Kawasaki KLX140G vs. Honda CRF230F vs. Yamaha TTR230: SHOOTOUT

Little bikes for big people—we hit the trails on the latest big-wheel small-bore bad boys from Japan.

Big people like little bikes, too. That's why Honda, Yamaha and now Kawasaki all produce smaller-size play bikes with full-size wheels. Not only do they make great fun bikes for adults but for younger riders, beginners, women and even full-on experienced riders, as well. As a result, these bikes generally fly off the showroom floors.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIT PALMER

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GEARSET: Fly Racing Evolution 2.0

HELMET: Fly Racing Carbon MIPS Retrospec

GOGGLES: Scott

BOOTS: Sidi X-3

Kawasaki joined the big-wheel-bike wars this year with its new KLX140G. It's now the third 140 in Kawasaki's play bike lineup, joining the KLX140 and KLX140L. Both of the previous 140s have smaller wheels (and subframes) than the new G model, which sports an 18-inch rear wheel and 21-inch front wheel, just like the big bikes and just like Honda's CRF230F and Yamaha's TTR230, comparable models with higher-displacement engines.

All three bikes are designed for just about anybody, but mainly for growing kids and adults who don't want to grow up. They also make great learner bikes for adults and for smaller women who just want something unintimidating and easy to ride around on.

The Kawasaki, Yamaha and Honda share many features. They all have steel frames, carbureted single-cylinder air-cooled four-stroke engines, electric starting and are not street legal. None of them have lighting, though they are all California Green Sticker eligible.

HITTING THE TRAIL

Right off the bat, the KLX140G has a lot going for it. For one, of the three bikes in this comparison, it is by far the lightest. At a claimed 218 pounds (full of fuel), it's a good 30 pounds lighter than both the fully fueled CRF230F and the TTR230. That's a huge difference and big confidence booster for any beginner or novice; heck, even for the experienced rider. And, the KLX has the lowest seat height among the three, though not by much (less than half an inch).

Still, this is giant double-whammy in the KLX's favor when it comes to playing into the entry-level or beginner rider's hands. Our 5’6" female tester, who is what we would call an "experienced beginner," fell in love with the KLX for those two reasons alone. Her favorite type of riding is technical, and she felt more in control and comfortable on the KLX than she did on either of the other ones in this setting. She said the Kawasaki is noticeably easier to steer and maneuver, and also said it feels the slimmest in the seat and is the easiest to plant both feet firmly on the ground on.

Another bonus (well, maybe not for her) is that the Kawasaki is the only bike that she can pick up after a tip-over, which is something her husband really likes.

The fact that the Kawasaki has significantly less power than the Honda or Yamaha is a none-issue for her; doesn't matter one bit. She loves riding motorcycles but isn't interested one bit in the nuts and bolts part of motorcycles, so numbers like 140 and 230 doesn't mean a thing to her, and she didn't even know—mainly because we didn't want to tell her—at first that she was riding a motorcycle with significantly less horsepower when we put her on the Kawasaki. We wanted to see if she would notice the power difference, and she didn't. Nor did she even care once she found out; the Kawasaki was light and agile and that's all that mattered to her.

Our larger and more experienced riders, however, definitely notice the power difference between the Kawasaki and the Honda/Yamaha and generally like the Honda/Yamaha over the Kawasaki for this reason alone; the slightly higher seat height that makes them feel a little less cramped didn't hurt, either. Yes, the experienced riders can definitely notice the weight difference between the heavier Honda and Yamaha over the Kawasaki, but, unlike our female tester, they unsurprisingly chose power over less weight when it came time to go riding.

The Kawasaki handles well and, like we said, is very agile. Suspension is a little soft, especially up front, for aggressive riding but is fine for cruising around. The KLX is the only the bike that you can adjust damping in the rear shock, at least rebound. That's a nice little touch. None of the forks here are adjustable.

Technically, the Kawasaki has the best brakes of the three, mostly because of the KLX's rear binder; it is the only bike with a rear disc, the other two have drum brakes. But, in reality, the beginner won't feel the difference. The experienced rider, however, will.

GEARSET: MSR RACING LEGEND 71

HELMET: 6D

GOOGLES: 100%

BOOTS: TCX X-Helium Michelin

The TTR230 and CRF230F are motorcycles that are very similar to each other, both on paper and on the trail. On paper, both bikes offer the same 233cc displacement, have six-speed transmissions, almost the same seat height and wheelbase, nearly identical rake and trail, and weigh within a few pounds of each other. Ground clearance is nearly the same, too, at 11.7 inches for the Honda and 11.6 inches for the Yamaha, which is just over an inch less than the Kawasaki!

On the trail, the Honda and Yamaha perform similarly, too. They both make fun, usable power, like the Kawasaki, but just more of it. Our female tester, who has a lot of experience riding both bikes, has no real favorite between the two when it comes to the engine; though she actually did say that the Yamaha feels maybe a bit "more torquey" than the Honda, but can't decide whether that is a better thing or not. She could be noticing the longer stroke of the Yamaha's engine, which, she did say, was just a little easier to control than the Honda while riding over slow, technical terrain. She also said that both the Yamaha and Honda climb sandy hills better than the Kawasaki (that's when she did notice the power but didn't know it at the time). Our experienced riders tend to favor the Honda’ slightly revvier engine over the Yamaha, though they thought the Yamaha had better tractability, again most likely because of the TTR's longer stroke.

None of the bikes are eager to stall and when they did it was usually the case of operator error. Over our testing, we found that all three bikes have strong starter motors and clutches capable of handling a lot of abuse.

Again, both the Yamaha and Honda do indeed feel much heavier than the Kawasaki but that really didn't prevent our beginner—or anyone for that matter—from enjoying either one. She could still get up and down the trails just fine on the heavier bikes with a huge grin on her face.

Our experienced riders always gravitated toward the bigger 230s first before heading out on ride; again, mainly because of those bike's bigger power, roomier ergos and stiffer suspensions. You can actually push the Honda and Yamaha's suspension a lot harder than you would originally think. But when it gets down to it, our faster testers feel that the Honda has the best suspension of the three bikes when ridden aggressively. All three suspensions, they said, are excellent for casual trail riding.

Living with all three motorcycles is pretty much a pain-free experience. All three are built solidly, easy to work on and seem very reliable; however, we have to give Yamaha a thumbs down for painting the TTR's frame black which looks fine new (well, sort of) but quickly turns hideously ugly after a couple of rides; scratches and dings really show glaringly. We also burned through two batteries on the Yamaha because of the way its separate engine and ignition on-off switches are arranged. It's super-easy to forget to turn off the Yamaha's ignition button after using the engine switch to kill the engine. And if you accidently let it drain too far, there is no reviving the battery. You’re in for a new one. The Honda is the only one that uses a key ignition, which makes it harder to forget to turn off, and to steal.

GEARSET: Klim XC Pant/Jersey

HELMET: Arai VX-Pro4

GOGGLES: Scott

BOOTS: Sidi X-3

The Yamaha holds the most fuel at 2.1 gallons, but since these bikes sip so little gas, range really isn't a factor with any of them, but still, when it come to fuel capacity, more is almost always better.

THE WINNER?

The bottom line is that there is no real winner or loser here, especially when there is no checkered flag at the end of the trail. Instead, when it comes to these bikes, it's more about determining what each one has to offer and what matters most to you, like weight, handling, power, comfort, color, price, etc. But we can say that of the three bikes, the Kawasaki is without question best for the true beginner, or for the novice rider who is more concerned about weight and being able to firmly touch the ground with both feet than power. If this is the case for you, the Kawi is the way to go. If price is the determining factor, then, again, the Kawi is the way to go; it sells for $600 less than the Honda and $500 less than the Yamaha.

Performance-wise, the more experienced rider will prefer the 230s for pretty much one reason—power. Choosing between the Yamaha and Honda then becomes pretty much a coin toss, really. These bikes are so similar by the numbers and in performance that it's almost too close to call as to which one is better; there are only a few real notable differences between these two in our opinion—the Yamaha is $100 cheaper than the Honda and has more fuel capacity; the Honda has better suspension (and it will look newer longer, if that's important to you). Otherwise, take your pick, you’ll be happy with either one. CN

Honda CRF230F6-speed transmissionLargest fork-tube diameter (37mm)Most front/rear wheel travel (9.5 in./9.0 in.

Yamaha TTR2306-speed transmissionLargest fuel capacity (2.1 gal.)Longest wheelbase

SPECIFICATIONS

2017 Yamaha TTR230

2017 Kawasaki KLX140G

2017 Honda CRF230F

$4,199

$3,699

$4,299

ENGINE:

Air-cooled, SOHC, 4-stroke, single

Air-cooled, SOHC, 4-stroke, single

Air-cooled, SOHC, 4-stroke, single

DISPLACEMENT:

223cc

144cc

223cc

BORE X STROKE:

70.0mm x 58.0mm

58.0 x 54.4mm

65.5mm x 66.2mm

COMPRESSION RATIO:

9.5:1

9.5:1

9.0:1

FUEL DELIVERY:

Carburetor

Carburetor

Carburetor

STARTING SYSTEM:

Electric

Electric

Electric

TRANSMISSION:

6-speed

5-speed

6-speed

FRAME:

Steel

Steel

Steel

FRONT SUSPENSION:

36mm telescopic fork, non-adj.

33mm telescopic fork, non-adj.

37mm telescopic fork, non-adj.

REAR SUSPENSION:

Single shock, preload adj.

Single shock, preload/rebound damping

adj.

Single shock, preload adj.

FRONT WHEEL TRAVEL:

9.4 in.

7.5 in.

9.5 in.

REAR WHEEL TRAVEL:

8.7 in.

7.9 in.

9.0 in.

FRONT WHEEL:

80/100×21 in.

2.75×21 in.

80/100×21 in.

REAR WHEEL:

100/100×18 in.

4.10×18 in.

100/100×18 in.

FRONT BRAKE:

Disc

Disc

Disc

REAR BRAKE:

Drum

Disc

Drum

RAKE/TRAIL:

27.0°/4.4 in.

27°/4.6 in.

27.3°/4.4 in.

GROUND CLEARANCE:

11.6 in.

12.4 in.

11.7 in.

SEAT HEIGHT:

34.3 in.

33.9 in.

34.1 in.

WHEELBASE:

54.5 in.

52.4 in.

54.1 in.

FUEL CAPACITY:

2.1 gal.

1.5 gal.

1.9 gal.

WEIGHT (Wet):

251 lbs.

218.2 lbs.

249 lbs.

WARRANTY:

90 days limited

6 month limited

6 months limited