Inside Amsoil Honda's Fuel-Injected CRF150R 7

GuyB
3/31/2016 10:53am

After signing Carson Mumford to the Amsoil Honda squad (which is the amateur side of the GEICO Honda team), the Factory Connection Racing gang has been busy recently, building up a secret weapon for him. They've been retooling the Honda CRF150R to swap it from a mild-mannered carbureted model to a fuel-injected fire-breather. We got to check in with them as they took it to the dirt for the first time, and also see a bit of what it took to make the conversion. This may be the coolest Honda 150 that we've seen, and there will be both small-wheel and Supermini versions for Carson to race.

One of the bigger challenges was to figure out how to use a batch of the ignition components from the CRF250R. You can see how the ignition cover has a bit of a Frankenstein look to it. In the future, this may become a machined part. The throttle body is one used by several manufacturers at the top level of 250 and 450 racing (it's a KTM part), but this could change in the future. The air boot was in a bit of a crude form when we saw it, but that's also something that will undergo more tuning over time.

The bike was set up with some of Kibby's traveling data acquisition hardware, and they were monitoring the air/fuel mixture. That's what the board is on the back of the radiator. He can set it up to monitor several things at once. The ignition may move, and at this point, the frame has sort of an industrial coating on it. How about that brake pedal?

The swingarm was outsourced, and looks a lot like the old factory Honda pieces from back in the day.

How big a deal was this? Some of the gang from HRC Honda came out to check it out.

Development on this project has revolved a bit around Carson. Unfortunately, he suffered a broken femur a while back, and he was just coming back from that on the first day out. He also scored a broken wrist after the first day, which slowed development before some of the Spring races. At the recent Freestone event, he lined up for gate drops, and hammered the starts to see where they stood. The team also played around with gearing, etc., and then he backed off and circulated at back of pack just to collect data...and to continue to build up his wrist.

After the first day out on the bike, they determined that they needed a better fuel pump setup. That led to the development of an aluminum tank, which was on the bike the second time we saw it in action. It will be interesting to check out the development on this as Carson gets back to full speed, and we get deeper into the amateur season.

Related:
Honda
Factory Connection
CRF150R
Amsoil Honda
Carson Mumford
Kristian Kibby
7 comments

View replies to: Inside Amsoil Honda's Fuel-Injected CRF150R

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Underground
8 years ago
Cat's out of the bag. Was a shame about Carson for MESX but at least it allowed more development and proving time. A lot of people will be watching how things go now also
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HenryA
8 years ago
That's a cool build. But would it be a match for a Pro Circuit built KX85?
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marcusmx233
8 years ago
I was not a member of any moto forums until now. After seeing this article I decided to become a member so I could post. All I have to say is wow!! This bike is sick!! Ever since Justin Barcia became a member of FC Honda back in the day, I was very interested in their 150. It was trick, but nothing like this. Thank you for doing this article. I and many other Moro fans love seeing the trick bikes of our dreams.
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