RED REVOLUTION
Depending on where you look in the current environment under COVID-19, motorcycling is either in a bleak state or going well. Road bike sales are down and national racing categories have been unable to complete their seasons – or even start them in some cases.
But look elsewhere and there is some light in the darkness. Dirt bike sales increased a whopping 42.4 per cent in the first half of 2020, and sure, most of the increases were in kids bikes (most likely bought by parents to keep their offspring from going bonkers under lockdown!), but full-sized dirt bikes didn’t miss out, with all the 450-class MXers recording sales gains for the Jan-Jun 2020 period - a good sign for that segment of the industry.
Other positives include a raft of new models that have either arrived or are due to reach our shores soon. For the motocross fraternity, the most eagerly awaited new bike for 2021 would have to be Honda’s radically overhauled CRF450R.
NEW FOR ‘21
The 2021 CRF450R is the sixth generation version of a model that brought Honda into the four-stroke motocross age
