Ready, right, three, two, one, go. CF Moto 450 Mt, the doing on the block. Oh, big move in there. Go 390.

Is the only bike with a 19-inch front wheel. He's bottoming out there. Oh, jumping cross up. Go right. Royal Enfield Himalayan, one of the heaviest bikes on the test. How oh, just folded the front there. Go right. CRF300 Rally.

So, arguably, the most off-road bike here. That line there. Dr. dropped under the three minute barrier. This MCN video has been produced in partnership with By Sure Insurance.

Welcome to MCN and welcome to our small adventure bike test. I've called it a small adventure bike test, not a lightweight adventure bike test because some of these bikes are nudging onto the 200 kilos.

Yeah, so, um, first up, we've got the brand new CF Moto Mt 450, brand new to the market, got the Royal Enfield Himalayan, which again is the latest version of a very popular bike, bike that probably doesn't need too much of an introduction, the Honda CRF300 Rally, and last but not least, the KTM 390 Adventure.

So starting off with the KTM, Carl, we'll start with the road impressions. What was your, what's your take on it? You know, seating position, riding position, where are you at with it? So it's interesting because obviously this is an adventure bike test. This has got adventure written all over it, and KTM, well, they're known for how good they make adventure bikes.

But you jump on this and it does not have that feel for an adventure bike at all. It feels like a Duke rather than an 890 Adventure R or a 1290 Super Adventure.

It's it it definitely feels like the most road-biased of the lot, and because of that, it's a cracking road bike.

It's sort of, it's, yeah, still a bit buzzy, but you can sit at motorway speeds. The screen does a reasonable job, the dash is quite nice on it, and as a road bike, it does actually perform really well.

I quite enjoyed it, and to be honest, it's probably the one that I would take if I was going to do all my stuff on the road.

What do you think? Yeah, I mean, like you say, it's got it's got nice touching it's got the quick shifter, which is nice, and it feels sprightly.

It's obviously the only bike with a 19in front wheel, which which makes such a difference, makes a difference to change direction.

Obviously, we put knobbly tires on it, but but you're right, it's very wide here, so so that as a result doesn't make it particularly low.

It feels like a sort of a road bike dressed up as an off-road bike rather than what you would expect, exactly what you said, what you'd expect from a from a KTM. But I think you're right.

I think the power is the most powerful bike here, and the way it generates the power, you know, it's Revy, it's engaging, it's all those things that if you if you're only riding on the road, it's right up there in my opinion.

Yeah, exactly that. But because of that, I'd say it's been the hardest to ride off-road for someone on my level. How did you find it off-road? It was a challenge.

Obviously, it was quite low grip. They've had a lot of rain here, and having that 19in front doesn't it doesn't do any favors, it really doesn't. The front felt loose, it just felt the riding position for me just I could never really feel like I could make the difference I wanted just from the width of the seat, the handlebar position.

I don't it's like the pegs are quite high, the bars they're not low, but there's something that sort of relationship where you jump on an 890 and you stand up on the pegs and you go, this is right, this is how it be.

This literally feels the absolute opposite.

You wouldn't believe they'd ever made an off-road bike. No, it's it's not really an adventure like as soon as we got out like where we're riding today, obviously it's not it's it's not gnarly it's not covered in enduro style obstacles.

It's basically 
like a controlled green lane that we could ride on. And as soon as we got out, while it was like slick 
and just a little bit wet on top, that you're just basically hoping the front wheel goes in the 
right direction because of that 19.

It works so   well on the road, but as soon as you get off, and we 
put some better Bridgestone AX41 tires on all of these bikes as well.

It's a tire that's built for 
off-road and on-road, and the purpose of putting them   all on the same tire just means that every bike 
gets a fair crack of the whip. And even even with that, you just felt disconnected.

And like you said, 
when you're standing up, it's so unnatural. It sort   of eggs you over the top. The distance between where 
you're standing, where your legs end up, and where the bars come back is just really unnatural, and 
it's something that I wasn't expecting considering   how much I love the KTMs, the bigger bikes off-road.

They are amazing, and I was a bit underwhelmed if I'm honest.

I mean, when I sort of tried to ride 
it a bit harder, I actually enjoyed it though. The   danger, the danger, not the E, it felt like sketchy, 
it felt alive, you know, that sort of feeling you get when you're on the road.

When you are riding 
it that much harder, it felt like that, but I don't know, you wouldn't want to be doing it all day.

No, 
you know, think in tears, it gets you tired as well because you are fighting it a little bit.

It's low 
as well. You can see how low it is. It's it's it's not, it's definitely a better road bike than off-road 
bike.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. If you are predominantly a road   rider, this is a lovely thing. If you're looking to 
do, like you said earlier, dry gravel, like soft fire road stuff like that, it is capable of doing 
that, but anything more, it sort of it finds its   limits really easily, and it is a bit of a handful.

We was having so much fun on these as well. We s we thought we'd do some lap times on them, but we 
haven't actually told our test pilot what the   times are.

We're going to tell him at the end, so 
we'll try get a gug. But as this was the best road bike that didn't perform off-road, now we're going to sort of move on to the complete opposite end, aren't we?

So moving on to the 300 rally, you know, incredibly popular bike for exactly this, you know, either the 300 or the 300L.

You know, you don't have to go far riding and you'll see one of these bikes for good reason.

Yeah, but I guess just looking at it, you can see it is very much aimed at the off-road market.

So starting with the road side of things, it's obviously the least powerful bike here, the least capacity bike here. How was your experience on the road with the competition?

Yeah, so exactly that. If you're going to be doing, well, depends what you're classing as an adventure, but I'd like to see on an adventure by, you know, big miles on the road, long days and even just the motorway mileage on this, straight away it's buzzy.

It's sitting at the top. It's when you're doing overtakes from like 60 mph onwards, it's just very labored. Obviously, it's a step up from the old 250, it's been out a couple years now, but it's still, you can, you really got to sort of think about it when you're riding it and it's sort of, it's sort of got that soft laziness to it as well.

If you're looking to ride in more of like a spirited fashion, it's not a bike that truly inspires confidence on the road.

It's really soft, it's really sluggish, both on the throttle through the engine and through the suspension setup as well. So it's almost, it's almost a compromise on the road for a bit more of an easier ride off-road.

What did you, what did you think when you was? Yeah, I mean, on road there's no doubt that, you know, the the speed in which you can sort of comfortably sit at, look, it could sit at 70 mph, you know, and no real dramas.

But if you have got some road mileage, to do I like you say the overtaking if you ended up 
putting another 15, 20 kilos of luggage on it, it is it is it underpowered and I think and in this 
competition as well, in this arena in with these  other bikes it's that really exacerbates it.

You 
can sort of get away of it on its own or if you're with another bike that is a 300 Rally or a 
Voge or something like that, but as soon as you've got something with just that tiny bit more it 
really makes it obvious.

Yeah, and I also found that  like you said the suspension, you know, like the 
amount of dive you get when you when you hit the brake, you know, look anyone who's watching 
this and knows the CRF, you know, will know that  there's a lot of companies doing aftermarket 
screaming it.

We're obvious riding the bike St  because that's how we need to be testing and evaluating these 
things, so there are ways to resolve it, but I guess  that doesn't figure the engine side of things.

Yeah, 
you you just wish I had that little bit more power, that little bit more excitement, just a little bit 
more punch.

If it was a CRF 450 Rally like it would just answer all my questions.

I'd probably go out 
and buy one tomorrow. Do you know what I mean? Cuz  it is such an easy, capable, friendly machine that 
sort of does everything well but does nothing incredibly.

No, no, it doesn't. So what did you, what 
did you make of it when you were sort of riding it a bit softer off-road?

So softer off-road it's 
it's it's by far the lightest bike here. Yeah, so that is a is a massive help, you know, just from getting 
it off the stand to just changing direction, just  it feels more manageable.

We've had to do a lot 
of turning around and stuff like that and and it's it's it's good, it feels compliant.

You the 
suspension soft it's like puts his arm around you and says, oh, you know, we'll be fine.

I think it's worth mentioning as well that even though the seat height is quite high, suspension is so soft, even someone of my height, I'm 5' 5, I can still, it still sags enough that you can sort of, you can get a foot down wherever you want.

It's not like you're on a big sort of Desert X Rally or something like that where you're off the edge.

It is friendly. And then it was interesting because I kind of very much had this, I thought it was going to light, wipe the floor with everything and it may well do, but you won't tell me.

But I really found that the suspension was just the limiting factor and I kind of, I didn't have confidence, you know, it's quite whoopy here, yeah, and it's almost like the worst-case scenario of the suspension, you know, crashing through the stroke, bottoming out, then rebounding, and then leaves you in a bit of a mess knowing you've got another whoop to come, you know, so it's a little bit a little bit unnerving and the power very excess.

But like you said, soft, it's so soft it's got noch and that, and that whole setup if you, in like, you know, a bottom of a gnarly rocky climb and it's the end of the day and you're worn out, it's actually what you want because like I say, it's going to sort of look after you, but I guess getting it sideways and stuff, it doesn't have that, it doesn't have that punch.

I mean, for me, you know, I don't personally, I'd probably if I wanted this sort of bike to go off-road, I'd go the 300L, yes, because it's that much lighter.

You you get quite much tank capacity, you don't have the screen, but if off-road's your thing, it's an even more sort of user-friendly, manageable thing, and it's got a 
little bit lighter, right, Enfield?

So now we're   moving on to the new additions to the class. So 
obviously you rode this on the world launch. Yeah, what did you make of it when you were riding it 
around the Himalayas?

I really enjoyed it. I I   came back from that thinking that it was a really 
usable package. I was impressed, you know, riding it back to back with the old 411.

You know, the engine 
is so much more powerful, you know, the options it   gives you on the road and the connection you have. 
It was so lazy, the old one, you such a long stroke motor, and it had its charms, don't get me wrong, and 
I understand why people like it, but this is very   much next generation.

I was also impressed with the 
suspension. It's non-adjustable, but it's quality kit, it's Showa suspension, and this is a heavy 
bike, you know, it's just sort of shy of, you know,   200 kilos, let's be honest.

So I found I was quite 
impressed with the way that it it suspended the bike and dealt with that amount of weight both on 
and off-road.

What what did you think of the sort of   road performance and the road manners? I think the 
first thing that really gets me about this bike, so coming from someone who would go for more of a 
traditional naked or traditional adventure, but the   first thing you feel is sort of that old school 
charm to it, like it's almost, I know it's got way more punch, but especially in this competition, it 
almost borders on leric in terms of how long and   how stable it is, but it makes it really nice and 
easy to core up because you can literally just sort of rail around and it just does its own thing and 
it's so calm and collected considering the weight.

It never sort of ties itself in knots and the 
chassis and the suspension setup works really nicely for that calm and easy gentle ride.

If you 
want something to like cruise around on and pick up   some mileage on, it's brilliant for that, isn't it? 
On the road, it's just a real nice friendly package and yeah, although it does weigh a fair amount 
on on the road, it's not too bad because you've   got obviously that new motor.

It's it never feels 
too slow and too leric. It's sort of where the handling is pretty chilled out.

The engine's just 
got about enough to sort of carry it along, isn't  it? I enjoyed when we were having some riding your 
of on those sort of 45, 50, 55, 60 MPH corners. It was just a really nice place to be, you know, it just holds the line really well, feels well supported and you, like, say you've got enough acceleration, you can accelerate out.

I think it's very much a nice place to be.

Yeah, but the weight I do find a little bit offensive. If I'm for a bike of this capacity, it should be illegal for it to be that heavy.

But to be honest, the only thing that maybe I I didn't enjoy about it was that it just didn't feel like it had much charm or excitement for me.

Like you jump on the KTM and it's just really, it just wants to go and it wants to be ridden, but it can be ridden calm and chilled out.

This sort of it has just one option and that is to be calm and chill.

Like I almost just feel like I should be sitting on it in a open face helmet with like a nice like C denim Jack yeah like and like's nothing with that there's a place there's definitely a place for that and that is the charm that a lot of people will love but if you want something that's a bit more exciting I think there are there are some other machines out there that that deliver it.

What did you think of it in the dirt? So when we were trying to push it and ride it a bit harder it was definitely my like cattiest lap yeah you know I stoed it once and I missed the gear it was you know look that's me you know I can't I can't put the blame on that but I felt I felt Scrappy with it I felt like of when I of started asking more of it it and trying to sort of up the pace yeah it didn't give me anything back and then the sort of second half of the lap it is a bit more flowing and I really had to sort of make a conscious decision to sort of you know just sort of like back down, back off, take a breath and ride it smooth.

And it's got that same thing where it will rail around the corners quite nicely, but it feels heavy for changing direction. And I found the pegs low.

It was the only bike that I actually clipped some of the banking on either side, you know.

And again, you know, I have to take some blame. I don't think it was my, I don't, it was my cleanest lap by any stretch, but I guess it's like, it feels a, it's a, it's a really comfortable package.

You could ride it all day, but if you really want to start sort of pushing it, I think you, you're going to go outside of its comfort zone quite easily. I, I think that that is the thing, like you, you find that it's quite long, it's quite low, it's quite stable in the way that it sort of react and one thing that I struggled about this on the off-road stuff was it feels like the gearing is quite long.

So you sort of in between, you want to be using second, using second on pretty much every bike here, but on this right at the bottom of second and the rear brake doesn't actually give you a lot of feel.

So you're sort of, I can, I stored it as well when I driving it cuz you're sort of on the clutch and you can't really get that feeling through the rear brake that you do on every other bike here, even the KTM, and it just makes it that little bit difficult and then you're thinking about it and as soon as you're thinking about it you already, it just, it wasn't the most comfortable bike for me.

Because you know, someone who's going to buy this isn't the same person that's going to buy a 300 EXC, going to be, you know, so we have to sort of try and play Dev, but what we're trying to do is just highlight, you know, what's good and what's bad when we're pushing it.

slightly outside of their comfort zone, you know, to hopefully that gives you some, you know, some good to show you, to show you it across the whole range of riders that don't do as much off-roading that are more experienced on the road.

That's the whole point of this test and it was, it did impress me, but to be honest, the thing that impressed me more is sitting next to it. Yes, yeah, so this really is the new kid on the block, you know, it's the first time, GED, a lot of, a lot of interest and it's a twin, which is, which is straight away is, is, you know, all these bikes are singles.

This has always been full of singles, you know, and this is a twin, the first kind of twin to market in this class, I'm going to say, yeah, yeah, it's going to be, isn't it?

Yeah, so what was your, what was your taking on it on the road?

Because it obviously looks quite different, I think, to all these other bikes. Yeah, so it's really interesting to look at this because I've rid quite a lot of CFMotos and every single one is just incrementally getting better and better as like their involvement with Pierre and KTM, it's really, really benefiting them.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this cuz obviously it's packed with a load of stuff.

It's got adjustable suspension, it's got really nice Tu tubeless, yeah, it's got loads on it, like you could just list it forever and it's priced really well as well.

And when you jump on it, bril, like it feels like a well-built bigger adventure bike. It almost feels sort of into the middleweight sizes, like your V-Stroms, like your TransAlps, like your Tenere.

It almost has that sort of stature to it when you're sitting in it, and I say sitting in it because it is quite a strange riding position as well, isn't it?

I don't know if you can see it on the camera, but the seat really dips down.

You can see how high the tank is, how low the seat is, so you go to swing a leg over it and you sort of just sit down into it if you're, if you're a shorter height.

if you've got sort of less leg length, it's going 
to be really beneficial for you. Yeah, but yeah, I really enjoyed this on the road. The engine is 
really responsive, it's really exciting. It has the best sound across all of these bikes by a long 
way.

It's the only one that we can even hear in the woods. I think probably my only gripe with it, which 
is quite a big gripe, is that it is aggressive on the initial throttle pickup.

It is, it is 
obnoxiously aggressive, just that it's like we're off. Yeah, it goes from like zero to 15% instantly, 
whereas everything else goes from like zero to 5 or 6%.

That's what it feels like. But aside from that, 
the engine is lovely, it's really characterful, yeah, makes a great noise, it sits at 70 happily, and 
the riding position is really nice too, for when you're riding in the corners.

What’s the best small adventure bike of 2024? KTM v Royal Enfield v CFMoto v Honda | MCN Review

What’s the best small adventure bike of 2024? KTM v Royal Enfield v CFMoto v Honda | MCN Review

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