2019 Honda CRF 450L

[shade]

Just to add more clutter to your thread, I'm starting to think the KLX250 (fuel injected) might be the right one.
Only a little porky, good (enough for me) suspension, good seat height, decent power at reasonable rpms, great service intervals, and the 2 gallon tank can be upsized, if needed.

 

[Tex68w]

Just to add more clutter to your thread, I'm starting to think the KLX250 (fuel injected) might be the right one.
Only a little porky, good (enough for me) suspension, good seat height, decent power at reasonable rpms, great service intervals, and the 2 gallon tank can be upsized, if needed.

No experience with those but I hear good things for what it is. Never been much of a K-Wak fan over the years but I mostly used them in my MX days in the 90's.

 

[shade]

No experience with those but I hear good things for what it is. Never been much of a K-Wak fan over the years and I used them in my MX days.

If I was taller or more experienced, I'd probably go with the WR250R, but the new KLX seems to be a better middle ground for a first bike than some of the others. Looks like I can get one for around $4k new, which doesn't hurt, either.

A HD guy at work seemed a little put off when I nixed some much heavier "real bikes". Sadly, I'll never make the cut to even be a hang-around with his crew.

 

[Tex68w]

If I was taller or more experienced, I'd probably go with the WR250R, but the new KLX seems to be a better middle ground for a first bike than some of the others. Looks like I can get one for around $4k new, which doesn't hurt, either.

A HD guy at work seemed a little put off when I nixed some much heavier "real bikes". Sadly, I'll never make the cut to even be a hang-around with his crew.

Typical of those types, sad really.

 

[shade]

I have good news, and it directly relates to your thread.

While talking with a friend, he mentioned hearing about a 2019 CRF 450L for sale with only a few hundred miles on it, that was used by a manufacturer to prototype accessories. He also agreed that for the kind of riding I'll be doing, there'd be no reason to stick with the OEM service intervals, and I'd probably be safe stretching OCI to 3000 miles. It's certainly a nicer bike in every way than the 250s I've considered, and has the potential to keep me happy for a long time.

With that in mind, how do you feel about the 450L as a first bike? I'm not concerned about scratching it up from drops, as long as nothing too expensive breaks, and I don't think that'll be a problem with some crash protection. I'm a little concerned about the seat height, but I may be able to adjust it down until I gain some experience.

 

[Tex68w]

I have good news, and it directly relates to your thread.

While talking with a friend, he mentioned hearing about a 2019 CRF 450L for sale with only a few hundred miles on it, that was used by a manufacturer to prototype accessories. He also agreed that for the kind of riding I'll be doing, there'd be no reason to stick with the OEM service intervals, and I'd probably be safe stretching OCI to 3000 miles. It's certainly a nicer bike in every way than the 250s I've considered, and has the potential to keep me happy for a long time.

With that in mind, how do you feel about the 450L as a first bike? I'm not concerned about scratching it up from drops, as long as nothing too expensive breaks, and I don't think that'll be a problem with some crash protection. I'm a little concerned about the seat height, but I may be able to adjust it down until I gain some experience.

There's no comparison, the 450L is in another galaxy when compared to the 250L. It keeps company with the KTM 500, Husky 501, and Beta 500RR. If the price is right then I say go for it. While it is not a beginner bike per se, there are plenty who have purchased it as their first dual sport, hell one of my buddies purchased it as his second bike ever just a few short months after realizing his 250L (his actual first bike) wasn't enough for his needs. You can grow into the the 450L and in the long run you will save money because if you purchased a smaller bike you'd eventually want something more and in the end you'd wind up spending more with two bike purchases.

I haven't heard of anyone going over 1,800 miles on a OCI due to the fact that the engine and tranny share the same oil and there's only 1.22L of it. I am not saying that it can't be done but I'd want some solid oil analysis reports from other bikes who have gone that long with acceptable oil life/TBN/viscosity before I were willing to stretch it that far. I know you can easily go 1,200 miles with great oil analysis results and likely 1,800+ won't be an issue either, but there simply isn't any empirical evidence supporting a 3,000 mile OCI at the moment.

In regards to the seat height you can get a Seat Concepts Low which is 1" lower than stock (what I run) and you can lower the suspension internally with spacers or use a lowering link, I recommend the former. I hope you pick the 450L and skip the smaller bikes, you'll thank yourself in the end.

 

[McCarthy]

KTM 250 EXC F oci: 15 hrs
CRF250L oci: 600 miles
WR250R oci: 3000 miles

Like I said, I'm not interested in such short service intervals. I can see myself (slow) touring much farther than that to get to the off-pavement places I like to go, and I don't want to bother with performing service during a 3000 mile trip. A true 50/50 bike is more what I'm after than just a plated dirt bike. The WR250R might be a path to that end.



I've followed your progress and really like where you've taken the 450L.

WR is a great bike, you can't go wrong with it.

That 450L will be awesome, but 3000 mile OCI's is a terrible idea. There's only 1.2l of oil and engine and tranny share it. It's literally the same setup basically as the KTM that has a 15 hour OCI, I would not stretch past 1500 miles on a 450L. The engine is closer to the CRF450R than most realize.

 

[shade]

Thanks for the advice.

On the OCI, I'd definitely do a UOA at 1k before thinking of stretching it farther. If that looked good, another at 1500, etc. I'd also run through BITOG and look for the best oil for the job. How difficult is an oil change on the 450L?

I'm of the same mind about not wanting to buy into a bike only to wish for something better; that's what has been driving me to hop between different 250 candidates. The 450L can do more than I can see myself asking of it for some time, if ever.

I hadn't noticed that there are several new 2019 450Ls priced around $7500 on Cycle Trader. With that in mind, I hope I can get the bike I'm considering for around $7000 cash.

 

[McCarthy]

Thanks for the advice.

On the OCI, I'd definitely do a UOA at 1k before thinking of stretching it farther. If that looked good, another at 1500, etc. I'd also run through BITOG and look for the best oil for the job. How difficult is an oil change on the 450L?

I'm of the same mind about not wanting to buy into a bike only to wish for something better; that's what has been driving me to hop between different 250 candidates. The 450L can do more than I can see myself asking of it for some time, if ever.

I hadn't noticed that there are several new 2019 450Ls priced around $7500 on Cycle Trader. With that in mind, I hope I can get the bike I'm considering for around $7000 cash.

Use Honda synthetic oil. Some disagree but i've always been one to use the best synthetic made by the manufacturer in everything, and interestingly enough it seems I have so many less issues with my stuff. I'm not sure it's related, but it sure feels like it. (300 hours on my last KTM before this one, never did a top end, never needed one, 300k on a first gen F150 Ecoboost without touching the timing chains which people seem to do every 60k, 300k on a 5.4 triton that eats cam phasers at 100k and never did them once, etc etc etc)

Extremely easy to do an oil change on any dirt bike in all honesty, the 450L is less than a 15 min job once you're used to it. I actually enjoy it, my KTM takes about 10 mins and it's fun.

 

[Tex68w]

Thanks for the advice.

On the OCI, I'd definitely do a UOA at 1k before thinking of stretching it farther. If that looked good, another at 1500, etc. I'd also run through BITOG and look for the best oil for the job. How difficult is an oil change on the 450L?

I'm of the same mind about not wanting to buy into a bike only to wish for something better; that's what has been driving me to hop between different 250 candidates. The 450L can do more than I can see myself asking of it for some time, if ever.

I hadn't noticed that there are several new 2019 450Ls priced around $7500 on Cycle Trader. With that in mind, I hope I can get the bike I'm considering for around $7000 cash.

I agree that 3,000 mile OCI's would be too much considering the small amount of shared oil that's in these engines. I will have an analysis done on a 1,000 mile interval here in the next month or so. I plan to continue to use the Honda GN4 dino oil until I start stretching intervals to 1,200 miles or more, then I'll switch to the factory synthetic like @McCarthy suggested. A few are waiting for reports on 1,800 mile OCI's as we speak so that will be telling. My plan is to go 800 (already done), 1,000 (upcoming), 1,200, and then 1,500. I'll likely never stretch a OCI past 1,500 or 1,800 miles.

The oil isn't difficult to change on these bikes, the only thing that might slow the process is if you have a skid plate that doesn't allow direct access to the drain plug. My AXP does but it still spews the oil everywhere so I take the opportunity to remove the skid plate and clean the frame and underside of the motor. Works Connection does make an easy drain adapter that keeps the mess to a minimum should you not want mess with removing the skid plate.

I have seen 2019 left over close outs for $7500-8000 so I wouldn't pay much more than that for a used one unless it's local and easy to buy or farkled out.

 

[shade]

Thanks again. I'd still rather Honda had a longer official OCI for the 450L, but I can make 1000-1500 miles work for a road trip, especially if it's not too much trouble. To contain the mess, I'd probably use a disposable foil baking pan and call it good. Ever heard of someone adding an oil cooler to bump capacity and possibly improve OCI?

The bike has 250 miles on it, is nearby, and has some basic farkling installed, so I'll be keeping that in mind when discussing price. I'll check, but I'm guessing that the factory warranty is transferable. The best price I've found for a fully stock bike within a day's drive in around $8k out the door.

Nice video that touches on the 450L and some other things.

 

[Wallygator]

I agree it's a bad idea to go too long without changing the oil on the 450L. It's a motocross bike at it's core and they require maintenance. The 250L and KLX250 are built differently and not based off a motocross bike. Those bikes are built like tanks and weigh about as much as one. The 450L is a great bike and would be fine as a grow up on first bike but again it will need attention from time to time. I enjoy working on my 450L and take pride in taking care of it. Take care of it and it will take care of you. Compared to my motocross/enduro bike the 450L is easy. The moto/enduro bike gets an oil change every 10 hours of riding or about every 3 rides. Along with air filter cleaned after every ride, etc... Oil is cheap and it's easy to change. Anyway the point is I would not let the service intervals be an issue when looking for a bike. YMMV.

 

[shade]

I agree it's a bad idea to go too long without changing the oil on the 450L. It's a motocross bike at it's core and they require maintenance. The 250L and KLX250 are built differently and not based off a motocross bike. Those bikes are built like tanks and weigh about as much as one. The 450L is a great bike and would be fine as a grow up on first bike but again it will need attention from time to time. I enjoy working on my 450L and take pride in taking care of it. Take care of it and it will take care of you. Compared to my motocross/enduro bike the 450L is easy. The moto/enduro bike gets an oil change every 10 hours of riding or about every 3 rides. Along with air filter cleaned after every ride, etc... Oil is cheap and it's easy to change. Anyway the point is I would not let the service intervals be an issue when looking for a bike. YMMV.

Makes sense.

I started thinking about the two use cases where a fair amount of mileage is most likely to be an issue of any kind for me. One would be after hauling the bike to an area to ride for a week or more, and in that case, having oil change supplies on hand won't be a big deal. The other is a likely 1000 mile road trip I may take to visit someone, and in that case, I'll just tuck a torque wrench in my bags and change the oil on arrival. Not a big deal after all.

After OCI, fuel capacity is the only shortcoming I can see. Buy a bigger tank and/or carry a bladder; done.

 

[Tex68w]

Thanks again. I'd still rather Honda had a longer official OCI for the 450L, but I can make 1000-1500 miles work for a road trip, especially if it's not too much trouble. To contain the mess, I'd probably use a disposable foil baking pan and call it good. Ever heard of someone adding an oil cooler to bump capacity and possibly improve OCI?

The bike has 250 miles on it, is nearby, and has some basic farkling installed, so I'll be keeping that in mind when discussing price. I'll check, but I'm guessing that the factory warranty is transferable. The best price I've found for a fully stock bike within a day's drive in around $8k out the door.

Nice video that touches on the 450L and some other things.

You can change the oil in 10-15 minutes, even less if you forgo the oil filter and change it every other OCI. I don't recommend that, but some do it. Oil filters are $7/ea, oil filter o-ring is $3/ea, drain plug o-ring is $2/ea. Honda GN4 10W-30 is $6/qt, buy six quarts and you can do the first five OCI's. Some replace the o-rings every other OCI, but I replace mine every OCI, an extra $5 every 1,000-ish miles isn't going to break me lol. So at retail prices you can do a complete OCI with new oil, filter and o-rings in under 15 minutes for less than $20.

I drain my oil into one of those round plastic oil pans and then add it to my 15qt oil container which I take to the city recycle center to dump when it gets full. You can possibly increase the oil capacity with a Hinson or Rekluse clutch cover but I have yet to confirm whether or not they do and if so by how much. I will be replacing mine if I can get confirmation of an increase, no replies from Hinson or Rekluse just yet.

The 450L has very good on-road characteristics for it's class, just looking at it you wouldn't expect it to perform almost as well as the 250L on the slab but it does. You talk of these 1,000 mile trips and I think you'd be fine on the 450L for that type of riding, just throw some dirt and gravel in for the Elle along the way to keep her happy. The first thing I would change on the bike, especially if you're going to put down that kind of mileage would be the seat, the factory seat is horrid. Acerbis and Seat Concepts both have seats for it and I'd look into Enduro Engineering as well, but I am not sure if they offer one for it yet.

In regards to the video, he makes some good points, too many key board warriors bickering over tiny silly details instead of getting out and riding. I don't think that ADVRider has gone down the crapper but it has certainly changed over the years, but what forum hasn't? In regards to the fuel tank, I don't see the need for anything bigger than the IMS3.0, if I need more I bring a bladder or MSR bottles. The 3 gallon doesn't take away from the looks, feel or handling of the bike, you get into those bigger tanks and they are not only ugly but they change the cockpit space too much and will certainly start to impact the balance and handling.

 

[McCarthy]

Torque wrench? Absolutely no need for a torque wrench to change oil. Just bring the required socket size on a t handle and let er rip.