2019 DUAL-SPORT SHOOTOUT
COMPARISON
P78
real-world usability that can actu-
ally hold its own on trails at night.
It's not immune to upgrades for
night racing, but it's way ahead of
the bulb-lights on the other bikes.
The turn signals, the Achilles heel
of the European dual-sport field,
proved indestructible and simply
not in need of relocation or elimi-
nation. They are really good.
Following suit, the Honda's
instrument cluster is awesome. It
provides easy, intuitive access to
a wheel-driven odometer with two
trip meters as well as fuel con-
sumption data measuring actual
fuel use. This calculates into what
you've used, your MPG and your
current fuel level. Brilliant.
The biggest weaknesses the
Honda exhibited during our
testing almost all come down to
the bike's mass. Our test bike re-
vealed 303 pounds on our scale
with a full tank of gas (as how we
weighed all the bikes in this com-
parison), but it must be noted that
the CRF450L came to us fitted
with ultra heavy-duty inner tubes
(left over from Honda's press
introduction in Washington);
plus, we fitted all the bikes with
heavier-than-stock Dunlop D606
DOT tires, and we also installed
rim locks in our 450L, all adding
to its 289 pounds that Honda
claims is the weight of an off-the-
showroom floor, fully fueled L.
This bike feels as big and
heavy as it is relative to the com-
petition. It outweighs both Aus-
trian bikes by approximately 40
pounds and the Beta by approxi-
mately 30 pounds. Unfortunately,
the Honda will hold a half-gallon
less fuel than its Austrian friends
at this weight. It has the same
fuel capacity as the Beta.
It's impossible to ignore the
weight disadvantage the Honda
has when riding back-to-back with
the lighter bikes in the class. The
handling praise on straight-line
bumps goes away pretty quickly
when you get the 450L slowing
and turning. Slowing and initiating
turns on open roads isn't done as
precisely as the European bikes.
This means the extra weight even
shows up on fire roads. It takes
significant body effort to move the
450L through the same terrain as
roads get narrower and trails get
tighter. And for truly technical off-
road the Honda did not shine as
brightly as the Euro bikes.
The Honda is probably
the least offensive on
the pavement of the four
bikes we tested.
