Honda has tackled the Dakar Rally with factory efforts 9 times since 1981, but 2013 will mark their first entry with a bike based on a production motorcycle. Using the $8,440 CRF450X as a platform, the souped up race specimen ditches the Keihin carburetor for fuel injection, adds capacity to the gas tank, incorporates a nav system, and beefs up the chassis and bodywork to handle a proper Dakar beating. The bike will be campaigned in next year's Dakar Rally by five riders, including 11-time Baja 1000 champ Johnny Campbell.
And while the racer looks like a solid rig, the greatest thing about the factory motorcycle is that its rally parts will be commercially available in kit form, much in the same way Honda has sold go fast bits through their race division, HRC.
"The pricing and distribution of the rally kit are still in the planning stages," American Honda rep Kevin Aschenbach told me over email. But whatever the cost (and the assumed non-legality of road use), how cool would it be to own a clone of a factory Dakar Rally race bike?!
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