Letter of the Week: Fuel Injection - The Next Big Thing?

Dear Dirt Rider,

I am considering a new moto purchase and need your help. I am riding a '02 CRF450 and am patiently waiting for fuel injection to draw me away from the current bike I have.

I have researched the fuel injection status on the Honda website and they have developed a fuel injection system for the Honda Montesa trials bike and have released FI on a quad this year. The press release says they want all bikes under the Honda umbrella to be fuel injected by 2010. They met the goal of 2005, as the target date to fuel inject all scooters, early by one year. Gas Gas has the FSE450 that is now fuel injected. I am wondering if the 2007 CRF450 will be fuel injected.

If you look at the Honda website they scaled down the fuel injector from 15 to 8 working parts to make it able to be applied to any motorcycle. Do you have any insight to help me make a purchase decision?

I only have one shot at this. I can only justify a new bike to my wife about every four years as they last a long time now...if I buy the 06' and next year the bike is fuel injected I will be kicking myself in the butt because I did not wait.

Thanks for your time,

Randy Geniec

Randy,

We went so far as to ask Honda, knowing full-well what the answer would be. They didn't know anything and even if they did, they wouldn't tell us.

FI is really nothing new, but it is something that will be needed soon to meet ever tightening emissions requirements. But for competition models that isn't the case and in the short term, it is really hard to beat the carb for motocross-type performance.

Having said that, the quads (mostly sold for off-road use) are going to FI for a couple of reasons. First is emissions, second is that they have the room and the ability to carry the systems without severe adverse effects to the weight or handling. Suzuki just released their all-new LT-R450 ATV with EFI (their new competition mx quad with the RM-Z450 motor and electronic fuel injection). If you're interested in seeing Suzuki's first stab at EFI on an mx motor, I suggest you watch the pages of our sister magazine, ATV Rider for the upcoming test.

Honda has a working non-battery system on a trials bike so they can make it light and compact, but this system wouldn't rev to 13,500 RPM either. When Honda does things under a company umbrella, they are not talking about competition models.

I would bet that the 2007 CRF450 will not be FI.

Jimmy Lewis

For more info on Honda's PGM-FI (electronic fuel injection), visit their website at World.Honda.com/motorcycle-technology or click here.