2019 Honda CRF450L made its global debut

MANILA: The elder sibling of Honda CRF250L has finally made its way to the global market. Yes, the wraps from the street-legal 2019 Honda CRF450L has been taken off and the first look seems promising. The CRF150L and CRF250L had already managed to gain a lot of appreciation with their performance among the beginners. A number of rally sport enthusiasts were waiting for the CRF450R inspired bike in the segment and Honda fulfilled their wish in the year 2018.

The new street-legal bike will hit the global dealerships by the end of this month and looking at the performance of the existing lineup of the motocross segment, Honda might introduce the CRF450L Rally here in near future. The 2019 CRF450L features a twin-spar aluminium frame which is taken from the CRF450R while the subframe is newly designed with an aluminium plate for holding the license plate.

Honda has adopted a number of weight reduction techniques which include the use of a lithium-ion battery and titanium fuel tank. Powering the new CRF450L is a 499cc liquid-cooled, four-stroke, four-valve thumper which is capable of delivering a maximum power output of 24 PS at 7500 rpm and a peak torque of 32 Nm at 3500 rpm. It is further coupled to a six-speed transmission backed by a wet multi-plate clutch and 520 chain final drive. The bike also features PGM-FI, a 46 mm downdraft throttle body and electric starter.

The headlight unit consists of LED lighting while the instrument cluster is a digital LCD, highlighting a speedometer, odometer, clock, and fuel mileage meter. Honda CRF450L’s ground clearance and seat height read as 299 mm and 895 mm respectively. It comes with a fuel tank capacity of 7.6-litre and the wet weight of 131 kg.

Suspension duties are handled by 49mm leading-axle, inverted front forks at the front and a Pro-Link monoshock at the rear - both by Stowa. For achieving versatility on either paved or unpaved roads, the stock setting is tweaked exclusively. For improved traction, the 21-inch at the front and 18-inch at the rear wheels are wrapped in IRC GP21 dual-sport, tube-type tires. Stopping power comes from a single 260 mm disc at the front and a 250 mm disc at the back.

Currently, the 2019 Honda CRF450L is available in Extreme Red color option and is priced at $10,399 (PHP 5,57,490.39). Honda Philippines has not indicated about its availability in the local market yet and we have to wait for the official announcement.