SHOOTOUT
P52
2014 450-CLASS MOTOCROSS SHOOTOUT
COUNTDOWN
5TH PLACE
HONDA CRF450R
T
he Honda was the toughest
bike for our testers to place.
They all feel that it's a great
bike and has many good qualities
overall. They say it's probably the
easiest of the 450s to ride, turns
right up there with the best of them
and feels good at the controls,
but it also has a quite a few things
that kept nagging at them, like its
"soft" power (they wanted a bit
more snap from the CR's motor),
heavy clutch pull and sometimes
difficult shifting (more so if you
have a large foot). They also said
that the CR felt a little cramped
and that the lighter pneumatic fork
(keep in mind that the CR already
was – and still is - the lightest bike
in the class) isn't that much better
in performance over the previous
oil/spring forks to justify the extra
"maintainance" and having to have
a pump handy all the time. They
also don't like the idea of having
to haul their laptop to the track to
make mapping changes (a little too
much work compared to the quickchange coupler bikes or Yamaha's
easy-to-use Power Tuner), nor do
they like the dual exhaust. Still,
they liked the Honda a lot but had
more little negatives than the other
four bikes ahead of it.
