Big Red's Revenge

Big Red's Revenge

NEW FOR 2011

Honda hopes a kinder, gentler, more-responsive CRF450R will turn back the backward-facing Yamaha YZ450F

JOHN BURNS

THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT IS that until the new reverse-cylinder YZ450F unseated it in our 2010 comparison, Honda’s big dirt beast CRF450R owned CW's Best Motocrosser title for the previous eight years. Matter of fact, Honda wore the title belt since the CRF-R’s inception in 2002. There wasn’t much chance the boys at Honda HQ were going to take this lying down.

One of the things we liked about the 2010 YZ450F was its off-corner grunt and strong midrange. To build a little more of that into the CRF-R’s 2011 engine, Honda’s engineers replaced the 450’s 50mm throttle body with a 46mm unit, which should increase intake velocity and cylinder filling at low rpm for better throttle response— without losing any of the bike’s eyeball-watering top end, says Honda. A new fuel injector and mapping complement that change and, like the competition, Honda offers an available fuel remapping device (the $415 HRC Fuel-Injection Setting Tool) to allow fine-tuning for different conditions and testosterone levels. The new bike sells for $8199—$100 more than last year.

CVFs Off-Road Editor Ryan Dudek and crew reported the 2010 Honda felt a bit stiffer and calibrated more for experts, with a KYB fork that “behaved like a jackhammer coming into bumpy corners.” For 2011, the same 48mm air-oil-separated fork gets new settings designed to better absorb bumps, along with lightened cartridge cylinders. Out back, a new linkage with a lower shock mount is said to result in improved traction along with better handling and tracking through big bumps. The subframe was also “fine-tuned” in terms of stiffness. To help keep the big CRF flying straight, Honda saw fit to increase the piston size in its excellent Honda Progressive Steering Damper (HPSD) to 24mm, up from 20.

CRF250R

Honda says the 2011 bike weighs the same 238 ready-to-roost pounds as before (our scales read 237), which is 10 pounds fewer than the YZ, 12 pounds lighter than Kawasaki’s claim for its new ’ 11 KX450F and the same amount lighter than the Suzuki RM-Z450. In spite of the CRF’s weight advantage, our testers found that the all-new 2010 YZ—with its rear-facing exhaust port and underseat fuel tank—felt lighter, cornered sharper and generally responded more quickly to the helm than the Honda; a clear-cut case of mass centralization at work.

Finally, 2011 AMA rules dictate a 94-decibel noise limit; Honda says both the CRF450R and CRF250R meet that easily, thanks to new exhaust sys-

tems. In describing the overall changes, Honda uses the word “plushness” for this more-responsive, quieter, softer 450. For most riders most of the time, that’s probably a good thing.

Speaking of the 250, even though the CRF250R won our Lites-class shootout, Honda says the smaller CR benefits from a bunch of the same modifications, including stronger bottom-end and midrange power, new suspension settings and the upgraded steering damper.

Will the changes to the CRF450F even up the off-road arms race? Will Yamaha turn the YZ’s head sideways for 2011 and cause an entirely new tizzy? Will everybody buy an RMZ450 because they dig AMA Pro Motocross series points-leader Ryan Dungey? Will the new 2011 KTM 350 SX-F relegate all the 450 four-strokes to dinosaur status? These are questions modern motojournalism simply cannot answer at this time. We’ll have to wait for testbikes.... □