The engine of Rath’s Honda pulls hard in the midrange, which is where most of the power is needed. The pace is fast during these high-speed races. There are whoops and jumps, but generally they aren’t as big as ones you will find on dirt motocross tracks. The courses are generally made with hardpack clay with flat, banked and off-camber turns that you must pitch the rear of an ATC sideways to go through quickly. In the ’80s ATCs spent a lot of time racing on TT (Tourist Trophy) tracks, which are a mixture of flat track and motocross racing. Depending on the traction of how the TT tracks dirt, he can quickly decide exactly where to sit on his ATC to get a holeshot. Rath uses the ribs to measure out how far back to sit for starts. The seat cover has ribs on the back section of it. He did this to make it easier to move from each side of the bike quicker and easier when cornering. A Fourwerx Carbon seat cover provides gripĭaryl installed a Fourwerx Carbon seat cover onto the stock seat foam after cutting down the foam nearest the tank. Daryl cut down the seat foam on his 250R right before the gas tank to make transitioning from each side of the bike easier in cornering. Rath Signature Series nerf bars made it onto Daryl’s Honda with his monster peg that gives you an insane amount of foot traction and the ability to place your foot on the peg right up to the edges of the nerf bars. The thumb throttle is stock, as well as the cables, but the clutch lever and perch came from Works Connection. The stock thumb throttle is still used.Īs far as hand controls go, Mika handlebars are used with a CR Hi Bend to them. A $156 Works Connection clutch perch was installed on a set of $80 Mika handlebars for a better hand-control feel. PEP and Rath brake lines were used on this machine with Maxima 550 Boiling Point fluid. Braking is done by the stock front braking system off of the 250R, while the rear brakes were converted to a TRX450R rear caliper, with a 450R master cylinder also utilized on the system. A Goldspeed front tire measuring 20×5.5-10 and Hoosier rear tires sized 15×8-8 keep the Rath ATC250R pointing in the right direction. Traction is important in racing, and the TT tires are not designed to be taken anywhere but hardpacked clay tracks. The $439 axle used is from Lonestar Racing and added needed width to the rear end for better cornering and stability. The rear brake caliper was taken from a Honda TRX450R to increase stopping power. Not only are all of these parts lighter than stock, they provide more rear-end control in corners and over rough sections on the track. A +.5-inch Rath TT swingarm was installed, along with a Lonestar Racing axle, PRP carrier and LSR anti-fade hubs. On a TT racecourse there aren’t many big jumps, so suspension can be set lower, which vastly helps with cornering speeds. A DEM rear shock was installed on the Honda that was also modified by PEP to have only 7 inches of rear-wheel travel. The front forks on this 250R just needed a re-valve, and Rath sent them to PEP to be set up and shortened to only have 7 inches of travel. Suspension is one of the most important components on any machine however, you don’t always need to go buy an aftermarket setup. To help the fuel and air mix is a $180 Boyesen Rad Valve reed cage with an NGK spark plug to create combustion. A $48 K&N air filter was installed without an airbox to allow the maximum amount of airflow to the motor. To provide the right flow of fuel to the engine is a Keihin PWK 38mm carburetor. VP C12 race fuel must now be used in the Honda Short Course tank that is designed to let the handlebars turn further than stock. Rath had CT Racing massage the cylinder porting and polished the head for $425. Daryl found a 1985 Honda ATC250R and began modifying the whole bike, starting with the powerplant. The two-stroke engine was utilized in almost every racing ATC back in the 1980s until four-stroke engines began to make their appearance. A $75 ESR kickstarter was also installed. A Rath quick release clutch cover runs for $395. He pulled down his old number plates from the wall of his shop that once were mounted to his racing ATC in the ’80s and prepared his old but very new machine to mount them on. After all those years Rath decided it was time to build an awesome Honda ATC250R to once again shred on the TT tracks. Once the ATC fell off of the Honda production line, Daryl stopped racing three-wheeled machines and stuck with quads and UTVs. Daryl now owns Rath Racing, where he builds aftermarket parts like nerf bars, bumpers, footpegs and more for ATVs, ATCs and UTVs. Back in the ’80s ATC racing was at its prime, and one competitor was Daryl Rath.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |