Ash Dog
The 2025 CRF450R Media Ride Event was last week and Honda was amazing to invite us out for the day to test the new bike. It turns out that they pulled out all of the stops for the attendees as well, making it a classy event. We had our new test rider Ashton Bloxom come out to the event to give his take on the bike and the following is his review. Ash Dog (24) is from Texas, and currently races the 250 class in the Pro Motocross Championship. He finished 34th overall at Spring Creek with 31-32 Moto scores. Now he’s our test rider as well!
Hey guys, Ashton Bloxom here, the guys at Vurb hit me up and asked me if I would be down to go test out the new CRF450R at the Honda Media Ride Day scheduled at Ironman, and of course I said yes. It turned out to be a trip of a lifetime for me.
I also must mention that Troy Dog drove up for the ride day to bro down and vlog (He was gifted the coolest Ogio bag of all time).
Honda flew me out to Indiana and paid for everything from travel, hotel, food, transport, and they even rented out a go kart place for us. I arrived at the airport and we had private drivers to transport us to the hotel. They had the all new bike displayed in the lobby for us to checkout on the way to our rooms. Honda introduced us to the new bike and went over everything that was new with it as well as what the goal of the project was.
Honda’s main goals were to improve the stability and comfort of the bike all while retaining its nimble turning character. The frame consists of 70% new components from the last generation. They implemented that many changes to optimize rigidity and reduce the transfer of forces from the rear of the bike to the front (their words not mine). They added a bunch of new components to the front end to achieve consistent and stable front end feel. Honda also added new components to the forks to reduce harshness and make the rider feel more in control.
One of the coolest aspects is the brand new shock link design for a smoother rear and improve the bottoming resistance of the shock. Along with the new shock link they added new components to the shock as well.
New front brake to prevent fading, new air box for a more simplified air flow, new exhaust header and a new ECU. The midsection of the bike is wider so that the rider will have more grip of the bike through their legs. The shock is now easier to remove having to only take out five parts rather than eight, which cuts the time to remove it in half.
Having said all that let’s get to my personal review. I was a little nervous about riding a 450 considering I had barely ridden one in the past and when I did, it was a Yamaha. I currently race a Yamaha YZ250F, so I wasn’t sure how the change was going to be for me. Riding a 450 in the past, I always felt that the power was very abrupt and that they were hard to hang onto considering my size.
My first impression was amazing. After about two laps I felt immediately comfortable on it and I was able to hit my marks and nail all of the big jumps that Ironman has to offer. The power delivery was very smooth and I never felt out of control when getting to full throttle. My first session was about 30 minutes and I was amazed at how good the bike felt. The bike cornered very well and the stock suspension felt very smooth entering corners and powering through the jumps.
The only change I made was going a click stiffer on the forks. The bike has three settings, a smooth setting, a more dialed down setting, and an aggressive setting. I rode all three for a lengthy amount of time and they all felt amazing. My personal favorite was the aggressive setting, but I feel as though they hit the mark to please riders of all skill through the different modes. I put about two and a half hours on the bike and honestly I was ready for more. Considering the bike was all stock, I can only imagine how good it would feel adding parts that suit more to your riding style.
I threw some whips, railed some ruts and blasted up and down the terrain of Ironman. It was a dirtbike rider’s dream getting to ride a national level track such as Ironman, all to myself. We had some of the best camera dudes in the business grabbing content for us (Mike Emery & Chris Post). They followed us around the track capturing awesome memories and having a full photoshoot of all the riders. I can’t thank those guys enough for all their hard work.
I have nothing but great things to say about the people over at Honda, they made us feel factory the whole trip. We got to pit under the semi and they took care of everything as far as bike work and they even washed it in between sessions. They were on hand and ready to make any changes we felt were necessary to the bike. Honda also had set up a hospitality area with food and drinks for us all day. They were very hands on with us about everything.
After the ride day they flew me out to Minnesota so that I could race Round 7 of the Pro Motocross Championship at Spring Creek. I went 31-32 on the day in the 250 class and that topped off the dream week I had riding dirtbikes.
The experience as a whole was amazing and to everyone involved I want to say thank you. It was definitely one of the best experiences of my life. Shoutout to the boys at vurbmoto for letting me be their test rider at this event and hopefully we get to do more in the future.
If you’re looking at getting a new bike I highly recommend the all new 2025 CRF450R from Honda. It releases in August starting at $9,699 MSRP.
Until next time.
Images Courtesy of Align Media
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