Honda’s Desert-Racing Dirtbike Is Actually A Bargain. You Can’t Have It

Honda finally figured out how to make a special edition worth the premium. Naturally, it’s forbidden fruit.

Photo by: Honda

By: Enrico Punsalang

Aug 11, at 8:49am ET

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Special edition motorcycles have a pretty predictable formula. Take an existing bike, give it some fancy graphics, maybe bolt on an accessory or two, attach a story about racing heritage, and charge accordingly.

That said, Honda Australia has gone in a slightly different direction with the new CRF450RX Finke Limited Edition. This thing gets actual endurance racing hardware, and somehow Honda isn’t charging anywhere near what those parts are supposedly worth.

The bike celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Tatts Finke Desert Race, a roughly 280-mile there-and-back blast through the Australian Outback that’s notoriously hard on both motorcycles and the humans attempting to keep them upright. Honda has some legitimate history there, too. The company says it’s won 21 of the race’s 50 editions in the motorcycle category, including David Walsh’s victory at the anniversary event.

Photo by: Honda

So rather than celebrating that achievement with a commemorative sticker and calling it lunchtime, Honda started bolting stuff onto a 2025 CRF450RX.

The biggest addition is an IMS 12-liter fuel tank, which makes a whole lot of sense on a motorcycle inspired by an event where running out of gas in the middle of the Australian desert would be a particularly embarrassing way to end your day. Honda also fits an HGS stainless steel exhaust system, along with an SKDA Finke 50th Anniversary graphics kit and matching seat cover.

Honda Australia says the extra equipment is worth more than $3,500 AUD (about $2,300 USD). But here’s where things get weird. The Finke Limited Edition starts at $16,399 AID(about $10,800 USD), just $1,500 AUD (about $990 USD) more than the regular CRF450RX. So, at least according to Honda’s own numbers, you’re getting more than twice as much additional equipment as you’re actually paying for.

Photo by: Honda

That’s a considerably better proposition than the usual special-edition arithmetic, where a different paint scheme somehow adds enough money to the MSRP to make you wonder whether the graphics were applied using crushed gemstones.

More importantly, the upgrades actually fit what this motorcycle is supposed to celebrate. The CRF450RX is already Honda’s competition-oriented cross-country machine, derived from the CRF450R motocrosser but adapted for longer off-road riding. Adding more fuel capacity and an upgraded exhaust doesn’t magically turn it into Walsh’s Finke race bike, but it does push the production motorcycle a little closer toward the job suggested by those commemorative graphics.

And then we arrive at the bad news.

Photo by: Honda

Honda is offering the CRF450RX Finke Limited Edition as a limited-production model specifically for the Australian market. If you’re sitting in the US looking at the giant tank, HGS pipe, ridiculous graphics, and surprisingly reasonable upgrade price while mentally clearing space in your garage, you can stop doing that now.

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Which is a shame, because this is exactly the sort of special edition that’s actually interesting. Honda isn’t merely asking buyers to pay extra for the privilege of owning a motorcycle that looks different from the regular one. It’s bundling several useful pieces of off-road hardware together, tying them to a race the company just won, and apparently subsidizing a decent chunk of the upgrade cost in the process.

So now, Australia gets the desert-ready Honda with the big tank and shiny exhaust. Meanwhile, the rest of us get pictures.