Launching the Honda CRF 250 Rally

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weskus said:
Lekker Andries, maar hoe het jul besluit om vir Webb in die mix te gooi :peepwall: :pot: Nice looking machine..

No idea!

He did a great job! Great routes.

Most of the time we were cruising along but from time to time the red mist descended, as I am sure you would understand. It was brilliant fun to all be on similar machines and belting along.

I know bikes are often much quicker over this type of terrain than 4x4's but even though Hardy and his team were in beefed up cruisers and all very experienced and competent drivers, even with us 12 stopping regularly and a few less experienced riders and them driving like maniacs, they couldn't keep up.
 
DirtyHarry said:
Damn Andrew, this is a very lekker write up. I would have paid good money to see you riding one of these beasts  :biggrin:
Did you try to lift up this bike with one hand?

They are light, but because they lie flat on the ground, getting the first bit up is harder than expected.

They crash pretty well by the looks of it though.
 
Love the video clip Kamanya.  :thumleft:

The section you guys did 120 - 125km/h: Although you mention it as 'flat out', I was quite impressed to see that being maintained.  For the majority of riders venturing on similar roads, that would exceed their comfort zone.  ( I'm not trying to judge anyone's ability here).

I'm starting to like this bike.
 
Took one for a short spin today - Honda at Century City have a demo. It's a beautiful looking bike, and feels Goldilocks just right when you sit on it. Everything is in the right place, and it's so narrow and light feeling. The suspension is plush and the brakes are great. This demo had very little mileage and felt a bit tight - yes it doesn't have the power of a 650, but it's got some go. I'd love to ride one offroad - I think it would be great. Well impressed!
 
Flat out over the bump, front wheel up, down onto corrugation. That is enough to unsettle a lot of DS bikes
 
For those interested in what mods can be done to these scoots and how much weight can be saved this is the go to site:

https://rickramsey.net/CRF250Lmods.htm
 
Thanks for the good report! I for one stood by smaller bikes for a long time, but social pressure also forced me to go bigger!!! :-[
Hope this  bike can bring back the real essence of DS riding!!!  :thumleft:
 
nice Andrew, only fault i find is the start of your vid, appears to be something distracting you.

Then I noticed a rear of someone appearing
 
Bumped into Rynet at Killarney today. She had one with her. It's a really good looking bike and should give great service to riding-mortals. Of course, riding-gods should look elsewhere.
 
thats the type of bike she needs for daily use and odd nearby weekend stuff
 
2StrokeDan said:
tgg said:
thats the type of bike she needs for daily use and odd nearby weekend stuff

Absolutely!

Yes Tgg and 2 S Dan as I have been raving to the 2 of you since I got on the 250 Rally on Monday : I love her :ricky: :ricky:

She is perfect for what I mostly do with a bike- which is commuting to- and riding in the inner city , most of it in a 10 km radius and occasionally a 30 km jaunt.


On my daily commute my 990 is overkill as most of the other inner city commuters are scooters or delivery bikes . The 990 is often the only big bike at our local bike parking spots. I feel bad for the 990 stop -starting like that when I know she wants to be able to open op and race on high revs which I cannot give her on a daily basis .

Yesterday I took the Rally 250 for a test ride again to test her in commuting conditions also .

It was going to be very important to still pull away faster than the the cars at traffic lights , to be able to duck taxi drivers , to be able to out-ride scooters and the occasional sleepy rider on the bigger bikes too hehe as happened yesterday . >:D :biggrin: And yes she does all of that , and well too .  :ricky:

I also took her to Killarney race day to meet some people and get some photographs , so I was zipping along in my usual Saturday "doing chores" fashion and boy oh boy did the 250 Rally impress . So nimble and quick , yet powerful enough , and buzzing at 120 without straining the engine or me at all ( I am 6 foot with very long legs that usually make smaller bikes very uncomfortable to ride )

More about bike's performance later , but all I can say now is wow , this bike packs a punch in all the right places .

It was great to see Crossed-Up and his son there too as well as Donovan , our next Dakar Champ

Crossed up , like most of the guys that came rushing to check out the bike , was duly impressed with the bike . The comment I heard most of all is that it doesn't look like a 250 and that is true, it looks like almost too much quality for "just" a 250.

As a big bike proponent , this 250 Rally has been the lil vixen that has changed my mind that when it comes to bikes , yes I think smaller is indeed better.

On the technical rides in the Cederberg I could focus on the riding , I didn't have to nurse the bike, but could go full out racing mode on this lil bullet.

The other kind of riding I do is Sunday rides to say Hermanus with as much gravel and some twee spoor as I can find . In fact I am on my way now for the day on my 990. The 250 will be perfect for that too . :3some: And it takes 160 kg so I can take the kitchen sink with and good solid places to carry and tie my Big Loop luggage system on too .  :thumleft:

I also want to go play more in the Quarry and Atlantis,  and yet have a road legal bike that can ride there on it's own steam that doesn't have to be services every 1000 km .

What more can a rider want .But wait , there is more :  Honda reliability , stability , predictability , it has that too , at the end of too much fun there is that predictable response keeping you upright .

And, the icing on top , she is a gorgeous bike , a real looker . But , she is also a keeper. What a wining combo . :3some:

Chat later, I'm off riding to Hermanus .


Ps what a great write -up Kamanya , well done , really well done  :thumleft: :thumleft:

 
Obviously after following this thread the 250 is a very competent bike - for me the elephant in the room is the possibility that Honda will bring out a 450 version in the near future which I would really be interested in.
So the question is if and when ?
 
The presence of a possible 450cc engine in the CRFL range would explain why Honda didn't go the extra mile and extend the current 250cc engine to a 350cc unit given that 283cc and 305cc big bore kits for this engine are available Stateside and that the CBR300 engine is just a stroke upgrade on the current 250 engine.
 
Yesterday I did the exact same route on my 990 (Wuppertahl and postal route). I had a novice friend on his 990 along too. He grew up on bikes in Namibia and learnt to ride on sand. He had been off a bike for many years and about 2 years ago came back to it.

He kakked off and apart from the views, didn't enjoy the postal route much. I'm pretty certain he seldom, if ever saw 3rd gear on the whole Postal Route. He fell many times in the sandy bits and got stuck on the rocky climbs a few times. I had to ride his bike out on one of them. On the R355, a gravel highway, he cruised the 80k's first at 100, then at 120 as that was his comfort level.

2 of the Honda guys had never ridden sand, yet they each only fell once and never got stuck. They also cruised at 120 on that road. They had heaps of fun and were never more than 3-5 minutes behind us hooligans at the front.

It took us longer to do the postal section, just the two of us, than the whole convoy of 12 bikes and 5 vehicles stopping at every gate to regroup and once to refuel just about all the bikes. If my buddy had been on the 250 he'd have had a great day out. This doesn't mean that he should dump the 990, but just goes to prove that even if one can ride through such stuff, it doesn't always mean you're going to enjoy it on the bigger bikes but certainly will on the smaller one. Many many guys are over biked.

Later once back on the tar, we got home at 150kph whereas the Honda runs out of steam at 135.
 
A friend of mine is looking at a new GS800, apparently on special no at Donny's Ford for R136000?

As I know Emile well, and know ho he has just chopped off big time doing the war trail with 2 buddies on 70's XT500's, I mentioned the 250Rally, and Emile was very interested.

But.....and this Kamanya pointed out in his last paragraph above, can Emile make the mindshift to cruise home at 110kmh?

This is why I have always maintained that while it is nice to have lots of bikes [ and as few BMW's as possible :pot: ] , the 2bike argument for D/S riding is a senseless one, because
to choose your big bike for the long haul will put the tech paths out of reach again for most riders.

This is , especially to me, the beauty of the small bike, a small sacrifice in open road pace and the world is your oyster.
 
Rynet said:
2StrokeDan said:
tgg said:
thats the type of bike she needs for daily use and odd nearby weekend stuff

Absolutely!

Yes Tgg and 2 S Dan as I have been raving to the 2 of you since I got on the 250 Rally on Monday : I love her :ricky: :ricky:

She is perfect for what I mostly do with a bike- which is commuting to- and riding in the inner city , most of it in a 10 km radius and occasionally a 30 km jaunt.


On my daily commute my 990 is overkill as most of the other inner city commuters are scooters or delivery bikes . The 990 is often the only big bike at our local bike parking spots. I feel bad for the 990 stop -starting like that when I know she wants to be able to open op and race on high revs which I cannot give her on a daily basis .

Yesterday I took the Rally 250 for a test ride again to test her in commuting conditions also .

It was going to be very important to still pull away faster than the the cars at traffic lights , to be able to duck taxi drivers , to be able to out-ride scooters and the occasional sleepy rider on the bigger bikes too hehe as happened yesterday . >:D :biggrin: And yes she does all of that , and well too .  :ricky:

I also took her to Killarney race day to meet some people and get some photographs , so I was zipping along in my usual Saturday "doing chores" fashion and boy oh boy did the 250 Rally impress . So nimble and quick , yet powerful enough , and buzzing at 120 without straining the engine or me at all ( I am 6 foot with very long legs that usually make smaller bikes very uncomfortable to ride )

More about bike's performance later , but all I can say now is wow , this bike packs a punch in all the right places .

It was great to see Crossed-Up and his son there too as well as Donovan , our next Dakar Champ

Crossed up , like most of the guys that came rushing to check out the bike , was duly impressed with the bike . The comment I heard most of all is that it doesn't look like a 250 and that is true, it looks like almost too much quality for "just" a 250.

As a big bike proponent , this 250 Rally has been the lil vixen that has changed my mind that when it comes to bikes , yes I think smaller is indeed better.

On the technical rides in the Cederberg I could focus on the riding , I didn't have to nurse the bike, but could go full out racing mode on this lil bullet.

The other kind of riding I do is Sunday rides to say Hermanus with as much gravel and some twee spoor as I can find . In fact I am on my way now for the day on my 990. The 250 will be perfect for that too . :3some: And it takes 160 kg so I can take the kitchen sink with and good solid places to carry and tie my Big Loop luggage system on too .  :thumleft:

I also want to go play more in the Quarry and Atlantis,  and yet have a road legal bike that can ride there on it's own steam that doesn't have to be services every 1000 km .

What more can a rider want .But wait , there is more :  Honda reliability , stability , predictability , it has that too , at the end of too much fun there is that predictable response keeping you upright .

And, the icing on top , she is a gorgeous bike , a real looker . But , she is also a keeper. What a wining combo . :3some:

Chat later, I'm off riding to Hermanus .


Ps what a great write -up Kamanya , well done , really well done  :thumleft: :thumleft:

Fantastic to hear Rynet -
 
Kamanya said:
Yesterday I did the exact same route on my 990 (Wuppertahl and postal route). I had a novice friend on his 990 along too. He grew up on bikes in Namibia and learnt to ride on sand. He had been off a bike for many years and about 2 years ago came back to it.

He kakked off and apart from the views, didn't enjoy the postal route much. I'm pretty certain he seldom, if ever saw 3rd gear on the whole Postal Route. He fell many times in the sandy bits and got stuck on the rocky climbs a few times. I had to ride his bike out on one of them. On the R355, a gravel highway, he cruised the 80k's first at 100, then at 120 as that was his comfort level.

2 of the Honda guys had never ridden sand, yet they each only fell once and never got stuck. They also cruised at 120 on that road. They had heaps of fun and were never more than 3-5 minutes behind us hooligans at the front.

It took us longer to do the postal section, just the two of us, than the whole convoy of 12 bikes and 5 vehicles stopping at every gate to regroup and once to refuel just about all the bikes. If my buddy had been on the 250 he'd have had a great day out. This doesn't mean that he should dump the 990, but just goes to prove that even if one can ride through such stuff, it doesn't always mean you're going to enjoy it on the bigger bikes but certainly will on the smaller one. Many many guys are over biked.

Later once back on the tar, we got home at 150kph whereas the Honda runs out of steam at 135.

Andrew - I am thinking of getting a few of these bikes to you guys for a ride through the route that you guys just did.

Maybe invite a few WD to join us and test these bikes. We can rotate riders while we lug their own bikes on the back of our Cruisers.
Would you speak to 2SD, Cyril and Rynet and let me know if you guys would be interested?
 
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