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15458
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12/28/2008
Location
Wildomar, CA
US
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45th
Edited Date/Time
2/17/2018 12:41pm
Hello all! This year we really wanted to open up our eyes and ears by taking on your questions about Vital MX's 2018 450 Shootout. Pretty simple in here, if you have a question about the test itself, fire away. If you have a question to a specific test rider about their opinions, well...I'm here on hand of course (Michael Lindsay), plus Shelby Paget and Manny Ornellas are regulars on the forum as well. For the other testers (Derrick Caskey, Chris Hay, Zach Peddie, and Brian Davis) they're but a text away for me. I can forward on those questions and see if I can wrangle up an answer.
Btw, here's the link to the article, in case you haven't seen it: http://www.vitalmx.com/features/2018-Vital-MX-450-Shootout,5510
Lastly, we're curious what you, the reader, think of the actual Shootout. Too long, just right, too short (I doubt that, ha)...and what the context in which we cover it. We appreciate any feedback you might have.
Btw, here's the link to the article, in case you haven't seen it: http://www.vitalmx.com/features/2018-Vital-MX-450-Shootout,5510
Lastly, we're curious what you, the reader, think of the actual Shootout. Too long, just right, too short (I doubt that, ha)...and what the context in which we cover it. We appreciate any feedback you might have.
I'm curious what makes the AER 48 so much better than the SFF TAC in your opinion? From what i gathered from the read, everyone who rode the 17 KX450 agreed that the "settings" (I'm guessing they changed the valving) on the 18 were better. Is the added setup complexity of the SFF TAC (having to set/adjust 3 chambers vs 1 on the AER) the problem? If you were to fit a set of AER48's on the KX450f, would the bike be that much better? If you put the SFF TAC on the KTM, would it be that much worse? If the KX450F had the Showa fork used on the Suzuki, would it have been ranked much higher?
Also, i'm curious about your opinion on how much better the Kawi and Suzuki would have ranked had they had a magic button. It was mentioned a few times by various testers, but you only spend a second or two kicking the bike, and then you usually never worry about it again until you come back to the pits.
A shocker of a winner for sure, thanks for telling it like you saw it.
The Shop
On a serious note it's a little on the long side of things but I don't mind that seeing as there was multiple test riders of different skill levels.
Also will the lap time data be released for this shootout and last years shootout?
I'm curious on the decision to include mostly "regular joes" in the test. Other media use established pros - Rich Taylor, Pat Foster, Keefer when he was at DR, guys like Ping and Factory Phil when RacerX did shootouts. Never heard of either of the Pro guys that Vital used but maybe they have extensive testing experience, i don't know.
As for the quality of his speed, last year we had Tommy Week out for the 250F test...when we checked LITPro data, Zach was a bit faster if not the same speed, but more consistent over each day of riding.
Pit Row
Kawasaki, we were a bit perplexed on...for spread of numbers, the KX seems to be one of the highest +/- brands Race Tech dynos. The results are a bit all over for that machine.
Due to the multiple factors that can effect dyno results, I really only put stock in numbers ran on the same day and don't worry as much about numbers from different years. Trust me, I wish things were more consistent, it would save me some explaining.
As for bars and springs, I personally don't believe in either. We test them stock off the floor. In the case of the Yamaha, the bar mounts are taller than '17, not the bars. Lastly, there would be an issue as to what bar we'd use because of flex characteristics.
Springs also create a problem because they take so long to change out just for one dude. If you saw how our riding day schedule goes, this would be impossible to pull off...secondly, the amount of springs we'd need is insane, and riders sometimes prefer softer or heavier springs in feel. Meaning we'd have to do a TON of swapping around.
I respect the ideas, just giving back the responses on why we haven't attempted those in our test.
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