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Rally ‘Round The Family
Not every adventure needs to take place on a full-sized motorcycle. As an entry-level dual-sport, Honda’s CRF250Lhas won fans and critical acclaim. Now, alongside changes to the evergreen CRF that include more power from a larger throttle body and updated electronics, comes the CRF250L Rally. We like it. A lot.
Appearing to be nothing less than the love child of a CRF motocrosser and the new Africa Twin, the Rally gets a frame-mounted fairing for improved weather protection and a little “trail cred.” Bug eyed headlights surrounded by “carbon look” plastic pop through the standard windscreen. It looks cool and promises to be easy on the trail, thanks to the modest wet weight of 346 pounds.
Mechanically, the Rally is similar to the base CRF-L with a DOHC, 249cc single, six-speed transmission, and steel-tube frame. The Rally’s geometry is altered with a bit more rake and trail, and it does have more suspension travel – 11 inches front and 10.3 inches rear, versus 9.8 and 9.5 inches on the CRF-L. It also packs a larger front brake, presumably to help stop the extra fuel it’s carrying: 2.7 gallons, up 0.6 from the standard CRF. It doesn’t sound like much, but the Honda thumper is a comparative fuel sipper – 60 mpg isn’t out of the picture.
Honda says the CRF will appear stateside in March for $5899. The base CRF will be here at the same time for $5099. It will join the newly announced BMW G310GS and the Kawasaki Versys X. As you can imagine, we’re eager to get our hands on all of these new, lightweight ADV machines.
