I’ve put about 200-300 hours on a wr450f.
I’ve put about 40 hours on crf450l.
I’ve put about 2 hours on a TE300i.
And I’d like to compare some brief pros/cons of each.
Pros/Con comparing wr450f 2012 and crf450l 2019
Wr450f Pros (nick name blue dragon)
- Has taken care of me on so many rides, a trusted companion for several years
- Fisher seat that is amazing perfection and customized to me (high importance)
- Unbelievable power, no bike I’ve ever ridden has more “punch” – including crf1000l tenere 700 and crf450l
- Unbelievable bark, sounds badass
- Great suspension
- Flood pod light
- Holster for my sig p320
- Kick start backup, which I’ve used many many times.
- Its a yamaha – bullet proof everything – I’m really hard on my gear and it just keeps going
Wr450f cons
- Even with new high CCA battery, if its really cold you must kick start it
- I almost always have to be in neutral to start it….hot or cold.
- Doesn’t like to start when warm, it starts ok cold or hot, but not warm.
- Stalls easy compared to te300i
- Street legal kit -means everything is close to DIY
- Tail light, signals etc are kind of “halfassed”
- No 6th gear, which means a very large sprocket affects top speed
- Suckie mpg – about 35 and with a 4 gallon tank (that is huge) range is limited
- No long term history of miles/hours. I added a tusk hour meter to track oil changes
- Short service intervals doesn’t bother me, its easy to change the oil and I’m not racing it so I doubt I need to change it as frequently as recommended
- Home made radiator fan is ugly, but works
- Unable to make it “tusk racks” adv – fixed with giant loop bag.
Crf450l pros
- Quiet on the road its nice, but off road, I miss the bark of the wr450f
- 6th gear
- Seems more nimble/agile/lighter than the 450, but that might be because I’ve adventurized the wr450f
- Honda – Honda is amazing, but I still bleed yamaha(my first bike was a yamaha) – yamaha come out with a tenere 400-500cc that weights 230-250 lbs! And has badass suspension and ignore any govscam epa and just make it freak’n a fire breathing dragon!
- Honda feels tame and the wr450f feels wild
- You could lend a crf450l to a buddy and they wouldn’t get into as much trouble wiskey throttle as they would with wr450f, but they can still wheelie accidentally
- Able to put tusk racks on it (high importance)
- Dash meter has lots of stats
- Good mpg if you are not hammering the throttle
Crf450l cons
- Quiet
- Handle bars are short – fixed with bar riser rox
- epa/govscam clogged up
- Honda feels tame and the wr450f feels wild. I know I’m off here, but the wr450f feels like 2x the power!
- Kind of pricy compared to buying a wr450f and making it street legal
- 2 gallon tank, carry a fuel bottle with you (low importance)
- Horn button is in an odd place, same odd place as africa twin.
TE300I PROS (similar to KTM 300)
- Doesn’t stall like my wr450f and crf450l. I’m constantly having to slip the clutch on the 450s, but the te300i is very difficult to stall! Makes me wonder why my 300 2s buddies want/need a auto-clutch? (buy tires/fuel if you want to be a better rider!)
- Feels like 100 lbs lighter than the 450s, but I think its closer to 50 lbs.
- TPI means I just add gas and it auto adjusts fuel/air mixture for elevation!
- There is plenty of low end “Grunt” and there is plenty of power, but the power is not “trying to kill you” like the wr450f
- Easy to get the nose over logs/rocks/ledges in a controlled fashion.
TE300I CONS
- I suspect the Husky will not be as bullet proof reliable as the Yamaha/Hondas.
- This is my first 2 stroke, so a few things to learn like type of oil/how to warm up/maintenance gotchas
- Not street legal. I’m considering adding a street legal kit, but with specialized dirt tires, I don’t think I want to be wearing out my tires on the street.
- White plastics show wear quickly.
- The te300i has not given me Jarvis super-powers…yet.
- cost, about 2x what an aging yahama/honda costs
