Between the Races: Phil Herrin

Under a tent tucked behind the Yamaha Factory Racing truck at New Jersey Motorsports Park this past weekend sat two tiny, blue gems. In the spirit Moriwaki MD250H and F450 conversions, Phil Herrin, father of Graves Yamaha racer Josh Herrin, has put together 125cc and 250cc Yamaha road racers from former dirt bikes, but the finish and unbelievable attention to detail belies their humble roots. We pulled Phil aside to get the low-down on his creations.

These bikes look amazing. What did you use as donor bikes?
There’s a funny story behind these bikes, this one in particular [points to the 250]. I call it the “fab-four bike,” because it’s Josh’s old supermoto chassis, Brandon Currie’s motor from supermoto, Mark Burkhart’s rims, and Chad Reed’s brakes from the X-Games. But they’re all Yamaha pieces from a Yamaha YZF250 dirt bike.

What kind of modifications have you done to the bike?
Well, it’s a supermoto engine, so obviously it’s modded out. Basically, it’s a project bike that Chuck [Graves] started to do… a 450 like everyone else was doing. My biggest thing is that I wanted something more for the kids. I wanted something specifically for a kid who was moving up from an 80cc to a 125cc two-stroke. If they couldn’t fit on a Moriwakior 125, then this is the next ideal stepping stone before a 600cc four-stroke.

Basically, I just got the bodywork from Chuck, and he wanted me to actually build it with Ohlins forks, special triple-clamps, special shock. But I was like, “Look, if I’m going to build this thing, I’m going to do it so a normal guy can afford to do it.” So I built it as inexpensively as possible, made it look as nice as possible, but using as many stock components as possible. The forks are standard forks that have been modified and re-valved, and have some Ohlins internals. We have Honda RS125 bodywork on the one, and F450 bodywork on the other; it’s a perfect marriage for this bike. The 250 is actually going down to Vortex’s shop soon to have all sorts of custom parts machined for it.

How about the handling?
I tell you, this bike here [the one built from a YZ125], again, dirt bike forks and shock, with some Ohlins internals and steering damper. I‘ve had people ride it that who race 125s and they would swear you were riding a 125, handles just like one. That 125 has won a lot of races already, and we plan on doing the same thing with this 250. The biggest thing about the bikes that I build is that we don’t just build a display bike, we actually go out and race it, and I’d be willing to build these for customers as well.

So how much would it cost to put one of these together, assuming you have the bike already?
You’ve got to put about five grand into it. That’s rims, brakes, bodywork, rearsets, fairing brackets, exhaust, basically all the necessities.

A bit less than to build a Formula 450, then?
What are they saying for those, about fifteen thousand? But that’s including the cost of the bike. This would be about twelve if you bought the bike also. I mean, you could go to fifteen with this, putting full Ohlins on it. This bike, with the engine work that has been done, you’re probably looking at more like sixteen. The thing is that some kids aren’t ready for a 450, but they need something a little bigger than a 125.

How do you think that this converted YZF250 would fare against a Moriwaki MD250H?
We’re going to win. We’re going to be at Mid-Ohio next weekend, and we’re going to put this thing on the box. My 13-year-old son—Josh’s younger brother, who is extremely fast already—is going to race it. It will run right alongside the MD250Hs and the 125s. We’re going to hit the race in Mid-Ohio, then the one down in Florida, and then we’ll do the whole season next year. So, this will be like a shakedown race.