#Crf250lRally

Recently, we published our Lightweight ADV Shootout which involved the CSC RXR, Kawasaki Versys-X 300, and Honda CRF250L Rally. I rode the Honda home and had it in my garage until it needed to be returned to Honda’s headquarters. This gave me a bit more time with the rally-inspired 250 and I found myself reaching for the keys more often than not.

What does adventure mean to you? Wait, let me narrow that down: What does adventure motorcycling mean to you? Maybe your idea of adventure on a motorcycle is setting out, destination unknown with nothing but a paper map and the Blue Highways to guide you. Or maybe, to you, adventure means setting out across the American southwest with a few friends in tow, using trails and highways to connect yourself to our vast array of spectacular national parks. Perhaps your sense of adventure riding involves knobby tires, an ever-changing trail system of sand washes and fish tacos as you make your way down the Baja peninsula.

From the song “Little Honda” by the Beach Boys:

In our last Top 10 list of 2016, we, the MO staff, mentioned how much we’re looking forward to flogging the crop of mini-adventure bikes that’ll be coming this way in 2017. In case you forgot, those bikes include the BMW G310GS, Honda CRF250L (and its higher-spec sibling, the CRF250L Rally), Kawasaki Versys-X 300, and Suzuki V-Strom 250.  All of those bikes promise big fun in little packages for those who like to veer off the beaten path every now and then. So now we pose the question to you:

If EICMA is the barometer of where the moto-industry is headed, it appears as if 2017 will be the year of the small-displacement adventure bike. In addition to the CRF250L Rally on this page, Suzuki unveiled a V-Strom 250, Kawasaki debuted its Versys-X 300, and BMW revealed its G310GS.

Hot on the heels of its popular new Africa Twin model introduced last year comes a lighter-weight adventure-focused motorcycle from Honda, the CRF250L Rally. The Rally is based on the updated-for-2017 CRF250L and inspired by the factory CRF450 Rally machine raced in the Dakar by Team HRC.