Tornado Rally: Honda XR250 Tornado Enduro

From Chopper to Rally Bike: Honda Tornado 250 from Argentina’s Industria Chernobyl…

Introduced in 2001, the Honda XR250 Tornado (Tornado 250) was a lightweight air-cooled 250cc dual-sport developed mainly for Latin American markets and produced in Brazil. While it shared the XR250 designation of the earlier RFVC designs, the Tornado arrived about ten years after the XR250L/R and featured a modern four-valve DOHC design, electric start, and an emphasis on all-around utility. The engine was shared with the CBX250 Twister and CBF250 street bikes.

We never received the Tornado 250 in North America, but a member of ADV Rider bought one while living in Costa Rica:

“I…rode it as much as possible. It has a 6 speed transmission, with a short first and in 6th gear you can cruise at around 65 mph all day, going up to 7Xish. The dashboard has cool information — it is all metric system…and since it is carbureted it has reserve. You will start it using it around 200-240 km, then 3 more liters so all in all maybe 300 kilometers per tank, and the tank has 12 liters or about 3.2 gallons.”

The Tornado 250 was especially popular in Argentina. In fact, while stopping at a rest area in Montana this summer, we met Topo Ramone (@toporamone), a young Argentine rider who was on his way from Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, to Alaska on his Tornado 250 — he made it!

As the bikes have gotten older, we’ve increasingly see them used as donors for custom builds. This one comes from Nicolas Pacheco of Argentina’s Industria Chernobyl — a workshop he’s run for 14 years. Most of Nicolas’s projects are for customers, but this Tornado 250 is his own personal bike…and it used to look much, much different.

“I bought that motorcycle brand new in 2016 and built it into a chopper with a lot of love and dedication. However, I ended up riding it very little and decided to sell it. It was listed for sale for two years, but nobody ever came to see it.”

So Nicolas decided to completely disassemble and rebuild the bike from the ground up. With more than twenty years of experience riding and racing motocross, he decided to transform the chopper into a rally-style enduro.

The tank is a focal point of the build, hand-built from aluminum. The rear frame, seat pan, and side panels are also hand-built from the same material. Nicolas built the exhaust system from scratch, and the bike is running a digital dashboard, rally tower, Baja-style dual-LED headlight setup, modern fenders, gripper seat, upgraded suspension, 21-18″ spoke wheels, and more.

The graphics remind us of the Honda XR trail bikes of the 1990s, and the bike weighs just 264 pounds — some 40 pounds lighter than the stocker.

“It’s a great little enduro bike, very lightweight compared to the original model.”

And Nicolas thanks someone very special for helping him with the build — often, the best shop assistants have four legs, not two:

“I’d especially like to thank my dog Vaco, who is no longer with me.”

Below you’ll find our full interview with Nicolas about the build. We look forward to featuring more projects from this Argentine builder.

Honda XR250 Rally: Builder Interview

• Please tell us a bit about yourself, your history with motorcycles, and your workshop.

The workshop has been around for 14 years. Before that, I worked at a Yamaha dealership, but I’ve been in the motorcycle business for around 20 years.

The name “Industria Chernobyl” came about when I was setting up my own workshop. One morning, a mechanic I used to work with at Yamaha came in and said: “Yesterday I dreamed that you walked through a door, and everyone was saying, ‘Here comes the Chernobyl Toolmaker.’”

• What’s the make, model, and year of the donor bike?

2016 Honda Tornado 250.

• What was the design concept and what influenced the build?

I bought that motorcycle brand new in 2016 and built it into a chopper with a lot of love and dedication. However, I ended up riding it very little and decided to sell it. It was listed for sale for two years, but nobody ever came to see it.

So I completely took it apart and rebuilt it as an enduro/rally bike, and that’s how it looks today. The final influence comes from 20 years of practicing and racing motocross.