The little Honda that Could
With only about 24hp on tap, dragging a 6’ 1” overweight, old enduro rider with about 15kg of luggage was going to be a big task for the little Honda, but Greg rides a CRF300 Rally back home, so knew the score. To make it even more challenging, we were going to be riding in some of the most remote and steepest regions of the Balkans. The Hondas were in various states of tune and preparation. Greg got the standard motor, standard exhaust but with a Hagon shock, and Race Tech front springs just like his 300 Rally back in NZ. Chris and Tim had accessory mufflers and a variety of suspension upgrades. Tim’ s was the loudest by far. They all had various iterations of engine protection but compared to the long legs of the KTM 690s the rest of the team were riding, the little Hondas struggled to keep up the pace and, in fact, fourth or fifth gear revving the guts out of them was the only way to keep up. But in the rough mountain passes, less weight and a shorter wheel base came into their own; flicking in and around the rocks, swapping lines and gaining traction rather than the horsepower wheelspin on the 690s. Way up in the mountains on day three, Greg, showing off, attempted a big hill climb with the“ I Think I Can – I Think I Can – I Think I Can” attitude which near the crest
became“ I Know I Can’ t – I Know I Can’ t – I Know I Can’ t” as Little Red came to a grinding halt. It was here that Greg’ s bike started losing power, slowing on even the shallowest of climbs. Suspecting a dirty air filter, we checked all the Hondas but even after a good clean Greg’ s still wouldn’ t start. Plenty of spark, but no go. We eventually got it fired up after cleaning the fuel line all the way to the pump, and put it down to a combination of bad fuel and altitude. Chris’ 250L was playing up too, intermittently cutting out and failing to start. Checking known faults like the side-stand and clutch switches didn’ t help but we found that a loose battery connection was the issue. We should have diagnosed that straight away rather than way up in the mountains. On several steep rocky climbs the three Baby Reds outshone the big heavy 690s by slowly weaving and winding up past the bigger bikes, with the sound of“ I Know I Can- I Know I Can- I Know I Can”. The rocky trails were easy on the Hondas, being nimble when having to turn back on a tight trail. The big KTMs were whales on these steep tracks. KTM men through and through, Chris and Tim have a new found respect for the Little Hondas.
38 KIWI RIDER