Exotic Bikes in Motocross History

Trampas Parker's 1991 CR250

Feast your eyes on the first ever Factory Honda 1991 CR250 run by the Martin team. Words by Doc Wobs, photos by Adam Duckworth.

Taken from Moto issue 78, April 2012.

When the softly-spoken American Trampas Parker won the 1989 world 125 championships in Europe, it was an eye-opener for many. Americans, and indeed a lot of European GP fans, who never really expected the little-known Parker to really make his mark. But he got his name in the history books in fine style.

A lot of the Americans didn’t realise who he was as he decided he liked his middle name better. He’d raced in the USA as Chad Parker but changed to Trampas. Two years after he took the 125 KTM to the world crown, he made history as the first American to win two world championships.

This time it was with Honda and a fledgling, first-year team known as Martin Honda. The Martin brothers Paulo and Maurizio formed a team in the late 80s, but in 1991 they got excellent backing from Honda Europe and took a chance on Trampas Parker.

He hadn’t had a good year in 1990. In his first year full time on a 250, he was injured in a freak accident where he hit a rider travelling the wrong way on the track, wrecking his foot.

With team owner/manager and now mechanic Paulo spinning the wrenches, the team was Parker and Michele Fanton – an Italian legend in his own right. They made an impressive attack on the world and Italian championships, winning the FIM world title and incredibly the 125, 250 and 500 Italian national championships with Trampas Parker all in the same year, a feat which has never been repeated.

The team, now known as “Honda World Motocross” is still managed by Paulo at their impressive workshops near Venice. They are well known as one of the premier set-ups in the world championship paddock, running Evgeny Bobryshev and Rui Goncalves this year on the all-new factory Honda CRF450s. But they still state 1991 as their finest hour.

Trampas Parker’s bike has pride of place at the team’s headquarters. As you can see it is in immaculate shape and is mostly a full HRC bike. The motor is full HRC. The crank, which is a work of art, is a machined billet part with titanium weights to allow the crank to be perfectly balanced. The gearbox is factory Honda and it’s a slightly different ratio to stock as well as a stronger material and better shifting.

The clutch is factory and HRC provided the magnesium clutch cover. There are adjustable powervalve springs and the waterpump is bigger to keep everything cooler. The cylinder and head is factory Honda, as is the single-ring piston. The pipe is pure factory Honda and doesn’t look like anything else on the market and the silencer is an aluminium HRC part. The suspension is where it gets really special, and very spendy!

This bike has the full factory Showa forks and shock, this isn’t kit stuff but the very top shelf £50,000 forks which is a stag-gering amount of money. But if the rider is quick enough, and more importantly able to set these up, they are simply the best and are only offered to the very few.

The shock is factory Showa bolted to a HRC linkage and HRC swingarm, which not only have different ratios from stock but also offer less flex and are a lot stronger. The triple clamps have adjustable bar mount positions and Trampas used Italian-made Arrow bars.

The wheels used were pure factory HRC items with DID rims and Dunlop tyres. AFAM sprockets were used with Regina chains. The brakes are the straight shot factory Nissin part and have incredible performance.

The tank was an Italian made VRP component to get enough fuel on board to do the gruelling 40 mins plus two laps. The plastics are all stock apart from the crazy expensive £180 front number plate from factory Honda.

Industry leaders Technosel made the graphics in Italy and their grippy seatcover is fitted. The whole package was very trick and brutally effective in the hands of Trampas Parker and is a milestone in the history of Honda’s racing in Europe.