CRF450RL (PD11)

The CRF450RL is not a soft trail bike wearing motocross plastics. Honda took its top motocross chassis and engine, gave the gearbox six wider-spaced ratios, bolted on lights and a plate, and stopped there. You get a 449 cc liquid-cooled single in an aluminum twin-spar frame, with fully adjustable Showa suspension offering 12.0 in (305 mm) of travel up front and 11.8 in (300 mm) at the rear. There is no ABS, no traction control and no ride modes. Every decision is yours. At 291 lb (132 kg) wet, it's one of the most purely off-road machines you can register for the street.

It feels most at home in tight woods, deep sand and technical singletrack, the places where heavier dual-sports turn into a liability. The power is sharp and the throttle needs a precise hand. That makes it a bike for committed, experienced riders, not a first dirt bike. It's a race-bred engine, so it wants frequent oil changes and valve checks. Here is the honest caveat, and in my book it matters most on an enduro: the low-end fueling has a consistent hiccup and the engine can pop-stall at random on the trail. A tuned fuel map is the first job on the list. Get that sorted and the rest of the package is very hard to fault.