New CRF300L

[Tekime]

Hey all,

I haven't been on here in a while. Sold the last of my bikes a few years ago (work, moving, life, kid, and going hard on MTB).

Alas I've been dying for a new dual sport for a while now. Finally pulled the trigger on a new CRF300L. Literally the first new vehicle I've ever owned.

It's kind of gutless, there's nothing special about it, and I totally love it.

It was incredibly affordable and I'm pretty sure I can get a million miles out of it. So now I'm looking at some options for motocamping (Kreig looks good) and dialing in a few bits. Ari Henning has an amazing big bore build that no sensible human would spend another $3-5k on, so I'm obviously thinking about that..

SO nice to twist a throttle again!

[xrocket21]

Hell yeah! Nice looking bike!!!

[SRTie4k]

I'd recommend you head on over to advrider.com and join the CRF300L discussion, there are tons of useful resources for this bike there. There's even a VT local who bought into the Ari Henning motor build and rides his in the deserts of the southwest.

My CRF250L Rally was even more gutless, but as a general purpose adventure dual sport you really couldn't ask for much more from the CRF line, it'll get you there and back with zero drama. The only thing I strongly recommend is doing a full suspension, the stock stuff is absolutely awful.

[Tekime]

Thanks!!

How did I forget about advrider? Good call.

I've only gotten a few short rides but I'm remarkably happy with the stock setup so far overall. The only thing I MUST fix are the stock levers. I use two fingers and the stock lever is already beating up my clutch hand. The assist clutch is incredibly easy to pull.. kind of a nice luxury after riding my DR with heavy springs for so long.

Suspension has been pretty comfortable on the road but I haven't tasted any trails yet.

[SRTie4k]

Mine would pogo over rollers and bottomed out on several occasions. Granted I'm 200lbs without gear.

[Tekime]

I'm pretty light but judging how it feels on my little backyard trail, I'll probably want to upgrade before I hit any real fun stuff. Especially with gear/bags in tow

[Tekime]

Break-in day. About 12 miles on some properly rowdy ATV trails bordering on hard enduro (hard for me, anyway)

No issues bottoming out (or I'm just too numb to notice) but you're not kidding about the pogo effect. Hitting rollers at any speed got me bouncing everywhere. Apart from that it actually handled everything really well. I was pretty slow but hit a bunch of sketchy climbs, slick roots, mud pits, and everything in between.