Y
ou always remember your
favorite-looking bike. Maybe it's
the old Spitfire Kawasaki, Jeremy
McGrath's '95 Honda, any gold-wheeled
RM Suzuki, or even Chad Reed's
sneaky stock-looking '04 Yamaha. For
me, though, Ricky Carmichael's Woody
Woodpecker Honda CR250R sitting in
the Anaheim 1 pits was one of the cool-
est things I'd ever seen as a kid. The
next day, I began pooling up enough
birthday money to order a set of Throttle
Jockey graphics for my clapped-out
CR80 just so it would somewhat resem-
ble what I saw Saturday night. There's
just something about those bikes that
will forever live in our heads. I'm a suck-
er for anything retro, so when Honda
invited us to ride the 2023 CRF450R in
50th Anniversary trim, I was there! No
need to ask twice.
QUICKSPIN I 2023 Honda CRF450R
P88
>
YES, IT LOOKS COOL, BUT
IS IT ANY BETTER?
>
BY RYAN NITZEN I PHOTOGRAPHY JESSE ZIEGLER
>
Retro
REFINED
