Project Honda CRF230F - Part 22

SUBJECT: 2007 CRF 230 JETTING FOR ALTITUDE

Hi Rick. 
My name is Paul Burruss. I live in the northern panhandle of Idaho, elevation 2200 feet above sea level.  Riding most of the time up to 5000 feet above sea level.  I recently put a white brothers exhaust model mini R-4. I also put the power up needle kit in.  It is currently set one notch above the bottom setting.  I have a 135 main jet in, a 48 pilot jet provided by White Brothers, a White Brothers Power Intake Filter, the Honda Rev Box. I also took the snorkel out.

The bike runs amazing at low and high RPM's, tons of power, I'm extremely impressed.  But I have one concern, that being the tip of my stock spark plug is a nice caramel color, but only the tip. The rest is black and sooty and today, I peeked in my cylinder and there seems to be some black carbon build up. What is your opinion? How can I tell if I'm dumping too much fuel in if its running wonderfully, but seems to have some carbon build up. Is that normal? Are there some signs I should look for to know if I'm running too lean or too rich?

Thanks for all your help.
Paul Burruss

P.S. I was jumping a 40 foot gap the other day, plenty of power, but suspension is too soft. What is the cheapest, but effective way of modifying my suspension so I can still do these jumps, but still do my hair scrambles.

I have not taken my 230 up to that altitude, but I would leave the jetting alone.  You could possibly lean it out a bit to compensate for the altitude, but when you got back to a lower area, you stand a very real chance of holing the piston from a too-lean condition.  As long as the tip of the plug is the right color, you’re in the ball park.  There is no cheap way to do the shock (we used a Work Performance unit), but the fork swap we did is economical.

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SUBJECT: PROJECT HONDA REAR SUSPENSION

Thanks for the your help, I took the shock back to Works  and they fixed the problem.  They changed the spring and the rebound damping.  Made a big difference.
Thanks again! 
John

Yep, the folks at Works stand behind their shocks quite well.  Glad to hear that it worked out.

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SUBJECT: PROJECT HONDA FORK BOLT TIPS

Well I am now undertaking the installation of 47mm Twin Chamber Showas (01' CR250R) on the front of my CRF. By a suggestion, I found that replacing the lower triple clamp pinch bolts with cap head allen bolts provides more clearance to increase the turning radius. It was a good tip and I thought I would pass it along.
Thanks,
Steve 

Good tip and one that we’ll pass on to the readers.

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SUBJECT: PIPE AND INSTALLING JETTING KIT

I just purchased the White Brothers R4 Exhaust for my 2007 CRF 230 and I installed the air cleaner and Exhaust, now how do I install the jet kit with it?  I have not ever had to do this and any help would be great. 
Thanks. 
Jeremy

We did a complete step-by-step how to in on of the first parts of the Project Bike series.  Do a search in ORC and you’ll find it.

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SUBJECT: CRF230 JETTING CHANGES

I looked through your articles but couldn't find if you need to make any jetting changes (other than the power up kit) between the stock pipe with the baffle removed and the BBR exhaust. Do you keep the #132 main jet and #42 pilot jet with the BBR system? Thanks for your help.
Paasche

Nope, once you install the complete power up kit, you can put a pipe on and that’s it.

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