Our man Kris Keefer finally got to swing a leg over the new-generation 2025 Honda CRF450R last week at Ironman Raceway in Indiana. Here are his initial impressions of the bike.
"Honda went to work on the chassis. There are some minor updates to the engine, but most of all the huge news for us guys who are getting ready to go buy a new Honda is the chassis updates that the engineers over in Japan did to this machine. The race team is here [at this event]. Jett Lawrence, Hunter Lawrence, Trey Canard Chance Hymas and Michael Byrne. All of us are here to ride the new bike.
I have a sheet of all of the change points that Honda did to this model. So instead of just whipping this thing out and telling you all about them, I'll just kind of briefly go over what the major change points are. If you guys are interested into knowing the exact details of each change, go to Keeferinctesting.com, we're going to have a podcast. We're going to break down all of that.
But right now, we're going to tell you Honda went to work mostly on the chassis. Seventy percent of this chassis is optimized for rigidity. And what that means in the Honda world is they went stiffer on a lot of points of the frame as well as they went to a one-piece linkage system, unlike a two piece. So, they're trying to get this bike to be a little bit stiffer. So, what that means to us riders is a calmer feeling Honda on straight line stability and on lean angle on the tire. When you were on throttle last year on the 2024 model, it just felt nervous, felt harsh, felt rigid. So, a lot of you guys, including myself at times, would think, “Hey, this bike feels stiff” because that's the nature of the feel when you're out on the track.
So, this is just my first impression of the 2025 Honda. Ironman has a lot of big jumps, steep faces. You're slamming on the ground pretty hard. Unlike going back home in southern California, we have a bunch of small chatter, not as big of jumps, but it was a good day to try this bike. What these first impressions are just something that we'd like to give you guys a little bit of a taste, a little bit of an hors d'oeuvre of what's about to come later on. So, I'm not going to sit here and say, “Hey, it's unbelievable. You guys should go buy one right now” but I will say this, “It is a better Honda by a good amount.” If you got a 2024 Honda, CR450R and then you got a ‘25 and you rode them back-to-back, you would be able to notice three things. One, you're going to have more compliance, more comfort from the chassis. Even on these big, slap down jumps, I felt like the frame is more absorbing and more forgiving to the rider. Number two, you're going to have better lean angle feel on throttle, which I was looking for from this bike. There are a couple sections on at Ironman today where you're on the edges of the tire. Actually, right after the start here and there had some bumps in a rut. And unlike last year's bike where it wanted to move and deflect this bike stayed more planted. Which to me is a huge improvement for this chassis.
And the last thing has nothing to do with the chassis. But I just feel like this power plant has more connection and more rear wheel traction than last year's bike. I didn't really have a huge problem with the engine on last year's bike. But right away, you can just feel the connection and how broad this engine is. I’ve spent a lot of time on a [Yamaha] YZ450F. The YZ450F has a lot of front side, a lot of bottom end. This has a blend of excitement and linear feel. So, if you can imagine a KTM 450, real linear and long, this has more excitement than the orange bike, but it has that roll on feel where you can just mash that throttle out of a corner and it doesn't wheelie on you, it tracks and [gets} what we call forward bite. It has a lot of that.
So those are three things that stood out to me right away. I will say Honda did a great job of getting a little bit more straight-line stability. It's been raining off and on here, so the track wasn't that deep but going up to these rollers near the back up to, I think they called it Godzilla jump, or whatever. Last year's model kind of squatted and deflected and then went side to side. This bike stays a little bit firmer not in the sense of a harsh feel, but just firmer more planted to the ground feel, which is a nice change.
One thing that didn't change on the 2025 model is how good the thing corners. So, to me, I think the 2025 corners better because I can get into the corner in a safer manner versus last year's bike where I was getting a lot of deflection, a lot of harshness. So that predicted my corner, I feel like going down the straightaway getting into the corner, predicts how fast you can go into the corner. And this thing to me has that feel of “I don't feel like I'm out of control leading in the corner.” Thus, I can roll area one and area two and stay on the throttle. So, I like that. That is a huge plus to me.
One other thing that I mentioned earlier was how tall these jump faces are. And when you go up the faces of the jump last year's model, for whatever reason, always wanted to squat and then unload and then for you novice riders, you get this unload of the rear wheel, and it pitches you sideways. This bike stays really evenly flat over the jump, and it gives you more confidence to kind of put your body weight towards the front, which I like. So, I just think the chassis overall, it has more, what we call in the testing business, "track toughness." You can make adjustments like we did in the suspension, which we'll talk about in a minute, and it doesn't react negatively to the other side of the bike. Last year's bike, I would make adjustments to the fork, I wanted to bring the fork up in the dampening stroke a little bit. So, I'd go in on the compression and then it would negatively affect the rear end of the bike, and that didn't happen today. So that is a plus that tells me that there is more window for this frame. So, you Honda owners rejoice because that's a great thing.
Suspension wise, it is soft for me. I think Ironman is on the extreme level of what this setting can do. I think going off these big jumps and slamming and it took me a little while to jump some of these jumps here today just because I felt like I was pretty soft on settings. So what I did to kind of combat that is I dropped the fork, I went to 2.5 millimeters on the fork and I went in on the compression two clicks. Ended up running a 106-millimeter sag setting on the shock and then cranked in my high-speed compression, half a turn and that calmed the bike down a little bit more, especially in the sand section. And then didn't put as much weight on the front end. Which is what I needed leading into some of these deep ruts. So that is like the happy medium for me here today. I do think for me, I would like a little bit of a firmer Showa suspension feel. But I think once you go to a track doesn't have that big a jumps, which is rougher with small chop this bike I think would shine more than it did here today. But nonetheless, going in on your compression and in on high speed really helped this bike and it didn't negatively affect anything else. So, I do like that.
Engine wise, it's probably one of the better engines that I have felt in a couple of years. I'm a fan of an engine that I can just get on the gas early and then it doesn't wheelie out of corners. There are three modes here: map, one, map, two, map three. I'm mostly a map one guy because it's just an all-around good power, low end response is nice, but then doesn't rip my arms out, like map three does. If you want a lot of low end, you go to map three. But man, there's just a lot of rear wheel connection. I can get on the gas early. The bike doesn't wheelie and it's very clean. The ECU tune is very clean, and I do like and appreciate that because I know how hard that is in the world of ECU tuning. For you guys that had Honda 450s in the past, you guys couldn't use third gear in corners because it would kind of lug it by falling on its face with what they did to the air box. And in 2025 they have an air box that's straighter into the intake, which is gonna give you a little bit more length and power, but also, it's just more broad and I think that is the reason why I have so much more torque feel in third gear.
So today, I was able to use third gear more. But if you want to be lazy and you don't want to shift to third, you can rev out to second. Michael Byrne was giving me crap earlier today because I was in second. But what I was doing is seeing how long second gear pulled and the second gear actually pulls quite a long time. So, if you don't feel like you need to shift and you got a corner coming up, you can just leave this thing in second, which you couldn't do on last year's model. So, kudos to the guys over at Honda for creating an engine that is good for aggressive guys, but yet us lazy vet guys don't mind using second gear at times. So, pick your poison third or second, it's usable.
They lengthened the head pipe a little bit along with the air box change, and that'll change the power curve a little bit. Basically, it's almost like the works edition head pipe. It goes down and is longer, so that'll help power output as well.
Basically, we've had about a four-hour window to ride this thing and that's the gist of what I got here today. It's a more compliant, more comfortable Honda. Broader, easier to ride. That is my first impression. I'm not going to sit here and say it's going to win shootouts. But for me right now, the way the Honda went with their chassis is the correct way. They're not using that razor sharp cornering mantra that they did before. They want a more calm, more compliant Honda. And I think they're working their way towards that. This is a much better Honda for you guys out there that are looking for more stability. So, I like that.
Ergonomically you sit on a Honda, you feel good right away. Renthal Fat Bar 839 handlebars are good, but the seat, I still feel like I hit the rails of the subframe a little bit. But the overall density of the foam is nice. You're sitting on a Honda. You feel at home right away. Chance Hymas and Hunter Lawrence got on a stock 450 Honda today and they even commented, “Hey, we weren't a huge fan of stock bikes previously” but the 2025, they're not really hating on riding stock bikes. That says something right there. If these guys off camera are telling me this, then to me, I think this bike is headed in the right direction. A lot of times when you talk to these guys on camera, they might praise their sponsors, but then you talk to them away from the camera and they're like, “Yeah, you know, it's just not the right bike for me.” But they were quite candid about how well this bike handled for them. So, I thought that was a great move by Honda to create a motorcycle that's able to feed the appetite of a top professional as well as us mere mortals out here.
So, besides ergonomics, obviously, brakes are important, and Nissin, the Honda front brake, has been one of the best. Honda and Nissin went and did a little bit of a change for the piston and the seal to improve the whole sealing effect on the on the front brake. So, for me, not as grabby, I complained previously on '24 model that I do like the power, but sometimes it's a little bit grabby. It's not as grabby on the 2025 a little bit more of a linear pull and feel but nonetheless, very strong, easy to use. I like that. I can grab quite a bit of front lever here and not have a grabby pushy feel coming in the corner. Some of you guys watch the professional guys, they'll drag their front brake a little bit in ruts to keep their front in inside the rut. You can do that and modulate it a little bit better in 2025 because of that update.
Another little side note that I got added to me before we started this. I was talking about how the clutch action was a little bit different. I've never been a huge fan of this Nissin hydraulic clutch. A little on off feeling. So, I noticed today that it had a longer throw feeling and I'm like “You guys didn't update the clutch” but I guess they did update the clutch rubbers inside the basket. So that to me actually helped the clutch feel, it's not so on off. I do like that. I really enjoyed the Kawasaki Nissin hydraulic clutch and the Honda, I wasn't a big fan of. So that change right there did help the throw, did help the engagement point for me a little bit out on the track. I didn't do any starts today, so I'll see how that is, but that bushing and those rubbers are important to this feel and they updated that in 2025. I also noticed the chain slider is a little bit taller and thicker. So that also will be a little bit better for wear as well as suspension action. I didn't quite notice that anything here today, but nonetheless, that slider is also updated.
Kudos to Honda, thanks for having us out at Ironman Raceway. We're going to get this thing back in Southern California and I'm going to try to take this bike to a couple of tracks near home and then I'm going to venture back east in deeper dirt, more tacky conditions to see what this chassis and this engine can do.
Of course, as always, if you have a question about this bike, Kris@Keeferinctesting.com is my email. It's a virtual door that's just cracked open a little bit and you just walk right in and say hi and ask questions and be cordial. But nonetheless, I'll help you out."
