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Chatting away to Jim Drane – the head honcho over at Liberty Kawasaki last week and the subject of off road bikes dropped into the conversation, as it does…Having ridden the 08 KX450F motoX bike last year and, being very impressed I may add, it was suggested that, although I recently bought a new 08 Honda CRF450R which I absolutely love by the way, I should still take out the big K’s latest 09 offering, the KX450F fuel injection…
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Not one to miss an opportunity, I quickly agreed and Thursday past, made the trip over to Garhoud. The bike was ready and waiting as planned and 15mins later it was securely strapped onto the trailer and making it’s way home with me ready for the Friday morning venture into the desert…A couple of quick adjustments to the suspension to cope with my 70’ish kilo’s of weight, the tire pressures set to my preference and the fuel tank topped up too…we were ready for the off…As a precaution, though, I thought I would just give her a kick over to see just how easy it started after all, last thing I wanted to do was turn up for the ride and not be able to start the thing…
After locating the choke and pulling it out it’s one click in readiness for a kicking I noted the lack of a fuel tap, this is due to the fact that the tank now carries the pump required for the injection system so, no worrying about whether or not the tap is in the on/off position…Two kicks and the motor sparked into life, cool, no hassle there then…
The motor was allowed a short time to ‘high idle’ on the choke before shoving the button back in and allowing it to purr away whilst warming up…A couple of Min’s later a few quick blips of the throttle and the engine responded instantly with a growl from the airbox and a nice note from the standard exhaust system, not too loud and not too quiet…Ok…Kill switch, quiet…Kit bag and gear loaded and we were ready for our early morning adventure.
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Jeez, 4am already ! Meeting up with a couple of riding buddies at daybreak may not be to everyone’s liking but for the off road fraternity, getting the first ‘cooler’ hours of the morning is a must, summer is long and hot so needs must, well….You know the score. Once again, two stabs at the kick starter and the green machine burst into life…With two Honda’s for company, I felt like the salad filling in their sandwitch…Whatever!!!
Minutes later we were on our way to the infamous ‘Fossil Rock’ With the recent high humidity the desert was quite damp and offered lots of traction for the knobbly rubber to bite into, I have to say at this point that although the bike is relatively new the rubber was worn and would benefit from a new set, especially on the Front…That said, the rear offered enough grip for this ride and possibly a few more to come…Within the first few Km I notice how compact the bike felt, for me this was a big plus as I’m not the tallest (by far) or the heaviest of riders and the compact nature of the bike made shifting around the bike very easy. The second thing was how light the bike felt whilst changing direction as we cut our way through the camel grass and the gnarly tracks. The weigh distribution is as near perfect as can be, the bike never feeling slow to turn or change direction, even with the front wheel pawing the air as it seems to like to do. For me, the suspension was a little too stiff as it had been set up for slightly heavier riders and this caused the front to push through tighter turns, this could also be down to the worn front tire too…That said, the bike was easy to turn on the throttle simply by letting the rear end do the steering for you and sliding through the turns, for me, I would run softer settings as I do on my Honda and I am sure that would solve this small niggle…Each to their own as they say !
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For me, though, the motor is the key to how good the Kwak feels, the power delivery is so smooth and with bags of low down grunt and torque. Cresting a blind dune to see the resulting drop is not going to sit you on your head, a simple twist of the throttle again has the front wheel lifting up, the read tire digging in and launching it off into the air without a problem. The bike is so well balanced in mid air that it never felt out of control or feeling like it was going to bite back…I think for riders coming into this sport or hobby, this would be a great bike to learn your trade as it is a very forgiving bike to ride.
With such a free revving engine, delivering the power in such a linear manner, everything feels un-rushed and very calm and very easy dare I say…When asked, though, the power seems endless, on the faster open tracks or flowing dunes, the rush from the engine seems to go on and on and, there always seems to be a little bit more if required to say, lift the front wheel over a bumpy section or the like…The steering which can, and usually does, get a bit flighty at high speeds as you hit these sections keeps the front wheel pointing in the right direction and not once did it give me cause for alarm, and, there’s no steering damper fitted to this bike either…
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For the big jump fans out there, the bike feels so balance front to rear that I am sure that this would be a bike that you could possibly find new limits on, for me, the smaller jumps felt great and never had me worrying about the landing but there again, I’m not such a big hitter on the huge jumps so I really can’t give you a full evaluation on that aspect of the bikes ability…
For me, the only niggle with the big ‘K’ has to be with it’s build quality, the bike I rode has been ridden and used for it’s soul purpose, hitting the track and the desert and delivering the goods…The plastics looked a little tired and the battle scars had left their marks…Compared to the Honda and KTM machines I still think Kawasaki are lagging in that department and I would put them in line with the Suzuki which runs behind the Yamaha boys…That said, should you own one of these green machines, I suppose you would offer plenty of TLC to keep it looking sharp, especially if you had bought the ‘Monster’ edition bike which to me, my own opinion, is the hottest looking bike on the market at this moment in time…Nit picking, yes, I suppose I am, the big question is, if I had 25K to spend on a new Monster edition Kawasaki, would I pay it and spend some extra time after riding applying a little extra TLC….You bet I would….This bike has just set a new bench mark in rideable bikes…Need I say more…
Many thanks to Jim Drane and the boys for the demo and screwing with my head….Again…
Ferret
