New street-legal 2019 Honda CRF450L hits global showrooms

High-tech and lightweight dual sport

When Honda announced that it would offer a street-legal CRF450L, riders around the world rejoiced. While the CRF250L and CRF250L Rally proved quite popular with beginners, commuters, and adventurers alike, others had been pining for a street-legal dual-sport version of the larger, off-road designated CRF450R/RWE motocrosser and the X/RX trail bike and enduro.

This month, Honda is fulfilling their wishes. The 2019 CRF450L will make its way into dealerships around the world, this month in September 2018. Already, people are wondering if we’ll see a CRF450L Rally variant in the future.

The 2019 CRF450L is built around the CRF450R’s rigid, twin-spar aluminum frame. Its subframe is newly designed with an aluminum license plate holder. Fuel flows from its premium titanium tank, and to further reduce weight, Honda has given the bike a lithium-ion battery.

The motorcycle is powered by a liquid-cooled, four-stroke, four-valve Unicam 449cc thumper (designated the PD11E) featuring PGM-FI, a 46mm downdraft throttle body, and an electric starter. Its crank has been inertia-tuned differently from the CRF450R for smoother power delivery. Claimed output is 24 PS at 7,500 rpm and 32 Nm of torque at 3,500 rpm. The PD11E engine is mated to a six-speed transmission with a wet multi-plate clutch and a 520 chain final drive.

The new dual sport by Honda gets robust, adjustable suspension in the form of 49mm leading-axle, inverted front forks and a Pro-Link mono shock — both by Showa. Stock settings have been exclusively tweaked for versatility on roads either paved or unpaved. The CRF450L’s 21-inch front and 18-inch rear wheels (with silver spokes and blacked-out rims) are wrapped in IRC GP21 dual-sport, tube-type tires. Braking is done with a single 260 mm disc in front and a 240 mm disc out back.

The 2019 Honda CRF450L comes with all-around LED lighting and an LCD display incorporating the speedometer, odometer, tripmeters, a digital clock, and a fuel mileage meter for planning gas stops. It has a ground clearance of 299 mm, a seat height of 895 mm, a fuel capacity of 7.6 L, and a wet weight of 131 kg. It is available in Extreme Red for an MSRP of US$10,399. Honda Philippines has yet to announce if it will be made available locally.