water buffalo is what we used to call the big-bore suzuki two-stroke when it went liquid cooled.
honda popped this one out this morning.
it's the crf450 "Rallye" bike, which will compete in the Works (motorcycle) class at Dakar 2013 next january.
honda hasn't been on the Dakar quest for 24 years, so my guess is that this is more important to long-range plans than just one bike and a race.
they have a habit of building credentials racing before launching a new family of bikes.
it's not a gs, but you rarely see the big H jump into racing without the trickle down to production machinery.
it's just a 450 single, but if you blend this toy with the new bike/powerplant that chewie recently adopted...you can see where they're heading.
