When is it time to go with a dual-sport motorcycle? For me, it's NOW and it's a 2022 Honda CRF450RL!
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- Опубліковано 30 чер 2023
- Although my subscribers know me best for my small-bore motorcycles (with the Honda Monkey being the reason this channel developed), I am no stranger to bikes with more than 125cc's! My first motorcycle was actually a 1987 Honda CR125 when I was about 13-14 years old back in the mid-90's. I was heavily influenced by the golden-age of motocross in the 90's, and the southern California riding culture portrayed by the Crusty Demons of Dirt video series. I was lucky enough to live on 5-acres with my parents here in Florida, which they let me turn into my own private motocross track. I had a 1950's Ford tractor with a box blade at my disposal to create my moto playground. I rode almost every day and became proficient at riding on sand, which certainly helped me on anything I rode from that point on. I sadly had to sell the CR125 when I was 16 because of a major speeding ticket, and didn't really revisit a major motorcycle again until MUCH later in life.
I had an assortment of pit bikes over the years for riding around the paddock at our Miata races, but it wasn't until I realized my son Rennen had a natural passion and interest in dirt bikes that I jumped back on a big bike. When Rennen was a toddler, he would sit atop my 1978 Yamaha YZ80 pit bike in the garage making engine sounds while my wife Brittany prepared orders for our Miata race parts business 5X Racing. I would take him for rides around the neighborhood on the little YZ and it must have struck a chord with him, because once we put him on two wheels via a push powered Strider bike, he took off! This inspired me to get back into motorcycles, and being a dirt bike guy, I wanted something that I could do just about everything with. A dual-sport felt like the right choice, and I came across a smoking deal on a perfect 2006 Suzuki DR-Z400S and jumped at it. This bike sounds good on paper, but when put to the test, it wasn't too fun to ride on the road, it wasn't nimble enough for me on the trails, and was way too bulky and heavy to even consider taking onto a motocross track or pushing hard on my old sugar sand track at my parents. With that, the DRZ hardly got used and I sold it when I heard of the incoming Honda Monkey in mid-2018. At this point, Rennen was 3-4 years old and was regularly riding a PW50. I would ride alongside him in our backyard on either my 1977 Honda Z50 or my 2002 Honda XR50. These bikes were fine for a while until he started going faster, which was requiring me to push my limits on the pit bikes! I moved up to a Honda CRF110 - which was way more comfortable and faster - and eventually made the Honda Monkey 125 my "chase bike" to ride with him. The Monkey was great in the backyard and was perfect for riding around the neighborhood. I modified it to handle the dirt better, and would bring it to Upstate NY during our summer trips to ride the pristine dual-sport backcountry there. I had ridden the DRZ during one NY trip and it was glorious, the bike was well-suited for that environment and I always thought I would like to have another dual sport for those trips, but the "season of life" was more small bikes that wouldn't be overkill to ride alongside a PW50 with! When Rennen graduated to the Husqvarna EE5 50cc sized MX bike, things started to evolve. I was pushing myself on the Monkey (or Grom that I had procured for more aggressive backyard riding) and the bike was finding it's "rough riding" limits fairly quickly. I stuck with the small-bores (Monkey, Grom, Trail 125) until our 2022 summer trip to NY where I pushed the Monkey and Trail as hard as I could, and had a realization that I had grown weary of using the wrong tool for the job. During this trip, I visualized what my next bike would be, and it was going to be a dual sport. But which one? There were several that had my attention, and my eventual decision was the CRF450RL. This video explains why! - Авто та транспорт
Can’t believe it the world is a small place when it comes down to it common sense prevails and smart money goes to Honda great choice😊
You have some great stories on this channel, John. Thanks!
Thanks for the comment! Glad you’re enjoying them!
The 450rl has been a surprisingly polarizing bike. I bought one new in 21’ and like a lot of people was surprised by how bad it ran at lower rpm’s. Flameouts were just a word I would hear people repeat but I had never experienced it. I assumed they were just stalling the bike. The mapping was actually pretty bad and once I got a vortex I realized I wasn’t just unable to ride a big bike in the woods, the mapping was just awful with the stock ecu. I also didn’t have much experience with tuning suspension either which I later found out that the Honda chassis is very tunable, very sensitive. Just a click or 2 front or rear on compression or rebound, changing your bar position a hair can really make you love or hate what’s going on in different scenarios. After a whole lot of messing with it, riding it, loving and hating it I’m actually very surprised at how much I didn’t enjoy it at times and also how impressed I am with it now that I’ve done some research on how to ride a bike with some technique and figure out how to set it up the way I feel comfortable for my speed and my terrain. After a mix of pretty hard riding and pretty chill riding for 5500 miles I’m really glad I didn’t do what a lot of people do, which is ride it, be a bit perplexed by why it doesn’t just work like some other brands and then sell it. Instead of setting the sag, getting the compression and rebound right, putting a little money into an ecu and playing with different tire combos. The bike it very tunable, so I think that’s what it boils down to. People don’t expect to buy a heavy dual sport and have it be so sensitive to suspension and other ergos. The thing is plenty capable. Hope to see you put some time on it!
Wow, what an amazing comment! I’m loving the bike and this is super interesting to me as I like tinkering.
Very nice video and I enjoyed the detailed background of you and your kids riding.
I've had numerous dual-purpose bikes and in September of 2021, I saw that my local Honda dealer had a used 2021 CRF450RL with just 612 miles on the odometer.
When I asked how much I could get it out the door for, I did a double-take when they told me $6,150.
This bike looked like new, so, I didn't need any persuading to hand over the cash and wheel that bad boy into the back of my truck for the ride home.
I had been following the CRF450L since it made its 2019 debut by reading articles and posts and watching videos about test reviews of the bike, so I was familiar with all the things riders did and did not like about it.
Before I rode it, I installed suspension springs suited for my 150-pound weight, mounted real knobby tires, removed the fuel evap canister and the "smog" air injection parts, and took it on its maiden voyage out to my local State Forest where there is a rock-n'-rootsy New England motorcycle trail loop that's legal for street-registered motorcycles.
I stood on the easier trails with the big CRF, but I had a great time on that first ride.
I went on several more weekend rides on those trails before the winter set in, and during the winter downtime I ordered the Vortex ECU and FMF Megabomb head pipe and Q4 muffler, as well as a one-tooth-larger (52 teeth) rear sprocket along with a shiny gold DID 520ERVT drive chain (and an optional rivet-style master link).
Come April of 2022 I went out on the CRF450RL sporting the accessories I'd installed over the winter and the bike was even better.
I bought the Vortex ECU out of curiosity after reading and hearing soooo much hype about it, and man, was it ever a great decision.
No more snatchy, abrupt ON/OFF throttle response and the tendency to flameout and stall at the worst times were but a faint memory - just a nice and smooth-running bike that would keep running all day without any ill-mannered nonsense.
Well worth the money.
Beside the nice tone and less weight, the FMF exhaust gets rid of the cat in the stock muffler, and that means no more baking heat radiating from the muffler.
This CRF450RL prefers terrain where you can keep some speed up, and the faster and rougher it is, the more it feels at home.
I love the power, torque, excellent suspension, and tremendous straight-line stability over rough ground.
All-in-all, I'm one happy camper. 🙂
Woww verry nice bike try to ride it here in phillippines all people here love to see dual sport bike
I just bought one, waiting for it to get shipped, can't wait. My first bike!
Good choice! You’ll love the power!
Went from Monkey to CRF450RL too! (via WR250R). Your channel was great for figuring out how to turn a Monkey into a "Dual Sport". Looking forward to what you do the the RL.
Maybe the Monkey is a gateway drug to the RL?! Thanks for watching, I am loving the RL and have a ton of content coming down the line about it
Great bike, good choice! 🤘🏽
I think so too!
congrats !!!! i was going to roll a 450l but there the honda version of ducks. i didnt want to wrench as much so we got a 21 650l. got a 22 drz sm to have more fun . enjoy the day and hope your out with the crew having fun
Thanks!! I don’t expect a ton of wrenching unless I want to on it. I’ve found there’s quite a few L owners out there who have tens of thousands of miles on theirs with no issues at all along the way. I like the 650 too, but wanted something a bit more motocross’y that I can ride on a track and technical trails (although the 650 can do that, I feel it’s more than what I needed)
Taking my new CRF450RL to the Black Hills of SD for a 4 day ride, then to the Alpine Loop out of Silverton Colorado for 4 more days.
I'm excited, yet nervous as though ive ridden dirt most of my life, I haven't done many multi day rides. 😅
Man that sounds like an amazing trip! I’m jealous, enjoy!!
I did no research on my CRF230M and I had it for 9 years so far. I browsed the inventory at a local dealership and a month later, I just went for it.
The CRF450L/CRF450RL, has been constant research since it was announced and I am for it for the most part. Right not it doesn't look good if I buy new because last weekend, I just put down my cat that had possibly treatable cancer, but ended up choosing a bike instead, at least that is my view at the moment. Next season looks like would be the time for a 450RL in my garage. I have 6 bikes to have fun with at the moment too.
You’ll love the RL! The power and go-anywhere nature of it is addicting
Great video. Think I might go with this bike. Is it to heavy to climb being that I’m in Comifornia?
Seems like it's the ultimate do it all bike dirtbike, less vibration and nicer to ride on the street but pay the price for slightly more weight in single track. Honda reliability, looks amazing, heaps of power. I considered a wr450f which is road legal in Australia, a ktm 450excf and 500 excf, crf300lrally and a drz400. After learning the motocross bikes can go 1000-1500mi between service in normal riding conditions I was sold on the crf450l, like you I weighed up all my options after getting stuck in analyses paralysis and pulled the trigger on the 450l. To me the twitchy throttle isn't a big deal and the vortex doubles as a power adder any way so I don't mind spending the extra.
The Austrian bikes may have the edge in off-road performance, but they’re higher maintenance and more costly when you get into parts. I’m a Honda loyalist, so while I feel the Austrian bikes may be better in terms of performance, I wanted to stay on a Honda. The DRZ is the worst choice for off-road, I had one and it just doesn’t have the motocross design and feel enough to ride confidently on tight trails. Forget about a track! The WR may be an interesting choice, I haven’t had time on one enough to know
I am looking to also go dual sport as well from the honda monkey tho i really need something under the 33 inch seat hight..between 30 and 30
I was thinking the CRF300LS, or TW200 or XT250 or XR150L, or Suzuki DR200
Would be great if you can get these bikes and do a comparison
Hi there
A bike I would luv to own .
Did ever consider 2022 crf450x over rl
Oh absolutely, but the 450X is basically the same as the RL but not street legal. You can turn the RL into an X by removing the emissions equipment and exhaust.
These are cool but expensive
At first glance, yes, but when you look at the competition (KTM, Husky) they’re several thousand less. It way outperforms the DRZ400 or CRF300 type dual sports too, so you can feel the difference and understand why it costs more. It took me a long time to come to terms with spending $10k+ on a bike, but most race bikes are getting close to that mark now and aren’t street legal, so it’s really “in the range”
Next ride, a wheelchair, like many bikers
I must know, why are you watching motorcycle videos on UA-cam?! 😂
Lol what the hell