K-Tech Suspension Honda CRF300L Review - Mad or Nomad (2025)

Snapshot

• Price: £573 rear / £210 front
• Time tested: since February 2023
• Miles tested: 20,000
• Testing conditions: North, Central and South America
• Functionality: 5/5
• Improvement: 5/5
• Durability: 5/5
• Value for money: 5/5
• Total 20/20
• Where to buy: ktechsuspension.com

K-Tech Suspension

The standard suspension on the Honda CRF300Ls is way too soft for any serious adventure riding. And when you pack travel gear on top of that, it’s near unusable. So, we opted for stiffer springs front and rear for our round the world CRFs from K-Tech Suspension. It’s a budget friendly and easy upgrade that offers a lot in return.

The K-Tech springs are 20% stiffer up front and 25% stiffer at the rear and 10mm longer so you can apply the correct preload to get the sag figures dialled in.

We ran these stiffer springs from Canada to the USA for 6 months and nearly 10,000 miles. And they helped – a lot.

READ MORE: K-Tech Stiffer Springs Review

Switching to K-Tech rear shocks and front piston kits

However, the more we rode, the harder routes we searched for and the more off-road we went. We camp and carry food, water and spare fuel and our bikes are loaded with our RTW gear. So while the stiffer springs made a huge difference over the stock springs, they weren’t enough when we pushed the bikes hard – especially with all our weight.

So, we made the decision to upgrade. We’ll be on these CRF300Ls for the next 5 years as we head down through the US into Central America, South America, over to Africa, through the Middle East and back home to Europe. So we may as well bite the bullet and get them perfect now – we switched to the K-Tech Razor-R Lite shock absorbers for the rear and the front fork piston kit for the front.

K-Tech Razor-R Lite shock

Alissa’s bike has already been lowered with a Kouba Lowering Link, but is still a little too tall for her, so we opted for a K-Tech Low option rear shock. And I decided to go for the same on my bike at 5ft7, I want to be able to get on and off as easy as possible. If riding a dirt bike at home, or only for trail riding or weekend rides, I would not have gone for the lower option, but as this is a bike I’m living with every single day, comfort is more important.Our low versions lower the seat height by around 25mm.

These shocks have an internal reservoir to separate the nitrogen gas from the damping oil and are adjustable for rebound damping and spring preload.

Front fork piston kit

We also switched out the front and installed a replacement K-Tech valve system for the stock Showa 43mm forks. This kit replaces the original compression and rebounding damping assemblies and includes a new damper rod. This modification offers improved damping and more adjustment.

Fitment

We didn’t install these kits ourselves. We wanted it all dialed in perfectly and fitted properly so we went with the highly recommended Stillwell Performance based in Arizona. The guys there were excellent and got the suspension fitted perfectly for our weights and pack sizes. You can always get yours fitted at K-Tech in the UK or by using their worldwide dealer network.

The difference

Literally, it’s like riding a new motorcycle. The bikes are completely different.

Getting on and off the bike doesn’t cause the bike to squat. And then once on the move the machine is completely stable. Going around corners the front doesn’t dip and wallow. Instead, the bike tracks like it’s on rails.

Before, we could easily get caught out in consecutive ruts where the rear would sink and jump. And on long tough gravel sections we’d be jumping in the seat.

Now, the setup is stiffer, firmer and fills us with confidence both on and off-road. For the cost of upgrading the suspension it feels like we’ve got brand new motorcycles.

K-Tech suspension round up

Upgrading our Honda CRF300L suspension to K-Tech front and rear was an absolute must for us. We ride our bikes round the world indefinitely, which means we’re fully loaded with gear all the time. Our travels are off-road, through harsh environments and over rough and challenging terrain. So we need our motorcycles to perform.

If you’re only planning on riding green lanes in your home country and on an unpacked bike, you could get away with the stiffer springs on the CRF, but if you want to push your bike, get the most out of it, or travel – then we highly recommend making the investment and switching to the K-Tech Razor R rear and upgraded front piston kit.

Switching has been the single best investment and modification we’ve made to our round the world bikes. The K-Tech suspension will completely upgrade your motorcycle – and your ride.

Thanks for checking out our K-Tech Suspension Guide. We hope you enjoyed it! Here’s a few more reviews and articles on motorcycle gear that we recommend you read next.

• Honda CRF300L Adventure Bike Guide
• All Motorcycle Gear Guides
• Riding Gear Guides
• The Ultimate Adventure Bike Preparation Guide