RIDING
The first thing which really struck me
about the new bike was that the front
end is very precise. There’s excellent
feedback available to the rider and
this would certainly suit riders who
favour steering a bike with accuracy,
rather than the blast and hope types.
Next, the engine is powerful providing
excellent traction while not feeling too
tiring to ride - something that’s all too
common on 450s in my experience.
My last initial impression was that the
ergos are very very good... oh, and
that the front brake still lacks a little
bite – not quite matching best in class
performance. A solid couple of hours
riding later those initial impressions
were confirmed.
I had a bit of a play around with the
suspension to suit my riding style
and svelte silhouette... and ended up
firming the forks a couple of clicks
on compression and rebound, which
actually gave them a plusher feel as
they rode higher in the stroke and felt
more settled on choppy bumps. At the
rear I also added some rebound to the
shock but this was after having to add
some spring preload to compensate
for my winter coat. I reduced high
speed compression and added two
clicks of low speed compression
damping and was satisfied with
the firm, controlled and plush-ish
suspension action on the many square
edged bumps at Moto X Central –
which is an excellent place to ride by
the way.
The clutch felt pretty good and I
never had any fade issues, but frankly
I was not working it that hard on the
tight, hard pack conditions we had
for our test. However, I will say that
hydraulic clutches these days have
better feel and are lighter to pull than
their cable counterparts, so please put
that on the update list for next year Mr
Honda.
56 KIWI RIDER