VOLUME 58 ISSUE 19 MAY 11, 2021 P69
sion and hand guards, right? Well, I
wouldn't say mellow.
This bike absolutely rips. It's rowdy.
Fully MX-capable and a handful if you
get off-kilter in more technical terrain. It
has the power and delivery to destroy
tires and will excite with its R-class
punch across the board. The motor,
chassis and suspension are built to
race, and they feel like it. So, we raced.
We Raced
As soon as we made plans to test the
2021 CRF450RX, we looked at the
calendar and circled the 3 Brothers
Racing Glen Helen 6-Hour endurance
event. Honda agreed to support us with
a bike and burritos. So, we slapped
together a team of questionable media
types including myself, Road Test Editor
Rennie Scaysbrook, and our friendly
colleague from the Motorcyclist world,
Adam "BTS, OTF, Yellowstone, burner
phone," Waheed. This is a pretty great
group of riders to test this machine, if
I do say so myself. We have a range of
skill levels and motorcycle literacy and
our speeds are different but all of the
above is not that different. It's just like
if you and two of your friends entered
a race where one of your friends was
yelling in Australian all day and the other
just kind of had a lot of hair.
After slapping on some Nitromousse
inserts and Kenda tires (on loan from
the JCR Honda team) (Washougal III
front and Millville II rear that we're not
giving back), we had everything we
needed and hit the pristine, late-winter
playground of a wet Glen Helen Race-
way (yes!). The Kenda Washougal III
front and Millville II rear would prove
worthy. We pounded laps, crashed
more than once and the Honda took all
Honda didn't forget
the hand guards on
the latest CRF450RX.
Thank you, Honda!
