Nice comparison. Worst decision I ever made was to sell my 2015 WR due to some injuries. I'm 66 years old now and I still miss it. Even if my riding days were limited, I loved just looking at my WR. I've ridden DR650 & DRZ400's but the WR was my true love. The CRF appears to be a very capable bike and would love to give it a try. Thanks for the video!!
I hear you. I’m on my second WR and probably won’t be the last. I keep telling my son, there’s two type of people who own WRs. New riders and experienced fast riders and that should tell you about what you really need for a bike,
Great comparison! Both bikes are amazing! I just, got the CRF and really enjoy it. I am in my sixties and being back on 2 wheels has brought me back to life! Looking forward to your next video.
Something to be said about minimalist riding. As I get older the pleasure I get from riding isn’t so much the speed as the lack of complication. 300cc and a seat is all I really need
Thanks. We’ll be doing a bunch of these over the next year or so. My son has a WR and I have a CRF so we’ll have lots of chances to compare everything from different terrain, speeds and travel content
I've had a WR for the past 5 years. I did change the rear spring and the sprockets and it changed the bike completely. I have put two serious abuse and that thing is bulletproof. I love it. Can't speak for the Honda but just sitting on one. I bottomed out the shocks in the showroom floor. The WR really wants to work. It likes the higher rev range like you said
The WR gets better and better the harder you push it. IMO the crf isn’t quite as good off road but excels in an adventure role. I got fully suspension in mine now so I’ll be able to test the theory a little deeper next year. Stock crf is not bueno for hard riding but it seems like a capable platform with the suspension set up
Good comparison. Ive had the wr for a few years, first "real" dirtbike ive owned, and its been fantastic. It had all the normal mods to the suspension, engine, farkles, and all when I bought it, and its been there indestructable and unflappable for all my growth over the past few years. Poor thing has been looped out into trees, tossed down banks, dumped in swamps, and it has never missed a beat. I put out content exploring my area on it, and theres a lot of footage of me picking the poor thing up, awesome bike. I dont doubt the honda is just as reliable, but i have a hard time imagining it being as indifferent to the abuse, but i could be surprised. 👍
I would agree on the capability, it’s a blast and as reliable as an anvil. It will be fun to compare our two modded CRF and WR and see how the long term plays out. I have about 20000km on the WR so i need to build some time on the CRF before getting too locked in to how i feel but they are both so good for what kind of riding we do.
That is a lot of info to unpack. I had to watch it 3 times to grasp your narrative. Never have ridden either, I think my preference by your words would be the 300. I like the grunt down low. Thanks.
In hindsight I wish I had made either a longer video or broken it into 2 but I really like the split screen comparing so that people can see just how close they are despite being pretty different
@@richardunderwood950 he says that at the end of a video that he spent saying the WRR was better 😆 I have one, a friend has a CrfL 250 and another a 300, day and night, just the suspensions and the weight feeling... They have a really hard time following when it gets technical. Especially the 250 OFC
Idk what video you’re watching but he never said that at the end 😂😂😂😂 thanks for the laugh. Enjoy your bike bud. He did say both were great at the end though
I am finding this debate endlessly amusing. I love how passionate and polite people are in here. LOL is all fun and games till the DRZ guys get here. For the record, both awesome bikes, which is better depends on where you’re riding and your riding style.
I really like your philosophy on these bikes. I don’t know what happened in the trail bike scene, but long live dual-sports! it seems a shame that they seem to be phasing out. Not everyone needs a high performance race bike. The adventure of riding your bike to the trails (rather than on a trailer) is all part of the adventure👍🏻
Dual sports will make a comeback. I think the market just got ignored for too long. The 300L and KLX 300 success along with some foreign bikes like the MT450 crossing over between Dual Sports and mini ADV bikes will catch on. I think people just got tired of the same bike being sold for 30 years. Looking at you DR and XR650. Small bore 250/300 finally have enough reliability and power thanks to fuel injection to be viable as a travel bike so i think good times are ahead.
My two cents as someone who has a 2022 WR450F, has ridden a few WR250F's and a few CRF300Ls. The CRF is comfy but it's heavy, the engine is gutless, the suspension is bouncy and bottoms out constantly and the front end is unstable. CRF300L Pros: Cheap, less maintenance, comfy, lower seat, come with indicators & high/low beam, ABS, more alternator wattage for accessories/lights WR450F/250F Pros: Responsive lively engine, better suspension (too hard from factory though), lighter, more ground clearance, better brakes Get a CRF if you want a cheap putt around do everything bike with minimal maintenance, get a WR if you want a more capable and fun off-roader.
I would agree on a WRF vs CRF, I have a 2018 WR250F that I race, but the comparison between the WRR and a CRF300 is closer. I would still say the WRR is the better enduro bike but like you said, the 300 is pretty nice for simple adventure.
Definitely the WRR is legendary here. I think I may have found something better though. The CRF450L can actually go 5,000K's between oil changes as proven by oil lab tests (non racing conditions). It's better in just about everyway, just slightly more vibration on the highways and slightly more fuel consuption but that's it. There is one for sale in Brissy now for $7G's so not the expensive either
WR is legend, the reason for switching to the crf was very specific to me, my weight and out trip planning. My son and I are taking a trip in the spring up to Yukon and Alaska and i really wanted to cruise a little better at 100-110kph loaded and its the one place where i would say that the CRF is better than the WR. It’s weird that its faster everywhere else but I have to give credit to Honda for making theirs highway suitable just that little more than Yamaha who leaned more into the aggressive off road, I would be happy with either but since we can have one of each in the family I decided that it was a pretty awesome situation and now we can compare them continually.
I wanted the blue flavor for some time and probably would have gotten one if they were still in production. I was having a hard time finding a recent enough used one close enough to me for a reasonable price. When I finally got a bike, I ended up getting the red flavored one in the Rally version.
Cool comparison. Without wanting to sound rude, I think the main thing to take away from the videos is that the limit is the rider, and that both bikes are more or less meeting the abilities of the rider. I have noticed this personally, that the bike matter much less than the rider. Hence you can see a rider on an old and worn XL185 beat less skilled riders on race prepped KTM 500s (or whatever). The good thing as that as long as you enjoy riding your bike, you are a winner. Regardless of who actually reach the finish line fiirst.
That’s not rude at all. And strangely something I got to in my last video where I compared my race bike to my dual sport. Rider is the biggest difference bar none, but bike can make some difference too so I thought it was fun to see how 2 similar bikes would be on a level playing field. Race bike to dual sport, less even. I’m not quite to the classic 80/20 rider to bike. Maybe 70/30. This channel explores ALL the tough scenarios. lol Is a WR250R as fast as an Enduro race bike - Dual Sport vs Enduro ua-cam.com/video/BXZy-GQGtds/v-deo.html
@@danielleppington Thank you for the link. I watched it, and the difference in total over the two stages was 5%. That is not a lot, considering that one is significantly lighter, significantly more powerful, and have significantly better suspension. As you pointed out, the lardier bike with the inferior suspension will tire you sooner. And if you had put Pol Tarres on the bikes, I reckon the differences would be bigger between the two bikes, but not THAT much.
I love the WR I converted the WRX to off road and the previous owner had down all the suspension mods. I only wish Yamaha would have updated the WR to a 350 or 450 or even a 300 for that matter. Great bike Yamaha quality always shines.
Thanks for the video comparision I asked for in your previous video :P It looks that stock suspension isnt that bad on CRF. Of course you will bottom it out very easily but you dont see that on lap time.
The suspension is too light for sure but you can adapt your riding a bit to compensate for it. Where it would struggle is places with big high surf hits but in the woods, the soft is actually kind of nice
I tried playing with that and on the street I liked it but I found when I shortened it that off road, when I was pushing, I couldn’t feel balanced on the bike. I tried lowering the forks, changing preload and clickers but it just felt squirrelly
@@danielleppington Yeh it does change the steering head angle, you get better straight line stability but you also have to get way up front on the seat to go hard in corners. Seat height seems to be one of the primary complaints about the wr. A new rider will benefit from the lower seat if they have short legs Once they gain confidence they can raise it back up to get the geometry right again. Confidence with being able to touch ground is going to be more important to new riders than being able to pound corners.
Great way to compare! Subscribed. Any chance you could take an enduro bike and the KTM 690 on the exact same trail? It would be super interesting to see if they would be significantly faster.
I wish. LOL. At some point I would like to “borrow” some bikes to expand the data set but I also kind of like that everything i compare right now is stuff i have lots of time on so it really is a bike shootout in the purest sense. I can guarantee that nothing in the 650+ class will be faster in the woods. in this tight of a place, light and traction are the biggest factors. HP is almost meaningless. I’m planning a dirt track test and in that scenario it could be an interesting comparison to a bigger higher hp bike. I never say no to riding other people’s bikes. :)
Both of them can carry more than enough luggage for overlanding though i would recommend going with for rackless luggage to help with wind resistance and less weight on the frames. I would prefer if the CRF would have a replaceable subframe like the WR but i haven’t heard any reports of one breaking so it may be a concern in thought only. I switched to the CRF because it’s a little more comfortable at cruising at 100-110kph with my added weight. It’s a bit funny though because the wr is better at accelerating at those speeds but the crf holds it better. We will be taking some 8-10000km trips next year and it will be fun to do a real life extended comparison of both but i suspect that my initial impressions will hold true. The WR is the better dual sport, the CRF is the better ADV bike.
What i find interesting about these two bikes is that i see them as just over the halfway mark of 50/50 bikes. WR is 55/45 dirt/adv and CRF is 45/55 dirt/adv. If i was into gnarly enduro, i would agree, WR is categorically better. If i was more into the adv and long miles, the CRF is categorically better. It’s awesome to have 2 modern, reliable bikes that can fit this bill but excel at in either direction. So good to have options
Nice comparison. Worst decision I ever made was to sell my 2015 WR due to some injuries. I'm 66 years old now and I still miss it. Even if my riding days were limited, I loved just looking at my WR. I've ridden DR650 & DRZ400's but the WR was my true love. The CRF appears to be a very capable bike and would love to give it a try. Thanks for the video!!
I hear you. I’m on my second WR and probably won’t be the last. I keep telling my son, there’s two type of people who own WRs. New riders and experienced fast riders and that should tell you about what you really need for a bike,
You're one of the rare old guys who made the right decision. Stick to golf, let the kids tear up the track.
Great comparison! Both bikes are amazing! I just, got the CRF and really enjoy it. I am in my sixties and being back on 2 wheels has brought me back to life! Looking forward to your next video.
Something to be said about minimalist riding. As I get older the pleasure I get from riding isn’t so much the speed as the lack of complication. 300cc and a seat is all I really need
old
This is the content I’ve been scouring the internet for thank you
Thanks. We’ll be doing a bunch of these over the next year or so. My son has a WR and I have a CRF so we’ll have lots of chances to compare everything from different terrain, speeds and travel content
Awesome video! Glad you’re out riding with your son! My dad and I both have 300L’s and it is a blast. Once one trip is over, we plan the next.
That’s awesome. Where are you guys riding?
Thank you for this detailed comparison of these amazing machines. I really appreciate this kind of independent background information.
Glad it was helpful!
I've had a WR for the past 5 years. I did change the rear spring and the sprockets and it changed the bike completely. I have put two serious abuse and that thing is bulletproof. I love it. Can't speak for the Honda but just sitting on one. I bottomed out the shocks in the showroom floor. The WR really wants to work. It likes the higher rev range like you said
The WR gets better and better the harder you push it. IMO the crf isn’t quite as good off road but excels in an adventure role. I got fully suspension in mine now so I’ll be able to test the theory a little deeper next year. Stock crf is not bueno for hard riding but it seems like a capable platform with the suspension set up
Good comparison. Ive had the wr for a few years, first "real" dirtbike ive owned, and its been fantastic. It had all the normal mods to the suspension, engine, farkles, and all when I bought it, and its been there indestructable and unflappable for all my growth over the past few years. Poor thing has been looped out into trees, tossed down banks, dumped in swamps, and it has never missed a beat. I put out content exploring my area on it, and theres a lot of footage of me picking the poor thing up, awesome bike. I dont doubt the honda is just as reliable, but i have a hard time imagining it being as indifferent to the abuse, but i could be surprised. 👍
you can’t go wrong with the WR. I honestly think they are immortal
Owned a WR and loved it. Most capable 50/50 dual sport ever made!!! Just re gear it for off-road and it's a blast.
I would agree on the capability, it’s a blast and as reliable as an anvil. It will be fun to compare our two modded CRF and WR and see how the long term plays out. I have about 20000km on the WR so i need to build some time on the CRF before getting too locked in to how i feel but they are both so good for what kind of riding we do.
That is a lot of info to unpack. I had to watch it 3 times to grasp your narrative. Never have ridden either, I think my preference by your words would be the 300. I like the grunt down low. Thanks.
In hindsight I wish I had made either a longer video or broken it into 2 but I really like the split screen comparing so that people can see just how close they are despite being pretty different
I have a 250L that I have full suspension on and I admit I’m relieved to hear you say that these bikes are so close. Thanks for the good content!
They're not, the WRR is way better 😅
@@Skatefishofficial well the dude that owns both says they’re not
@@richardunderwood950 he says that at the end of a video that he spent saying the WRR was better 😆
I have one, a friend has a CrfL 250 and another a 300, day and night, just the suspensions and the weight feeling...
They have a really hard time following when it gets technical. Especially the 250 OFC
Idk what video you’re watching but he never said that at the end 😂😂😂😂 thanks for the laugh. Enjoy your bike bud. He did say both were great at the end though
I am finding this debate endlessly amusing. I love how passionate and polite people are in here. LOL is all fun and games till the DRZ guys get here. For the record, both awesome bikes, which is better depends on where you’re riding and your riding style.
I really like your philosophy on these bikes. I don’t know what happened in the trail bike scene, but long live dual-sports! it seems a shame that they seem to be phasing out. Not everyone needs a high performance race bike. The adventure of riding your bike to the trails (rather than on a trailer) is all part of the adventure👍🏻
Dual sports will make a comeback. I think the market just got ignored for too long. The 300L and KLX 300 success along with some foreign bikes like the MT450 crossing over between Dual Sports and mini ADV bikes will catch on. I think people just got tired of the same bike being sold for 30 years. Looking at you DR and XR650. Small bore 250/300 finally have enough reliability and power thanks to fuel injection to be viable as a travel bike so i think good times are ahead.
@@danielleppington #longlivedualsports
Excited for upcoming videos, as a WRR owner, I love mine, haven't had the chance to ride the 300 yet.
I think it should be a nice comparison. We have some big adv trips coming next year and it will be the perfect chance to get a great comparison.
really enjoyed this - well done 🙂
Hopefully the first of many competitions between the two. It’s awesome having the two in the family to compare
Great & fair comparison 🤙
Thanks. Hopefully the first of many comparisons
My two cents as someone who has a 2022 WR450F, has ridden a few WR250F's and a few CRF300Ls. The CRF is comfy but it's heavy, the engine is gutless, the suspension is bouncy and bottoms out constantly and the front end is unstable.
CRF300L Pros: Cheap, less maintenance, comfy, lower seat, come with indicators & high/low beam, ABS, more alternator wattage for accessories/lights
WR450F/250F Pros: Responsive lively engine, better suspension (too hard from factory though), lighter, more ground clearance, better brakes
Get a CRF if you want a cheap putt around do everything bike with minimal maintenance, get a WR if you want a more capable and fun off-roader.
I would agree on a WRF vs CRF, I have a 2018 WR250F that I race, but the comparison between the WRR and a CRF300 is closer. I would still say the WRR is the better enduro bike but like you said, the 300 is pretty nice for simple adventure.
Go the WR250R! Very popular bike down under
Definitely the WRR is legendary here. I think I may have found something better though. The CRF450L can actually go 5,000K's between oil changes as proven by oil lab tests (non racing conditions). It's better in just about everyway, just slightly more vibration on the highways and slightly more fuel consuption but that's it. There is one for sale in Brissy now for $7G's so not the expensive either
WR is legend, the reason for switching to the crf was very specific to me, my weight and out trip planning. My son and I are taking a trip in the spring up to Yukon and Alaska and i really wanted to cruise a little better at 100-110kph loaded and its the one place where i would say that the CRF is better than the WR. It’s weird that its faster everywhere else but I have to give credit to Honda for making theirs highway suitable just that little more than Yamaha who leaned more into the aggressive off road, I would be happy with either but since we can have one of each in the family I decided that it was a pretty awesome situation and now we can compare them continually.
I wanted the blue flavor for some time and probably would have gotten one if they were still in production. I was having a hard time finding a recent enough used one close enough to me for a reasonable price. When I finally got a bike, I ended up getting the red flavored one in the Rally version.
If a rally is the one you’re happy with you should be ecstatic. I think the crf is a better travel bike, wr better if you are really hard on things
Great comparison video! Thanks!
So much fun to make direct back to back comparisson videos
Cool comparison. Without wanting to sound rude, I think the main thing to take away from the videos is that the limit is the rider, and that both bikes are more or less meeting the abilities of the rider. I have noticed this personally, that the bike matter much less than the rider. Hence you can see a rider on an old and worn XL185 beat less skilled riders on race prepped KTM 500s (or whatever). The good thing as that as long as you enjoy riding your bike, you are a winner. Regardless of who actually reach the finish line fiirst.
That’s not rude at all. And strangely something I got to in my last video where I compared my race bike to my dual sport. Rider is the biggest difference bar none, but bike can make some difference too so I thought it was fun to see how 2 similar bikes would be on a level playing field. Race bike to dual sport, less even. I’m not quite to the classic 80/20 rider to bike. Maybe 70/30. This channel explores ALL the tough scenarios. lol
Is a WR250R as fast as an Enduro race bike - Dual Sport vs Enduro
ua-cam.com/video/BXZy-GQGtds/v-deo.html
@@danielleppington Thank you for the link. I watched it, and the difference in total over the two stages was 5%. That is not a lot, considering that one is significantly lighter, significantly more powerful, and have significantly better suspension. As you pointed out, the lardier bike with the inferior suspension will tire you sooner. And if you had put Pol Tarres on the bikes, I reckon the differences would be bigger between the two bikes, but not THAT much.
@@64faffi totally agree. Unless you’re racing, a “better” bike won’t take you anywhere that the dual sport wouldn’t
Nice.Thorough job.
Thanks. More science to come :)
I love the WR I converted the WRX to off road and the previous owner had down all the suspension mods. I only wish Yamaha would have updated the WR to a 350 or 450 or even a 300 for that matter. Great bike Yamaha quality always shines.
It’s a bit mind boggling they haven’t done a 300 given they already have the Mt-03 engine
Battle of the steers .
Honestly racing these two dual sports is hilarious to me. Feels sooo right but sooo wrong at the same time
I'm retired and can afford any bike I want.I had to buy a used 2020 WRR.
Can’t go wrong there. I’ve yet to meet a dissatisfied WR owner
Thanks for the video comparision I asked for in your previous video :P
It looks that stock suspension isnt that bad on CRF. Of course you will bottom it out very easily but you dont see that on lap time.
The suspension is too light for sure but you can adapt your riding a bit to compensate for it. Where it would struggle is places with big high surf hits but in the woods, the soft is actually kind of nice
I have a 2016 wr250r, a lot of people don't know that the clevis on the bottom of the rear shock is adjustable and can lower the seat about 1.5".
I tried playing with that and on the street I liked it but I found when I shortened it that off road, when I was pushing, I couldn’t feel balanced on the bike. I tried lowering the forks, changing preload and clickers but it just felt squirrelly
@@danielleppington Yeh it does change the steering head angle, you get better straight line stability but you also have to get way up front on the seat to go hard in corners. Seat height seems to be one of the primary complaints about the wr. A new rider will benefit from the lower seat if they have short legs Once they gain confidence they can raise it back up to get the geometry right again. Confidence with being able to touch ground is going to be more important to new riders than being able to pound corners.
Great way to compare! Subscribed. Any chance you could take an enduro bike and the KTM 690 on the exact same trail? It would be super interesting to see if they would be significantly faster.
I wish. LOL. At some point I would like to “borrow” some bikes to expand the data set but I also kind of like that everything i compare right now is stuff i have lots of time on so it really is a bike shootout in the purest sense. I can guarantee that nothing in the 650+ class will be faster in the woods. in this tight of a place, light and traction are the biggest factors. HP is almost meaningless. I’m planning a dirt track test and in that scenario it could be an interesting comparison to a bigger higher hp bike. I never say no to riding other people’s bikes. :)
Well done.
Hopefully the first of many shootouts, i just need my wife to stop watching our account. :$
Good comparison. Can both frames carry roughly the same amount of gear for multi-day adventure trips? Does one shine more for that type of use?
Both of them can carry more than enough luggage for overlanding though i would recommend going with for rackless luggage to help with wind resistance and less weight on the frames. I would prefer if the CRF would have a replaceable subframe like the WR but i haven’t heard any reports of one breaking so it may be a concern in thought only. I switched to the CRF because it’s a little more comfortable at cruising at 100-110kph with my added weight. It’s a bit funny though because the wr is better at accelerating at those speeds but the crf holds it better. We will be taking some 8-10000km trips next year and it will be fun to do a real life extended comparison of both but i suspect that my initial impressions will hold true. The WR is the better dual sport, the CRF is the better ADV bike.
WR is categorically a better bike
What i find interesting about these two bikes is that i see them as just over the halfway mark of 50/50 bikes. WR is 55/45 dirt/adv and CRF is 45/55 dirt/adv. If i was into gnarly enduro, i would agree, WR is categorically better. If i was more into the adv and long miles, the CRF is categorically better. It’s awesome to have 2 modern, reliable bikes that can fit this bill but excel at in either direction. So good to have options
@@danielleppington The WR is better in every conceivable situation. The CRF's like my new KLX are just junk.