2021 Factory Off-Road Bikes—Ricky Brabec’s Honda CRF450 Rally

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Following employment in their given field of battle, the majority of factory racebikes spend the remainder of their existence on display, never again to be ridden in anger.

That, of course, is a shame.

One particular works machine, however, is an exception to that “rule.” That would be one of the Monster Energy Honda Team’s CRF450 Rally bikes built by HRC and used earlier this year at the Dakar Rally.

While it might not be the exact bike that Ricky Brabec raced to second in the 2021 Dakar Rally, it was one of the team bikes used. Afterward, it was rebuilt at HRC headquarters in Barcelona then shipped to JCR Honda for Brabec to use in select “training” races until Dakar 2022. It’s absolutely nothing like the production CRF450X and you’d basically have to throw away a production bike to build a genuine replica. (Mark Kariya/)

Instead of being cleaned up and stashed in a corner of a Honda museum, this bike is continuing to provide valuable data as it lives out its days (at least for this year) as the weapon of choice for Ricky Brabec who’s depending on it in a number of races on the North American continent to train for next year’s Dakar.

While in North America, the Johnny Campbell Racing (JCR) Honda team is responsible for the care and feeding of not only this CRF450 Rally but others that are shipped to the squad’s HQ in Southern California. Thus, Campbell and crew are the unquestionable authorities on these unique and supremely trick machines.

After we inquired about doing a feature on it, Campbell relayed the request to his bosses in Japan and after two days, he informed us we’d been granted permission for this exclusive story. (Owing to the number of details that Honda preferred to remain secret, a number of items would be off limits, though Campbell offered to couch the descriptions in somewhat nonspecific terms.)

So we caught up to the JCR squad as they were busy loading vehicles—including this bike, of course—before leaving to do some last-minute testing in Barstow, California, later in the day. From there, they’d head to Las Vegas in order to participate in qualifying the next day for Best in the Desert’s 25th Anniversary Casey Folks/Maxxis Vegas to Reno, presented by Fox. (That would be followed by technical inspection the day after with the actual race the day after that.)

Instead of aluminum tubing, the CRF450 Rally subframe is carbon fiber, sourced from Toray Carbon Magic. It carries the two rear fuel tanks which are connected by a crossover tube. Underneath the Noguchi seat (speedily removable via a quick-disconnect pin on each side) is a carbon fiber tray holding many of the electrical components; it can be quickly removed for service. (Mark Kariya/)

According to Campbell, after Dakar, the bikes are shipped back to the HRC headquarters in Barcelona (to share workspace in the shop with Honda’s works RC213V MotoGP bikes) where they are completely renewed—front to back, top to bottom, inside and out. (They’re nothing like the production CRF450X or even the limited-edition CRF450RWE. Only a few minor pieces are sourced from the Honda production line. The rest are true works components, painstakingly built to exacting specs for rally raid’s unique demands.) Following that, they’re ready for whatever races the team’s riders participate in, whether the FIM World Cross-country Rallies championship or more localized events closer to each rider’s base. (Beyond that, Campbell says, “Their ‘retirement’ is [as] a practice bike.” After its post-Dakar rebuild, this unit has only been raced at the Sonora Rally.)

For 2020 Dakar winner Brabec, one of those events is Vegas to Reno, which requires a slightly different approach and setup compared to rally raid.

“These bikes are built and designed for multiday—multiweek—type, stage rallies,” Campbell begins. “Here in the US, we don’t really have any rallies.

“These bikes carry a lot of fuel (about nine gallons are distributed among the three separate fuel cells)—a lot more than a Baja-style bike or a Vegas-to-Reno-style bike. There’s some advantage to that because the bike is designed and built to carry a lot of fuel, which means we don’t have to stop at every possible refueling area.” (This year’s V2R has 12 designated pits along its 489-mile route where competitors can take on fuel or perform any maintenance, but the plan for Brabec is to utilize just three of them.)

“At the same time,” Campbell continues, “we’re carrying more weight and we don’t have the dry-break systems. With the screw-on caps on the gas tanks, it takes longer to fuel the bikes, hence we’ve got to make up the time by bypassing pits.” (The team still uses quick-dump cans, but without dry-break receivers in the tanks, there’s a greater chance of fuel spillage, so each man must be extra careful. Just as in JCR’s Baja-winning bikes, the CRF450 Rally runs on standard pump gas, though in the US that’s the premium blend.)

This profile view of the Toray Carbon Magic carbon fiber nav tower shows that it’s bolted to the steering head, and even without the instruments in place, it provides a fairly even surface in the interests of rider safety. Note, too, the tow strap for emergencies. The spare throttle can be affixed to this side as well. (Mark Kariya/)

“The suspension settings are quite the same because the bike is built and designed with all the weight and the fuel and the nav equipment [in the equation].”

Since Vegas to Reno is a marked course that makes navigation equipment superfluous, Brabec’s bike is able to shed some items and, thus, weight. “We don’t have an Iritrak or GPS—[they’re] just some unnecessary items. We carry a few other spare parts [instead],” Campbell says. “We can eliminate quite a bit of weight up front.” (“Quite a bit” can be relative; Campbell revealed that one piece of nav gear is about like a ruggedized iPad and weighs roughly a pound; it’s housed in the carbon fiber nav tower that comes from Toray Carbon Magic in Japan. Yet when that was introduced, it required stiffer suspension settings for the Showa components due not only to the weight but its location high up on the bike.)

In rallies, refueling is a more relaxed affair as organizers build in ample time to allow competitors to top off tanks and restore nutritional demands.

Not so in an all-out desert race like Vegas to Reno where every second in the pits is a second not moving forward on the course and, thus, a second lost to the competition.

Since the navigation equipment can be ditched for Vegas to Reno, JCR removed the speed sensor on the front wheel and machined a spacer to take its place. An added benefit is quicker wheel changes. In the same vein, in back JCR pinned the axle blocks in place—a trick developed in its winning Baja bikes. Campbell claims a full service (changing both wheels and filling all three gas tanks with nearly 9 gallons of premium) at the halfway point of V2R will only take about a minute! Of course, that’s with six guys working in close proximity and due care not to interfere with another’s task. (Mark Kariya/)

To speed the scheduled wheel changes midway through, JCR has implemented some of its Baja-winning tricks, adapting them to the CRF450 Rally. Among those is removing the speed sensor on the front wheel and machining a spacer to replace it. That means fewer parts to line up when slamming the axle back in, though there’s no grab bar on that axle as an enduro bike might feature.

In back, axle blocks are pinned in place—again to reduce the number of parts that might fall out of place during the wheel change. By the way, at that pit halfway through the race, there will be six people working on the bike: three to dump gas into the tanks, one at either end to change that end’s wheel, and one simply to steady the bike on the stand. It’ll be a crowded workspace!

“We’ve got to be careful not to step on each other’s toes!” Campbell observes.

Michelin tires and mousses are provided, the front being a 90/100-21 Enduro Medium and the rear a 140/80-18 Desert Race.

The control center. Since navigation equipment isn’t needed for V2R, Brabec won’t run what he’d use in rallies, providing relief for his left thumb. That’ll save quite a bit of weight. The large cavity for the digital roadbook (in the center) will remain covered, thus providing a more even surface should he hit a G-out or something that causes his helmet to slam into the nav tower. While Brabec can choose between two ECU maps via the yellow switch on the right, he normally runs one setting at all times. Note the throttle, which has no traditional cable. It’s linked to the PGM-FI via ride-by-wire and a spare throttle assembly can be carried on the left side of the tower. (Mark Kariya/)

Due to the overall design of the CRF450 Rally, air filter service is not expected as the Twin Air filter is housed under the front of the Noguchi saddle—a comparatively high, protected location though not quite as much as, say, Yamaha’s. A carbon fiber cover above it carries three slots that help direct airflow into the top of the filter which feeds directly into the downdraft PGM-FI fuel-injection throat.

While Campbell couldn’t divulge how the twin-cam engine has evolved over the years, he did point out that many features of the HRC concept bike have trickled down to Honda’s production bikes.

One of the details he could provide was the 15/48 gearing via the Renthal sprockets and special D.I.D ERV5 X-ring chain. With the bike’s six-speed transmission and well over 60 hp claimed, that combination was good for an estimated top speed “in the upper teens,” Campbell allows—obviously a conservative mark, though he points out, “Generally during races—like Baja races and stuff—the bikes don’t go the maximum potential speed. I would say this one’s probably going to reach 110, 112, somewhere in there during the race, which is still very fast!”

A Twin Air filter is housed in a cavity beneath the front of the Noguchi seat. The location is fairly well protected from most dust—so much so that the team plans to run the entire 489 miles without changing the filter. (Mark Kariya/)

Another weight-saving measure is not filling the cavity in the composite skid plate with the emergency drinking water required for Dakar. “Being solo and a 500-mile race is a tricky thing,” Campbell notes. “You have to eat right, but you also have to have hydration, which is most important. He’s on a regimen that takes care of his body for the whole eight hours he’s on the bike. We have a plan to help switch out that and make sure he has the proper nutrition, at least at the halfway point when we do the service on the bike.”

Brabec must be a quick eater; when asked how long that service takes, Campbell answers succinctly: “About one minute.”

With a record entry of 400 teams in the week leading up to the race, the silver anniversary Vegas to Reno provided some of the highest level competition in the race’s history. Prior to the event, Campbell was cautiously optimistic, noting that, “We’ve been very successful in this race with this machine going back to ‘16 with Joan [Barreda].” (Brabec was the only one entered on the CRF450 Rally for this edition, Kendall Norman entered on the team as a backup rider.)

“Ricky’s won three so now he wants to see if he can tie the boss at four,” Campbell laughed.

Editor’s note: Days later, in the longest one-day off-road race in North America, Brabec piloted his works CRF450 Rally to a runner-up finish behind the team of Dalton Shirey and Jacob Argubright.

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