After the 450 MX shootout, the '09 CRF was definitely my bike of choice for the season. After all, why wouldn't it be? The new Honda is lighter, faster and more maneuverable than last year's model (which, in case you forgot, was already standing on top of the 450 podium), and now it has the greatly anticipated EFI. I know there was some skepticism about the completely redesigned bike, but there is one thing that I have learned about Honda: It doesn't make changes unless they are for the better.
With plenty of hours on motocross and supercross tracks and even some trails, I realized that the more time I put on the CRF, the easier it is to go fast on it. The Dirt Rider test bike was quickly transformed into my supercross practice bike. One of the changes that took some time to get used to was how quickly the bike handles. The bike turns very easily compared to last year's, and even the other brands, which is a good thing, but sometimes I get ahead of myself and that leads to some oversteering. This ceased to be an issue once I got used to it, though. As for my first modification, I bolted on a Yoshimura RS-4 full exhaust system (www.yoshimura-rd.com). This pipe gave the same smooth delivery as stock but just added more power all the way through the curve. It was also necessary to drop the sound to the legal limit for supercross.
If you're looking for more power or even a different kind of power, then you should definitely invest in the Honda EFI tuning tool (found at any Honda dealer). I don't ever want to touch another carburetor for the rest of my motorcycle days! This program lets you adjust the fuel injection (richer or leaner) and gives the option of advancing or retarding the timing. What would normally take hours of fine-tuning can now be done in a matter of minutes. It also allows you to emphasize the power down low or up top or pretty much wherever you want, and when you find a setting you like, you can save it for future use. This makes the new CRF even more tunable. As for cosmetics, I stuck on some custom RidePG graphics (www.ridepg.com). These graphics look awesome, hold up great and the time from when I ordered them to the time I was holding them in my hands was just a couple of days.
I have logged most of the bike's hours on a supercross track practicing. However, when rain was threatening the third Anaheim, I thought to myself, "What better way to test the durability of a Long Haul bike than to throw it into a decent mudder?" (Well, that and I didn't want to race my own bike in the mud.) So I brought this bike out for the race. The next week, going into San Diego, I was still really happy with the way the Long Haul bike was working and I felt comfortable on it. So I ended up racing this bike again-which, by the way, had just over 39 hours on the stock motor-and I qualified for the program.
If you ask me, that says a lot for the new Honda, especially when you take into consideration the competition out there and the money being put into some of those other bikes. My only modifications: the Yoshimura exhaust, Maxxis tires, some SX suspension and lower gearing-not bad at all for a real privateer production bike.
At 43 hours of DR Shootout and pro-level abuse we tore into the CRF's top end and it looked perfect, valves and all. We'd have easily gone another 20 hours on this piston and ring, but it is time to keep an eye on the valve adjustment. At the same time we did the "product update," replacing the decompression pin and weighted shaft on the cam.
After all the hours logged on the CRF, I haven't had any issues. The headpipe that everyone was worried about is in great condition. And now it was time to surrender the bike back to the boys at DR so they can test some parts on it.
I finally found that half-second that was keeping me from qualifying for the night show in the supercross class at San Diego. Too bad it was my last SX race, as the series went back East without me.
Running Tally
Hours on Bike: 43
Modifications
Cost total: $1444.95
Yoshimura RS-4 titanium/carbon full system: $895.00
RidePG custom graphics: $199.95
Honda EFI tuning tool: $350.00