FEATURE - 1995 Honda CR250R

Words: Mike Ryan

Photos: Mark West

How well versed are you on Australian motocross history? Some of you reading this probably know plenty, others next to nothing. But it’d be a safe bet that many of you may not immediately recognise the bike pictured, or know the Australian motocross star who rode it. No shame if you don’t, as aside from a few specialist magazines and websites, motocross is criminally under-reported in this country and our motocross history under-recorded to the same degree.

Anything on Aussie MX from the pre-internet era is hard to find information on without turning to human sources. Fortunately, many of the blokes who raced motocross back in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, as well as those who built the bikes and spannered on them, are still around and have a wealth of knowledge to share. Those human sources would be pivotal to both the identification and restoration of the bike pictured.

Coming Home

The bike you’re looking at is Steven Andrew’s ‘MC Mart Xtreme Honda CR250R from 1995.

Apart from its outstanding restored condition, what’s notable about this bike is its strong connection to the Victorian city of Geelong: a connection that started with its creation and came full circle with its recent recovery and restoration. But those connections weren’t immediately apparent to its current owner, Mark West, when he bought it in 2019.

‘Westy’ to everyone that knows him – including the JUST BIKES crew – Mark was raised in Geelong and runs a design, print and pre-press business, Fleetwood Print Group, in the city. Before that, Mark worked for JUST AUTO (nee Just Magazines), which has a long and proud Geelong history, too.

Some of you reading this may recall dealing with Mark back in the day, but what you probably didn’t know is that he was a pretty handy racer on both two and four wheels, with a particular passion for bikes.

These days, Mark oversees the motocross aspirations of his two sons, which led to the acquisition of this CR250R. The family was looking for something that was challenging, but without the pressure of serious MX competition. This led them to ‘Viper MX’ – Victoria’s vintage motocross category - a few years back.

“A friend of mine, Shane Cooper, has got several Viper bikes and asked if my eldest son Jake would like to race them - that’s what got the interest going,” Mark explained. “The bikes are pretty cool, but they’re still pretty fast.”

Viper MX is open to pre-1997 MX bikes, so the technology isn’t that old, and the bikes are as fast as you want them – or yourself! - to be. Following that initial taste, the West clan were hooked and keen to make Viper MX a regular thing, but borrowing bikes wasn’t a long-term solution, so the search for a suitable machine of their own began in 2018.

“I looked at plenty and ultimately bought this one, sight unseen, up in New South Wales,” Mark recalled. “At the time, I just thought I was buying a ’96 model CR250R.”

When Mark says, “sight unseen”, he did receive plenty of photos from the seller, but these flattered the bike, which became apparent when he saw it – and heard it – for the first time.

“I wasn’t blown away with it, especially when I heard it running,” Mark laughed. “The photos made it look like an 8 out of 10 – it was more like a 5 out of 10.”

What also became apparent on first inspection is that it wasn’t a ’96 CR250R, but actually a ’95 model. While not a deal breaker, this did give Mark some leverage to negotiate the price down.

That on-site inspection also showed some engravings on the barrel, barely legible and obscured by grime. This is where the human sources came into play.

“I took some photos and sent them off to some of my friends – Shane Cooper, Paul ‘Hollywood’ Howie and Luke Hibberd. While I was driving home with the bike, they were all trying to work out what the engraving was.”

Back in Geelong, treating the CR250 to the pressure washer revealed some crankcase engraving complementing that on the barrel, but this was a lot more legible, reading “Hallam Brothers”. That identified the engine as being built by the Geelong-based performance engine builders, which then made deciphering the barrel engraving a bit easier.

“I shot fresh pictures off to my mates and one of them was able to work out that the barrel engraving said ‘Airtime’ and ‘Hallam Boyz Racing 95’ above that.”

Now, for those that don’t know, ‘Airtime’ was Steven Andrew’s nickname during his pro riding days, although ‘Wicksy,’ bestowed upon Steven by fellow MXer Peter Melton, was used just as frequently.

“The Hallam Boys were known for putting the rider’s nickname on the engine back then, so that dated the engine,” Mark explained. “And being 1995, we could work out who the team was – the MC Mart Xtreme Honda Team. Alongside Steven, the other members of the team that year were Craig Carmichael and Cam Taylor.”

It must be pointed out that neither the Hallam or Steven Andrew connections were known by Mark when he bought the bike, nor were they mentioned by the seller – most likely he didn’t know  - but the Geelong connection to a bike that was now back in Geelong was pretty cool.

However, there was also still a possibility that this wasn’t the genuine Steven Andrew CR250R from ’95. Call on those human sources again to make it a certainty!

Steve and Steven

The network of Mark’s mates in the vintage MX community led to Steve Binion, who was Steven Andrew’s mechanic at the peak of his pro riding career and made specific alterations to the bikes of each of the riders he worked with.

On the frame, a bash plate had been welded on underneath the engine, which Shane Cooper suspected was the work of Steve Binion.

“Shane told me that frame’s a real deal race bike frame,” Mark recalled, but being a skeptic, he needed a bit more than that, so the engine was pulled out and photos taken of the frame, which were sent off to Steve Binion via the MX network. “He said, ‘Yep, categorically, that’s my work and that’s a frame that was done for Steven’.”

The next step was confirming all this information with the man himself – Steven Andrew.

The 1995 Australian 500cc Motocross Champion, Steven had a successful racing career in the 1980s and ‘90s; successful enough to be in demand overseas, as well as domestically. But as previously mentioned, much of Australia’s MX history is undocumented, so ‘Wicksy’ is largely unknown outside the MX fraternity.

“I didn’t know Steven personally, but the other guys within my group knew him well. So, while all this was going on, they were reaching out to Steven, showing him stuff, and he was going, ‘Yep, that’s correct’.”

A couple of months into the rebuild of the bike, Mark first made contact with Steven, who not only confirmed that the bike Mark had was his genuine racing Honda from 1995, but also yielded answers to some questions that had stymied the group for weeks.

“We could see a sticker on top of the forks, in between the triple clamps, and just couldn’t identify it,” Mark recalled. “So, when I was in contact with Wicksy, I pointed that out and he went to this big box of stickers and came back with an original ‘Rod Sharp Cycleworks’ sticker - that was the sticker on the forks!

“Steven still lives in Geelong, about five minutes from my house, so he’s filled in the gaps and all the background history I needed to complete the project.”

Respect. . . . and Race

What had started as a simple project changed when the connection to Steven Andrew was confirmed, but didn’t change it entirely.

“The right thing to do by the bike was to take it back to how it was in ’95. But, in doing that, it wasn’t just to make it look pretty. It was always going to be a bike to be raced – not to be a lounge queen – so it had to go good.”

To achieve that goal, the engine was completely rebuilt by Dave Martin, a professional builder of high-performance engines with years of experience in World Superbike competition.

“The porting’s the same, the carburettor’s been oversized and it’s running a Pro Circuit Works pipe, which is what it ran back in the day. Modifications made to the muffler are as per what Wicksy used to do, too, so we’ve done it to the ’95 spec - and then some!” Mark laughed.

Chad’s Offroad Setups were given the task of rebuilding the suspension and did a ripper job, too. The bike currently runs Kayaba components front and rear, but Steven revealed he often used an Öhlins rear shock. A rebuilt A95 Öhlins unit is pretty pricey, so it’s off this bike’s spec list for now, but Mark says it may come in the future.

Steven generously donated an original seat cover, front mudguard and radiator shrouds to the project, but knowing the significance of these items to this bike – and to Steven personally – Mark says they’ll be removed when the CR hits the track in earnest.

Nine Months in the Making

When he bought this bike, Mark was only going to bring it up to running spec - a fortnight’s work at the most, he thought. However, with the desire - and in some ways, the obligation – to honour its history once it was confirmed as Steven Andrew’s ex-race bike, those couple of weeks turned into nine months, with the project completed at the end of 2019.

“The real challenge was in getting it ‘right’,” Mark said. “Researching was hard, but it was also enjoyable. Some of that stuff turned into really good fun with my mates - little challenges we were trying to work out.”

Thanks to those mates, and contacts with professionals like Dave Martin and Chad’s, as well as invaluable assistance from Steven himself, the rebuild went smoothly. While it was a long process, it was also an enjoyable one.

Mark admits that, sometimes, things got a little out of hand, like having the original engine bolts zinc-plated instead of buying new ones, and sourcing an Applied Racing upper fork yoke from the US and having it restored, buying four air boxes to build the best one and so on.

“Many parts for these ’90s CRS have been out of stock for years, so sourcing the best second-hand parts possible from around the globe is the only option these days,” Mark said. “The petrol tank is OEM and I would say I put a good 20 hours into restoring it and the air box alone.”

Jake and Harry West only spent a brief time on the rebuilt CR250R before the coronavirus hit and travel restrictions came into effect. Thanks to COVID-19, this bike’s first true competition test may be some time away, but Mark reckons it’ll be worth the wait.

More importantly, what does Steven think of the finished article?

“He’s seen it and was pretty stoked. He was very humbled, to be honest. Our intention was for him to have a ride, too, but COVID threw a spanner into the works...”

Mark’s restoration of Steven Andrew’s 1995 MC Mart Team Xtreme Honda CR250R has done more than just bring an old dirt bike back to life – it’s brought a small piece of Aussie motocross history back into the light, too. Hopefully, this article does a little of the same, as the more people that know about our MX history and its star riders, the better.

A Word from Wicksy

Steven Andrew may not be as well-known as some of his contemporaries, like Glen Bell and Craig Dack, but he was an Australian championship winner and successful enough to also race overseas throughout the 1990s.

“I never saw myself as someone big like Craig Dack, Jeff Leisk or Stephen Gall. I just loved riding,” Steven explained.

Like his contemporaries, Steven started young. His pace in junior competition with Geelong’s Sporting M/C Club attracted the attention of the manufacturer-backed teams, so much so that he was able to ditch an apprenticeship as a motorcycle mechanic and go racing full time at 18.

“When I was 18, I picked up a Yamaha Dealer Team ride. I rode for Yamaha for many years, then Kawasaki for a few years. When Glen Bell retired in ’94, Honda asked if I would ride for them in 1995.”

Amongst his MX and SX wins on the CR250R in 1995, Steven recalls winning the Wayville Showgrounds Supercross in Adelaide as a highlight, while he also rode a CR500R to that year’s Australian 500cc MX title.

“I loved the 500 - everyone who can ride them does. You just use the power and torque. You don’t even need first and second gear - use third gear off the start line and away you go!”

Steven’s love of riding  took him overseas, too, including events in Japan, Canada, New Zealand, Europe and America, where he became the first Aussie to win a Supercross main event on US soil – at the Hawaii Supercross – in 1990.

After a break from riding, Steven returned in 2015, and following a hip replacement last year, is raring to get back on the dirt.

“I just want to ride for fun. I can’t do much these days – only a few laps, but I’m dying to ride.”