Okay, let’s talk about pushing my CRF300L Rally a bit.
So, I’ve had this bike for a while now, the CRF300L Rally. Great machine, really enjoying it, especially off the pavement. But you know how it is, that little question pops into your head: just how fast will this thing actually go?
I wasn’t looking to break any records or anything crazy. Just genuinely curious what the top end felt like. Found myself a nice, long, flat stretch of empty road early one morning. Not much traffic, clear weather. Seemed like a decent time to give it a go.
Setting Up for the Run
Didn’t do anything special to the bike, really. It’s pretty much stock standard.
- Bike Check: Just gave it the usual once-over. Checked the tire pressure, made sure I had enough fuel. Didn’t want to run out mid-way, haha.
- Gear: Got all my usual riding gear on. Helmet, jacket, gloves, boots. Safety first, even if it’s just a straight line test.
- Conditions: Like I said, road was flat, dry, and thankfully, not much wind that morning. That stuff really makes a difference.
Giving It The Beans
Alright, so I got onto the straight. Started rolling, shifted up through the gears like normal. First, second, third… you know the drill. Once I hit fourth and fifth, I started to really open the throttle up. Pushed it into sixth gear and just held it wide open.
The engine, well, it started working hard. You could hear it spinning up, definitely giving its all. The bike felt pretty stable, actually. A little bit of vibration, sure, but nothing alarming. The wind noise got pretty loud in my helmet, much louder than my usual cruising speeds.
I tucked in a little bit, trying to make myself smaller behind that little windscreen the Rally has. Every little bit helps, right? Watched the speedometer climb. It went up steadily enough, but you could feel it starting to slow down its climb as the speed increased. You hit that point where the engine power is just battling wind resistance.
The Result?
So, where did it top out? I held it pinned for a good stretch. Looking down at the dash, the numbers kinda bounced around a little, but it settled mostly around 83-85 mph (that’s about 134-137 kph) indicated on my speedometer.
Could it do more? Maybe. Perhaps downhill, with a strong tailwind, or if I weighed less! But on that flat road, that day, that seemed to be pretty much its limit. The engine felt like it didn’t really have anything left to give.
Honestly, it felt pretty wrung out at that speed. It wasn’t scary, but you could tell the bike wasn’t exactly happy sitting there. It’s just not what this engine or chassis is really designed for, you know? It’s built for trails, backroads, exploring… not sustained high-speed highway runs.
So yeah, that was my little top speed experiment. Fun to know what it can do, but I’ll be sticking to the speeds where the bike feels more comfortable, which is usually quite a bit lower than that top figure. It confirmed what I already kinda knew – it’s a capable machine, but its strengths definitely lie elsewhere than top speed bragging rights.
