CRM Reliability

[helisupp]

Being new to CRM ownership I would like to pose a question regarding reliability of these trailbikes.
Having owned 2 strokes for many years including RE5 suzukis and seen how reliable they are it would be nice to see how the CRM compares with modern materials and oils.

For comparison (give or take a thousand or so miles) all bikes owned from new:

1976 Husqvarna 360 6,000 miles on first bore and rings
1976 RE5 Wankel Suzuki 3,000 miles till rotor went with engine crankcase crack
1976 GT750 10,000 miles till holed piston
1977 Kawasaki KX 400 road reg Motorcross bike, 7000 miles before rebore (not bad)
1978 Husqvarna 390 automatic, yes automatic, 4,000 miles till crank failure
1978 DT 175, 18000 Miles before rebore
1980 GT380 32,000 miles before heads came off (motorway use mainly, flat out at 80-85)
1981 RD400 23,000 miles before rebore


It will interesting to see what CRM reliability is like with modern materials and oils.

Mark

[fallenmikethebike]

Blimey, I don't know if anyone's owned one long enough.
Also, a lot of people carry out, premature maintenance to gain an extra 1/4 BHP, so it might be impossible to gather enough data.
Mike

[jompy]

Mark sounds like you have as much luck as me with bikes !
my most reliable bike so far is a 98 R1 which i've done 17,000 miles on but still had a few minor probs with . . . . well it is 14 years old
My CRM mkII wasnt that reliable but having said that i was young & used to thrash the bejesus out of it , i was once told that when buying a newly imported crm that the better the cosmetic condition the more likely it was to have engine probs & the rattier ones would be fine , alot supposidly suffered from storage & being in a container due to salt on the boat journey from japan , the guy may well have been talking pooh & was probably just being cynical lol & as the CRM was discontinued a number of years ago i'd hardly say it mattered now anyway !
TBM (trail & enduro bike mag ) used to give them alot of praise in the many articals they ran on CRM's which i read alot of & is why i bought mine !
sorry for the long winded post & it's prob not helped much anyway

[Jeram]

100,000km on an FZ6 yamaha, it had its 32000km major service and then just changed the oil and filter each year after that.

sold it to a mate at 100,000km and he got the valve clearances done the year after and its still going very strong


as for the CRM, mine was used and abused.
I think it had around 15,000km on it and the rod was stuffed and so was the piston.

[Eddie Evans]

Had a chat with the chaps at Leisuretrail some time ago and they were saying that they knew of CRM's running with over 45,00 miles without a rebore or piston.
I personally think it is a hell of an achievement to get the speedo drive to work for that long.
God knows how many miles mine has done but it has cost me far less in bits for the 6 years I have owned it that my Berg has in 12 months.
I've had 2 rebores.
The first when I first bought it, chances are it had already seized been freed then sold to me.
Next time it seized could have been wear approx 20,000 miles or silt from dirty ditch water.
In conclusion I would say that reliability for a 20 year old 2 stroke is exceptional.

[fallenmikethebike]

Yea +1, I've just back from a days working party on some lanes that had become overgrown.It piffed with rain all day, which the bike stood out in, clear a 100 yds, move the bike, clear a 100 yds, move the bike, ad nausiam, the CRM started first kick every time, then a 30 mile stint back home, all dual carriageway 60 mph+
Mike