Honda 450L

[qcnr]

I'll take that servicing schedule with a pinch of salt. Can't imagine Honda
would make a 'road bike' with that amount of servicing required. I will
hazard a guess that it will be similar to the CRF250 Rally.

[daveuprite]

I'll take that servicing schedule with a pinch of salt. Can't imagine Honda
would make a 'road bike' with that amount of servicing required. I will
hazard a guess that it will be similar to the CRF250 Rally.

Well it needs to be. The bike has to be a proper dual sport, otherwise its competition is the Beta 500RS, the KTM500EXC, and the Huskie 501 - all of which will be much better off-road. There's no point Honda building another Enduro bike with short service intervals. The market clearly wants a modern DRZ400. If Honda makes anything else it will have cocked up IMHO.

I would be looking for a tank around 11 litres plus options to go bigger, hopefully at least 180km range, approx 40bhp at the rear wheel, 6 gears, fuel injection, proper sub-frame for luggage with decent mounting points and/or a frame accessory option, comfortable wide pegs, seat height below 900mm, decent capable off-road fully adjustable suspension, 18/21 inch wheels preferably with cush drive rear.

[johnnyboxer]

I would be looking for a tank around 11 litres plus options to go bigger, hopefully at least 180km range, approx 40bhp at the rear wheel, 6 gears, fuel injection, proper sub-frame for luggage with decent mounting points and/or a frame accessory option, comfortable wide pegs, seat height below 900mm, decent capable off-road fully adjustable suspension, 18/21 inch wheels preferably with cush drive rear.

It's got all that, except for a 9l tank, but Acerbis will sort that

Have you read the full specs or not?

[qcnr]

[daveuprite]

I would be looking for a tank around 11 litres plus options to go bigger, hopefully at least 180km range, approx 40bhp at the rear wheel, 6 gears, fuel injection, proper sub-frame for luggage with decent mounting points and/or a frame accessory option, comfortable wide pegs, seat height below 900mm, decent capable off-road fully adjustable suspension, 18/21 inch wheels preferably with cush drive rear.

It's got all that, except for a 9l tank, but Acerbis will sort that

Have you read the full specs or not?

Not until just now. It looks good. Many will want a lowering kit, but that's no problem, and as usual the tank needs to be bigger really. Hopefully Mr Acerbis won't get too greedy - there's no excuse for a chunk of extruded plastic with a petcock costing anything over €200. The service intervals will be critical. It's great that Honda does not appear to be dumbing the bike down too much but many of us already have genuine enduro bikes with low-hours intervals and don't want this bike to be another of those. And it surely must put out a genuine rear wheel 40+bhp - or what's the point frankly.

Certainly looks very promising....

[johnnyboxer]

Following on from the 250, Honda are launching a 450 next year .




It’s based on a proper dirt racer – Honda’s CRF450R MX machine, but is softened, legalised, detuned, and has lights (all LED), licence plate, speedo, horn – all the stuff needed for a road bike. The sweet titanium (!) fuel tank is a bit bigger than the racebike too – though most of the plastics are spot-on in terms of 2019 MX bike style.
Sadly, the engine’s had a bit of a caning to meet Euro4 regs, and stand up to possible road abuse. We doubt many folk would sit on the motorway at 90mph for hours on end on one of these, but Honda has to bear that possibility in mind – so the two-ring racing piston is replaced with a longer-life three-ringer, compression is down to 12:1 from 13.5:1, cam timing is softer, crank is heavier, and you get a six-speed gearbox instead of five. And, of course, there’s a huge silencer and catalysed exhaust on there too, the radiator is larger, it gets a fan, etc etc etc.

The result is a soft 18.4kw; 25bhp, just. That’s a little disappointing – an ancient Suzuki DR-Z400 makes nearly 40bhp, albeit without the necessary modern emissions compliance of course. On the plus side, the CRF450L only needs a major engine stripdown service every 20,000 miles. Which will take a while with 25bhp and a 7.6l fuel tank to be fair.

The all-up weight of just 130kg wet is encouraging though – this is a proper skinny lightweight beastie. And while the power might be a handicap on the M6 Autobahn section, it’ll be fine when used as intended – a nice, smooth enduro bike that can plod its way through almost anything in terms of off-road riding, while also getting you to the trails from your city pad, with ease.



SPECS

Engine: Liquid-cooled 4-stroke single cylinder uni-cam, 449cc

Bore and Stroke: 96.0mm x 62.1mm

Compression Ratio: 12.0:1

Carburation: PGM-FI Fuel injection

Fuel Tank Capacity: 7.6 litres

Clutch: Wet multiplate

Transmission: six speed, chain

Frame: Aluminium twin tube

Wheelbase: 1500mm

Caster Angle: 28.5°

Trail: 122mm

Seat Height: 940mm

Kerb Weight: 130.8kg

SUSPENSION: Front, 49mm Showa steel-sprung USD fork, Rear, Showa monoshock using Honda Pro-Link system

Wheels: Aluminium spoke

Tyres: Front 80/100-21 Rear 120/80-18


So it won’t blow your socks off but might make a nice reliable green-laner.

[herman]

"The result is a soft 18.4kw; 25bhp, just. That’s a little disappointing – an ancient Suzuki DR-Z400 makes nearly 40bhp, albeit without the necessary modern emissions compliance of course. On the plus side, the CRF450L only needs a major engine stripdown service every 20,000 miles. Which will take a while with 25bhp and a 7.6l fuel tank to be fair."
If this is correct it will be the most pointless bike ever made, I really hope not.

[Fried Egg Sandwich]

Someone will bring out an aftermarket kit to give it the grunt it should have..... won't they ?

[pinball1008]

Figure for power output must be a misprint surely?

[Fried Egg Sandwich]

It must be a misprint, the CRF250L makes 18.2Kw.
An extra 200 cc for just 0.2Kw?