Check this one out from the 2005 archives…
It was right after the 2003 Red Bull Supermoto A-Go-Go Ben Bostrom’s championship-winning Works Honda CRF450R. It was a sight—Honda pulled into Apex Raceway with a crew of winged red shirts ready for the test. Ken Vreeke from Vreeke & Associates, which happens to be Dunlop’s ad agency, came out to see what all the hoopla was about. Ken is a motorcycle fanatic and has been living the life of two wheels for god only knows how long. And like most motorcycle addicts, grabbing a new set of handlebars is like handing the keys to prison inmates—once they start to take off there’s no stopping them. By the end of the day, Ken had spun some laps, then a few more, then some more. When he lifted his helmet from his steaming cranium he had that look of a 4-year-old with a brand-new lollipop—happy and content. Not too long after (or should we say a few seconds later), the cogs began to spin and he was already planning the first build as if he was on “Monster Garage.” Since that auspicious day, project Vreeke CRF supermoto has gotten some use. First it was built as a supermoto play bike, then it was rebuilt to race the X Games with Honda off-road rider Steve Hengeveld. Now it’s living the best of times after Tokyomod’s CEO Ron Wood performed his magic along with a few friends including MB1 Suspension, White Brothers, Dunlop, BRP and Factory Pro Racing (FPR). And when we’re talkin’ Ron Wood, we ain’t talkin’ dirt track Ron Wood but the motocross Ron Wood. You know, the one who worked for Factory Honda when Ricky Carmichael won all of those championships. And the Wood who helped develop and build Bostrom’s Works Honda supermoto bikes. We all drool over what it would be like to ride a factory bike. This is probably the closest you’ll ever get unless you have $50 grand or more burning a hole in ye old pocket. Although you can’t get Works parts, you can get the experience and knowledge of a guy who built Works bikes. Wood recently left his position at Honda to open Tokyomods. They offer four-stroke performance engines, custom-programmed ignitions and a host of other services, parts and accessories for four-stroke supermoto, mini and motocross bikes. We had the guy who knows how to build a bike and the motor, what about the suspension? You’re in double luck. Mike Battista from MB1 Suspension is another former Team Honda Tech. Battista worked as a Showa suspension expert during RC’s winning years from ’02-’04 and has two supermoto titles under his belt with Bostrom’s ’03 AMA Title and the X Games Gold Medal in ’04. MB1 is a full-service suspension shop and caters to supermoto and motocross.
THE BIKE
The goal wasn’t to impress people with the fact this ride was built by the same two who built Bostrom’s racer—but if it did, kudos to us. First intentions were to build a race bike for the everyday rider. This meant we wanted it to run on pump fuel and retain as many stock engine components as possible. Wood proclaims that the key to his kit lies in the union of several components and modifications. He spent countless hours testing before he came up with just the right headwork, ignition curve, carburetor modification, performance cam and exhaust. Believe it or not, the piston, rings, valves and valve springs are all OEM Honda parts. The Vreeke bike was due for an overhaul and it was the perfect time to lean on the engine since Tokyomods was already inside the top end. If you neglect modern four-stroke motocross engines too long, stock or modified, they will fight back, commit suicide and shatter parts all over the place. And when they go, it can wipe out everything and cost more than half of the purchase price of the bike when it was new. The average cost to have the top end and head rebuilt on a CRF including parts and labor is around $700, which is half the price of the total Tokyomods Stage 2 engine package. When you send the engine in for a rebuild or mods, take the time to inspect and rebuild the chassis. Buff out the dingy frame and check for cracks, clean and grease anything that moves. These are the kinds of things a factory team does every week. Doing a little work a few times a year or more is priceless when it comes to the per-formance and longevity of any bike. With the engine and chassis at Tokyomods, the suspension went out to MB1 for a routine rebuild and an internal valving update. MB1 believes that you don’t have to lower a bike for supermoto. Most of the European riders all run stock height suspension with great success. It’s all about the valving and springs. Lowering the suspension is often more expensive too. Running stock suspension is possible but it does have its limitations, especially for faster riders. Stock stuff is usually way too soft causing the bike to wallow all over the track. The MB1 is stiffer but still offers a lot of action in the dirt along with ample wheel control on the pavement. It feels as if they built a lot more rebound and compression control into the valving to keep the chassis stable and the tires tracking through the corners. To accentuate the suspension tuning, BRP 22mm offset triple clamps further improved the handling and its turn-carving abilities. The 22mm is a good combo over the stock 24mm offset. The slight difference increased the trail improving the straight-line stability, but it also lets the bike drop into the turns easier when you hack it into the corner. To stick to the real-world approach, they ran the traditional 17″ wheels front and rear instead of the 16.5″ front. It’s a lot easier to get 17″ front tires right now and we don’t recommend 16.5″ unless you have some experience riding supermoto. The Factory Pro Racing wheels look like something straight off a Works bike. They came with trick, red anodized hubs and Behr polished aluminum rims. They’re very affordable at just under a grand for the set. An FPR 320mm front rotor was then mounted onto the wheel. To finish off the brakes, we headed to the White Brothers Catalog and shopped for the Moto-Master front caliper, White Brothers supermoto master cylinder and special WB supermoto brake line.
DATA ACQUISITION
The numbers don’t lie, so Tokyomods has developed a sweet data acquisition system based off the AIM Sports computer. The control module is tucked behind the radia-tor shroud and monitors engine RPM, water temp, rear wheel speed, throttle position and lap times. If you’re a serious racer, this is a must-have. You can download your data onto a laptop computer and really tell if the rider keeps it pinned all the time like he says he is. When you consider the entire unit costs less than three sets of tires, it could help a rider improve, not to mention monitor the engine. Lap times are recorded and appear on screen for a rider to monitor during practice or qualifying.
THE PACKAGE
The real-world goal of building a racer with easily available parts and service almost hit its mark except for a few extra items that are cool but not necessary. Tokyomods built and prepped the bike but it was their engine that was the highlight of the test. The bike is fast, really fast—national-caliber fast. And when you consider it can live on pump fuel and the engine is serviceable using Honda parts except for the cam, that’s impressive. It has a controllable roll-on out of the corners and just pulls from then on with a steady stream of fast all the way across the board. This is what we call a supermoto engine. Tokyomods also had a lot of input into White Brothers’ new supermoto spec exhaust. Like Wood said, “it isn’t just the head or just the carb that make the bike run so good—it’s the combo of everything.” If you’re just looking for bolt-on items then the ignition and exhaust might be the ticket but definitely not as good as the kit. For example, the carb mods completely eliminated any cough, sputter, hesitation or stall when you snap the throttle open. The ignition has a specially programmed curve with a slightly bumped up rev limiter. The head has been ported and then slightly machined to bump up compression. The valve seats were also cut and lapped in for the ultimate seal and then the engine was assembled by someone who knows what it takes win championships. The kicker is that Tokyomods also claims that reliability will not be an issue with their engine mods. They recommend following the same protocol and maintenance schedule as stated in the Honda manual for a stock bike. There are a lot of fast bikes but also a heap of ticking bombs waiting to explode. Tokyomods proved you don’t need big valves, ultra- stiff valve springs and high compression pistons to build a fast, yet very rider- friendly, national-caliber engine.
FINAL
Pro riders Brandon “College Boy” Currie and Gary “Concrete Hurts” Trachy, both agreed that even though the intention was to build an over-the-counter race bike that Joe Average could easily achieve through a few phone calls, the final consensus rated this bike plenty capable of lining up at any national race. Not only was the engine a perfect package, but the entire bike shined from the suspension to the brakes to the Dunlop slicks and the retro Throttle Jockey Elsinore graphic kit. It does take a fairly decent bankroll to mount such an operation but the results are pretty amazing. If you look at the core of what makes this bike work—engine, suspension and brakes, this is the true heart of a supermoto machine. Our buddy Ken may have dove into the corner a little deeper than originally intended with product, but when we left the track that day we once again witnessed the look of the lollipop.
