ENDURO BUILD | 2019 HONDA CRF450L
SHIELDS
The CRF450L comes with plastic
engine shields packed with foam to
deaden noise. Protection wise, all
they’ll stop is small sticks and rocks
from scratching the engine. Any large
impact will still damage the cases
through the plastic so our guess is that
they’re purely there to meet European
emission laws.
Large plastic shields are bolted over
the stator and clutch covers. To remove
these, you have to undo certain
mounting bolts and then pull the
plastic away from the engine. Then you
will need to replace the existing
mounting bolts with shorter ones as
the original bolts are now too long.
The CRF450L also has a large rear
chainguard that we removed and
discarded along with a guard on the
left hand side which protects the wires
thatruntothesidestandcut-out
switch.Becausewe’realsoremoving
theswitch,wedon’tneedthatguard.SIDESTAND
Wefeltthesidestandswitchwasjust
anelectricaldevicewaitingtoget
clobberedordrownedinthebushand
stoptheenginesoweremovedit.Todo
thisyousimplyunboltit,followthe
wiresbacktoaplugunderthefuel
tankanddisconnectit.Youthenneed
tocutthewiresleadingtothe
sidestandswitch,jointhemtogetherto
makealoopandthenplugtheswitch
backintocompletetheelectrical
circuitsothebikewillstart(Howto
Tech,#474).EXHAUST
Theexhaustsystemismadeof
stainlesssteelandhasabunchof
stainless-steelbracketsandheatshields
weldedtoit,alltoppedoffwithmore
plasticguards.Thismakestheexhaust
heavyandthatweightisuphighsowe
removedtheplasticshieldsandthrew
themaway.
Wethenusedagrindertoremovethe
stainlesssteelmountingbracketsand
excessheatshieldtoreduceweightas
muchaspossible.ItalsoensuredI
didn’tslicetheinsideofmythighifI
slippedofftheback.Notonlydidthis
givethepipeaslimmerfeelitalsoRear guard now needs a new fastening bolt Removing heatshield brackets from the mufflerBrakelight switch is vulnerable Sidestand wires need to be traced back to plugimprovedtheaesthetics.
Thepipeisstillrestrictiveandheavy
butit’smuchbetterthanitwasbefore
wetookthegrindertoit.Staytunedas
wewaitforaprototypepipefromFMF
toarriveinacoupleofmonths.OVERFLOWTANK
Underthemotor,hiddeninthe
skidplate,isaradiatoroverflowtank.
Thiscatchesanycoolantpuikedout
whentheengineoverheatsandthe
coolantboilsover.Whenthebikecools
downthepartialvacuuminthe
radiatordrawsthecoolantbackin.
Thisconceptworkswellbutadds
unnecessaryweight.Thebikealready
hasathermofantopreventthebike
fromoverheating.Forittoactuallyboil
thebillyitwillneedtositidlinginthe
onespotforalongtimeonahotday
withoutmoving.
Ifyou’recommutingyoumightwant
tokeepittostopcoolantgettingonthe
backtyre.Weremovedtheoverflow
tankandranastraightoverflowhose
tothegroundjustthesameasmost
endurobikesrun.Awarningthatgoes
withthistrickisthattheriderwill
nowhavetobeawarethatifthebike
overheatstheywillneedtowaitforit
tocooldownandthentopthecoolant
upbeforeridingagain.TRAILLIGHT
The LED taillight on the Honda is a
unique setup. It has the red mudguard
that you can see and then a black
guard underneath that runs all the way
up from the airbox as well as heavy
brackets for the gigantic numberplate
mount and taillight.
We decided to clean this up by
removing the brackets and taillight
and shortening the black under-guard.
The only problem is that this leaves a
large gap between the two guards for
mud, water and dust to run down into
the airbox. For this reason, we cut a
piece of high-density foam and
clamped it between the two self-
tapping screws in the rear guard to fill
the gap and seal the airbox.
Then we had to drill a hole through
the red rear guard and the aluminum
bracket that it sits on and fit a bolt to
keep the rear guard in place. The
plastic lug under the guard is no longer
needed so we cut it off to make room to
fit a much neater enduro taillight.NEATEN IT UP
The stock handgrips are quite hideous
so we cut them off and fitted a new
pair with some glue and lock wire. We
also removed the bulky stock
handguards and replaced them with a94 | MAY 2019 http://www.adbmag.com.au