Third time lucky? The little Honda is back in the woods, and back in the slop, but this time in not so sunny Lincolnshire, on my home turf. Or mud at least.
Reeling a little from spending a day upside down, I whipped the tyres over to something totally familiar and mounted a set of Michelin Enduro Mediums onto some used BIB mousses. Ex Dakar ones in fact, so not entirely suitable for a cold afternoon in the UK being desert mousses, but they’ve had a kicking already, so are pretty soft.
The Honda washed up well after being rubbed along a good chunk of Wales, so looks brand new on arrival again. With the exception of an indicator, which is somewhere between here and last Wednesday. Not a build quality issue at all, I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did to be honest…
Anyway, back to the current. My local enduro practice track has some cheeky sloppy chalky ascents, with some clubman ruts and some sportsman’s bogs at each end. They’re beyond the limit for probably 70% of the gathered riders in winter and in conditions like this. I’ve arrived previously to be informed they’re totally impassable, and then spent my day picking different lines with the little woods to myself. Today was a bit like that, only I wasn’t picking the lines, more I was very much a Scalextric rider firmly rooted in the rut. I was getting up, but it’s not pretty – that high revving traction-breaking power curve at it again. Again, I had time to stop, take photos and assess where I was losing traction – I wasn’t holding anyone up in there, as everyone else was bypassing them, but plans are afoot to try and sort things out with the snappy delivery and the vague clutch.
It’s important to point out that in bermed corners, in loose loam and where there’s even a modicum of grip the little Honda is a ripper, but get it out of its comfort zone and it struggles. It also highlights just how good the competition is here, the orange (and white) army really are ready to race (enduro) – I hot lapped between the CRF and a Husky FE350 and the difference was quite astounding, but I was conscious of how much I was fingering the clutch, and how that would transpose over to the Honda. All the while flying though…
We’ve just had an office chat about the Honda. Its merits are great and numerous. Fabulous chassis, plenty of power when there’s grip and it’s a dream to flick about – but we really must try and calm it down with its delivery. It’s the perfect weapon for a Californian loamy backwoods ripper, and for the groomed MX track, but neither of these locations are within my vicinity. I’m sure we can get there, but let’s see what happens. A flywheel and a hydraulic clutch are on the shopping list, and I hope it’s transformative, as whilst it’s quite a shortfall, it’s only that last inch to get us up and over the top, and we’d be full of praise. It’s just that’s it’s an important inch….
