Long ago, I tested Honda's stonking great CRF450RX. It's a brute of a thumper, capable of just going wherever you point its knobby front tire. I took it through our backyard's infant dirt track, up into the mountains on some semi-maintained trails, and through some gnarly single track. The race-spec dirt bike never missed a beat.
My only complaint was that it didn't have a headlight. And while there is the CRF450RL, the headlight is, well, not that great according to most who've run it in the early morning until nighttime. There were a few other minor quibbles, too.
Honda, however, has the parts to make the CRF450RX perfect. And the company will begin selling those parts to European Rally Raid teams starting this year. But those parts are only for those teams, and no one else. That means, despite Honda having the parts to nix all of my issues, the company won't sell them to me or you.
This sorta sounds like a personal problem, but come on, Honda, get these parts to market!
According to a press release from Honda's HRC, the group will "begin supplying kit parts for the CRF450RX, which will compete in the Rally Raid Championship, including the Dakar Rally." These parts will be headed to RedMoto out of Italy where the Italian outfit will install them onto a CRF450RX and then sold as a complete "competition-only" CRF450RX Rally motorcycle.
Boo, Honda, boo.
The parts in question, you ask? The new kit, which was in development on a trial basis before this announcement, will include a new lightweight, yet rigid aluminum frame that's been redesigned for the rigors of off-road racing with extended fuel tanks, a new engine tune that actually decreases engine RPM at high-speed cruising to allow for better fuel economy and durability, a lightweight carbon fiber reinforced plastic rally tower ready for whatever lighting solution a rider wants and hold their rally books, race-spec suspension both front and aft, a more durable race chain, a front fender, and a rally-ready windshield.
It's unclear how much all this will cost, but the base Honda CRF450RX is priced at $10,000. And given how killer these new parts are, you'd have to suspect that they'd add a pretty penny onto the starting price. The prior fully built model cost $27,000. That said, I'd love for Honda and HRC to make even just the tower available to the general public. Imagine all the adventures you could go on with a CRF450RX if you had some dope LEDs lighting your way.
Imagine terrorizing the woods at night!
