Hamilton ). That ’ s where I found it and upon discovery I immediately told salesman Andy to “ shut up and take my money !” Yep , knowing full well that this bike had been ridden hard , dropped , wheelied , jumped and thoroughly ‘ tested ’, I still bought it . While that goes against most automotive buying instincts that scream to avoid a bike that has seen even half the abuse I knew this bike had seen in those short 2000km , I still forked over a tidy sum and rode off into the sunset . There were a couple of reasons for this . Firstly , it is a Honda and seemingly close to indestructible if looked after . Secondly , with a young family the idea of breaking in a new bike was thoroughly unappealing . Plus , knowing that I was probably going to drop it , it made sense to buy a ‘ pre-dropped ’ bike so I didn ’ t cry as much the first time it went down . Turns out it was good thinking as five years on I can confirm that it has been about as reliable as the sun . It is a Honda after all . Pleasingly , for my emotional state , I have also yet to cry when the plastic fairings have hit the dirt , which has become more frequent as I ’ ve continued to push myself and the bike off road .
BIG DREAMS Despite the Rally being a humble entrylevel bike , I had some pretty big dreams for it from the get-go . With adventure riding becoming the flagship sector for most of the industry , I figured I needed to get aboard a bike that I could learn to get down and dirty on . The CRF250L Rally with its friendly 249cc single-cylinder engine , relative light weight ( compared to what I was used to ) and long travel suspension seemed to be the perfect bike to get started on sorting out those skills on . In fact , at the time , it was the only option on the market with a switchable version of the
46 KIWI RIDER