2020 Vital MX 450 Off-Road Shootout

[Music] hey guys it's clinger welcome to the 2020 vital max off-road shootout supported by moose racing and showy helmets this year we decided to do the 450 enduro bike category so these bikes what they all have in common are you know that they're designed and made for offroad only these are not track bikes they're not designed for motocross or Supercross or anything like that some of them are based on motocross bikes some like the beta they don't have motocross bikes in the lineup so they're gonna be really purpose-built for enduro but overall there's a few things on them and make them more trail oriented more enduro oriented for a little bit slower speed and some more comforts and conveniences so the things that make these bikes the same they all have headlights they'll have taillights they all have 18 inch rear wheels kickstands bigger tanks wide ratio transmissions all of the suspension is aimed at definitely more of a comfort setting to soak up rocks roots nasty terrain so the bikes were talking about in alphabetical order is the 2020 beta 430 or our race Edition the Honda CRF 450 X the suzuki rmx 450 z the TM e in 450 fi and the yamaha WRR 450 F today we're at Cahuilla so there's a good mix of tight stuff some faster stuff some obstacles that will really test the bike we'll be seeing how they work here and then we'll have another day of testing and put all the scores together we have six different testers to give their opinion and we'll get into it [Music] so starting in 5th place is the TM in 450 fi comes in at eleven thousand one hundred and ninety five dollars on paper it had the best staffs it made the most horsepower with fifty point forty eight and then thirty four point five foot-pounds of torque is the lightest bike full of gas is two hundred and sixty pounds there's a red sticker machine and out front there is a KYB fork and a house-made TM shock that TM makes themselves for all their bikes the power character is very old-school it just makes its power very high in the RPM but because it doesn't have a very fast revving motor it's slow kind of chuggy we weren't getting the most out of the motor because we were riding a very tight single track lots of turns lots of switchbacks and it just never gave the bike an opportunity to be ridden higher in the RPM our second day of tests and you know it did move up a little bit and we felt like it really shined on some of the more open terrain as far as the motor went handling wise it has a slimmer profile because like the Yamaha it has the airbox where the gas tank normally is and I have the gas tank in the back of the bike but unlike the Yamaha it actually retains the standard air intake throttle body position at the back of the motor and the exhaust comes out the front of the motor some testers thought that there was extra weight out back and it felt a little bit choppered the suspension is more kind of on the Moto e side it's definitely a firmer more hold up but it really shined more in the flowy single track and to track and the faster you went you could push the suspension pretty hard it is a good bike the motor was just weird and hard to get used to in the short amount of time that we wrote it I was always curious to how one of those bikes handled especially the unique thing that caught my eye when I first looked at it was how the gas tank is actually in the rear of the motorcycle so for me I thought that might kind of mess with the handling surprisingly it actually did pretty well in the rear of the motorcycle like coming out of corners and stuff it actually settled pretty good shoes that I found on it was the engine braking was was very aggressive on it anytime he got off the gas I just wanted to kind of throw you forward I actually stalled the bike a couple times due to that problem so that was kind of kind of the negative side of it but it was it was interesting to finally get to ride a TM so in fourth place is the Suzuki or MX 450 Z and if you remember maybe you don't this bike was introduced in 2010 and it was reintroduced in 2017 in that whole time there wasn't really any changes or updates so now when you look at the bike it does look a little dated and it has a little bit of older technology on this bike it is eight thousand nine hundred and ninety nine dollars on the dyno thirty six point nine six horsepower and twenty six point one foot-pounds of torque it is the second heaviest at 272 pounds out front is a show of forty seven millimeter fork so a little bit older fork design there and moving into the performance it definitely had the mellowest motor that being said the way that it makes power is pretty usable it's very linear there isn't a massive hit of power anywhere has to be expected but the power is very beginner-friendly in a way that it still is a 450 but it's just very tame and usable moving on to the handling this is actually where the bike shines it has the smallest tank at 1.6 gallons but that also keeps the front of the bike very slim kind of the slow speed stuff you start to feel the weight but at the same time the handling is very nimble kind of the flowy single track S turns it really shines as kind of a motocross II feel to the bike the suspension is definitely more on the firm side it's not too soft not so much on the comfort side it's more on the performance side so I felt like you could push this bike you could stay on top of rollers you could slam through something and it didn't upset the chassis it didn't upset the bike you know as is it got fourth place just because it's a little bit mellow in the power department and the other bikes just or a little bit more exciting to ride it's a little bit down on power but today with the tight rails that we wrote it actually it made it better it made it easier to ride so that was that was something fun you know being able to put the bike exactly where you wanted it would be nice to have a little more over EV but you know just coming out of a corner where it would just be tough to shift up to that third gear and then back down to that second you know it's it makes it a little complicated as the other bikes pulled that second gear a little bit longer you could be a little lazier with it in third place a very close third place to second it is the beta 430 our our race edition this is the second most expensive bike at ten thousand six hundred ninety nine dollars on the dyno chart it made forty four point eight two horsepower and thirty point one foot-pounds of torque it is the second lightest bike at 261 pounds it has the biggest gas tank at 2.4 gallons out front is a forty eight millimeter KYB fork and a sachs shock in the rear again red sticker bike and it has a six-speed transmission so going into the performance of the bike this motor stands out among all the other motors in the and the test the the way it makes power is the most controllable most usable it almost is very obvious that this is an off-road brand this brand was doesn't make motorbikes it is it has its own way of making power which is perfect for tight technical terrain it is a 430 there's a lot of power there but it just feels so controllable the twist of the throttle it's very light the clutch is very smooth very light pull so when you're in any kind of side hill off camber going through creek beds and having to pick your way through things it was a blast ride and it worked definitely the best unfortunately the con of that is that when the trailers got faster big hill climbs it definitely likes to be short shifted it wants to be in the low to mid range of the power you get past the mid-range and it just starts to rev it almost feels like it binds up the chassis a little bit it's not where the motor really wants to be handling wise it is the most nimble the most agile feeling bike you definitely feel like you're sitting on top of it and it's easy to stand use your knees to just kind of push it around there's a really light turn in it doesn't take much to get this bike to turn and precisely put it exactly where you want but that also translated the faster we want it started to feel a little bit twitchy the suspension is super plush super comfortable and it's very smooth unfortunately the faster you went it started to blow through the stroke it started get out of sorts definitely top choice for the tighter the terrain the more the bike shines definitely East Coast technical extreme riding I like the look of the bait a lot was probably most excited to ride the beta earlier today and got on it and it was kind of everything I expected it's very nimble feeling very light plenty of power if you're riding technical kind of rocky slower terrain I would pick that bike probably not as enjoyable on like a wide open setting through the desert stuff like that but if you're gonna do kind of your single track hard enduro stuff that would be my choice in second place is the Honda CRF 450 X it is 9700 $99 it is the only green sticker bike in this shootout on the dyno it made thirty nine point seven two horsepower and twenty eight point eight foot-pounds of torque it is the heaviest bike in the shootout at 274 pounds full of gas has a two gallon gas tank six-speed transmission and then out front it is the show of forty nine millimeter fork and Outback show a shock these are both based on the CRF 450 R but with off-road suspension settings it is definitely on the tamer side as far as comparing it to the are quantity wise but the quality of the power is very similar to the R meaning a lot more responsive the throttle response is really good very snappy you can use it any way you want it there's torque on the bottom good mid-range if you rev it out you're still making power not just you know screaming out the motor for no reason it still makes power on the top and some of the downsides of the motor is I felt like and the tighter stuff first gear didn't feel as low as I wanted it to be and then also almost like in the tighter stuff it just felt a little bit harder control the power harder to kind of meter it on smoothly Plus out of the motor is the faster and more open it was it just screams in the moon it revs really high and that was probably the most fun way to ride the bike handling wise it feels a little bit bulkier than some of the bikes in the the shootout you notice the heavier weight you notice the bigger tank and it starts to feel a little bull in a china shop kind of feel but it isn't so much that you know you would say it's you you can't write it in tight terrain it's just that's not where the bike shines the more open train it's the easier to control and that's where the bike really wants to be ridden suspension wise it is definitely more of a moto e firmer performance based suspension that doesn't have as much comfort as some of the other bikes definitely not as much as the beta again the faster you read the Honda the more west coast desert style terrain definitely this is where the bike shines so if that's the kind of writing that you do the Honda is definitely your bet Honda power is is not what I expected coming from the motocross bike the motocross bike is obviously tons of torque and I kind of felt like that was gonna be the way it was on the trail and the off-road bike is is not the same it's linear power it kind of goes where you want it to the tank is a little bit bigger on that bike so getting all the way forward for the real tight stuff was a little bit of a problem for me but as I started to stand up and just use the legs through the corners it made it good so that was something that was a little bit of a compromise their overall was a pretty good bike super mellow not too aggressive by any means kind of a little slow coming out of corners but it would pull quite a bit so the top-end had a lot of distance on it it felt a little heavier than most of the bikes I rode kind of sluggish but overall pretty decent power band it would carry you pretty far in first places the Yamaha WR 450 F it is nine thousand six hundred and nine nine dollars on the dyno it made forty four point nine two horsepower and twenty eight point nine foot-pounds of torque it is 265 pounds full of gas which is 2.2 gallons it has the same KYB SSF fork and same KYB shock as the y z 450 F but it didn't get all the changes that the the 2020 y Z got this year but as is still excellent bike this is why it is in first place I think the main word I could say for this bike is versatility in all aspects meaning power handling suspension checked all the boxes off-road is hard to make one bike work really good the WR came away as the most versatile starting with the power what what we mean by versatile is that for one the power is instantaneous the throttle response is very impressive incredibly snappy response and really fun to ride it makes the bike feel really light and nimble just by the power characteristic kind of the downside of that is sometimes it can feel a little bit of a handful and the tighter stuff but first and second gear are a lot lower than the normal Y Z transmission so that does help you out the clutches is actually a really nice pull so handling wise it does feel a little bit wider than TM and Suzuki very similar to the Honda in that it feels a little bulky it feels a little wide but it doesn't feel as hard to turn lean in was more intuitive it took less effort to turn in the Honda it really reminded us of the the motorbike as far as handling and the way that you can point and shoot and wherever you wanted to go the Yamaha they just have this magic combination in their fork and shock of comfort and performance great traction great feel great comfort you weren't being bucked around and then you got down to the bottom in this stroke and there's a lot of hold up there's a lot of resistance to bottoming so you could ride it super slow with comfort and you can ride it super fast stability my favorite today was the Yamaha and it really wasn't even close because there just wasn't anything it did bad the motor on that thing is hands-down the quickest it's not even really close this thing is a missile it rolls on smoother than the motocross model there's power everywhere it has a really good chugging capability I call it where you can just be down at first gear and just idling along like at a walking speed and just a touch of the throttle up it goes you know there's no hesitation no hiccup because it's not like wanting to stall and then the suspension it's just perfect totally soft and plush initially so any little chatter little bumps just you know contours in the terrain you don't even know it's there but as you would get into bigger stuff it did get progressively firmer the Yamaha was a just they nailed the suspension set I found I could stay seated or standing it was just intuitive wherever I looked and wanted to go this thing follow I felt like I could not only ride faster on it I could ride longer because I was using less effort it was just comfortable really easily the best bike overall that's why the Yamaha WR 450 F is the top pick of most of our testers if you're looking at off-road as a whole the WR i think checks the most boxes and can make the most people happy if you are anywhere in you know west coast and you prefer to ride the desert high-speed terrain definitely the yamaha is something to consider if you're on the east coast or you ride extreme enduro kind of riding where you know you still want a big bore motor the 430 the beta is the way to go there for your extreme riding you still want the comfort the agility to get through gnarly technical stuff then as far as just trail riding or just enjoying a normal ride with the family suzuki rmx 450 z it's a nice mellow easy to handle bike it's still a slim not too bulky if your moto guy and you want to try some off-roading that is a great choice and definitely if you have some deep pockets and you want to be the only one in your riding buddy group with a TM then Tim is the way to go again not a bad bike nobody really hated it it just took time and it stood out as a bike that just makes power in a very different manner than the other bikes overall hope you enjoyed the shootout let us know if you have any questions let us know if there is a bike category that you want us to tackle next as far as 250 two-stroke off-road 250 two-stroke cross country there's a lot of different bike categories out there that we can investigate and put together and do some more shootouts so if you're on youtube please click the subscribe button if you're on our site head over to our YouTube channel and thanks for watching you you

Channel: Vital MX

Views: 68,252

Rating: 4.8247013 out of 5

Keywords: Vital MX, VitalMX.com, motocross, supercross, dirt bikes, mx, motorcycle, 2020, Off-Road, Shootout, 450cc, Beta, Honda, Suzuki, TM, Yamaha, WR450F, TM EN 450Fi, CRF450X, RMX450Z, 430 RR Race Edition, Dirt bike review, dirt bike test, review

Id: MKXGz54ocVQ

Length: 18min 33sec (1113 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 24 2020