I have always admired Honda bikes and I have owned many over the years starting with my 50cc C100 field bike when I was 14 to my lovely 1978 Honda 750 K6 and 1990 Honda CBR1000F to a more recent stunning VFR1200F and to my current CB1000R naked, they have all been excellent products and super simple to ride and to maintain, real quality products. Like most of my bikes I buy semi new cos bikes in the UK tend to be little used and therefore low mileage so bargains can often be found. And thanks to stupid Brexit we no longer have guys from East Europe coming over with vans and loads of cash to purchase used dealer stock, I know this cos my mate Martin was frequently visited and sold many bikes for cash.
Well at my request Martin found me a 2018 Honda CRF250L with low mileage and full service history which I collected in the Vito in late 2022. I liked the bike which was in standard trim and I started to purchase some bits and pieces (air filter, exhaust plus some protection) and I removed the ECU and sent it to an excellent Italian tuner so the bike was transformed and great fun to ride!!!
So er ok but where was the catch and the sad story then, I hear you ask???. Read on.
As I explored the CRF I started to find LOADS of the old metal worm also known as RUST. On a 4 year old Honda!! Goodness. When I removed the original exhaust to fit an after market Arrow the old one was as rotten as a carrot. Indeed almost everything below the waist line of the bike needed work. The wheels were rusty. The spokes were starting to rust. The underside of the bike was really bad and almost every nut and bolt was red rusty. The frame was rusty. The engine cases were rusty, I had never seen that before on any bike.
So I thought long and hard on what to do. There were two alternatives, either sell the bike on and take a hit OR strip the bike down and have the frame shot blasted and enamel coated and start again. The CRF was manufactured in Thailand and they obviously do not consider the British winter and salt in their manufacturing and finishing processes so the frame is just flashed over with black paint at the factory and then assembled. If I had purchased the bike new then I would have covered her in WD40 so possibly avoided the worst, whereas 4 years in the UK salt have instead totally ruined this poor little bike. So I bit the bullet and traded her back to Martin, farewell rusty!!!
Shame indeed, I have never seen any bike rust so quickly. Especially not a Honda.
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