Jeff Avery's Blog Ramblings of a Madman

CRF250L Mods

May 28, 2018 / by Jeff Avery

Wanted to start a post of all the mods I’m doing to a 2013 Honda CRF250L so, here goes. Quick info, none of the links below are trackers, and I don’t get anything back for linking to them. I just put them here in case anyone wants to see. I also used the full product name as the link, so if the eBay link dies at some point, you can still search for the product, if you are inclined to do so.

Picked up the bike from a previous Nevada Senator who bought it for his Son. He had recently put some Kenda tires on it and an EJK (Electronic Jet Kit). Link The exhaust is stock, but it had the airbox hold mod, removed the snorkel and had a K&N filter. After quite a bit of reading, and watching a lot of arguments over it, I decided against the K&N. This really does look like a highly contested battle. For me it boiled down to, if you ride in the dust, some dust will get through that filter, maybe a lot depending on who you ask. If you keep it really oiled and taken care of, that makes a difference, but I didn’t want to worry about it. I picked up a stock airbox cover for 9.00 but have not put that on yet. I did plug the holes up though. I’m still looking in to whether I need to readjust the EJK. If you know, let me know in the comments.

So, I picked up a couple LED running lights to add to evening trail rides but mostly visibility. I picked them up from Deal Extreme (dx.com). They don’t have the exact ones, but here’s a similar set with an on/off switch. I just wired mine in to the high beam of the headlight Motorcycle Super Bright Waterproof LED Headlight – 12~85V (2PCS)

          

Before:

After:

Next, I needed some type of rack on the back, but didn’t want to shell out $120.00 plus. I found this one on Ebay, but they have gone up in price about $20.00 since I purchased. They sell them on Amazon as well, and the reviews were all very favorable. The seller: talon-billets does not appear to be selling them any longer, and the only price I could find was about the same you can find anywhere else for a luggage rack. May be worth keeping an eye out for, in case this seller lists them again. Here is the same rack, but higher priced: Honda CRF250L Enduro Rear Luggage Rack CRF 250L 250M Rally 2012-present

Then, there was gas…no, not the “I’ve had too much milk” kind. The “oh man, I’m in the middle of nowhere with an empty tank” kind. While I would have loved to pick up a Rotopax, I could not justify the price, for the minimal riding I do. I found a similar brand “Long Haul” on Ebay, and it seems to be working pretty good. It came with the mounting bracket, hardware, and no leaks so far. The price has gone up on them about $10.00 since I purchased, so they may not really be any cheaper for very long.  The seller was service2worldwide Link: 1.3 Gallon 5L Rotopax Fuel Pack, Jerry Gas Can For Jeep, ATV, UTV, Polaris RZR S

The tail light seems to be one of the first things people do on these bikes. That, and the airbox mods. I didn’t want to shell out $120 to $150 for one of the tail light mods, so I was just going to be OK with the stock setup, until it got crushed one day. We’ll, a super cool guy listed some CRF250l Parts on Facebook Market place and he was getting low balled to death. We chatted a bit, and I decided I was going to pick up his plastics. He had converted his to Supermoto, and the plastics were brand new. We got to chatting at his storage unit and he gave me his stock light assembly (told ya, super cool guy). I since went back and picked up the stock seat and exhaust in case something ever happens to mine. I like to take care of my stuff and keep it in good shape in case I ever decide to sell. At his prices, it was a no brainer. Anyway, my light assembly was already pretty butchered up, and his was brand new so I put his on a shelf for sell day, and went to work on mine.

I had an old door kick plate from Home Depot that I never used. It was between 1/16″ and 3/32″ (1.5 to 2.5mm) thick and seemed rigid enough. So I drew up the shape I’d seen holding license plates on:

Rough filed it to the shape I wanted, used the sander to get it a bit closer, then smoothed it all out with hand sanding:

So, on the stock tail light, there is a small bulb to light the plate up. Since that’s no longer there, I used the Dremel on the underside and hollowed it out. I used an 1157 white LED from Ebay seller jewelryfindingshop. 2X 1157 BAY15D P21/5W 27SMD 5050 Car 12V LED Tail Brake Light Bulb Lamp White. It will show red through the lens, but light up below white for the plate.  I had a small piece of plexiglass left over from another project. It was just thin enough, and I used silicon to make it water tight. Does not look great from under, but looks fine in place on the bike.

I also picked up a couple of replacement turn signals that are a bit more low profile. This was another Ebay purchase from seller lovemotor2014. LED Turn Signal Light Indicator Brake Running Tail Light For CBR XR CRF F2 F3 F4  I liked how they stay on as red with the tail lights, but the arrow part lights up orange when turning. Oh, and yeah covered my license plate up with gaffers tape. Not sure why, just see a lot of people hide their plates online. Don’t think I didn’t drive around like this for a couple days either.

  

I also picked up a break light flasher from Ebay seller premiertek_com. LED Brake Stop Light Lamp Flasher Flash Strobe Controller 12V-24V New LSC-100B. It does a 3 flash pulse, stays on for a second then repeats the three flash again. It does this as long as you hold the break.

The finished product:

 

Video of the thing working

 

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