First ride 2021 Honda CRF450 Works Edition - Motocross Action Magazine

[Music] [Music] what's up motocross action i'm josh moseman and today we have the 2021 honda crf450 works edition brand new bike for us today today was our first day of riding on it here at glen helen raceway the track's good we got some rain here in southern california this thing has a lot of different parts off of the stock model it's a lot more parts on the honda works edition than you would find on ktm or husqvarna factory edition so the updates on the 2021 honda crf450 works edition comes with new mapping it has a hinson clutch basket and hinson clutch cover but the rest of the parts in the clutch are the stock it's got a full yoshimir titanium exhaust system it's got the header and the muffler it's got a twin air air filter throttle jockey honda hrc graphics and a throttle jockey seat cover with some heavy duty ribs on it it's got a red cylinder head cover it's got hand polished cylinder ports so the cylinder inside the engine didn't get modded it didn't get uh full ported but it's hand polished to make the bike a little bit smoother it's also got the did dirtstar ltx rims which are a little bit stiffer than the stock ones it's got titanium nitrate coated fork legs it's got titanium nitrate coated shock shaft on the shock and it's also got a wider diameter on the shock so it went up from a 16 millimeter diameter to an 18 millimeter it's also got a new special gold arcade chain black anodized triple clamps so the triple clamps are exactly the same as the stock ones but they're just black instead of gray it's got the renthal kevlar grips so these things are super durable this thing has a big price tag on it going for twelve thousand three hundred and eighty dollars that's twenty eight hundred dollars more than the stock edition that comes in at just nine thousand five hundred ninety nine dollars [Applause] all right we got the sack set got leverage set tire pressure set let the air out of the forks bike's brand new it felt super loose on the steering so tighten that up a little bit we're torquing it down getting ready to head on the track [Music] first impression was map one map one was the best and then map two was horrible it was like it was just dying off the bottom end is this the same ecu that we used on that 2021 model no it has its own ecu settings yeah it should be we updated them too and this is this free flashlight yeah really yeah i can double check it but yeah yeah it should be reflex and you've you've been testing on the 2021 you rode with ours and then with the re-flash one yeah the new one's a big difference i mean map one is super strong super powerful uh i have the same kind of comments on map two of just being super sluggish off the bottom and it kind of has like a curve like it's it's really fast i like i don't know nine to ten thousand rpm right around there and then my three is a super useful easy ride map let me try this i'll try the different maps right now and then it'd be interesting for you to try that and see what you think and maybe we can swap ecu's and see if we can come up with a solution i felt it felt like last year's map i felt like the stock map all right we got some answers so originally felt we went on the track felt a lot like the original map i just said it on camera 30 minutes ago and uh ryan dudek works for honda i told him i was like man i'm sorry to say this but your updated map feels exactly like the other maps it doesn't feel very good the bike still feels horrible well we have some answers uh ryan plugged his computer in and it uh he didn't get updated so most people would think okay the works edition is coming out later than the stock model you would think it would come updated from the factory but it didn't come updated from the factory and you have to re-flash it at your local dealer honda has to re-flash it before they give it to us and apparently they forgot to reflash this model now we get to compare what the original ecu settings were like to you know the reflashed updated ecu settings that are supposed to fix the problems that we had so got some good back-to-back testing today it's pretty funny too all right guys so that's it for testing on the 2021 honda crf 450 works edition for today we had a lot of fun on it but uh it was a big challenge for us today so basically when honda gave us the model they thought that the ecu had already been reflashed and updated it hadn't turns out we were riding with the original ecu that anybody who goes to their dealer and buys the bike they're going to be riding with that ecu setting it's going to bug coming out of corners it's going to bog when you're riding through the pits and it's going to be kind of just blubbery on the bottom and it's not a good feeling so for us we got it reflashed today by honda luckily they were here with us they were able to fix it for us but you guys need to know if you're going to the dealer and you're going to buy a honda 450 works edition or if you're going to buy just a standard stock edition 2021 crf450 you need to have your ecu reflashed and updated with the updated maps before you leave the showroom floor so basically japan shipped these bikes the stock model and the works edition model to america the ecu settings were horrible they're off everybody's having issues with them honda didn't do a recall so my big question is why do you have to get the bike reflashed why did we spend twelve thousand three hundred and eighty dollars big price tag to buy this works edition model and it's not even updated with the right ecu settings so honda didn't do a recall they didn't stop selling the bikes and have everybody get them fixed they instead said if people complain about it they can bring it back to their dealer and have it updated so i'm here to tell you guys our loyal mxa viewers you need to have your ecu's reflashed remapped and updated before you leave the showroom floor so we got first-hand experience at what it feels like when you buy it and when it feels like after you fix it map one was still kind of slow and sluggish off the bottom but it was a good map to ride if the track was slick or wet map 2 was more peppy more aggressive and map 3 had the same kind of bottom feel as map 2 but it had more over rev so overall the updated map settings on the works edition bike are much better but you need to make sure that you do that i know it's a pain but you got to do it before you leave your dealer's floor all right to continue talking about the engine the power and how the crf450 works edition ran on the track i have to say that the new polished cylinder it doesn't make a ton of extra power and the yoshimura header and muffler they don't make the bike feel crazy faster than the stock one so we rode the stock 2021 model back to back with this works edition today i talked with darrell eklund managing editor of mxa he did some testing back to back with me he said that in the past when he's ridden works edition 450s they've been a lot faster than the stock model this year it doesn't really feel faster it feels maybe just a little bit smoother so after we got the maps updated on this 2021 stock model that one feels more exciting coming out of corners more peppy and more aggressive where this this new works edition model is smoother coming out of corners and it's not not as hard to hold on to i would say it's a little bit smoother a little bit easier to ride so the cylinder it isn't ported but it is polished to make a little bit smoother rolling on the gas and the muffler doesn't seem to make it you know crazy fast or crazy loud just smooth all the way through the range so overall the power there's not much to complain about on this thing except for the fact that you're paying a lot more money and you're not getting a bike that's a whole lot faster so yeah that's not a bad thing but if you're expecting you know a bike that's a lot faster than your stock model don't expect that diving into the next biggest topic the suspension it's got the exact same valving and spring rates as the stock model but it's got nitride coated fork legs and a nitride coated shock shaft with a little bit thicker diameter going up from 16 millimeters to 18 millimeters as i already mentioned so thicker diameter on the shock is meant to give a little more hold up as for the rest of the settings they're still the same mxa today's first day of testing we get they gave us the bike with an hour and a half on it we put another hour and a half on it today so it's got up to three hours on it now we still felt like the suspension needed to be broken more as it was really harsh for us on the track today so we can't really weigh on on how the suspension worked on the track because if we did we would say that we didn't like it so we're going to be putting a lot more time on the suspension and you can check out motocross action magazine for the full review on that another difference between our stock edition and our works edition was the seat obviously the stock model has uh just a standard seat cover where this works edition has a super grippy throttle jockey seat cover with these five rivets in the middle of the seat i personally love these things they really keep me in the in the saddle keep me stuck in when i'm coming out of corners i'm not sliding backwards off the seat so i like them the foam was super stiff today especially when compared to our stock model where the foam is completely blown out daryl said he was hitting the top of the subframe blowing all the way through the foam and that's kind of a common theme for honda foam as it gets soft over time today this one was nice and fresh and grippy another cool aspect and something an upgrade that you're getting for your money is the the hinson clutch basket and hinson clutch cover so when you're comparing the works edition to ktm and husqvarna factory editions those bikes only have updated clutch covers but the clutches are exactly the same granite you know ktm clutch baskets are super strong already they're built super well the honda clutch baskets aren't known for being as durable as ktm they added a hinson clutch basket in there that does obviously bring up the price but it is something that we really appreciate so the pressure plate the inner hub they're all the same just the clutch basket is updated to a hinson one a couple other upgrades you get when you pay that big price tag are the new rims it comes with did ltx rims they're a little bit stronger a little bit stiffer than the stock rims you also get the rk gold chain and the renthal kevlar grip so these grips are a little bit thicker but they're also much stronger they're going to last a lot longer and they're actually easier on your hands than the stock honda grips the stock honda grips are horrible coming into today i expected the 450 works edition to be a much better bike than the 2021 model i expect the suspension to be way better and i expected the ecu to be updated already as we know that acu wasn't updated and we wrote it just like the standard customers would buying it off the showroom floor once we got that updated uh it was a lot easier to ride a lot easier to come out of the corners as i already mentioned as for the suspension i expected that to be night and day better than the stock model unfortunately it still has the same valving still has the same spring rates the nitride coatings yeah they're nice yeah they do add some value but overall today the bike felt super stiff for us so we're gonna have to put a lot more time on this bike before we write the full article for the motocross action mag race test so you're gonna have to stay tuned to motocross action magazine make sure to subscribe to the magazine and check out this bike in the june issue we're gonna have a full ride up comparing this bike to the stock bike and telling you why it's uh more expensive and if it's worth the upgrades or not as of today first impressions not really worth that extra 2800 i also do have some inside information as well on the 2022 honda 450 is gonna come with different suspension settings different valving different spring rate so it's going to be different than the stock 2022 model so talking to the honda guys they're excited for the 20 22 model and i'm excited for it as well if you're going to pay big money for an upgraded bike i'd want the suspension to be better than the stock model so looking forward to that that's it for this first ride video on the 2021 honda crf450 works edition thank you guys for tuning in for more videos make sure to click the subscribe button on our youtube channel so you can get a notification whenever we upload new videos we got a lot of new videos coming to our channel right now and check out motocross motocrossactionmag.com we got the latest news reviews race results bike tests and more on there and if you have some more time click the thumbnails now to see some of our latest videos do you think it's worth twelve thousand three hundred eighty dollars 12 12 380. now it looks cool though yeah it does look [Music] cool [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: motocross action magazine

Views: 123,634

Rating: 4.8796239 out of 5

Keywords: moto, motocross, action, dirt, dirt bike, honda, crf450, 450, race, racing, insane, wild, nuts, crazy, jump, trick, stunt, gap, fast, speed, test, review, opinion, fact, 2021, trial, sport, athlete, grade, motorcycle

Id: y5UGIht0kQ0

Length: 14min 5sec (845 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 08 2021