Honda CRF250L

After a slew of bigger and badder motorcycles since I really got into riding in my college years I have purchased a brand new 2016 Honda CRF250L.  It’s definitely a 180 from the crotch rockets, touring bikes, and cruisers I have owned before.

My brand new CRF250L in the dealership parking lot the day I picked it up.

As a kid I would take any chance to get on something motorized, and when the other kids would show up with a PW 50 or CR80 I would be the first in line to jump on, much to my mother’s dismay.  I always loved dirt bikes, but as a kid there weren’t many places to ride near me.  My parents weren't keen on the idea of taking me anywhere to ride let alone letting me have a bike. 

I have gotten the fast high horsepower bikes out of my system in my college years, and spent a couple years bike less until recently.  Like many other would be adventure riders I found “Long Way Round” and “Long Way Down”.  That was it, I was hooked again.  I not only had to get back into ridding, but I had the itch for a BWM GS 1200.  Sadly, reality struck.  The north of $16,000 price tag wasn’t going to happen.  So after going through the phases of acceptance I started looking for alternatives.

Next up was the KLR 650.  The price tag was much more attractive, and the online community of owners seemed to love it.  The nagging downsides that I kept running into were the systemic “doohickey” issue and the carburetor.  The dreaded doohickey failure was fairly easily remedied, but I really wasn’t looking forward to pulling the alternator and a few covers out as soon as getting the bike home as many of the KLR owners out there recommend.  The carburetor topic is just a matter of personal preference.  I just don’t like dealing with them, and much prefer fuel injection.  So I passed on this dinosaur of a bike.  

After that I had a chance to ride a WR250 and a DRZ 400.  Both bikes were great rides, and you instantly know that they could handle just about any situation you get them into.  They both seemed to a better reputation for being a bit more bullet proof than the KLR and with a slightly lower price tag.  Both bikes were nice but for some reason just didn’t do it for me. 

I always had a soft spot for Honda ever since my 1986 Nighthawk CB700SC.  It wasn’t the nicest ride out there by the time I got it 20 some years after it rolled of the assembly line, but no matter how many miles were on it, it just kept going.  It fit me well and it was easy to work on.  It had its problems but it refused to quit.  I loved that bike (and wish I still owned it).  Now having a chance to pick something new and knowing I really liked Hondas, a thought crept into my head about the CRF250L I had seen for a few years but always wrote off because of the tiny displacement.  Now the simplicity of a small simple bike was starting to sound good, especially a brand new Honda I knew I wouldn't have to wrench on for years to come unless I actually wanted too.

The CRF250L was the lowest price of everything I looked at, but it seemed to check all the boxes.  Bullet proof build quality, fuel injection, good seat height, decent suspension, street legal out of the box, and at least to me it has good looks.  Since its only been out since 2012 the aftermarket doesn’t offer as many add ons for it as the previously mentioned bikes, but its catching up.  So there are some things you can do if you want to dress it up a bit, and it seems to be quite capable even before you do so.  The only fault I found was the small fuel capacity (2 gallons), there are 3 gallon aftermarket tanks out there and you can always carry a little extra fuel in a bag as well.  I figured this was a minor problem that I could overcome in time when I felt like swapping out the tank. 

I found couple CRFs locally and grabbed a brand new one off a local dealer’s floor and took a half day off of work to ride around the back roads and get better acquainted


 with it.  Though it’s not at all my old Nighthawk it had a very similar upright ridding position, and had a familiar feel.  It has been a long time since I have been on a dirt bike so there was a bit of a learning curve going from years of street bikes.  I haven’t finished the break in cycle on the engine yet, but in the first 200 miles I have become very comfortable on the bike.  So far it is a lot of fun and a fuel sipper so it’s cheap to run.


I will continue to follow up with posts as I put more miles on the bike and modify it.









More Posts about the CRF250L

THE BREAK IN PERIOD IS OVER! Time to ride the Michigan Thumb Coast Road! - 6/29/2016 

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