HONDA CRF300L REVIEW 🦄 The New Small Displacement Dual Sport Unicorn?

i am on the way to pick up my brand new motorcycle i am very very excited i think this is my unicorn enough said so i'm very excited for the future in this bike the bike's going really well yeah i can't believe how magic this bike is the other magic thing was the bike it was absolutely superb it met and exceeded my expectation i realize it's quite enthusiastic of me to release a rainbow colored thumbnail asking if this is the birth of a unicorn and by the way no i haven't shrunk in the wash i think this bike is fantastic i've been holding back wanting to do all my riding but right now i just want to tell everyone how impressed i am with this motorcycle you need to keep account of the fact that i bought this motorcycle i have skin in the game i might still have some rose-colored glasses but i am really loving this bike you know i've been on a journey looking for my unicorn and someone asked me a question yesterday and i finally summed it up as best as i could they asked me is this the perfect dual sport he's asking me is this my unicorn and i asked him saying no this isn't the perfect dual sport but it is perfectly adaptable for my needs and that's all i can ask for out of a motorcycle and i'm really looking forward to the journey but let's talk about the good the bad the ugly and try and be as objective as possible as not everyone is going to be as enthusiastic as me or maybe you're wanting some proper objective information so i'm going to do my best to bring myself back down to earth and go through this rationally with you and discuss whether this bike should be your next dual sport [Music] so let's talk about the potential of this bike and that's why i'm so excited for this machine i've been looking for a bike that i can do commuting on in heavy traffic i can put all my luggage on and do multi-day trips talking about trips where you're going out into the middle of nowhere you're not going to see any life for days you need to be able to carry all your water and fuel and your food and provide for yourself so that's the kind of spectrum and then in between we've got trails day rides single track beach riding deep sand mud everything is basically what i need this bike to do it's a big ask to find a motorcycle that can do that and that's why i was so enthusiastic about the wr250r because it could do all that now i think the 300 honda has taken that crown it does everything the wr does except for having better suspension and i will give the wr that it does have a little lighter weight although i cannot tell the weight difference between these two bikes is so negligible that i can't notice to be honest i think this really is the do or unicorn that we've been waiting for some people are going to complain that this isn't 300 or cc's or 400 cc's but i would say to you this is just enough to be the perfect motorcycle once you get the suspension sorted on this bike the world will be your oyster if you were to line up a wr250r a drz-4 and this bike next to it i'm gonna take the 300l every day so let's quickly talk about my riding experience i owned a wr250r for many years i've also owned a drz 400 e fortunately i can't ride a klx 300 because they're not sold here in australia i have ridden the klx 250s i've ridden my mates crf250l on road and offroad i've ridden the rally i've ridden an awful lot of bikes all right let's get into the bad rather than the good first so i've talked about the soft suspension now for a brand new rider this is going to be perfect for you you don't need to worry about the suspension it's fantastic for trail riding and easy to medium twin track the suspension is just perfect for that kind of scenario people like me complaining about the soft suspension it's not something that's a game ender for me i think i can bump up the preload a bit and i can probably get six more months of riding without being too fussed about it but what i have noticed is when i'm doing the single track and you're doing whoops and it's really starting to get complicated and asking a lot of the suspension that's when the soft suspension really rears its head as a little bit of a frustration so i had budgeted for my suspension so i'm not surprised by it but for someone that's not prepared for that i can see that could be quite a shock because suspension is probably the most expensive mod you can do on your motorcycle to improve it if you're going all out which i may do it's a hard ask for someone that's learning to ride just bought their bike and they're like oh god do i need to upgrade my suspension now and then finding out how expensive it is don't freak out you could probably get a year or two out of your bike before you need to worry about that if you're a learner but if you're an intermediate rider and you're wanting a little more performance out of suspension just be aware that you'll probably find the limits of this pretty quickly i also put brakes in here it was debatable whether i would or not the brakes aren't bad but they're also not fantastic now they're the same as a wr the same as a drz klr crf250l but that's my point it's 2021 and i really wanted improved braking now yes it's improved in that it has abs and i'm eternally thankful that they put that on this bike but i really would have liked to seen a noticeable increase in brake performance and i really don't feel like that's there to any large degree it might be a slightly bit better because this bike weighs a little less than the 250l but i was really hoping for a wow factor kind of breaking so i'm putting that in the bad column as i would have liked to seen that in 2021. next one on my list is the snatchy throttle now this isn't really a criticism particularly of the honda my wr250r felt exactly the same same with the efi klxo road same with every efi single cylinder bike i've ridden and even the twin and four cylinders snatchy throttles is just a result of emission standards and efi i've come to expect that but if you're buying your first bike and you have that snatchy throttle you might be prone to freaking out and thinking you've made the wrong choice i can tell you no matter what bike you choose in the category if it's efi it's going to have that snatchy throttle it's just part of playing the game of efi modern single cylinders so you can fix that with of tuning the ecu or you can go with the gearing so that you bring the gearing down so that when you're doing tight single track kind of work you can sit in second gear where that snatchiness isn't there the next criticism is one that i'm not sure whether this bike just doesn't have it or whether it's people who lack experience as well as the internet making this look far worse than it is and i'm talking about the dreaded engine rattle that i keep getting questions about to be honest i didn't even notice it to start with until i started getting questions and there is a noticeable change in the smoothness of the bike the bike goes from hyper smooth to just smooth or even a little bit rough from about four to five thousand rpm and then back to smooth again so that 1000 rpm between 4 and 5000 rpm the engine does rattle a little bit more or vibrate a little bit more than the rest of the rev range now having ridden so many different single cylinder dual sport and enduro motorcycles i can think of a handful of bikes that all do that it's not a surprise to me most single cylinders have a spot in the rev range where they're not as smooth as others yes be aware of it pay attention to it if you can get a test ride to see whether you can put up with it me myself is so negligible that i didn't even notice to start with i did want to point it out though and address that concern the final complaint is getting your hands on one now this isn't necessarily honda's problem this is every manufacturer's problem with supply chains and semiconductors being so hard to get their hands on it is very difficult for a manufacturer to get their product to the person so we've got people on long long wait lists for these bikes one it speaks to the popularity of them they barely hit the showroom floor before they're off to their owners you can't get a test ride on one of these here in australia but that is going to be a detriment as well if it's anything like that in the rest of the world if you can't get your product to the customer they're going to look elsewhere that is something that honda really need to pay attention to in order for this bike to be as popular as possible i think they need to be delivering their product as quickly as possible to the customer and looking at ways to mitigate the issues they're currently experiencing so it's the next day and typically i have forgotten a few really important items the first one i wanted to address is the subframe now the subframe on this 300l is actually welded to the frame whereas like the wr250r that is a bolted on subframe so if it cracks or breaks you can remove it on this one you cannot so that is something you'll have to think about for me personally i'm not worried in the slightest i pack very light and i really think about what i'm putting onto the bike particularly on the top rack so that i don't over stress my subframe but if you're the kind of guy that likes to pack the kitchen sink his coffee machine and his wife all on the back then you're probably asking a little too much of these little bikes like i said i'm not really worried i know i'm a very light packer so i don't think i'll be asking much of this little bike the other issue that i had spoken about quite a bit is the heat issue coming off the engine now i will say that you do notice it it is a marked increase over the crf 250l so you will notice heat coming off this bike i think it's particularly from the little fan in here on the radiator and it might also be down here from the exhaust because the extractors for the exhaust are very very small so the pipe is very very small diameter so there's a lot of heat there so i'm not sure if that can be addressed with a pipe swap and swapping out the whole system that way you've got more airflow and it will be cooler so i think that may mitigate it a bit as well as an ecu tune but to be honest it really isn't a problem unless i'm riding on the road where i've only got kevlar jeans on that's when i noticed the heat coming onto the top of my knee and onto my shin now it's never enough for it to reach unbearable or uncomfortable levels it just means when it's hotter weather it does get a little bit irritating i will say also when i'm off-road riding i do not notice it at all that is because i've got thick riding pants on i've also got big knee guards with shin plates and my mx boots on top of that so absolutely no engine heat comes through that i can feel and that's the most important scenario so it's only a problem in warmer weather with thin riding jeans on now let's talk about the good and there's an awful lot to talk about here like i said in the intro i think this is going to be my unicorn so there's a lot to discuss here let's start with the looks the look of the bike well i think it looks absolutely fantastic especially with the led setup i do recognize that not everyone is lucky enough to get that set up but here in australia we get the leds set up so it looks very aggressive like the 450l which i think personally looks fantastic so i'm very happy to get the brighter more modern headlight and the fact that the leds stay on as running lights during the day gives me a little more confidence in drivers seeing where i am and having been someone that's been hit by a car on a motorcycle i certainly appreciate visibility the next plus is power this bike i was a little skeptical whether it would suit my needs only being 286 cc's and that might seem strange considering i'm coming from a wr250 but the wr250r at peak horsepower i believe makes a little more than this but at the same time this motor is torquier and it makes almost as much horsepower at a lower rpm than the ws it really does in the seat feel far more powerful than the wr now it's not as big as difference as going from a 250r to say a drz-400 but it certainly is noticeable enough it really shows itself in two distinct ways that is really low speed kind of stuff in single track if you're in second gear to try and keep that throttle smooth and you're lugging the bike this has more torque and it's not as hard to stall so that's a real important factor for me it's easy to ride because of that extra torque the other thing is it's noticeable improvement over the 250r at high speeds this has far more legs at higher speeds than the 250r did now the 250r is surprisingly good on the highway for a 250 but this is even better which is just perfect for me because i always wanted that little bit more out of the 250r so if that's you that's what the l gives you highway performance this one is probably one of the most shocking things i talked about this with newbroutz who's over in the east he also has a youtube channel and he's got a 300 rally and we were both just gobsmacked at how well this does on the highway it has no reason to be as good as it is and as collected as it feels on the open highway now i need to caviate that with don't expect this to be adventure bike levels of good on the open road it's a single cylinder very light dual sport so it's still going to feel buffered around on the wind and it's still going to be quite revvy but if you're comparing it to the competition the klx 250 crf250l wr250r and even the drz because of its fire speed and poor gearing this bike just sits on the highway so comfortably which is something i can't say for the rest of the bikes the wr just did it but once you put luggage on it it really wasn't an enjoyable experience this it's got the torque to handle that and it really is quite comfortable and it just has a little more legs for overtaking big trucks out on the open road which is an important thing here in australia because we have huge road trains out in the middle of nowhere and they're going at very high speeds so you need a bike that can overtake a truck doing 100 110 with ease so i can say that this bike can do that without breaking a sweat so it's very very confidence inspiring out on the open road the next one is abs this one could have gone either way depending on how they implemented this abs system but i'm happy to say they've done as good a job as i've seen any manufacturer do it's safe on the road and i'm eternally grateful to have abs as i think it's a necessity on the road you don't need it until it's an emergency situation and then it's a life-saving piece of technology off-road i hate abs in fact i usually try and avoid a bike with abs off-road if i can help it and i'm happy to say that honda have made this so easy to turn off that i really it hasn't been a bigger issue as i thought it is in fact it's not been a problem at all you just hold down the button for a couple of seconds and the rear abs is completely off there's no going through a thousand different menus doing a fertility dance and then praying to the rain gods via abs to switch off it's just very simple and job done and you can get on the ride as quickly as possible and i really want as little friction as possible on my off-road rides considering i've got all the camera equipment and the communications to think about whilst i'm out there riding and also trying not to fall off the less i have to think about the better fuel consumption was one that surprised me quite a bit i was expecting this to use more fuel than the 250l did i'm getting anywhere from 29 to 31 and a half kilometers per liter my wr i was getting 23 to about 26. the fact that this bike is more fuel efficient i guess i shouldn't be surprised because of the technology and the experience they now have with the emissions standards and getting bikes as fuel efficient as possible the fact that it's bigger motor but still more fuel efficient than the outgoing model is impressive it might also have something to do with the torque of this bike the fact that you don't have to rev it as much to get it to do what you need as a 250l you need to thrash it a bit more to get it to do what this bike will do so fuel consumption was a pleasant surprise the next one is price which is obviously going to vary depending on country to country but the fact that you can get a bike with this much potential for 8 000 australian right away just blows my mind it really is very well priced yes it's more expensive than the 250l was but you've got to expect that with inflation improvements in technology not to mention the whole world being turned on its head with this massive health crisis things are not the same as they used to be so the fact that it's still as cheap as it is really is impressive and a big big reason why it was so appealing to me rather than spending seventeen thousand dollars on a 500 exc getting one of these for less than half the price is just absolutely gobsmacking so i think it's a great choice if you're looking for a budget dual sport the final really impressive thing about this bike and is in the good column is the light clutch and that slipper clutch the fact that it's such a light clutch pool has just been a godsend particularly for me now i've got a big ass metal plate in my left wrist holding all my bones together i also have occupational overuse syndrome or rsi in both my arms so i constantly see an ot to manage that so a light clutch is very important for my comfort on the bike and the fact that this is so light really helps me go longer further without having pain and that improves my riding experience exponentially i also think it's a massive advantage for learner riders now for learner riders that don't have that muscles and haven't trained their arm to be used to pulling in a clutch a lot particularly in tight technical riding or in commuting when you're stuck in traffic i think this is really going to make the experience easier makes the bike a little less intimidating and easier to handle so one major thing i forgot to put in my positives yesterday is just how easy it is to ride this bike hopping on this bike within an hour or two i felt like i'd owned it for years i was comfortable felt natural i didn't have to think about anything i was doing more so than a bike i had owned for many years like the wr250r and i think that is a real testament to just how well honda have designed this motorcycle it's user friendly it's confidence inspiring and it's an absolute blast i think they've really made that balance of it still being great for the learner but still offering plenty for the intermediate riders consider i've ridden all the bikes i'm talking about here and i've owned most of the ones i'm talking about i really do think if you're looking for a bike to do single track multi-day trips commute to work and do fire trails and dirt riding just a little bit of everything but you want it to be lightweight durable you don't want to have to service it all the time so you need long service intervals and you want a bike that can have a lot of accessories and carry your luggage this is the unicorn i've been looking for i'm so pleased that i took the leap of faith put a deposit on one and just bought it without test riding it it was a big leap of faith it's not something i would recommend doing if you can avoid it it's the first time i've done that but i certainly am happy of how this has turned out and i'm really looking forward to my journey with this bike thanks for watching hopefully this has given you some food for thought on what you're going to do for your next motorcycle i definitely would suggest putting this on a list thanks for sticking with me don't forget to stay shiny side up and expect plenty of awesome off-road rides from me in the future on this wee little beastie so catch you later guys [Music] you

Channel: chroniclesofsolid

Views: 13,270

Rating: 4.9316688 out of 5

Keywords: dirt bike, kawasaki, klx, klx300, 2021, klr700, klr650, 2020, dual sport, dualsport, adv, motorcycle, motorbike, news, adv news, bike, adventure, honda, crf300l, crf300 Rally, rally, dirt, off road, enduro, mx, super moto, klx300sm, sm, suzuki, yamaha, wr250r, drz400, dr650, ducati, bmw, ktm, 490, norden, husqvarna, tenere 700, aprilia, royal enfield, lastest, update, best, top, vs, which should you buy, australia, chronicles of solid, new, triumph, tiger, 2022, transalp, 490 adventure, 501, honda crf300l, crf300l review

Id: yaV-1MM689Q

Length: 19min 28sec (1168 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 16 2021