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Factory Honda has long been the most sought-after team to ride for nearly every generation of rider. No matter what brand one may grow up on, there's always a slight want or dream to ride for arguably the most iconic team in the sport. On the small bikes side of things, Factory Connection has grown their Geico Honda program into a team that is gaining a similar desire amongst riders. Offering one of the most solid programs in the pits, and was really the first team to consistently crack the armor of the insanely successful Pro Circuit organization. But now we have an question to answer, which bike does the public prefer? For this example, we have quite a few closeups of Trey Canard's Honda HRC CRF450R and RJ Hampshire's Geico Honda CRF250R for you to drool over and help decide who will win.
So which bike do you like better? Scroll down and take a good, hard look at each one, then cast your vote in the poll at the bottom of the page!
Trey Canard's Honda HRC CRF450R - Mechanic: Brent Presnell
Over the years, Honda has rarely had any sort of title sponsor, preferring to keep their bikes with a Factory look and keeping the CRF look they want to represent. This year's red, white, and blue bikes carry some strong looks.
Trey Canard made some big news in late 2014, as he showed up with KYB's PSF1 forks gracing the front of his Honda HRC bike. This was a shock due to Honda's long-time partnership with KYB's competitor, Showa.
The rear of his bike is also graced by a KYB unit, a very expensive billet model that oozes trickness.
There are very few aftermarket components on the HRC bikes, but this Tokyo Mods manual cam-chain tensioner made the cut.
Along with these radiator braces from Works Connection, which are cut a bit different to the team's request.
Trey's bike features a carbon fiber guard over the rear master cylinder. This protects the cylinder while also allowing Trey a more consistent base to hold the bike with his boots, based on his foot position when riding.
Carbon goodies are stashed throughout the bike, such as these shroud-extenders.
Yoshimura's dual carbon fiber RS9 cans are iconic on the rear of the HRC CRF450Rs.
Data acquisition is important to the Factory Honda program, and a key piece is this GPS sensor aboard Trey's top bar mount.
The box that records and saves all the data from these systems is stashed in safe place in front of the fuel tank.
The clutch tower helps protect the actuation arm and the sensor that records the clutch usage.
RJ Hampshire's Geico Honda CRF250R - Mechanic: Alex Campbell
Since the Factory Connection crew teamed up with Geico, the bikes have heavily featured the brand's name along with the memorable Geico gecko.
Yoshimura supplies the team with custom systems, dialed-in to suit their customized engine package. There are different available headpipes to further tune the power to the rider's liking, and RJ chooses this version with a trick resonance chamber.
Passing sound limits in the high-strung 250 class can be a bit of a challenge. It's gotten to the point where noises other than the exhausts on the bike can cause a fail. To combat this, the Geico team seals up the airbox on the right side to make sure the intake noise doesn't interfere with the results.
This foam added around the sideplates and seat are another trick used to fight their way through testing.
World's fastest gecko? Hinson provides Geico with these custom clutch covers, which also eliminate the timing plug hole/creating one less problem or failure that can happen. Also, these Geico gecko covers are actually available to the public through Hinson.
Gieco's race bikes don't have a clutch sensor as the HRC bikes do, but they do have an unbranded manual cam chain tensioner like their bigger red brethren.
The Geico team feature the same factory triple clamps and transponder holder found on the HRC bikes, and a kit version of KYB's PSF1 airfork.
These titanium pegs and mounts are drool-worthy...
Who needs standard titanium hardware when you can DLC titanium hardware? The shock pivot bolts feature the coating to help eliminate friction as the shock pivots while going through the stroke.
No carbon fiber shroud extenders here, but instead a customer available set of shrouds from Cycra.
Little tricks... The Geico staff adds a small plastic ridge around the kill-switch button, which eliminates the rider from accidentally pushing it during the moto.
So, who do you think deserves the win? Vote below!
View replies to: Vital MX Poll: Honda HRC VS. Geico Honda
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