New bike of choice for season 6

Another new bike?! When I started my ride around the world, I didn't think I would buy motorcycle number 5 within three years. I have to admit, motorcycles are my biggest passion so getting to know different motorcycles isn't quite a punishment. But still, if it wasn't for the worldwide pandemic, that made me change plans and improvise all the time, I would probably still be riding on motorcycle number 2. 

Requirements

My choice for my latest motorcycle is largely determined by my experiences with different bikes in the previous years and better knowing what I want. And what I want is simple. A low budget, lightweight, small capacity motorcycle, that is easy to handle on rough terrain on my own, that requires minimal maintenance and that is crazy reliable. These requirements pretty much immediately rule out the two bikes that I currently have in The Netherlands: Royal Enfield Himalayan "Dhanno" and Honda CB500x "Ronin". 

Dhanno

In case you missed it, Dhanno, who got stranded with me in Peru, has returned to The Netherlands. It took a painful 8 months to evacuate the bike out of Peru, after I had to flee the country due to Covid-19. She finally returned back alone by cargo ship. When I unpacked her at the port in Rotterdam, it soon became clear that this bike wasn't going anywhere anymore. Eight months in a humid parking garage in Lima, Peru, with filthy petrol in the tank, and some not-so-good crating/transport, pretty much killed this motorcycle. 

Ronin

And how about Ronin, the Honda CB500x, my other motorcycle in The Netherlands? After my adventures in Europe, I was planning to take Ronin back to South America. I even did an entire Rally Raid suspension upgrade on the bike, to make it more offroad suitable. Ronin was basically just waiting for me to go on a new adventure.

Savannah

And yet, I am not taking Ronin with me on my next adventure. My recent experience with my Honda CRF250L Savannah in Southern Africa made something crystal clear to me. I don't necessarily need a powerful bike, I need a light bike. 

Once I returned back from Africa to The Netherlands and got out on Ronin again, all I could think was: “What a heavy, awkward beast.” Great for riding tarmac or light gravel roads around Europe, but not so great for hectic off-roading. 

So what then? Fixing up Dhanno? Although the Himalayan only has 24.5 horsepower, it weighs almost 200 kilograms. It is incredibly heavy for a small capacity bike. And well, after experiencing the light and nimble CRF250L, there was simply no way I was going to lug around such a heavy bike ever again. 

Other options

When I was in South Africa, I had the pleasure to borrow some KTMs from fellow riders. I rode a KTM EXC 450, a KTM EXC 500 and a KTM 790 adventure. I have to admit, I love the sight of these KTMs. Truth to be told, they are some very pretty motorcycles. But....the height is an issue for me as a vertically challenged rider. I suppose you can do things (to the bike that is) to fix that issue, but the 790 adventure I found still too heavy in weight to my liking. 

The EXC 450 and 500 are just feather light. They weigh less than 120 kilograms! Perfect. However, there are two big 'howevers',  the service intervals are killing for these rally oriented bikes and the reliability is also still an issue for KTM. Over the years, I've just heard too many riders struggling with electrical problems and since I am no mechanic and like to ride in very remote areas alone, these bikes are not the most suitable ones for me. Two of my main requirement boxes, minimal maintenance and reliability, are not ticked by these KTM’s. 

Final choice

My experiences with the very reliable Ronin and Savannah, made me look at a Honda once again. And within the small capacity, light, single cylinder, budget, off-road motorcycles, there is only one option available: the new CRF300 Rally. You could consider it a new and improved version of Savannah. It has all the things I loved about the CRF250L, but has a bigger fuel tank (very important!), some wind protection and a little more horsepower (4 HP more). 

I said I was looking for a budget bike, and since the CRF300 is definitely Honda’s budget adventure bike, you can tell there was some compromising on the quality of the suspension for example. It basically comes with a cheap shock. I might upgrade the suspension in the future, especially if I want to compete in another rally, but for now, I will leave the bike with the OEM suspension. A combination of limited time to do upgrades and the money involved in it, made me decide to leave her as she is. 

I made a few other small upgrades on the motorcycle which I will show and explain in the next video on YouTube, so if you are interested in seeing that, stay tuned on the channel. For now, it's time to get ready, get geared up and start clocking kilometers with my new best friend!