Montana300
Member
- May 4, 2000
- 123
- 0
Picked up my 450 on Saturday, set the sag, installed the handguards and took a 63 mile on Sunday at my favorite riding area near Koocanusa reservoir, southern British Columbia, Canada.
I had to adjust the idle mixture right away because it would not idle as delivered. I am at 3000 ft, it was about 40 degrees.
This bike is my first thumper, I am coming off an '01 300EXC and before that a '99 300EXC. Once I got used to the setup I started adjusting the suspension, stiffened the forks, slowed the rebound in the rear. I felt that the suspsension got plusher during the ride.
I had several riders with me that I could swap bikes with to compare; '01 200E, '01 520E, '02 400E, '02 525E, and a CRF450.
The 450 definitely has more power than the 400, and imo is just slightly less powerful than the '01 520. I think of all the bikes it is the easiest to ride fast, with enough power and great suspension, especially compared to my '01 300. As expected both the 520 and 525 took more effort in the tighter sections, especially the 520. I noticed too that I had less compression braking with my 450 than than the bigger bikes, maybe my idle is a little higher but not much. I had never ridden the CRF before yesterday. It definitely has more power than the KTM450, more like the 525. The biggest thing I noticed about the CRF was the vibration, compared to the KTMs. Does the CRF have a balancer? Maybe its just the aluminum frame rigidity, I don't know. CR has typical MX suspension, too stiff for woods work imo.
I don't have my Scotts damper on the new bike yet, so the front end felt a little nervous to me which I know effected my corner entry speed. Even the guys I ride with took the opportunity to tell me I was slower in places on my new bike, yea real funny ha ha :)
Corner exits felt faster though, so much less rear tire spin coming out. The suspension is nice and plush on the trail trash but is a little too soft for my weight in the high speed whooped out sections
for my weight, which is just over 200 in riding gear.
I really considered a WR450 before deciding on the KTM. Now that I have been on a ride I am quite happy with this bike and consider I made the right decision; especially when I read that the WR is 268 lbs. vs. 256 for the orange bike. We shall see in the Spring when the WRs show up. In the meantime, I will practice visualization for higher corner speeds :)
I had to adjust the idle mixture right away because it would not idle as delivered. I am at 3000 ft, it was about 40 degrees.
This bike is my first thumper, I am coming off an '01 300EXC and before that a '99 300EXC. Once I got used to the setup I started adjusting the suspension, stiffened the forks, slowed the rebound in the rear. I felt that the suspsension got plusher during the ride.
I had several riders with me that I could swap bikes with to compare; '01 200E, '01 520E, '02 400E, '02 525E, and a CRF450.
The 450 definitely has more power than the 400, and imo is just slightly less powerful than the '01 520. I think of all the bikes it is the easiest to ride fast, with enough power and great suspension, especially compared to my '01 300. As expected both the 520 and 525 took more effort in the tighter sections, especially the 520. I noticed too that I had less compression braking with my 450 than than the bigger bikes, maybe my idle is a little higher but not much. I had never ridden the CRF before yesterday. It definitely has more power than the KTM450, more like the 525. The biggest thing I noticed about the CRF was the vibration, compared to the KTMs. Does the CRF have a balancer? Maybe its just the aluminum frame rigidity, I don't know. CR has typical MX suspension, too stiff for woods work imo.
I don't have my Scotts damper on the new bike yet, so the front end felt a little nervous to me which I know effected my corner entry speed. Even the guys I ride with took the opportunity to tell me I was slower in places on my new bike, yea real funny ha ha :)
Corner exits felt faster though, so much less rear tire spin coming out. The suspension is nice and plush on the trail trash but is a little too soft for my weight in the high speed whooped out sections
for my weight, which is just over 200 in riding gear.
I really considered a WR450 before deciding on the KTM. Now that I have been on a ride I am quite happy with this bike and consider I made the right decision; especially when I read that the WR is 268 lbs. vs. 256 for the orange bike. We shall see in the Spring when the WRs show up. In the meantime, I will practice visualization for higher corner speeds :)
