Honda reveals CRF450L Rally Concept - EICMA 2018
We seriously hope this becomes a reality before too long...
HONDA has pulled a blinder and snuck a CRF450L Rally concept into its EICMA line-up.
While all eyes were on the updated middleweight range and the 125 concepts, the CRF450L Rally parked up alongside its Dakar racing sibling.
We kind of expected it, following the launch of the CRF450L earlier this year – after all Honda followed the CRF250L up with a Rally variant in 2017 – but the lack of official announcement meant the model almost went unnoticed. But true dirt fans were quick to notice the tidy concept, and speculate as to when we’ll see it in production-ready form.
Honda has been noticeably tight-lipped about the bike, and hasn’t even released a press release on it. But from what we can see it’s basically a road-legal replica of Honda’s Dakar Rally race bike, based on the CRF450L.
And the CRF450L is a pretty impressive bike. Derived from Honda's CRF450R MX machine, albeit road legalised, it boasts a 449cc liquid-cooled 4-stroke single cylinder uni-cam engine, making 25hp.
The Rally concept shares various components with the competition bike, including a tall navigation tower behind a clear windscreen, a cover-all carbon-fibre bash plate, a Termignoni exhaust, large dual front fuel tanks and that eye-catching HRC colour scheme.
As would be expected, there are a few lower spec bits – made of billet aluminium or plastic instead of carbon-fibre – and the bike also features the same standard headlight as the 450L. Oh, and the roadbook has been replaced by a TFT dash – but that’s a blessing for those of us who aren’t au fait with rally raid navigation.
Regardless, this is an exciting concept from Honda, and we’re crossing our fingers that it will debut before too long.
