2026 Honda CRF450RL long-term review and essential mods︱Cross Training Adventure

Our 2026 Honda CRF450RL review! Along with what we think are the essential CRF450RL mods needed. It fits in between the enduro and dual-sport categories in almost every respect: weight, price, suspension, seat height and horsepower. Welcome to Cross Training Adventure, we are into all things dual sport and adventure on the east coast of Australia. If you think dual sport motorbikes like the Suzuki DR-Z4S are too heavy and underpowered then CRF450RL might be a good choice. Ditto for riders who find their enduro motorbikes are a real pain to ride on the road. Keen on adventure riding in Australia? Check out our vids. So what has changed for the 2026 model? Effectively nothing. For the last five years it's just been mainly cosmetic changes. We did review the Honda a few years ago, but we have learned a lot more about it since then. We will cover the main modifications made by many owners later. If you like dual sport riding in Australia then you might like our adventure riding vids. Road riding? It feels much more refined that your usual enduro motorbike. A quiet exhaust. Specially lined plastic engine covers to reduce noise. The swingarm is filled with polyurethane to dampen noise and vibration. The wide-ratio six-speed gearbox keeps the revs low at highway speeds. The rear sprocket is rubber-lined to reduce noise. The handling and suspension work really well. While the ECU reflash improves the throttle response, some owners still don't like the snappy feel of the fuel injection. A G2 Throttle Tamer usually smooths this out very well. Compared to enduro models, the extra weight of the CRF450RL works well for road riding with a wet weight of 132 kg or 291lb. Check out our reviews of various adventure bikes and dual sport bikes. The LED headlight is actually quite bright and has a very precise beam. What didn't we like? It's a typical enduro seat - hard and uncomfortable. And the lean settings of the ECU make the throttle response very snatchy at low revs. Off-road riding? It is great on dirt roads and faster trails. Plenty of punch from the engine compared to dual sport models. The power feels similar to enduro 450s until the higher revs when you can feel it's been detuned. The suspension is quite good although aggressive riding will find its limits fairly quickly. Slower single track? We really started to notice the extra weight compared to enduro motorbikes. First gear was a bit tall but the wide ratio gearbox would allow some changes and still be capable of cruising the highways. Just buy some furniture foam and cut it to the desired shape. Cut a piece of vinyl to the right shape and staple it to your seat base over the existing seat foam and seat cover. And that snatchy throttle response became very annoying. And you will get extra power across the rev range. We found this perfect. But if you want a bit more power, you can remove the airbox lid and the backfire screen. The seat. The expensive option is from Seat Concepts. USD 330 or a ridiculous AUD740 in Australia. Ouch. A cheaper option is to go to an upholsterer. They can add more padding and a different cover for a lower price. If you are reasonably tall, try the do-it-yourself option. Oil capacity. At 1.1 litres it is ridiculously small. Many potential buyers are deterred by Honda's 1000km or 600 mile oil change intervals. There are two ways to slightly increase oil capacity. A Twin Air oil cooler allows another 100m of oil. Then modify the end-cap of the muffler with a wider diameter outlet. This leads us to modifications. Most owners agree the ECU needs to be reflashed. If you mail your ECU to specialists they will fix it for around USD300 or AUD500. We also noticed the heavy clutch pull on slower tracks. Some owners have fitted the XPR clutch actuator arm to make the clutch much softer. Others use the do-it-yourself approach and do this modification. The Honda will stall much less. The snappy throttle is greatly reduced. The engine runs cooler. The tiny 7.6L fuel tank. It's a real shame Honda did not make this a lot bigger. IMS have 11, 17 and 21.5L tanks. Nomad Fuel Tanks offer 11, 15 and 20L options. And Acerbis do 11 and 25L tanks. Ditto for a Rekluse clutch cover which is a bit deeper than the stock cover. It's a lot of money for not much benefit. The good news? Various owners have obtained an oil analysis and found that 1600km or 1000 mile oil changes are generally fine for dual sport riding. Let's look at prices. The CRF450RL is really well priced in Australia. It's cheaper than similar models in the 400 to 450cc market and those savings can be used for basic modifications. INDEX 0:53 Road riding 1:50 Enduro riding 2:35 Modifications 5:55 Price comparison 6:48 Will it suit you? Our website: https://sites.google.com/view/crosstrainingenduro Our enduro channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrossTrainingEnduroSkills #crosstrainingadventure #adventureriding #adventurebikes #dualsportriding #dualsportbikes