Meet the 2022 Honda 450 RL, a Street Legal Motocross Bike
Let’s get something straight: The hottest ticket in motorcycling through the COVID era has been “ADV” or “adventure bikes,” with sales skyrocketing. An ADV bike is kinda sorta a street bike you can ride on dirt roads. They lean toward on-road comfort, with some off-road capability. A BMW GS might be the best poster child of the breed—or the newly updated Kawasaki KLR 650. If you know anything about bikes you know these are comfortable machines for the long haul but, unless you’re super talented, can become a major handful when you hit technical off-roading. The enemy is weight, typically cresting at 440 to 500 pounds. The 289-pound 2022 Honda 450 RL is decidedly not that ADV trendy machine then.
The Honda 450 RL is a barely street legal dirt bike fine tuned for bombing fire roads and more technical tracks than the average rider would ever tackle with a heavier ADV machine. Want fancy ABS and traction control? Fairings and instruments? How about a USB port? Maybe a tachometer? Sorry, the Honda 450 RL gets none of that. Instead, it has an exceptionally rigid frame, a killer engine, awesome brakes, and a suspension to die for—which made it perfect for our test plan.
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We took the Honda 450 RL to the Vermont portion of the Backcountry Discovery Route (BDR), a series of roads and trails that exist across the U.S. that are loosely mapped by enthusiasts. The Vermont section is considered one of the more challenging in the nation, and it was made more so by recent tropical storms that left the “Class 4” links (basically snowmobile trails) as saturated and sloppy as a Louisiana bayou.
A snappy engine
Honda gave the 450RL a different tune from its 450cc single than the the 450R you typically see on dirt, but the throttle response is still instantaneous. It’s not quite a two-stroke dirt bike.
While you have to rev past 7,000 RPM to find peak horsepower, the torque curve is relatively flat and fat, meaning you’ll feel that tug from 3,0000 to 7,000 RPM. When we shot into the deepest, sloppiest, muddiest terrain in Vermont, we could happily upshift to second or third (or even fourth) gear and know that at just about any speed we’d have ready pull.
In fact, first gear is so low that for anything shy of a rock wall, we stayed out of that cog entirely, just to avoid having the bike wheelie out from under us.
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The downside of all that muscle: This six-speed Honda is geared for more off-road riding than on. Sure, it’s got the snot to rock 70mph, but this engine is far happier bombing rock gardens and mud bogs at 30mph than Interstate at highway speeds.
A dream of a suspension
Because Honda was kind enough to let a few of us test the CRF-450RL, we got to see how the bike performed under different rider weights and body types, from about 5’7” to 6’5” and 150 pounds to well over 200 pounds.
We all loved the Showa suspension. Is it stiff? Well, relatively speaking, yes, but relative to what? Lighter dirt bikes feel more playful, but when compared to typically heavier ADV bikes that hit closer to 400 to 500 pounds, the 450’s dampers felt perfect for cutting tight lines over rocks, roots, and around or right over every obstacle. This bike’s also very predictable on the road. The Honda might be less ideal for melting away miles of highway, but cruising two-laners in rural Vermont never once felt scary or twitchy.
What’s a demerit to the great tune of the fork and shock? The seat height of 37.2 inches puts shorter riders on their tippy toes.
