ADB Ed Mitch Lees risks divorce in an attempt to teach his wife to ride dirtbikes but the 2024 Honda CRF110F was the perfect counsellor.
You might be wondering why a full-grown adult is straddling this 2024 Honda CRF110F, well that’s my wife, Abbey. I won’t bore you with our love story of how we met but one bit of detail I will reveal is that my wife had no idea what a dirtbike was when we met.
I was the first person she knew who rides dirtbikes. You can imagine the confused look on her face when I told her I also edit the largest motorcycle publication in Australia and New Zealand. Since then, it has a been a steep learning curve in the dirtrbike world.
It took a while for my wife to build up the confidence to ask me to teach her how to ride. I’d floated the idea a few times in the years past but my wife was never all that keen. She’d seen my brother nearly die riding a motorcycle and she spent a week in Geelong, waiting by my bedside for me to recover so I could be transported back home in NSW, after a serious dirtbike accident I had. I can understand why she might be a little gun-shy to hop on a motorcycle herself.
After a decade of holy matrimony, she finally had the courage to learn how to ride and asked me if I’d teach her. So I began researching small bikes for adults. There were three main criteria the bike had to hit in order to qualify as her training mule.
Firstly, it needed to be small enough so that she could comfortably get her feet on the ground and hold the bike up or woman-handle it if it got away from her. Second it needed to have an automatic clutch. My wife was never taught how to drive a manual car (yep, it nearly ended our relationship early on) so the concept of gears and a clutch to a lady in her mid-30s (ADB Sub Ed: you better pray she doesn’t see that mate) would be too much.
Finally it needed to be easy to ride. I’m talking power, handling and suspension. The attributes I’m looking for here are soft, on all fronts. The power needs to be docile, the suspension ultra-plush and the chassis incredibly forgiving. I don’t need the bike bucking or launching off and getting out of control.
Halfway through the decision making process I thought, what’s a bike I could also have fun on in case my wife loses interest? I’d seen all my motocross heroes hucking BMX tracks on 110s and that looked like lots of fun so I factored that into the equation. Scrolling through ADB’s archives I stumbled across an old 110 review and it looked like the perfect fit so I called around and managed to pick up a 2024 Honda CRF110F for this test.
THE RIGHT WHIP
Purely from a size standpoint, the Honda CRF125F would probably be a slightly better fit than the CRF110F. But the CRF125F runs a manual clutch and that would create too many headaches for my wife (and me). So the CRF110F it was.
With a seat height of 658mm, my 170cm wife could easily straddle the CRF110F by standing over it with two feet firmly on the ground. I could show her the controls and get her to feel comfortable without even having to sit on the bike. You’d be amazed at how many people freak out when they simply feel the vibration of a bike and can’t jump off easily.
Despite being a bike that’s probably too small for an adult, the handlebar-peg-seat relationship wasn’t too cramped. Abbey could still grip with her knees and she didn’t find it hard getting her feet under the gear shifter. And with a wet weight of 77kg (the CRF110F not my wife), Abbey could easily pick it up off the ground and lean it from side to side without dropping or not having the strength to straighten it.
When I’d explained to Abbey the basics of where to hold her body and arms I got her to sit down. At 65kg, Abbey is a little heavy for this bike too. (ADB Sub Ed: you’re taking risks here Mitch). But the CRF110F runs a strong, twin-spar-type steel frame and swingarm that’s then braced to the bottom of the shock as well. The extra framing that runs from the rear axle up to the shock below the seat provides an even stronger rear-end, where most of Abbey’s weight will be. (ADB Sub Ed: its been nice knowing you mate)
As she sat down the CRF110F sunk even further into the suspension and Abbey could get her feet on the ground even easier. She could stand up with her arse off the seat but both feet on the ground.
Then I asked her to turn it on. With no clutch to worry about, Abbey could simply push the start button and fire the CRF110F into life without having to find neutral or pull the clutch in. The electric start also meant I didn’t need to teach her the art of kickstarting a bike. Sure, kicking a CRF110F into life isn’t like kicking a CR500 but it still takes some skill, strength and balance to get it right without wearing yourself out.
With no clutch to worry about I could get straight into teaching Abbey the fun stuff, twisting the throttle! The CRF110F has a four-speed gearbox with neutral. I got Abbey to simply rev the bike in neutral to get used to it firing up. Once she’d gotten used to the pull of the throttle I explained to her that the gears need to be pulled up.
This is a good thing because it means she can’t accidentally step on the gear lever when getting on the bike and click it into gear. I tried to explain to her that by going up a gear she will go faster and that by going down she will go slower. I also needed to explain to her that if she needed more torque (yep I had to explain what torque was too) she needed to go down gears.
OUT IN THE FIELD
There’s no better way to learn than simply throwing yourself in the deep end. So once I’d shown Abbey how to click it into gear, I sent her on her way. I was in close pursuit on the mighty Honda CTX200 Ag Bike screaming instructions at her while she got the hang of it.
We stayed on the easy dirt road for safety until she’d mastered gears and throttle. She had a go at braking which was via a drum front and rear and she mastered that. So many people struggle to throttle off and brake at the same time but the CRF110F this was no problem. And the drum brakes were a good thing as they are less touchy and do not lock up like a hydraulic disc brake can for those that don’t have finite brake control.
Abbey was progressing along at light-speed so I thought I’d take her to our kids motocross test track and teach her some real technique. We went through cornering, standing up and even jumping! The suspension was so soft and forgiving that Abbey never got frightened when hitting big rocks or holes on the motocross track and if she did deflect slightly she was big enough to just dab her foot and save it.
FAST TRACKED
Abbey went from learning what gears were to which lever the brake is, to hitting berms and jumps in two hours on the CRF110F! I don’t think she could have done that on any other bike. I’ve seen way too many videos on YouTube of blokes laughing behind the camera while their partner loops out their Honda CRF450R just trying to cross a paddock. I couldn’t do that to the mother of my kids.
It was incredible how fast she progressed on a bike that she could confidently stand over, pick up and put where she wanted. She was never intimidated by the throttle, she could focus on how the gears work without thinking about a clutch every time she stopped or had to navigate a steep, rocky hill and despite being a kids’ bike, it was actually quite spacious.
While the 2024 Honda CRF110F was the best bike for Abbey to learn to ride on, she will outgrow it. But all she wants to do is follow our four-year-old son Jaxon around and the CRF110F is excellent at doing that, because, as an air-cooled motor, it never overheated either.
I was blown away at just how versatile the CRF110F really was. I can ride it, my wife can ride it and an eight year old can ride it. If you’re worried about your partner outgrowing it too quickly, just remember that Honda resale is a thing of beauty and the loss won’t be too bad.
DESIGN BRIEF
This bike was designed for kids to ride, not adults. More specifically, Honda recommend kids between 8 and 11 years old ride the CRF110F. You can apply all the logic above to a kid learning to ride. My wife had no dirtbike experience and no experience driving manual cars, so she was a newbie, just like many eight year olds. All the controls were easy for her hands to reach and the weight of the bike was just low enough for our neighbour’s girls to comfortably ride it.
The 2024 Honda CRF110F really is the bike for everyone from mum to dad and the kids.
2024 HONDA CRF110F
Engine Single-cylinder, four-stroke, air-cooled
Bore & Stroke (mm) 50 x 55.6
Compression Ratio 9.0:1
Displacement 109cc
Fuel System Fuel Injection
Tank Capacity 3.7 litres
Starter Electric and Kick
Transmission Four-speed
Clutch None
Wheelbase (mm) 1,065
Ground Clearance (mm) 175
Seat Height (mm) 658
Weight 77kg (wet)
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Suspension Front Telescopic fork, 100mm of travel
Suspension Rear Single shock, 97mm of travel
Handlebar Honda
Brakes Front Drum
Brakes Rear Drum
Tyres Front CST 70/100-14
Tyres Rear CST 80/100-12
RRP $3998
Browser motorcycles.honda.com.au
Warranty 6 months
WORDS & PHOTOS | MITCH LEES