05 CRF450X		05 CRF450X
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2005 Honda CRF450X
- Final Desert Report -

Video!
1. Intro video 2.2meg .wmv | 2. Trail Video (1.9meg .wmv)
3a. 2005 CRF450X - the video! New video (2-8-05, 13meg, mpeg) 3b. (low band 1.5meg wmv)

Riding apparel is Moose XCR gear, even the helmet.
Boots are "Set Up" brand by the same people who bring you Sidi - The model is "Akira" $209.99

Back to the desert - We've made numerous small changes to the CRF450X, many of you have been following along closely. With all of our changes complete, it was time to go back to the desert to learn how the bike now works compared to stock.

One thing that remained constant in the desert is the speed of the Honda CRF450X - it still rips for an off-road mount. The bike now easily chugs up hills in first or second gear at near crawling speeds, and without any hint of stalling. When you dial in more throttle to pick up the pace the Honda lofts the front wheel and accelerates hard. Slipping the clutch to get going quickly isn't necessary  - just roll the throttle on.

This same speed is evident across sections of deep desert whoops. The revised suspension settings now allow the bike to work more as I'm sure it was designed to. Deep whoops can be taken in stride and at full throttle - if your man enough. Just when you think your going as fast as possible across these whoop sections you learn there's more throttle to grab. Twist the throttle to the stop and you get even more speed, coming from down deep within the heart of the 450X's powerplant. The bike literally screams across high speed whoop sections - with no hint of head shake. If you hit something unexpected the more fluid working suspension is balanced enough to save your butt. The powerplant never falls on its face at top RPM, it just stops accelerating and the power softens if you leave it on past redline. With our settings, and at about 3,000 feet in elevation, stalling and the flat spot down low in the stock powerband are gone.

On fast desert trails the bike now steers with confidence and doesn't deflect off rocks the way it did with stock setting. You can now confidently attack the trail - twist the throttle and charge. When the trail slows, the 450X still deflects and bobbles around a bit, and the front end still feels long and less than cutting edges for tight turns or stuffing into berms or grooves. The tall 450X front end likes to climb berms and it's hard to place the wheel just where you would like it entering slow tight corners. Our suspension changes raised the front end ride height which isn't much of a help in these situations, but we'll certainly take the trade off everywhere else. With the suspension now doing a better job, the seat feels better and more like we would have expected.

What stands out with the slightly modified 450X is the strong engine, its stable and balanced ride over fast whoops at warp speeds (no head shake), and how you can now attach fast nasty trails with confidence and a hand full of throttle. Slow speed turns is where the Honda still isn't perfect, but it's at least acceptable. Our stalling problems are gone, the flat spot just off idle is gone and the suspension is now working in a far more fluid and softer feeling manner. This has all made the new CRF450X a more comfortable and more enjoyable ride. And since I'm sitting in the middle of the California desert on a warm 75 degree day while writing this, that's exactly what I'm going to go do before it gets dark.

Bill Wolf
MN

CRF250X | 2005 RF450R | 2005 CRF250R

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