Honda Elsinore Revival

In the early 1970s the Honda Elsinore—known outside the USA simply as the CR250M—broke Honda’s long-standing rule that it wouldn’t join the throng and build two-stroke bikes and in the process became an instant classic, winning the AMA 250 Motocross Championship at its first attempt in 1973 with Gary Jones. The Elsinore name then spread to other capacities of two-stroke Honda motocross bikes before dropping from favor as the later generations of CR models were introduced. Now Honda has once again applied for a trademark to use the name “Elsinore” on “motorcycles and their structural parts” in the USA.

It’s not the first time in recent years that Honda has applied for rights to use the name Elsinore on a motorcycle. The original trademark expired in 1993 but the rights to the Elsinore name were granted to Honda again in 2014, renewed in 2017, and applied for once more in 2020. It’s not unusual for companies to follow such a pattern, holding rights to dormant model names on the off chance that they might want to revive them. So what’s different now? In December 2020, the Trademark Modernization Act was signed into law, with the specific aim of clearing the number of unused “zombie” trademarks and ensuring that marks are actually being used in commerce. As such, applicants are supposed to have solid plans to use trademarks on products in the immediate future when they make their applications.

Honda made two separate applications for US trademark rights on the Elsinore name on August 29, the first intended to cover “motorcycles and their structural parts,” the second simply for “decals.” There haven’t been applications for rights to the name in other countries, but that’s likely because Honda never previously used Elsinore as a model name outside the USA. The fact that the new trademarks cover both motorcycles and decals could be interpreted as meaning that Honda hopes to use Elsinore on US versions of bikes carrying another name elsewhere—perhaps even the CRF motocross machines that are the distant descendants of the original Elsinore models.

However, the history of the Elsinore name—which was borrowed from the Lake Elsinore Grand Prix that was made famous by Steve McQueen and On Any Sunday in 1971—means that it’s irretrievably attached to that 1970s era of off-road racing. With retro and off-road-capable, scrambler-style machines both currently enjoying a period of popularity, it’s a logical market to explore. We’ve already seen a host of bikes entering that segment of the market, including Triumph’s Scrambler models (400 X to the 1200 X/XE), as well as Ducati’s Scramblers and even Honda’s own SCL500.

We saw earlier this year that Honda has filed patents showing two off-road-oriented variants of its CB350 retro twin—one an adventure-style machine in the mold of the Royal Enfield Himalayan, the other a more straightforward, twin-shock scrambler. Perhaps those machines could be in line for the Elsinore title as and when they’re ready for production?