There and back in the Mitsubishi Triton.
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“Boys! I have a 2023 CRF450R in stock, why not come and take it for a whirl?”
That was Pio, DP of the Honda Wing Vaal dealership in Vereeniging.
“While you are at it… Bike people use bakkies – let’s pop it onto a Mitsubishi Triton and you can share your thoughts on that too…”
Sounded like it had the makings of a great day out. We roped in the talents of James Lottering, hopped on to the bikes (our long term Gixxer 1000 and the new DL1050) and took a leisurely ride out to the dealership.
Two gleaming machines were waiting. The Honda, naturally got most of the attention.
We loaded it up onto the Mitsubishi Triton Bakkie and hit the road to Sasolburg and the famous Sandtrax MX track, just on an hour away from JHB.
When we arrived the gate was locked – a quick call to Deon who runs the place and the gate was opened.
It’s been a long time since we last came out here to test a KX.
Back then, it was literally a quarry with a few jumps – now, it’s proper, all fenced with good parking. The sandy track itself is hard work, but flows beautifully and is well maintained.
The 450R
The bike is virtually unchanged from the’22 model. All the main design features from earlier models are still here.
It has a downdraft intake system that draws clean air over the top shock mount and eventually leads to a centrally located exhaust port. The Unicam valve train uses one cam and a series of finger followers to operate titanium intake and steel exhaust valves. For 2023, the intake ports have been reshaped, the throttle body is downsized from 46mm to 44mm, and the cam profile is redesigned. Honda also redesigned the exhaust with a new interior.
On paper, the Honda produces 52.5 hp at 9,100 rpm and 35.1 lb. -ft. of torque at 6,600 rpm.
But how does it go?
This time we roped in vets rider James Lottering to put the bike through its paces.
He says:
A couple of laps on the bike as it came off the showroom floor made me tired. Ok it wasn’t only the bike, but the sand was dry, like silk, really slippery, a proper mid-week workout.
I love the feel of the Honda, it’s so tiny and probably the narrowest on the market. Personally, I like a narrow bike, it lets you move around and Honda has it all waxed.
Out of the box, the bike felt a bit stiff, so in the corners the bike pushes through the berm rather than rolling with it, so you want a bit of give so that you can find a bit of traction.
For 2023, Honda tamed the power delivery and fitted a much more compliant suspension package.
I had to go into the pits, grab the spanners and do a little bit of setup.
I moved the levers and bars a bit (thus the spanners) and I had to stiffen the suspension a bit.
I love the fact that the Showa clickers are all tool free now, modern bikes are great. They’ve done some updates this year – one click equals four clicks on the old bikes.
Man it works well, you can really feel it. On the down side, buyers will fiddle and might bugger it up because it’s all so simple.
A tip:
Setting up suspension is your most critical secret to going faster.
Take your base and remember where the clickers are set. Click forward or back, ride. If it works, then great, if not just remember where you were before you started playing.
I went a bit softer on the front forks, one click on the rear and we sped up the rebound which helps to keep the wheel on the ground.
In terms of power, I know that on paper Honda does not have the most horsepower out there, but that’s not to say that the bike isn’t quick, balanced and smooth.
Ask any racer, that’s a lot more important than outright horses.
The CRF450R features a comprehensive electronics suite. Honda Selectable Torque Control (HSTC) lets the rider choose from three torque delivery modes to optimize the amount of wheel. HSTC Mode 1 intervenes more gently and after a longer interval; this is intended to make torque delivery easier to control out of tight corners. When set on Mode 3, HSTC comes in immediately and with a sharper cut of the torque to the rear wheel, better suited for riding on slippery surfaces. Mode 2 is of course the intermediate solution. Don’t want any interference from HSTC? Switching it off is also an option.
HRC Launch Control assists the rider at the start of a race, delivering maximum acceleration through the gears. Like HSTC, it also offers three levels: Level 1 is intended for professional riders and allows the engine to push up to 9,500 rpm; Level 2 cuts at the revs at 8,500 rpm and is intended for standard condition and average riders; and Level 3 drops the limit to 8,250 rpm to make life easier for novices. Finally, the electronics also include an Engine Mode Select Button (EMSB) allowing the rider to modify the character of the engine response according to three maps: Standard, Smooth, and Aggressive.
I love the Honda Mapping switch setup, it’s simple to use and really effective. Hot, medium or mild.
3 different traction control settings for each map – that’s more than most other dirtbikes offer.
For SandTrax, map 2 suits me best, it’s the most linear – and for sand, traction control off.
Just a small amount of setup and man this bike impressed! It’s really competitive – were I to buy one, I’d just spend some time on the suspension – today the bit of fiddling that I did made a huge difference – and I’d fit a slip-on pipe.
But only because I like a big four-stroke to bark!
As for SandTrax…
I thought I was fit but this track kicked my ass!
Anyone training MX – or even enduro should come and train here, especially when it’s dry – a proper workout!
And that’s not a bad thing. Riding terrain like this will only make you a better rider and prepare you for tracks like Rover and Wethered.
0825107964
https://www.facebook.com/p/Sandtrax-MX-Park-100057385752253/
The Mtsubishi L200 Triton Bakkie:
Sean says:
Mitsubishi bakkies were hugely popular a few years ago, especially the Colt Rodeos but we do seem to have forgotten about them a little bit. Maybe it is due to their marketing programme or the hugely popular competitors they have in the market these days. Perhaps it’s the favourable pricing from the new brands flooding in from the likes of India and China. Who knows?
We owned a colt Rodeo here at the office and worked it extremely hard for very many years with very little in the way of trouble, so we know it’s a great brand.
We were given the 2.4L DI-SC M/T 4×2 L200 base line for the day and on paper it looked very impressive. The 2.4 litre, intercooled, DOHC, 4 pot turbo mill with common rail injection kicks out and very useable 100 kw at 3,500 rpm and a very decent 324 Nm of torque from as low as 2,500 rpm all the while only sipping as claimed 8L/100km of diesel, that is around 12.5 km’s per litre which in theory should give you an easy 900 plus kilometres on a tank of the precious stuff, a big consideration into today economy. At around R22.00 per litre and approximately R1,650.00 per tank full, that works out to about R1,80 per kilometre in fuel.
A huge consideration for us is the loading space and capacity as well as the towing capacity, we often have to run around collecting and dropping off two or more bikes at a time.
The load bin is huge!
Eyeballing it, she looks almost as big as our trusty H100 dropside bakkie.
On the day, it easily swallowed up the Honda CRF450R dirt bike, 2 3x3m’s gazebos, a mx stand for the bike, all of James boxes of kit and general tools for the track side setups and a loading ramp with plenty of space to spare.
The spec sheet says it is 2,265mm’s long, 1,520mm’s wide and 475mm’s deep which compares favourably to what Google tells us about the H100 bin at 3,110mm’s in length, 1,630mm’s wide and 733mm’s deep.
We could easily get two, maybe even 3 dirt bikes on the L200 with the middle bike facing backwards. 2 super bikes also looks easily and safely doable. We love the fact that there are lots of sensible tie down points.
Nowhere in the specs does it show but we assume it is a standard 1-ton load capacity bakkie, but the suspension does feel quite firm and quite able to load a bit more, it does however tell us on the spec sheet that it can tow a braked trailer load of up to 1,400kg’s. So, towing and carrying capacity is more than sufficient for our needs.
Besides being a good-looking vehicle with the modern aggressive styling it has an exceptionally useful 200mm ground clearance and with the aftermarket mags fitted to the unit we drove really looks properly rugged. The cab is also designed for beeeg South African manne our 2-metre tall, 115kg office Orangutang easily and comfortably slotted in behind the steering wheel with plenty head and leg room, albeit that he did ram the vinyl upholstered driver’s seat right up against of the back of the cab.
The twin passenger seats are adjustable forwards and backwards. The steering wheel is height adjustable, the windows are electric with one touch down, unexpected in this work horse as is the speed sensing auto lock doors with central locking.
And it is equipped with a surprising amount of safety features and driver aids.
It has a reinforced impact safety evolution cab construction, 2 airbags as standard, side impact protection bars, brake override system, ABS, EBD and even an immobiliser and a day night adjustable rear-view mirror mounted to the windshield.
This bakkie does seem to have been built with a South African driver in mind.
In general, the inside of the cab is utilitarian in its construction and spec. There is no infotainment system as standard, but this gives you the option to fit your own spec system. The speakers are already in place so it will be a simple plug-and-play exercise installing a touch screen radio/infotainment system. The majority of the materials used in the cab are rugged, hard wearing and easy to maintain hard plastic with plenty of storage solutions for cell phones, wallets, water bottles and lunch boxes or whatever you need to carry with you in the cab. The clocks are old school analogue, so they are as reliable as the sun coming up each day, no finicky digital jobs to go wrong when the vehicle gets older.
Aircon is standard… hugely important if you are going to spend endless summer days stuck in SA traffic. This vehicle also had the optional tow hitch fitted.
Initially I baulked at the R429k price ticket of the L200, especially for a single cab workhorse. I suppose that is the curse of the influx of vehicles from China with a lot more gadgetry onboard as standard. However, after a short drive I started appreciating the quality of the Mitsubishi’s construction, road manners, suspension and performance and started understanding the price tag a bit better.
The seat is firm without being uncomfortable and everything was laid out very intuitively and I found all the controls exactly where I looked for them. The remote fuel filler open situated on the bottom right of the dash was a welcomed surprise.
What really impressed me, being the owner of several older diesel vehicles, was how quiet the engine is. At traffic lights I would continuously blip the throttle just to make sure the engine was still running. The cab is also really well sealed with very little in the way of wind, road or ambient noise. This did initially create a little bit of confusion for me, particularly with how smooth the whole drive train is as well.
I subconsciously tend to judge my driving speed by ear – how much noise is coming off the engine and wheels combined with wind noise.
In the Triton, what I thought were normal, legal highway speeds, had me wondering why the camera car and other traffic were dawdling down the freeway. A quick glance at the speedo told me that I was trundling along at a very long way past the posted national speed limit. And yet the L200 felt so smooth and quiet which goes a long way to alleviating driver fatigue during long hours behind the wheel.
Now, let’s chat about that engine, 324 Nm’s is about average these days and in some instances maybe even a little bit below average some would suggest, but stomp on the loud pedal in 6th gear and you will feel the Mitsubishi instantaneously and very willingly surge forward to overtake – yes we weren’t heavily loaded, but the acceleration from 120 kmh to 150 km h is really very good either way, without the expected accompaniment of load rattling engine noise and belching black smoke expected from a diesel workhorse.
Conclusion:
If I were a farmer, this is a bakkie that I would look at. It ticks all the boxes – it’s big, fast enough and strong with a big loading capacity. For what we do it’s ideal, a big load bed, lots of space and comfortable for a long day behind the wheel.We bet that 20 or 30 years down the line after being worked hard in the South African sun this Mitsubishi will still be scrumming.
You do get what you pay for.
