OUR BIKES
Honda’s press fleet I finally got a chance to
swing a leg over the Rally in a head-to-head
test against the Kawasaki Versys-X 300.
While you could argue the Kawasaki is in the
same class, it is much more of a road-focused
machine with its stiff, short-stroke suspension
and revvy parallel-twin engine, and it really
showed on that ride around the Coromandel.
The fact the Kawasaki’s ergonomics inflicted
more pain on my body than the Honda
(seriously, is that Kawi’s seat made of stone?)
only furthered my desire for the little Rally
despite the 15hp power deficit.
After playing around on the Rally for a week
or so I found myself falling utterly in love with
it while taking every gravel road I could find on
my way home. I never thought I’d actually get
a chance to play again, until the 2017 Cold Kiwi
Rally when somehow the very same press bike
found its way back to me for the trip.
If there is any way to spend Father’s Day
weekend, it’s at the Cold Kiwi. Riding out with
camping gear and a bag of kit strapped to
the Rally alongside dad on his Tiger 1050 and
a friend on a DL650 V-Strom, the little Honda
really proved that in the twisty stuff keeping
the pace up isn’t all about how many cubes
you’re rocking.
Putting a further 1500km under the Rally’s
wheels helped bring more of reality into the
experience and sort-of removed some of the
rose tint from my goggles.
While my initial assessment had the seat as not
that bad, after an extended stint in the saddle
and the bike having more kilometres on it since
my last ride, I started feeling like I was sitting on
the subframe at times. Luckily the seat is long
and flat which means it is pretty easy to change
position to try to get comfortable again, but
there are always plenty of chances to stretch
your legs because the 10.2-litre fuel tank – while
bigger than the base CRF250L – means you’re
often left feeling anxious about your fuel range.
It was the range anxiety that really stung me,
40 KIWI RIDER