Buying Used: Honda CRF 450X

April 9, 2013 in Buyer's Guides

Guest blogger James Parker talks about buying a used ATV. 

 Upon the thirty year anniversary of purchasing my first dirt bike, I celebrated by purchasing a new (to me) Honda CRF 450X. This really wasn’t planned; it just happened to work out that I made the purchase of my new bike while my family was off from school for spring break week. And it was spring break 1983 when I purchased my first motorcycle, a 1979 Yamaha MX 100 complete with a set of Cheng Shin tires. While the coincidence is pretty cool, I am simply excited about having the bike I have been coveting for quite some time.

The Purchase

After weeks of negotiating with a dealer, the bike that I thought I was going to buy did not come to fruition. I am not going to name names, but the dealer simply did not follow through with his advertised deal and land trade that we had been working toward for many weeks. When this deal fell through, I started searching Craigslist to find my dream bike — a Honda CRF 450X with stock Dunlop tires. It seems that maybe the deal fell through for a reason and that I found the bike I was meant to have.

After about a week of emailing back and forth and enduring a spring Colorado blizzard, I was finally able to meet the seller of my future motorcycle. This Honda was manufactured in 2005, but to look at the machine one would never guess it is nearly eight years old. The hair is still on the tires, the red plastic still shines and it obviously has very few hours. The previous owner claims to have put less than twenty-five hours on the bike. By all appearances, I fully believe this claim.

This is no ordinary stock motorcycle; it has many aftermarket additions:

To start with, it has Acerbis bark busters to protect my knuckles from taking a beating from the trees along the epic Colorado trails I frequent.
The Acerbis’ are attached to Renthal Fatbars, which should provide for less hand cramp or arm pump.
While still at the handlebar area, I should mention the Endurance computer. This device will provide me with bike location, motor information and timing while I race in the occasional enduro or hare scramble.
At the rear end of the Honda is a Dubach Racing pipe; it’s a little on the noisy side, but will provide me with some uncorked power.

In addition to these add-ons the new motorcycle also has wider foot pegs and some other aftermarket parts riding on some like-new Dunlops.

Roommates

The first question most people ask is whether I still have the Big Red Pig (Honda XR650R). The answer to that is yes; the pig now has his little brother as a roommate. For the time-being, I am going to keep my XR650R; it is such an unusual motorcycle because of its sheer size and power. It is a novelty; it is not a mainstream motorcycle. It takes a special kind of rider to ride the 650 because of its unique nuances. It is the only motorcycle I have ever owned that other riders do not ask to ride. Most other riders are afraid of the big machine; I never really understood this because I think it is a great piece of equipment. For now, the pig will remain in my fleet; the initial plan is that the 650 will be the trail bike while the 450X will be the race bike.

Conclusion

Over the last thirty years I have owned some pretty cool motorcycles. I think as I write this, that I now have two of the most awesome bikes I have ever possessed sitting in the garage. The Big Red Pig was the king of the desert – a unique bike that is not the ideal machine for most dirt bike riders. It found a niche for itself and I fit will into that niche. The 450X is a great machine, given many additions by the previous owner, that make it a very unique bike. Most of all, it has so few hours that it looks as though it just came off the showroom floor.

In case anyone is wondering, the new bike will simply be known as “X.”