uppin' the ante

The ‘all-new’ 2022 Honda CRF250R was kept extremely quiet as its global release approached. In fact, I can’t remember such a highly-anticipated bike being kept so quiet in the last decade. We expect to see spy photos leaked from some far corner of the globe but not in 2021. It’s a strange year.

Here in Australia we’re used to seeing our new model Honda’s months after America receive theirs which can be quite frustrating. But not this time around. A perfectly coordinated global launch controlled by a strict embargo worked like clockwork.

When the bike was unveiled there was no real surprise to see that the quarter-litre machine looked a heck of a lot like its big brother, the 2021 CRF450R with its sleek styling and single tail pipe exhaust system. But just looking at photos is never a good way to judge a