2022 Vital MX 450 Shootout

hey this is mike lindsey from vital mx we're out here for the 2022 450 shootout as you can see we have all seven of the current 450 motocross bikes lined up here we've got six test riders we've spent a couple days testing these motorcycles doing all the available changes of what stock and available bikes the clickers the ecu settings anything you can really do off the showroom floor to try to decide between all of our riders which bike we liked best now if you're watching this feature there's actually three ways to learn about the shootout the one you're watching right now is the shortest and sweetest way i'm gonna break down over about two minutes of each bike and why they finished where they did and give you the result we're also going to have a round table video that you should find in a link either above me in the bio below or anything like that that's going to sit down with riders we're going to break down our whole experience there's also the article on vitalmx.com which has dyno charts weights more data and just a much more large grasp of information basically our end goal is to make your next buying decision easier like i said at the end of the day we are crowning an overall winner that is what we believe as a group was the collective best bike out of the box for the year for all of us but at the same time the winner of the shootout may still not be the bike for you these bikes all have different characteristics things that are good and bad and if you really want to learn which motorcycle you should pick which one's best for you read everything read the guy's opinions kind of figure out who you identify with because ultimately in a day the reason we go through all this effort is to make sure that you get the motorcycle that you want so you have the best riding experience possible [Music] we're going to jump right into the results now finishing seventh place with seventh place scores across the board with all of our test riders is sadly to no surprise the suzuki rmz 450 now we're not going to turn this into a bash fest yes the suzuki keeps finishing down here but that does not make it a bad bike anything in this shootout if it's you know the characteristics we're talking about something you think you're gonna like you're probably still gonna enjoy it you know suzuki still has the good going forth everybody talks about every year that sharp edge handling that great turning character you can get into any kind of into the tighter ruts than you get to on most bikes so the handling characteristic in that sense is is positive the motor has really good low to mid character it's very torquey it's got a nice little snap response to it but it's a little bit of a heavier engine character especially on d cell maybe doesn't have quite the top end legs that some of the other bikes in the class do it just has a little bit of an older four-stroke character to it on top of that the bike you know feels a little bit heavier and it's a little on the harder side to set up it hasn't updated the suspension on the spike since it was introduced in 18 and still has a little bit of issues with the bfr shock some of the bike balance and just trying to find some of the comfort that we're able to get a lot quicker with the other bikes we tested landing in the sixth position is the husqvarna fc 450 as you can see by the scores a little bit farther down the list for most riders but we're beginning this midfield that's really tight as you'll see by the next couple scores now of course we have three austrians in here they're all really similar but the husky has something unique to it it has a lower says suspension stock 10 millimeters less stroke front and rear and honestly all the test riders were just trying to get to feel more like its brother and we were running higher sag numbers pushing the fork farther out on this bike trying to get stiffer get it up in the stroke and get it to where you could ride it aggressively so the settings in this bike are supposed to be a little bit more comfort and vet oriented and definitely in low speed sections just kind of cruising around you can feel that in the bike but when you really want to get up and push your pace and we're not even talking about pro riders here we're talking about some of our novice intermediates they just feel like when they really want to push it the bike doesn't have the control it's a little on the wallowy side it sinks in a little bit and we're just trying to get it up and feeling a little bit more aggressive the engine character on is very linear and broad which is excellent but it is a little bit slow and lethargic off the bottom once again just has a more mellow overall tone it has some great extras the magura hydraulic clutch is better than most of the hydraulics in the class has a little bit more engagement distance brakes are excellent a lot of the finishing features and it has great adjustability but at the end of the day they've gone for a certain direction with it and just for the majority of our riders it didn't quite suit them well enough to finish higher up the rankings walking down the fifth position is the kawasaki kx450 as you can see by the scores this nudged out the husqvarna just a little bit it had some favorable opinion with some of our test riders honestly everybody i talked to in the group did like this bike genuinely there's just a few things with the setup out of the box that really are kind of outside of our control the chassis is really well balanced on it has great comfort and has a great range of setup it's not as maybe sharp on agility or turning as some of the bikes in the class but generally has a good overall feel suspension wise is the big negative is the front fork is just kind of hard to set up on this bike you've heard probably guys for your say something about going to a stiffer spring rate of one leg adding some oil height it's mostly because it's just very soft doesn't have a lot of speed sensitivity or hold up and if you try to chase that by going stiffer maybe a little quicker with the rebound it just takes a lot of the comfort away and no matter really what track where you're at or which test rider they kind of just struggled with getting that front fork dialed in the engine character is really responsive it has great mapping and it's fairly broad but it's a little bit down on output we rode two tracks that were a bit power demanding glenn hillen with the hills and then a sand track while we had some rain out here our last day in california and all these the guys said man you know i can ride this bike more to its potential feels like power wise but when you really bury it or you climb the hills you can just tell you're down a little bit on total output the bike of course has great adjustability handlebars foot pegs a lot of good features that cali's had for a few years i said it's just down to getting the bike balance and being able to really push it to its limit seems a bit harder on this machine than some of the bikes that beat it farther up the field edging out the kalasaki kx450 by only one point is the honda sierra 450r the honda came in with an all-new generation bike last year and when honda does that man they come in swinging they really went for a bike that was better for the masses more bounce on the chassis easier to set up they kept that great mid to top power character they had but tried to mellow out the bottom end the problem with that power character was though ec was not well mapped basically had a bike that garbled and hesitated it cut out a little bit it made it harder to ride down low than it needed to be they've come in this year that was one of their main focuses is that ecu update it's better but man it's still not perfect it's still a little bit dirty feeling off the bottom it's not as connected as it could be like i said better still not quite where it needs to be all three maps have their positives and their negatives none of them are really just what we're looking for like i said though the overall character of the engine is good for the suspension side though this year they went stiffer last year the balance of the bike was better than the prior year but we had a bit of teetering going on a little bit on the soft side they tried to come in stiffer this year bring the ride height up and keep that balance perfect they did accomplish that but in the process they got rid of some of the comfort made the front end feel a little bit too rigid a little bit of feedback some guys just couldn't quite find what they were looking for at each track as rough as it was overall the honda has some great ergonomics great rider triangle a lot of really neat features on the electronic sides with three engine maps three torque control maps launch control a lot of goodies to play with and really set this bike up for yourself but that's what we were missing out of the box it just took a little bit too much tinkering to find something that worked as well some of the other bikes above it in the rankings now we're getting into our podium positions as you can see by the scores these last three bikes man they're pretty well received all around and locking in third place is the ktm 450 sxf 450 ktm is deep into its generation so it's had plenty of refinements and you know ktm's tagline is ready to race that's a lot of how this bike feels out of the box the the chassis the ergonomics the suspension really reward the aggressive rider in our group part of that though for some of the guys in the group was maybe trying to find a little bit of comfort from the machine but it wasn't too terribly hard to find you could go a little bit up on air pressure to get it higher in the stroke and get it off the initial part where he was diving a couple changes from the clickers here and there and everybody was kind of finding stuff that they liked right off the bat so the real positive there is that good turn in response real nimble feel on the ktm the overall physical lightweight some of the drawbacks for the guys though is it is a little rigid on the front end it's because once again it's so race feeling there isn't some of the comfort that we're looking for at all times and then the motor character can be a little bit of a contention it is very broad it's very linear at times some guys were looking for maybe a little bit more pickup initially something that has a little bit more of a sharp character but ktm has kind of taken the really aggressive chassis and tried to mix it with a motor that you can ride to its potential so it is a bike that maybe is as exciting at times as others but man you can really just put in good lap times on it man for its first year in the shootout gas gas got second place with their mc450 yes it is just kind of another colored ktm there's a few things about this bike that on paper may sound like a negative but they actually turned out to be a positive this is their cheaper entry their more fun entry it's around 900 cheaper and part of those items are max's tires a little bit cheaper rim a cast clamp different handlebars no map switches items that like i said you looking like man that's that's a drawback right surprisingly enough no a lot of these items on the bike you start with a great chassis a great broad motor that they already had and thrown on these little items they found more comfort they found a bike that had a wider setup window we've got the a little bit more flexible swing arm from the husqvarna mixed in there as well and i said you get some of the great features from the rest of the austrian bikes you get a chassis that feels like it's rages dive to the inside that feels so nimble but you're getting rid of some of the harshness that was there with the ktm with all those per se cheaper parts and each rider that wrote it came back genuinely surprised like man i like this bike it works well when it's rough i can ride it to what it feels like is the edge of its potential you feel like you're able to really get the most out of it the engine character once again like the other austrian bikes is very linear very broad it's a little bit mellower off the bottom than the ktm the gas gas only comes with a flat air box panel so it has a little bit more lethargic character off the bottom but it's still fairly well mapped in the sense that it feels clean and it feels like an overpowered 350 if i'm being really honest and part of that just it has a lot of fun to it because you feel like you're able to push it and push yourself on the bike really the only negatives at the end of the day is for some guys the max's front tire on hard pack conditions the fact that it doesn't have any little options or extras and that that character of the engine is so mellow on some of the sandier corners the big hills i felt like we were missing out just a little bit but man you can make it up in so many other places on this bike winning the shootout is a lot like winning a championship and the way you do that is don't finish off the podium and it's pretty obvious if you look at the scores for the yamaha yz450f it did exactly that man and there's a major reason you take the key components of the bike the chassis the suspension the motor and they're all so good on this bike and beyond that they work so well in all the conditions and for all the riders you know skill levels heights weights everything everybody found a way to set this bike up and make it work for them pretty much right off the bat a little bit of negatives to the bike still do sit there ergonomics it's got a very tight foot peg to seat ratio your knees feel like they're a little bit close to you the handlebars are really far forward stock some guys like it some of us bring it back it doesn't have the world's greatest front brake it has a little bit of oddballness with the plastic but overall they've done so many other good things with this bike to refine it to the point that the suspension package is amazing every guy that got off this thing barely turned a clicker or two couples tried some different bike balance stuff but you just look at a hole and it absorbs it the motor has huge output and great potential it's powerful it doesn't quite yank you off the bike but it's impressive how quick you get to the next section and if it's a little bit too much the power tuner app is so much more powerful in a sense than some of the buttons on the other bikes you can really manipulate the power tune it down give the bike better roll character or if you want it to bark you can give it sharp throttle response so it just gives everybody something they're looking for and then the chassis itself it's comfortable it has a very balanced handling characteristic yeah it's not as sharp into the inside some of the other bikes maybe doesn't feel quite as quick and responsive but it works for rear ser guys front steer guys and the biggest thing is it keeps its setup so well track to track that track toughness you go to gh you go to the sand track we rode you go ride hard pack you ride loam it just works well on all those situations at the end of the day all the riders can nitpick a couple little things on it but when it comes down to the big picture items it just man checks all the boxes so that's it for what we call the short and sweet edition of the 2022 vitalmx 450 shootout now again this is just me rattling off a couple quick opinions as we're trying to get you the results fast for all you that just kind of want to digest this get a bit of entertainment value at see the bikes in action but if you really want to know the knitting gritty again check the article on our website that's where you're going to probably learn the most facts and technical information about the bikes you can catch up on what's actually changed on each one of them and learn about all those little details and how those affected each rider and got them to the finishing point that they all chose you can see all their individual scores why this had a bike finished where it was and if you're really looking into buying one you can kind of read through that and find the bike that you think is going to suit you the most and again if you're somebody likes digesting digital content we'll also have in the next couple days from this video launching our round table discussion we're gonna sit down mostly rise and we're just gonna bs it like you and your buddies do at the track we're gonna compare our notes we're gonna talk about how one of us likes something the other hated it at the end of the day we agree and we disagree and that's part of the fun of these shootouts is seeing where we all find the same good points in a motorcycle but what makes us all different and what we all look for in the bikes because once again you the viewer watching this you may not necessarily agree with what i'm saying but you may agree with the other guy in the test and that's part of the key to finding the bike 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Channel: Vital MX

Views: 109,490

Rating: 4.91503 out of 5

Keywords: Vital MX, VitalMX.com, motocross, supercross, dirt bikes, mx, motorcycle, 2022 450 Shootout, Shootout, 450 Shootout, #shootout, 2022 bikes, #450shootout, 450cc, #450cc, 2022 Honda CRF450R, #Honda, #crf450r, 2022 Suzuki RM-Z450, #suzuki, #rm-z450, 2022 Yamaha YZ450F, #yamaha, #yz450f, 2022 Husqvarna FC450, #husqvarna, #fc450, 2022 KTM 450 SX-F, #ktm, #450sxf, 2022 GasGasMC450F, #gasgas, #mc450f, 2022 Kawasaki KX450, #kawasaki, #kx450, Fly Racing, #fly, bike comparison, #tested, Bike Test

Id: zfqsAD6KNgQ

Length: 15min 10sec (910 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 11 2021