This is a Honda CR250R from the 2007 model year that’s remained unused in its original factory crate. It’s now being offered for sale and it comes with a trailer for easy transportation, as well as a slew of spare parts, plastics, and more.
The CR250R is one of the most highly respected motocross bikes of its time, so finding one in unused condition still in its crate is quite a coup. This one is now being offered for sale out of Seekonk, Massachusetts.
This is a Honda CR250R from the 2007 model year that has remained unused in its original factory crate. It’s now being offered for sale and it comes with a trailer for easy transportation, as well as a slew of spare parts, plastics, and more.
History Speedrun: The Honda CR250R
A good argument could be made that the Honda CR250R and its predecessors are among the most important motocross motorcycles ever built.
Across its Honda 250 two-stroke motocross lineage, from the original CR250M Elsinore and RC250 works bikes through to the production CR250R, Honda took 12 AMA premier-class outdoor national championships between 1973 and 2003, with riders like Gary Jones, Rick Johnson, Jeremy McGrath, and Ricky Carmichael piloting their bikes to victory.
Early on, Honda founder Soichiro Honda had publicly declared that his company would never build a two-stroke motorcycle, but the emergence of domestic motocross racing in Japan from 1967 onward (largely dominated by two-strokes from Suzuki and Yamaha) forced his hand. Honda engineers began developing two-stroke prototypes, testing a 250cc machine in Japan in 1971 and then in California in 1972.
The result of all this was the now-legendary CR250M Elsinore, which quietly arrived in dealer showrooms in early 1973. Named after the famous Elsinore Grand Prix off-road race in Lake Elsinore, California (the same event featured in Bruce Brown’s 1971 documentary On Any Sunday) it was the lightest production motocrosser in the world.
Its 248cc air-cooled, piston-port, single-cylinder two-stroke produced 29 bhp at 7,500 rpm, and the engine cases used magnesium alloy to save weight. Honda hired reigning AMA 250 National Champion Gary Jones to race the bike, and he won the 1973 title aboard a production-based Elsinore, establishing its reputation immediately.
Across its Honda 250 two-stroke motocross lineage, from the original CR250M Elsinore and RC250 works bikes through to the production CR250R, Honda took 12 AMA premier-class outdoor national championships between 1973 and 2003, with riders like Gary Jones, Rick Johnson, Jeremy McGrath, and Ricky Carmichael piloting their bikes to victory. Image courtesy of Honda.
The CR250M was offered largely unchanged through till 1975, allowing Honda’s Japanese competitors to catch up. Soichiro’s company’s response came in 1978 with a ground-up redesign that was directly inspired by the RC500 Type II works race bike.
Renamed the Honda CR250R (the “R” standing for “Replica”) it had a Euro-style engine layout with the output shaft on the right, a six-petal reed-valve induction system fed by a 36mm Keihin carburetor, and a chrome-bore cylinder. Everything was painted fire-engine red, earning the bike its long-lived “Red Rocket” nickname.
The early 1980s brought two new innovations to the line that would later be considered landmarks – in 1981, the CR250R became the first water-cooled 250cc production motocross bike, and it debuted Honda’s Pro-Link single-shock rear suspension.
By 1984, a hydraulic front disc brake and the ATAC exhaust valve had arrived, and the bike settled into the form it would take for years, with a slower series of improvements and iterations thereafter.
The golden era came in the late 1980s through the 1990s, with a major chassis and engine overhaul in 1987, an inverted Showa fork from 1989 onwards, and an all-new aluminum frame in 1997.
With the motocross world shifting decisively toward 450cc four-strokes, Honda announced the end of two-stroke production after 2007, marking the end of CR250R production and forever closing one of the greatest model series in the history of the sport.
The now-legendary Honda CR250M Elsinore arrived in dealer showrooms in early 1973. Named after the famous Elsinore Grand Prix off-road race in Lake Elsinore, California (the same event featured in Bruce Brown’s 1971 documentary On Any Sunday) it was the lightest production motocrosser in the world. Image courtesy of Honda.
The Factory Crated 2007 Honda CR250R Shown Here
This 2007 Honda CR250R was originally delivered new to Matto Cycle in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and changed hands privately before the current selling dealer in Massachusetts bought it still sealed in its factory crate in May of 2025.
The bike is finished in the classic red and white with black accents over an aluminum frame, it’s never been uncrated or ridden, making it a remarkable time capsule. It’s being sold at no reserve with a Manufacturer’s Certificate of Origin rather than a title, so a bill of sale accompanies the transaction.
As you would expect for a CR250R, power comes from a liquid-cooled 249cc two-stroke single rated at 48 bhp from the factory, fed by a Mikuni carburetor and breathing out through an expansion-chamber exhaust. It fires up via kick starter with electronic ignition and sends power through a multi-plate wet clutch, a 5-speed gearbox, and a chain final drive to the rear wheel. Given that this bike has been sitting in its crate since new, total mileage is 0, and there’s no instrumentation fitted to track it anyway.
This bike was factory-fitted with an inverted Showa cartridge fork up front and a Showa monoshock out back, connected through Honda’s aluminum Pro-Link swingarm and linkage. Wire-spoke wheels are shod with Dunlop Sports knobby tires, with a 21 inch hoop up front and a 19 inch at the rear, and disc brakes handle stopping duties at both ends.
The sale also includes a 2026 Karavan single-axle trailer equipped with lighting, folding bunks, a hinged loading ramp, gray steel wheels, and leaf-spring suspension, along with a trailer rolling dolly.
This 2007 Honda CR250R was originally delivered new to Matto Cycle in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and changed hands privately before the current selling dealer in Massachusetts bought it still sealed in its factory crate in May of 2025.
On top of that, the buyer gets a nice pile of extras – an Athena forged piston kit, a gasket set, spare side panels, hand guards, plastic front and rear fenders, Fox Racing jersey and 180 Honda race pants, and a 2007 Honda Off-Road Competition brochure.
It’s now being offered for sale out of Seekonk, Massachusetts with all those extra parts, the trailer, and a Manufacturer’s Certificate of Origin for the motorcycle. If you’d like to read more or place a bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
