1I11I1n~
2003 Honda CRF230F and CRF150F
STORY AND PHOTOS BY KIT PALMER
Honda's new CRF230F
just could be the
ultimate plaplke.
W
hat I would have done for bikes
like these when I was a kid.
This thought kept running through
my head over and over as I roosted
around the hills of California's Hungry
Valley State Recreation Area (better
known simply as "Gorman") for the
first time on Honda's' brand-new
CRF150F and CRF230F off-road
bikes. Back when I was just getting
into off-road bikes in the early '70s,
there wasn't much to choose from.
For this 10-year-old kid, the only
option back then was an XR70.
Unfortunately, I fell into that weird
zone where the XR70 was too small
for my skinny and lanky body, but I
was not big enough for a full-sized
100cc or 125cc machine, so I had to
drink a lot of milkshakes and wait till
I was big enough to handle my first
motorcycle, a Suzuki TM 125.
Today, kids just don't have that
problem anymore, because some of
the manufacturers like Honda are
beginning to realize the importance of
providing a motorcycle for everyone,
small or big, young or old, beginner
or expert, and with their introduction
of the all-new CRF150F and
CRF230F, the red company has done
just that. Before these two bikes, there
was a definite kink in Honda's off·
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NOVEMBER 13.
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road/beginner-bike lineup. Last year,
Honda revamped the midsized XR100,
but the next bike up their off-road ladder was the full-sized, old and outdated XR200, followed by the even fullersized XR250. The XR200 was way
overdue for a makeover, but to better
fill out their off-road fleet, Honda
decided to do away with the XR200
altogether and design two bikes to
bridge the XRIOO·to-XR250 gap.
Honda not only built new bikes but
gave them new monikers - CRFs. For
the kids, it's more fun and easier to
be riding around pretending you're
Ricky Carmichael when it says "CR"
on the side of the bike, which now
looks just like the one the motocross
champ rides. What Honda ultimately
hopes is that the kids will like the
bike so much, they will remain loyal
to Honda for the rest of their lives,
and with bikes like the CR85, the
CR125, the CR250 and CRF250R,
and the CRF450R (and, of course, all
of the XRs), they easily could. "Get
'em while they're young" is Honda's
philosophy.
But the CRF150F and CRF230F
aren't designed strictly for the kids.
They also make good bikes for the
beginner and the wife or girlfriend.
(And even for the husband or
boyfriend, which I soon found out.)
The difference between the
