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Kawasaki KLX300S vs Honda CRF300L (2021) | Comparison With a CLEAR Winner!
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Nov 15, 2022
The newly launched Kawasaki KLX300 and Honda CRF300L are so close that it can be difficult to pick a clear winner. While nothing beats a test ride, we created a contest to pick a clear winner. For more info on both bikes, check out https://adventurebiketroop.com/kawasaki-klx300s-vs-honda-crf300l-specs-comparison/ #KLX300 #CRF300L #CRF300Rally
View Video Transcript
0:00
Kawasaki and Honda each recently launched a new 300cc dual sport model for 2021
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Now in this video we are going to compare the KLX 300 with the Honda CRF 300L
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and we are going to conclusively decide on a clear winner. So stick around
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Hi I'm Franco from adventurebiketroop.com where we chat about bike riding, maintenance
0:28
new models and cheap as XR mods. In this video we are going to compare the new Kawasaki KLX300
0:36
with the Honda CRF300L, both which are now available in the USA from 2021. Now when it comes
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to comparisons between bikes there's nothing more useless than an inconclusive result and in this
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video we're going to pick a clear winner. When it comes to comparing bicycles and picking a winner
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and deciding which one to buy there's nothing more reliable in comparing online specs
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Wait, that doesn't seem right. No, to pick the right bike there's nothing more important than taking the bike for a spin
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You have to feel the bike for yourself, you have to see what it looks like
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looks so important when you spend a lot of money on a bike and the very most important thing
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when deciding on a bike is how it makes you feel. I mean what can be more important than what the
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bike makes you feel like. It's not about what other people think and which one is slightly faster than
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the other. It's how you feel when you ride the bike and when you look at it in your garage
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But unfortunately since we don't have the bikes available for testing yet, I devised a little
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contest. So we're going to look at the specs, compare the two bikes and award a point for each
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specification where one bike wins the other bike but because these bikes are
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so very similar I mean they are really very similar and I was actually hard
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pressed to guess a winner I'm gonna water point if a bike wins by margin of
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10% I mean who can feel the difference between 15 and 16 horsepower so only if
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a bike wins any of the specifications by margin of 10% it will be awarded one
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point on the leaderboard and please I'd love you to guess because I couldn't
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guess a winner I actually picked the wrong bike when I had to press myself for a guess so please in the comments below type in what you guess are going to
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be the winner if we look at the points now adding to the wins on the
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specifications I'm also going to award one point for every unique feature that
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one bike has that the other one does not so if for instance the Honda has LED
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headlights which it doesn't the L doesn't the rally has and the Kawasaki doesn't then it'll be awarded one point
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so the more features that one has that the other does not the more points so please pick your winner
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and comment below before watching the rest of the video so let's start this contest with what i see
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as an ex-KLR cheap ass owner the most important feature when buying a dual sport bike and that is
3:10
the price so I had a look on variance online resources the websites of the
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manufacturers and various magazine sites and I've made sure that I found
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comparable prices or similar prices on all the sites and from what I could find
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the manufactured suggested retail price for the Karasaki KLX 300 is $5,599 and
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and the Honda is $5,549, so that's a $50 difference. Now, I have to add that some
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sites mentioned the Honda can be had for without ABS with ABS is So I took that price and that is a 1 difference even if you take the cheaper price for the Hyundai it still less than 10 So it still a tie of the price They basically cost the same
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Then the second feature, and this is sort of a silly one, but don't worry, it gets more interesting later on
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It's the engine side. We know it's about 300cc, but if they can squeeze out a couple of extra cc, hopefully it's more power
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We don't have power figures yet. None of the sights or press releases feature the power figures
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So we're going to look at the engine size and assuming that the larger engine will have slightly more power
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So the Kawasaki is 292cc versus Honda is 286cc, slightly smaller for the Honda, but still only at a 2% difference
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So in conclusive, it's still a tie after the second round. And now we are coming to more important features that can actually make a real life difference
4:49
And that is the weight of the bikes. Now, a 300cc, it's beginning to be a more powerful motor
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It's both fuel injected. But the weight is going to play a big role when you take it off-road or when you want to tour with these bikes
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So the Kawasaki K-Lex 300 comes in at a weight weight of 302 pounds
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With the Honda at 309 pounds. So again, only 2% difference with a Honda slightly heavier
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But if we look at the old 250 models, the Kawasaki came down 2 pounds from 304
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and the Honda came down a whopping 13 pounds from the old CRF 250L
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So with a bigger engine, they shed a lot of weight. So that's a great plus, and they are almost exactly the same now for the 300cc models
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So that's after round three. Still a tie. so let's hope we get a tiebreaker soon. Another important real-life feature
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especially if you want to take these bikes on longer trips a weekend trip or
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tour with these bikes is the fuel capacity and again unfortunately there's
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nothing in it the Kawasaki is a two gallon tank with Honda a 2.1 gallon
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tank. Now if you want a larger tank you can go for the Honda CRF rally I can't
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remember the tank size I'll put it up here somewhere but that will really
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extend the range so the rally is a nice addition which we don't see in the
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Kawasaki. In Kawasaki we have the Versys 300 but that's a very different bike
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from from these small CC thumpers. Okay so we've dealt with price, engine size
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maybe power, fuel capacity, so what about braking, the safety of the bikes? So we
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had a look at the disc diameters of both bikes so if they spend a bit more money
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on the brakes hopefully the brakes are going to feel better so if we look at the front disc size the Kawasaki is 250 millimeters in the front dual pot
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pistons the Honda is 256 slightly bigger again dual pot pistons and that's only a
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2% difference slight advantage to the Honda but I can almost guarantee that
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that small size difference is not going to make a difference what about the
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rear. So this was a surprise. The rear and the Kawasaki both have single pistons in the rear
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There's 240 millimeter disc at the rear. The Honda is a 220 millimeter disc. So this came close to
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give a point to the Kawasaki with a 9% larger rear disc. Rear disc is nice or rear brakes are nice
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especially if you go off-road. You want to steer the steer with the rear. We use the rear more
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off-road so that is definitely some advantage to the Kawasaki whether it
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translates into real-life advantages we are yet to see but anyways that's almost
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a 10 difference but still we are on a tie at zero all now a very important feature with these small off bikes especially if you a larger rider and if you gonna be more aggressive
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off-road is the suspension setup. So we had a look at the suspension travel so in the front
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it's 10 inches for the Kawasaki KLX 300, 10.2 inches so almost exactly the same for the Honda
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here is 300l so that's what a 2% difference in the rear very interesting
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the Kawasaki is 9.1 inches suspension travel in the rear whereas the Honda is
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10.2% or 10.2 inches so that is a 12% longer travel suspension in the rear for
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the Honda and yeah I had to decide is this really a win for the Honda because
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it's longer travel suspension I mean longer is always better isn't it or is
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is this a win for the Kawasaki? Because the Honda will just be too soft and wobbly
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But in the end, I decided, let's go for longer is better
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So that's one point for the Honda CRF300L because it's got a longer travel suspension
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So I'm going to say it's better off-road. I know some of you are going to laugh
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and you're welcome to pop in the comments, but we are going to come back to this at the end
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Okay, so something else that is a real big consideration when it comes to dual sport bikes and even the small little 250s and 300cc's is the seat height
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I mean for female riders generally and a lot of male riders that are say average or less than
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average height or length seat height is a problem sometimes and yeah so to put your feet on the
9:29
ground is a real benefit when you go off road or in tricky situations or when you have to
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maneuver the bike, turn it around, etc. So the Kawasaki has a seat height of 35.2 inches
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so it's quite tall already. With a Honda, 34.7 inches, so that's a 1% difference
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nothing in it. So they are almost exactly the same. And the suspension, the stiffness of the
9:56
suspension will make a difference, because as you sit on it, they will both lower. So if the Honda
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is more wallowy it will come down to an even lower seat height so that is something and that's why
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it's so important to go and sit on the bike on the bikes you can't just look at specs you have to go
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and sit on the bikes and ride the bikes now the last specification that was available and that is
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meaningful to compare is the ground clearance ground clearance is awesome so if you want to go over
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something stumps rocks ruts whatever pavements so the Kawasaki KLX300 very interesting is lower
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than the 250, the outgoing model. So even though the seat height is higher, I think, if I remember
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correctly, one thing that definitely is lower now is the ground clearance at 9.8 inches
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with the Honda at 11.2 inches. So that's 14% higher on the Honda. It makes sense with the higher
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or the longer travel suspension in the rear. It's funny because the KLX300 has a higher seat height
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but a lower ground clearance. So somehow they were not that efficient
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with the spacing of everything inside the engine, etc. With Honda, there's more ground clearance
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So that's a clear advantage to the Honda, especially if you go off-road. So currently we're sitting on 2-0
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for the Honda CRF300L over the KLX300. But we haven't looked at the features yet
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So that's what we're going to do next. So with the Honda in the lead 2-0
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we are going to go into overtime now. we're going to look at the unique features of these two bikes. So the first thing I scanned
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through the press releases, I read both press releases, scanned the websites of the manufacturers
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to find features that the one bike has that the other one does not have So the first thing that I found and this is a huge plus is that the Kawasaki KLX300 has adjustable suspension I think it rebound damping in the front and in the rear it preload and
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rebound so a lot of suspension adjustment and that possibly makes up for the longer travel
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suspension of the Honda. So that is a huge feature on a bike in this price range and the Honda does
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not have adjustable suspension so i would say that makes more than makes up for the the earlier
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arbitrary one point that we gave the honda for the longer travel suspension in the rear so one
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big point for kawasaki and that puts kawasaki back in the game at one to two compared to the honda
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so the next feature that i found was in the honda press release the crf 300l and the rally model
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the Honda now has a slipper clutch now that is some a feature that you only
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usually find on more expensive adventure bike adventure bikes and road bikes
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street bikes so slipper clutch in a bike in this price range that's a huge plus
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it helps preventing that rear wheel from locking up if you down shift
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aggressively and it's yeah it's just a smoother ride so that is a big plus or
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one point for the Honda so we back three for the Honda one for the KLX 300 and now the last feature
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that I can find and I really compared all of what I could find online and if you saw something else
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that I missed please comment below I'd love to to learn that and help the viewers out there and
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please if you like this video give it a thumbs up so more people can find this that could possibly
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help them make a choice here before they go take it for test drive obviously now the last feature
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that I found was the ABS now the Honda various sites give prices for non ABS
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models and ABS models I think the difference is about $300 in the Honda
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press release some places it said that was I think a Japanese press release that
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I read it the first time it said the ABS is standard on the 300l now with the
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CRF the Honda so ABS there's definitely some form of ABS either it's an option
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of for $300 or it's standard so that's on the Honda and you can still switch it
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off and that was a feature in the press release with the Kawasaki I couldn't
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find any mention of ABS either on Kawasaki's USA's website or in the
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official press release from Kawasaki and if you have a look at the photos
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close-ups of the front wheel I can't see any ABS sensors or wires coming down so
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that is definitely one point for the Honda at this price range I mean I
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I compared the prices and they were similar for the Honda with ABS and the standard Kawasaki KLX 300
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So that gives us four points for the Honda versus only one for the Kawasaki KLX 300
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So our clear winner is the Honda CRF 300L. Does it mean that's the bike you have to go and buy
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Absolutely not. You have to go and ride these bikes, look at them, see which one looks the best
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go and try it out and see how the bikes make you feel when you look at it when you sit on it when
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you start it when you ride it and then a huge feature that adjustable suspension on the KLX 300
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i mean that is something that i think makes more than makes up for the slipper clutch and the ABS
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on the Honda that i i don't feel is is that big an advantage so i would weigh that more when making
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my decision and then that long travel suspension in the rear of the Honda that's almost negligible
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so I would say it's very close to a tie but it's conclusive it's right there on the screen
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the Honda is the winner so you go buy the one that you like best anyways please give
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this video a thumbs up I'll see you next week and thank you for joining cheers
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