Cycle News Staff | May 13, 2021
We ride and race Honda’s rowdy CRF450RX.
The Honda CRF450RX is no joke, it’s pure racer.
By Jesse Ziegler and Rennie Scaysbrook | Photography by Kit Palmer and Scaysbrook
It’s time to celebrate the race machines, the non-pedestrian, the intently driven weapons of open-class dirt bike badassery!
The 2021 Honda CRF450RX is one such weapon. We tested it. We raced it. It showed us who’s boss.
When I first rode a CRF450RX as a 2017 model, I remember thinking how bad of a recreational off-road bike it was. I knew people would buy it for trails and such, but just as they did/do with CRF450Rs of the past/present, buying this race machine as a recreational off-road bike is not ideal.
It’s 2021 and nothing has changed, as I rode the 2021 CRF450RX around the Glen Helen and Cahuilla MX tracks and trails. This bike is still an absolute weapon in the dirt. It’s made for hurting competition. It’s so on the edge of aggression that I, and I’m not alone here, prefer this over the CRF450R as a full-on motocross bike. It’s that feisty. It wants to race. So, we freakin’ raced it.
Actually, a few things have changed since that first RX. For one, this bike has seen updates alongside its advanced CRF450R brother for 2021. It has the gamut of chassis newness and model-specific updated engine and suspension settings as well as the ample suite of dirt-bike electronics now common on the CRF-Rs. You can adjust three levels of three systems here; Honda Selectable Torque Control (traction control, basically), HRC Launch Mode for starts (if this doesn’t say “I’m not a trail bike.” I don’t know what will) and Engine Modes. All of these are selectable in three levels, jockeying the bike’s behavior accordingly.
A little more knobby and a little more fuel and the RX is ready for the track.
All of this aligns with their flagship MX machine. But where the RX differs is with a bit of closed-course off-road goodies. Namely, this comes down to a mellower tune to the ECU map and suspension settings to provide a bit of compliance at high speeds off-road and in technical race terrain. It also gets one tooth more on the rear sprocket than the R and the standard 18-inch rear wheel and kickstand. Since off-road races are longer than MX, the fuel capacity is boosted up to 2.1 gallons from the R’s 1.7 gallons. Oh, and finally, Honda has decent race-style handguards on an off-road bike again. These little beauties really do the trick and were blatantly missing from the previous RX, as well as Honda’s CRF450X off-roader and CRF450L dual-sport machines. We dig ’em!
So, it’s a mellow CRF450R with a big tank, softer suspension and handguards, right? Well, I wouldn’t say mellow.
This bike absolutely rips. It’s rowdy. Fully MX-capable and a handful if you get off-kilter in more technical terrain. It has the power and delivery to destroy tires and will excite with its R-class punch across the board. The motor, chassis and suspension are built to race, and they feel like it. So, we raced.
The harder you ride the RX, the better it works. It’s not a lighthearted trail bike.
We Raced
As soon as we made plans to test the 2021 CRF450RX, we looked at the calendar and circled the 3 Brothers Racing Glen Helen 6-Hour endurance event. Honda agreed to support us with a bike and burritos. So, we slapped together a team of questionable media types including myself, Road Test Editor Rennie Scaysbrook, and our friendly colleague from the Motorcyclist world, Adam “BTS, OTF, Yellowstone, burner phone,” Waheed. This is a pretty great group of riders to test this machine, if I do say so myself. We have a range of skill levels and motorcycle literacy and our speeds are different but all of the above is not that different. It’s just like if you and two of your friends entered a race where one of your friends was yelling in Australian all day and the other just kind of had a lot of hair.
After slapping on some Nitromousse inserts and Kenda tires (on loan from the JCR Honda team) (Washougal III front and Millville II rear that we’re not giving back), we had everything we needed and hit the pristine, late-winter playground of a wet Glen Helen Raceway (yes!). The Kenda Washougal III front and Millville II rear would prove worthy. We pounded laps, crashed more than once and the Honda took all our abuse in stride. I crashed this bike really, really hard. Like, the hardest crash I’ve had in a while (thanks rock) and all that was worse for wear was a tweaked bar mount.
Honda didn’t forget the handguards on the latest CRF450RX. Thank you, Honda!
The Glen Helen compound is a good test of a closed-course machine like this. It has fast moto straights and huge hills, tighter scrub oak-infested trails and two-track and a just nasty lower zone of rolling boulders littering sand. There’s also a truck track that is about a mile wide, too. To top it all off, we get to go across the graded areas between the truck racetrack which turn into parking-curb-laden lanes with a sh*t-ton of rocks waiting to take you down. It’s not a walk in the park to ride and/or race. But it does highlight weaknesses and flaws in body and bike.
The body flaws are obvious—we’re all spending too much time typing about motorcycles and not enough time racing them, but we held our own pretty nicely before we started dumping it. A lot can happen in six hours and a lot did to our team. But we still managed a smile at the end of the day.
Don’t think that the RX is just a tuned-down version of its motocross sibling, there’s nothing tuned down about the RX at all. But it is more tailored for the trail.
The bike’s flaws aren’t as easy to isolate. The bike rips away from competitors if you’re able to hang on. It is blistering fast and gets pretty good traction, to boot. We all messed around with map settings going from mellow to aggressive and the differences are very noticeable. I raced in all of them over six hours. That’s the beauty of super long races, I guess!
Chassis and suspension-wise, the faster you go, the better the CRF450RX behaves. Only on the biggest downhill bumps (and Glen Helen gets a lot of them), does the suspension feel even close to maxing out. It has compliance for the most part, but soft it is not. You can feel its edge on the sharpest of bumps on the circuit and the a-hole rocks that creep up. But its harder attitude is nice when you’re blitzing across sand whoops and staying aggressive for a pass on the MX track. Just send it, as they say, and the bike seems to enjoy it best. It really shines on West Coast-style off-road. WORCS, NGPC, NHHA, BITD, and a plethora of AMA District events held in places with few trees and lots of speed. It was made for this. There’s a reason both the SLR Honda and JCR Honda teams pilot these things for these events (mixing in an CRF450X when the six-speed comes calling).
If you’re an off-roader who still likes to moto and race faster-style GPs, the CRF450RX covers all the bases nicely.
I’m repeating myself but this is also my favorite Honda 450 motocross bike, even though it’s not actually a motocross bike. I can put a gallon of fuel in it, and, despite the tank feeling a bit awkward, the rest of the bike motos just fine. The somewhat mellower ECU mapping and suspension settings make it much easier to manage all day and it seems to not get as picky with setup as the “R” versions do. Plus, it comes with all the benefits of the R updates, and the added convenience of handguards, a kickstand (throw your track stand away and rock the kickstand, nerds!) and a large assortment of 18-inch off-road rear tires to choose from.
The bottom line, this bike makes a mean racer. But a woods weapon in stock trim, it is not. So, buy it for ripping starts and racing for a long time. That’s what it’s made to do. Do it. CN
Rennie’s race—a race of pure stupidity
Back in January, I rode a Honda CRF250RX in one of the SRA GP events at Glen Helen. I loved it. Finished fourth in class in my first dirt-bike race in over a decade and couldn’t wait for more.
When the idea came to ride the 450 in the Glen Helen Six Hour, it seemed like the logical step. There’s not that big a difference between a 45-minute moto on a 250 and a six-hour race on a 450, right?
Err…
I’ll say right now, I am not good enough to ride this thing. I realized this halfway around my first lap, right at the point when the talent/ambition equation got irreversibly skewed. When Jesse says this thing is an animal, he isn’t kidding. I own a 450 myself (my Husqvarna FS 450 supermoto), but the rigors of riding a proper off-road 450 at my max pace around GH was way more intense than I gave it credit for.
I gave it my best shot. The first stint was three laps, and by lap three I was finally feeling a bit more in control of the bike, rather than it being in control of me. It helped I had my good mate Nathon Verdugo to play with. We passed each other at least 15 times and came back into the pits laughing like little girls. It was a rad 20 minutes. And the lap time was good, about 45 seconds off Jesse’s.
The Honda must have wondered who the monkey was sitting on its seat. Jesse is far more proficient at off-road racing than I am, but I felt I hadn’t embarrassed myself too much by the end of the stint. That would change for stint two.
With a break of about an hour and a half, all the adrenaline had plummeted, and soreness set in. The reaction times were measured with a calendar, and I was a rolling roadblock. The Honda’s suspension absolutely beat the crap out of me. I could only get two laps in before I threw in the towel and gave the bike to Adam, lap times some three minutes slower than stint one.
It was a humbling experience and I finally get now why 450s have the reputation they do. The Honda is a brilliant bike—far, far better than I am a rider. I think a 250 might be on the cards for the next attempt at this event.CN
2021 Honda CRF450RX Specifications
| MSRP: |
$9,899 |
| Engine: |
4-stroke, single |
| Valvetrain: |
Unicam, OHC, 4-valve |
| Bore x Stroke: |
96.0 x 62.1mm |
| Compression Ratio: |
13.5:1 |
| Induction System: |
Programmed fuel injection (PGM-F1); 46mm throttle body |
| Ignition: |
Full transistorized |
| Starting System: |
Electric |
| Transmission: |
Constant-mesh 5-speed |
| Clutch: |
Multiplate wet, hydraulically actuated |
| Final Drive: |
#520 sealed chain; 13T/50T |
| Frame: |
Aluminum twin-spar |
| Front Suspension: |
Showa, 49mm, telescopic fork, fully adjustable |
| Rear Suspension: |
Showa, single-shock Pro Link, fully adjustable |
| Front-Wheel Travel: |
12.2 in. |
| Rear-Wheel Travel: |
12.3 in. |
| Front Brake: |
Single 260mm disc, w/2-piston caliper |
| Rear Brake: |
Single 240mm disc, w/1-piston caliper |
| Front Tire: |
Dunlop Geomax AT81 90/90-21 in. |
| Rear Tire: |
Dunlop Geomax AT81 120/90-18 in. |
| Rake/Trail: |
27°7’ / 4.48 in. |
| Ground Clearance: |
13.2 in. |
| Seat Height: |
50.5 in. |
| Wheelbase: |
58.3 in. |
| Fuel Capacity: |
2.1 gal. |
| Weight (curb, claimed): |
251 lbs. |
