Cycle News Staff | August 29, 2018
In a world of all-out race bikes, classifying the 2019 Honda CRF450RX as an off-road bike is sort of strange. Do not think of this as a docile trail-friendly machine that will be your friend for miles of smiles. That it is not. This bike is pissed off and wants to go as fast as possible from a flag waving at the start to a flag waving at the end. It’s basically searching for flags all the time and wants to kill them. That’s how you should think of it.
2019 Honda CRF450RX First Impression
The 2019 Honda CRF450RX is full race, pure and simple. Photos: Spencer Owens
Just as it was when it launched in 2017/2018, the CRF450RX is a CRF450R with a bigger tank, smaller rear wheel, a kickstand and some other off-road goodies bolted on. This includes “off-road” specific suspension settings and a really nice skid plate.
We had the pleasure of jumping on the new 2019 Honda CRF450RX at Cahuilla Motocross facility outside Anza, California. There, they have a nice little single-track loop with some rocks and bushes to bash against. They also have a full-size vet and main MX track to rip. Heck, they even have a GP-style rolling road circuit.
The sidestand gives it away that this isn’t the CRF450R motocrosser, but it’s close.
We enlisted off-road racing pro Nic Garvin to jump aboard and give us his thoughts. It turns out that Nic has owned three of these in the past few years. So, he’s sort of the perfect test rider. And Honda even had a 2018 CRF450RX for us to use as a comparison tool. So, we did. Here’s what we found out on our first day on the bike.
Right away, the power output enhancement of the new 450RX was apparent. The engine was significantly stronger than the original model and riding the bikes back-to-back made this really clear. The new motor really shined with an aggressive pull from the bottom with more overrev than before. This was apparent when driving out of higher speed corners. The new bike liked to crank on the juice longer than the previous. Garvin didn’t feel he needed to shift as soon as the 2018.
No problem.
It became quickly apparent that the purpose of the CRF450RX is to win races with Johnny Campbell’s JCR Honda squad of Trevor Bollinger and Trevor Stewart—GNCC and WORCS, respectfully. And, if you’re looking to compete in fast off-road competition, you can easily consider this a viable option even if your name isn’t Trevor.
What this bike isn’t a great choice for a guy or gal that goes to the desert occasionally for a rip. As Garvin puts it: “This bike is built to be set up to race hard. It’s the perfect trail bike for a racer, not a rider.”
We’d go a little further and say this bike is best suited for west-coast style GPs and open terrain domination. It is a bike that has inherent aggression that could use some room to roam. However, even west-coast style Garvin could see the bike doing well in tighter high-level competition. Thanks to the switchable maps and other mods to manipulate power, there’s no reason to think this Honda can’t be dialed in for any specific series.
Slight tweaks to the engine makes the RX more manageable over tricky terrain than the motocrosser.
While the power package impressed, Garvin was even more impressed with the updates to the chassis—shared benefits the 2019 Honda CRF450R is enjoying. As Garvin puts it, he didn’t feel comfortable driving the previous frame and swingarm-equipped CRF450RXs into square holes or square edged bumps—much like you see in high-speed racing. Before this update, the frame wouldn’t allow enough compliance to keep the bike in line. Rather, it would tend to react out of character and out of the direction you wanted to race. Now, says Garvin, the frames lower compliance and the swingarms ability to flex more under sharp, high-speed hits allows the bike to simply settle in for the abuse. This allowed him to keep driving forward through the nasty nasty.
Out of the box, we ran 108mm of rider sag, adjusted the rebound for comfort and control and added some compression clicks to the fork to keep it from sinking into the stroke too soon. This had the bike riding level and ready to eat chop for breakfast (or was it time for lunch?).
Only thing missing are the hand protectors.
Garvin wrapped it up by saying: “Everybody has been on this kick to make a lighter bike but the reason this bike works so great is because of its weight and the distribution of it in the chassis. It creates a more stable environment for high speed, making for an easier ride, and it actually gives you more energy at the end of the race. It doesn’t put a wear on you as quick. It’s amazing what a few adjustments and clicks you can do with this stock bike to make it work.”
What should we complain about? There’s got to be….oh! This bike should really have some style of hand guard on it. Memo to Honda: Just complete the off-road look with some flag-style guards and get it over with, guys. Also, the increased capacity fuel tank is sort of wedged in to a motocross bike frame. We haven’t found anyone who likes the way it looks sticking out the top of the shrouds and the way it mounts into the chassis gives the bike an unnecessary top-heavy feel. Garvin commented that it’s even awkward while riding in tight corners and sand berms.
But that’s about it for gripes. Otherwise, we are so far quite pleased with the new CRF450RX, a bike ready to go racing as is.
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