Honda CRF250 Rally

Current ride, a Honda CRF 250 Rally.

Risers, heated grips, replacement pegs, alloy rear rack, K&N air filter and kit (I didn't realise this when I purchased it).

The perils of the K&N Air filter kit:

This should be pretty evident from the photo above, on perhaps my second proper ride on this bike I attempted some water that was a little too tricky for my skill level. I hit a stone under the water and couldn’t keep the bike upright. Anyway, I killed the engine as soon as possible, picked the bike up and wheeled it out.

MX boots totally full of water I turned it over one (mistake), it didn’t sound right so I did a bit of googling and removed the side panel. This is when I noticed loads of holes in the air filter cover which was definitely not a good thing when it had just fallen on that side.

The tiny foam plugs in the holes of the side of the airbox had call been sucked into the main chamber, I proceeded to remove the cover and a load of water and mud poured out. This was not a great situation, freezing cold, mx boots totally full, miles from anywhere with no normal vehicle access.

I did my best to scrape off the mud and wash off the outside of the paper filter with my water bottle, I then ran around and shook it out for as long as I could bare. 30mins in the ray of sunshine and it had to go back in the bike. I knew I should get the bike on the back wheel and see if any water was in the exhaust but I couldn’t do this myself in the mud without an engine running.

So as risky as it was, in went the filter and the bike started after a couple of turns. I rode it home carefully (20miles), it somehow didn’t miss a beat.

I realised afterwards I was pretty lucky, clearly no water got in above the pistons.

What next:

1. New air filter, Oil change, oil filter.

2. Ran bike for 10 mins

3. Oil change, oil filter

4. Ran bike for 10 mins

5. Oil change oil filter

I could see from the sight glass that there was water in the oil, it pretty awful. After three changes the oil it looks perfect, I’m going to run it for a few hundred miles and then change it again, I used cheaper than normal oil for the fast changes. What I have noticed is that right at the top of the engine, above the oil filler hole there’s still a bit of gloopy oil/water mix. I’m hoping that after some more runs, and another oil change this will go too.

I’ve a new spark plug ready to go in, but the old one looks perfect so that can wait. I now know there’s a few other things I should have done, I’ve clearly quite a lot of learn still.

K&N AIR FILTER MOD – this is really rubbish if you go near water. I’m going to seal up the holes and revert to just having the snorkel in place, it’s more important that I don’t destroy this bike than it is to gain a fraction of a horse power (if that!). I’m pretty frustrated with the dealership for not highlighting this, then again I should have checked the bike over more thoroughly when it was delivered. In all fairness there were a few mods that they didn’t mentioned that have actually been quite useful (such as riser blocks). They had definitely services the bike before it was dispatched, however it looks like they binned the existing K&N filter and popped a honda paper one in there, it certainly did the job of stopping the mud, and most of the water so perhaps I should have just used another stock filter.