The CRF300L is a great do-it-all trail bike that can be used for commuting on the road and off-roading at the weekend. There used to be many bikes like this in the old days : Honda XR, Yamaha XT, Suzuki DR and similar. But these general purpose bikes have been out of production for years although still with a loyal following and surprisingly high prices on the second hand market. The general purpose trail bike market seemed to disappear in the late 90s and split into two : the more off road focussed enduro bikes and the more road biased adventure bikes. In fact the adventure bike category became the highest growth sector of the bike market and is still hugely popular today. For many years there was really noting available in the trail bike category – you either had to choose a more focussed light weight off road bike or a bigger a heavier long distance adventure bike. Many riders simply went back to the old school solution of an air cooled Japanese trail bike. It seems that Honda spotted this gap in the market and introduced the CRF250L as a no nonsense do everything bike with electric start, fuel injection and modern suspension and ergonomics. It has proved to be very popular and has now been superseded by a 300cc version. If you could only have one bike, this would be a pretty good choice.

At the various events I attend over the year, the CRF has gradually become the bike of choice and it seems that almost everyone has one, or is looking out for one. Austin VINCE is a Honda brand ambassador and misses no opportunity to sing the praises of the little red bike and having done many long distance adventure trips on his CRF250 he knows what he’s talking about. My mate Dougie used to ride a KTM Freeride, a much lighter off road machine, but had never ending reliability issues. It broke down on the VINCE one year and he borrowed Austin’s CRF as a replacement. He was very impressed as it just worked – he had to have one !

My stable of motorbikes used to consist of a Montesa Trials, Suzuki DR350, KTM 250 enduro and a KTM 950 Super Enduro. Of these the DR350 (a traditional air cooled trail bike) was my go-to general runabout and shopping bike. However, I had originally bought the DR for my son Alexander to use and had made some modifications to make it more suited to him and he decided he would like to buy it. So I started looking for a replacement as a local shopping bike. I knew Dougie was keen on the CRF and thought it might be interesting for us to ride the same machinery on some of our adventures. However, they are much less common in France and the waiting list for a new one was over 6 months. And then one suddenly came up locally and I bought it. It was almost brand new (300Km) and the price was reasonable so it was hard to refuse.

I’ve had the bike two years and done over 8000 Km and it hasn’t missed a beat. I’ve used it as a shopping bike and done some joint events with Dougie on his CRF, but the highlight was taking it round Maroc on a trip covering over 3000 Km. Although it worked perfectly throughout the Maroc trip showed up some of it’s limitations as a long distance road bike – limited performance and lack of wind protection. Which is why I bought the GasGas Rally for the Maroc trip last year. I was also never really happy with the CRF off road, especially compared to my KTM enduro bike : it’s much heavier (145 v 105 Kg) and feels slow to respond, the controls are very light but don’t have the instant snap response of the KTM. As a result the CRF hasn’t had much use since the Maroc trip. Part of the reason for this is that I am fortunate to have a few different bikes and don’t have much use for a do-it-all bike. For off road I prefer to use the KTM and on the road I prefer something with more performance like my GasGas Supermoto. So the Honda needed to go…


Text of the advert on Le Bon Coin…

8800 Km
25/02/2022

I bought this bike in early 2022 to use for local journeys, mainly on the road (I have a KTM enduro for off road riding). It proved to be very capable and comfortable and I decided to use it for a trip to Morocco over the winter of 2022/23. This was a trip of over 3000Km of road riding and the bike performed perfectly. However, since that trip it has had very little use and is now being offered for sale. I am under no pressure to sell as I still find the bike useful for local journeys and have the space to keep it.

Honda France offer a 5 year warranty on the CRF, which still has 3 years to run, until 25/02/2027.

Modifications

  • hand guards
  • engine protection guard
  • USB port
  • tail tidy

The rest of the bike is completely standard.

It will be supplied with a complete stainless steel Moto-X exhaust system which I purchased from Le Bon Coin but is not fitted to the bike.

Servicing

The Honda service schedule requires an initial service at 1000 Km and then a service every 12,000 Km.

The 1,000 Km service was completed according to the schedule.

The next service would be at 12,000 Km, but as a precaution I carried out an additional service at 7,500 Km which included changing the oil and filter:
HiFlo HF103 oil filter
Castrol Power 1 Racing 10w-30 synthetic oil
The paper element air filter was replaced with a twinair foam element filter.

Next service would normally be due at 12,000, but taking account of the 7,500 service this could be done later.

Tyres

Pirelli MT21 Rallycross (50/50) tyres front and rear in excellent condition.
The tyres are fitted with BIB Mousses – no punctures and suitable for both on and off road use due to the light weight of the CRF.

More photos here : https://v2xs.com/CRF300L/