The History of Honda's CR450R, CR480R and CR500R 

Thanks so much Tony for this story, have been waiting for it. 👍I still love my 1999 CR 500, had it 20 years now, ride it more offroad now than motocross, Sharp turning , so dependable and so fast. Man did Honda have the winningest big two stroke of all time, in the period of years 1979-1994 Honda won all 500 World titles except in 1983 and 1993! How is that for domination 😎 Long live the Cr and KX 500s, and for Honda and Kawasaki for making them in to this millenium 🥰

Just finished my ground up rebuild of my 1994 CR500.... Absolute beast 💪

If you ride a CR500 for any amount of time, it demands you become a better rider or it’s going to hurt you bad. I found myself squeezing hard with my legs, keeping my back straight and core extremely tight, elbows wide, and full concentration at all times. Helped me keep from getting spit off the back, much better throttle control because my body wasn’t getting thrown forward and backwards, and less hand and arm fatigue because the rest of my body was working to keep myself in position. I’ve been riding 40 years on countless different bikes that all weren’t a whole lot different than each other. The CR500 is just an animal. It’s the 1/3 throttle power wheelies off idle with you sitting on the tank that just make you shake your head at how ridiculous it is.

I love the work that you put into these videos Tony ! I plan on buying some of your merch very soon because it is so cool .. For me you can't beat the red & blue look of the 83-87 model CR's. I would love to see Honda go back to this color scheme on their new CRF's.. I'm hoping for the 2023 models to adopt that look again, but i'm not holding my breath about it.. lol

Rode a buddies 480 in 83 when I was 13 years old. Made me pucker. Always wondered why they didn't go big cc in the quad to compete with quadzilla.

Hey Tony this is Jody from Nebraska I am currently rebuilding a 1979 YZ250 he was one of my first motocross bikes I ever read

Great video brings me back to the days as a kid when I would study these brochures from front to back and dreamt about owning one. Just thought these were the coolest bikes ever made!

Great video Tony watch them all and Merry Christmas and all the best to you and your family.

Great video, I had from new the CRF450r 2002 , absolutely loved it in every way . Great smooth power delivery, plenty of power , light compared to what was available. What bothers me is what these magazines say about this bike , which some say good and bad things. I will say this again and again no bike is perfect for all humans , however this bike was perfect for me. Another model which recieved good and bad reviews was the 2009 CRF450R, this is one of the best bikes I have ever owned. I will never get rid of it, I love this machine.

.. Yet another excellent vid ,.. ( Just bought a 1987 KX 500 after watching your Kawasaki vid ! ).

i love these old vids. it really brings me back to remembering my years as a toddler with my dad. his buddy owned a local yamaha shop in Revere Massachusetts. he would just bring me there and id stare at the YZs in amazement. Northgate Cycles. im 47 so this was very early 1980s

Great video Tony!

Love these videos Tony, please do a series on the Yamaha ITs :)

I love my 1990 CR500 and my 1982 CR480!

Great video Tony. I had an ‘86, a ‘90, and a ‘01 cr500. They are the best offroad bikes by far ever made. I wish to hell i still had all three.

Absolutely a great video

Thank you for the good work you put on those videos, i am amazed by the history, pictures, footages and knowledge . well done , i suscribed

Great right up on the Ping King! I have a 98 myself and love it. I like to brag about the reliability and versatility of the CR500. I have raced desert, ridden mountain single track and moto tracks, all on the same bike. It has the power to do it all. The biggest thing is learning how to work with it and not try and wrangle it haha

Great video. Top effort and knowledge. Well done.

Had an old Suzuki TM400, and had a very works spec'd 84 CR250R with literally everything from rims, hubs, spokes, front and rear Racetech Showa stuffs, DG expansion and silencer, 38mm Air Striker, Boyesen Rad reed valve ECT, and a very nasty 420cc Banshee with entirely too much, but never got the chance to own a CR500 even though I lusted after that thing, one day hopefully. There's a company called Panthera (not the DayZ/A2 map, and not the car company) who builds a couple complete CR500 based engines, a 648 and 700cc monster, the "small" 648 puts out 102hp and 72lb-ft of torque.... and then there's another company who build both new....new ATC trikes using a later CR250R aluminum frame and newer TRX450R rear fenders along with a CR500R engine....if I had the money, I'd definitely be buying Panthera's 700cc 2t, and sending it to BVC to build me a ATC700R 😅 oh yeah, and they also recreate "Yamaha BW" bikes, remember those BW200 and BW350 "Big Wheels"? They take pretty much any "recent" dirt bike or Dual Sport bike, and convert them into BW's ...they have both a CR500R BW and even an XR650BW (and many others)

A mate had the 85 kx 500 i loved that thing rode it when ever i had a chance

Such a great channel

Thanks for the video, Tony. I just bought a 1991 in nearly mint shape for $3800 off a 71 year old guy who's brother was the original owner. Really hoping I can get some plastics the same color as the tank so I can preserve the original shrouds... Tank actually needs to be wet sanded as there are black streaks on the red from someone's knee braces or something. Frame is currently getting powder coated. Just needs a freshen up. Someday I am gonna throw modern forks on it and it will be loads better... Or just throw it in a CRF frame and call it a day!

Really late watching this, just got to 85 cr500, paused it. I can’t wait to hear what he says about it. My 85 500 was super sketchy, brutal power delivery. It seemed more powerful than newer ones I’ve ridden.

Love the 83’, best of the open class Honda’s before the 500.

Super vidéo 👍👍👍👍

Hay Tony you should do a do a history on the Honda MR 50 Elsinore. Maybe even some of the other vintage minis from the 70s.

The best class yet I love it 😍😌😌😍

I had an 84 cr 500 and it was a beast

I agree, the ‘89 was the best looking Honda. Sharp bike! Great video as always Tony. I’ve been binge watching your videos lately on this channel after deciding to give this content a try. I’m glad I did & wished I had been watching it all along. I have been watching your MX channels for years. I was bummed when they deleted your big MX Vault channel 7-8yrs ago. Glad to see you were able to start rebuilding it again. Not sure if you have one yet, but would love to see a Suzuki & Yamaha open class video. 👍🏼

My brother had a 1983 480 CR and I was riding a 1980 YZ 465. We used to trade and the Honda was so smooth compared to my YZed. The Honda was like a vacation to ride after I climbed off the Yam. It was a beautiful bike in its' color combo and the 5 speed trans was spot on in its ratios. I liked the power delivery and the early shifting due to the fact that I'd been racing Huskys for several years before and short-shifting was the way Husky liked to run.

love my 01 CR500, dressed up in original 94 plastics and decals, but the 95 swingarm decal that matches the 94 shrouds

I love my 1993 cr500r, by far the most reliable and fun 2 stroke I've ridden, just don't ride it too long or your hands will fall off from the vibration😂

Another great video Tony 👍 Any chance of you doing one on the history of JT Racing ?

So Tony as I know you're a patron of motocross and when you tell a story of a particular bike you usually go over in every detail so I was surprised that you didn't include the latest evolution of the CR500 from Adam Millar and service Honda and the cr500af which people are paying $20,000 a bike now to have the latest 2021 CRF 450 frame used as a chassis for the platform of his redeveloped billet engine cases and other critical components now available which are practically bulletproof and address all the prior week spots.... But anyway I think the CR500 AF evolution of the bike has been going on now for 20 plus years so as your video points out the putting out the pasture of this machine it is nice to know that new generations of mines are still loving this motor and the Honda name behind it and choosing to keep developing the bike with better materials and updated chassis and still very competitive someone needs to redesign that motor maybe with the power valve and other modern two-stroke type technology but it probably won't happen but at least these small-time guys are advancing the CR500 and keeping the idea alive so it must have been good he also does RMS and KX 500 AF as well.........

Hey Tony awsome detail as always but a quick mention on what Honda Australia done with the leftover 2001's to move them on would of been pretty cool

Hey Tony I love your content I love the video on the 04 RMZ 250 which is the bike that I currently on absolutely love it you have any merch shirts with the 04 RMZ 250 on it

I noticed almost every year of the the 90s - 2000 Cr250 and 500's looking from the expansion chamber from the left side, it always looked mangled and bent up against the engine case to me for some reason, even when the pipe is new

88 Hit harder than any other year, that one was a beast biggest jump in power on the dyno in about 1000 rpm of any bike ever from what i remember.

Great vids, only issue is the audio. Difficult to hear

I know how raced all of these in professional andf semi professional teams during the 80s and 90s, and he said that no one bike was terrible to ride by the time they got in in trim to race in any Moto. They would either replace the parts they were allowed to, or modify the ones they weren't to work the way they needed. They weren't going out there in any wonky jalopy. No bike stuck out to him as awful.

Le moto più belle e migliori, i 2tempi degi anni 80. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🇮🇹🖐️

Really enjoyed that review, had a 81’ 450 👍

The 1982,1983 and 1984 HONDAs were the most beautiful models of all.

JT racing gear lol Bell helmets ,big travel mono shocks ,I raced a 1984 CR125 R here in New Zealand in 1985,dad worked at Bill Russel Honda and it was the shop mule after the customer blew the top end ,and he ended up buying it ,it was ugly but had hand made expansion pipe and stinger and just ran really nice didnt have a big top end but was so smooth up to the top and so easy to ride fast ,prob close you could get a stock bike to work spec ,full suspenion of some local guy in a shed ,my future KX125 were better in every aspect but didnt have that ktm 350 kind of feel .I ended up swapping it for a 1979 Suzuki 250 GT 2 stroke twin road bike to get to work

The big bores are almost a little too much,after rebuilding my 84 and starting it for the first time when you grab the throttle it vibrates right through your body,you realize the power they have.

Can you make a CR 125 evolution video?

In my opinion all of these looked awesome except 91 which was hideous! 89 prettiest ever and 94 my second favorite look.

I started off on a 90 CR500 now I have an 85 still got the 90 but it sits in the corner

How about a Winner's Take All video?

After Maico's in the late 70's, I got the '81 CR450. Worst bike I ever owned! Seized the first 3 races. (Turned out the bore was oblong from the factory!). Then I got the "83. Best bike I ever owned! Then an '89, until I abandoned Honda for the KX500 in '97.

My brakes on my 1982 CR480 will stop you on a dime. I've never had any of my 1980s CRs have bad brakes never.

If you could only have one motorcycle brand what would it be?

450fs don't even come close to what these bikes were.

OK three questions. We all know somebody will soon release a 500 2T w all the modern tech, who will that be. Second, which is the fastest cr5, lots say the 85. Three, you sure giggle a lot, why is that....Roost

Nice video again.. Just the intro ..could you mute it or something it razor sharp voice into our ears..very very irritating!