Comments on: Honda CRF250L 3200-mile review

By: Loren Mckechnie

Loren Mckechnie — Sun, 28 Sep 2014 02:33:39 +0000

Great Report! I would agree 99.9% with this report! I have had the same delight, with a simple, light, cheap and durable motorcycle.

I have had my 14′ CRF250Le for 12 months and 1,600 miles. (90% offroad). I have also fitted my bike with a windscreen, and some panniers from Pelican. I love them, but needed to set the pre-load to be a bit more, as I am 220lbs and the pelican cases are heavy as well. Not to mention the camping equipment. The stock tires are “Good” but slide before they bite, in sandy and loose dirt conditions.

My previous bike was a BMW R1200GS, which I did take off road quite a bit. I guess you could say I went from one end of the spectrum to the other, with this swap out. I would say I enjoy the CRF more, even though I put 50K miles on the BMW. Different animal. It all depends on the terrain in which you are riding most of the time.

By: Steli

Steli — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 01:10:35 +0000

I have just past 2000 miles mark on my 2014 CRF250L I would not trust this bike to go out of town. Has all kind of problems with the clutch and shifting gears. It feels like any time the gearbox will broke apart. I would never recommend this motorcycle to any one.

By: ted

ted — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 01:20:10 +0000

hi! i’m happy to read ur article, i’v just bought crf250L this september and i’m planning to travel around the philippines next year. i’m impressed by your adventure with honda crf250L! thanks 4 d tips!

By: Chris S

Chris S — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 07:44:19 +0000

You’re welcome Oli ;-D

By: Oli

Oli — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 20:46:01 +0000

Awesome in depth review. I have spent 3 years searching for a bike that ticks all the boxes the 250L does, your review has helped confirm that decision! Cheers

By: Chris S

Chris S — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 15:11:47 +0000

Hi Noel, glad you found the report useful. Your price sounds like £2800 which looks like a bargain assuming its the same bike we get here for 50% more. I owned or used twin shock and ProLink XR200s back in the 80s and they were brilliant trail bikes, but I see they still sell XR200s new in Ph for 80k less pesos than a CRF. I would not be put off by efi which, with water cooling, is the way things must go wrt emissions but I’d say the CRF’s rear subframe is no stiffer laterally than an XR – always a weak point on either bike when loaded and travelling. I found one slow speed fall with luggage on my CRF distorted the frame sideways an inch or two. Probably would have on an XR or any similar bike too.
A few months ago we hired XR250R Tornados in Morocco which I suspect are the same tech era as your XR200. I thought it was a brilliant machine unloaded on the dirt; better than the CRF in a lot of ways. Plus a Ph XR200 is about 20% lighter than a CRF and I bet as economical. Shame the XR250 or 200 are not sold in the EU as like you I err towards simple old tech as long as it works and costs less.
So, seeing as your XR200 is probably not an old hack from the 1980s I’d stick with it and save your pesos.

By: Kawasaki KLX250s As a D/S Tourer - My Report - Page 2 - Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB

Sat, 15 Mar 2014 14:34:21 +0000

[…] – good on your for trying something different. I did a similar experiment last year on a CRF-L in Southwest US, following dirt trails where possible and my conclusions were similar to yours: a more powerful) […]

By: Noel Woodroffe

Noel Woodroffe — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 02:01:54 +0000

Thank you for a great article and your experience shows in your sensible unbiased commentary. I am a life-long biker from UK now living in the Philippines, where, for the last 5 years I have been running an XR200, air-cooled simple (old design) and relatively rugged. I have been eyeing the new CRF and am impressed by some of the tech thereon and by the more modern looks. I am still struggling to spend 200,000 pesos on something I am simply not convinced will be as tough as my old XR. I have a Luddite attitude towards EFI systems, wary of expensive parts, wary also of a more highly stressed motor with liquid cooling to boot. Some reports I have read might indicate the chassis parts are a little weak sustaining damage in minor (yet frequent) off-road slow spills. I would surely appreciate your comments on this as you know what you are talking about and have ridden the CRF.
Once again, thank you for a tremendous article. Great stuff. Noel far from home.

By: Chris S

Chris S — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 09:46:20 +0000

Glad you found the report useful Raj & Sam. You are right about the weight limit but only because, like so many similar bikes, the bolt-on subframe is so light. It is presumably rated to carry a passenger on the highway but I would try and keep the total max payload in this area well under 30kg. I see that Wolfman no longer make side racks (it seems because their welder/supplier has moved on, rather than for ideological reasons) but their fat-section oval side racks look pretty solid. Problem is, they attach to the passenger footrest mounts which, with alloy boxes, puts even more stress on the whole structure. Like all skimpy mono shock subframes, it has very little sideways resistance. The rack will distort to the sides after minor falls, especially with solid metal boxes which have little cushioning effect. Distortion of a a few inches is not actually a problem if clearance is maintained, but it’s worrying as after enough left and right bending it will break like Uri Geller’s spoon.
If you’re convinced alloy boxes are a good idea I would suggest extending (+ re-angleing if necessary) the Wolfman bar that mounts to the passenger footrests to attach at the rider footrests on the main frame instead. This may not help much with side loads (subframe distortion after falling off), but it will transfer the more continuous vertical loads that will lever off the back of your subframe directly into the chunkier main chassis. The graphic of the chassis shows the difference.
I would also consider adding a bracing plate below the back of the subframe triangle junction (where it becomes single tube). Similar to the picture at the bottom of p98 in the book or here: http://adventuremotorcyclinghandbook.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/xr4-sub.jpg.
Then, I’d finally try and arrange heavy items forward and use a funky aftermarket bash plate as a fixing point for heavy items like tools or even mount side tanks around here, all to keep the weight off the back.

By: Raj and Sam

Raj and Sam — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 22:48:37 +0000

This is a brilliant review!
There is a lot of valuable info in here, thank you very much for posting this.

My friend and I are planning to take two HONDA CRF250L’s on a ride through the Asia-Pacific, and are reading up on many things, preparing as best we can.

At the moment, we are mostly concerned about the weight that the L’s can take. Mixing and matching numbers from your article, we estimate about 30-40Kg’s each bike, is this correct in your mind?

We are building custom aluminium panniers for our bikes, and have purchased the ‘Wolfman’ racks to support them.

We would love to hear your thoughts on the subject, and pick your brain if possible.

Again, can not thank you enough for this research, it is invaluable to us.

Cheers
Raj & Sam.