a 500cc championship on a Honda, beating the best of them all, Roger DeCoster on a Suzuki. Marty was the man.

Honda was not "Pushed out" of dirt track racing. After decimating the AMA Flat track series and the Harley Davidson XR750's of the time with total dominance of the sport, they simply stopped making and competing in the series with their NS750's. Equivelent to today's Indian's. THey came they saw and they conquered.

My first bike in 1977 was a 1974 MT125 Elsinore. Great bike that never broke down but slow as hell. Also had to take a lot of breaks in my ride as it would heat up fairly quick. Back suspension was terrible. Anyways that's what I remember owning a 1974 MT125 at 14 & 15 yrs old.

I had been riding for 2 years when the CR125 came out. Wow what a bike! I couldn't afford one, and only got to ride one once, but compared to almost everything else it was light and fast. A the time it was very exciting, with new faster MXers coming out every 3-4 months it seemed; the CRs were followed by the RMs which combined more power with long travel "cushy" suspensions, then the YZs with even more power... it was a GREAT time to be a rider!!!

I owned and raced also a 1974 Elsinore 125 in 1978 in the Netherlands, that bike was awesome. Nice souvenirs. Thanks for sharing and cheers from France(since 1982)!