Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but Premium users receive great benefits. Premium benefits include:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
TA
Wow! I was all into buying one of these bikes, maybe I’ll wait for the 25.
Wouldn't have this problem if you bought another RMZ bro!
Or he could’ve bought the new penton. Not as much overpriced as it is a piece of shit.
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
Should have brought a zero turn and called it a career
*started
Got you. Thanks man.
I’m not doing this bullshit “repair”. Have over 15 hours of hard Moto and it’s fine, obv will keep an eye on it but if I ever see a crack (doubt it) will have a pro welder fix it right. With the JB weld “fix” you would never know if a crack is forming.
I remember when yami’s were having bad welds by head tube, that’s potentially catastrophic. Always take a close look at welds periodically on all brands.
I'm stuck in the middle. Purchased the bike 9 days ago. 3 days later they called me about the recall and said I need to have it inspected. They also couldn't register the bike until the recall was addressed. They inspected the frame today and no cracks were found, so it's getting the epoxy. Bike can't be registered until then, so I really have no other option. (ViN 734). And if I were to have it welded and cracks later down the road (even in another location) they sure as hell won't cover a replacement frame under the recall.
https://www.keeferinctesting.com/2024-kx450-update-and-mods-that-have-w…
Updates
Finally got the Vortex mapped for this bike, now just waiting on the motor...
Are you going to JB weld your frame?
Same here i will get a 24 anyway. It's probably just a few batches of frames that are affected. And Kawasaki seems to take care of it.
It looks like they rode on this frame since 2022 in Japan and a full gp season 2023 so it seems like its well tested.
For the amount they’ll spend in r&d and warranty repairs they probably could have just released a standard model with the sr mods for the standard price and had a tried and true shootout killer.
This model is much improved over the previous generation, and I am sure they will continue to fine tune it.
Not sure what adhesive Kawasaki is suppling dealers with, but I can assume it's far superior than the JB weld everyone keeps throwing out. Polaris and much of the automotive industry has been using adhesives in their manufacturing process for years instead of welding. It's easier to repair and depending on the adhesive used is stronger than welding. I just had to repair the chassis on my snowmobile and here are the specs for the adhesive that is use in joining two pieces of the bulkhead together. I get it that you're pissed there's an issue with your brand new bike, but I do think that if they are using the correct adhesive for the application it can be a solid fix.
For all of my motor issues, I still think it is a great bike - Handling, balance, and rider comfort are one of this bikes strong points.
Sure it has some issues like the airbox clusterfuck (some engineer needs to be terminated over that one) and some other minor items, but overall this bike has tons of potential once the power and intake issues are figured out...
It's always been the same for first gen dirt bikes no matter the brand - the first buyers act as involuntary, un-paid test riders if they like it or not - there are no new design bikes that come to market perfect...
Pit Row
I’ve been looking at your pictures here. If you don’t mind, what are we looking for in that picture?
If you weld for a living, none of the welds on modern robot-welded motocross bikes look too pretty, I’m guessing. Fact is though, I see tons of posts here on Vital showing broken KTM and Yamaha frames, but I don’t recall seeing much in the way of broken Kawasaki frames.
I talked to a rep at Kawasaki yesterday. They said that the area that they are worried about is where the subframe attaches. The epoxy is just a safeguard. I was also told that if a frame had a failure after the repair it would be replaced. I am in the same boat as a few on here, where we are in snow season right now. I got 2 hours on mine late fall and won't touch it again until April.
Sorry if I missed it but was about to drill my airbox cover and noticed that Keefer and others are drilling on the left side 3 and 2 inner holes. But the 3 holes along the left on the backside are just in an open area and not an opening into the airbox? So are those three just for looks to match the two center holes that actually allow flow into the box?
The pictures I tried to get the best angle it’s hard to show, I own a fabrication company that specializes is stainless and alum welding, I also was a weld inspector for the railroad previously. I agree machine welds are machine welds I personally own 8 newer Kawasaki bikes between my kids and I and non of them have any issue.
the welds on the 24 frame (80 plus %) and also confirmed my the dealer are not good. Less than 1 hour on the bike it’s already torn down for pieces missing in the clutch which gave way to see even more welds that only layed on the metal and not in.
Heard of a few owners chopping into the airbox, which would allow for both of the left side panel holes to breathe.
I’m talking about the left 3 you can see here, one you can even see the shock through the hole and those holes aren’t allowing any more flow in any way. Keefer didn’t mention it but I imagine just ripping off the sealing gasket on the back of the cover probably actually changes flow the most
I've had two 19 KX450s and love them both obviously same bike. I have to be honest if I was going to buy a new one it would probably be a Yamaha just because not as many issues and the biggest thing is resale value. We're being said I might pick up a used 24 KX cuz it'll be a low priced
Would be interesting to see what the air temperature is in the box before and after the modifications. Guessing the heat from the engine/exhaust is raising the air temp significantly in the box, especially at lower speeds. If the battery wasn't in the way it would be easy to install a snorkel in place of it. Just by pulling the big rubber grommet out of the top of the airbox (under the battery) made a noticeable difference.
Hopefully someone will get the bike on a dyno soon and come up with something better than us hacking up our new bikes.
Anyone running the X Trig clamps on their bikes yet? Any info on any handling feel from swapping them over? I know Keefer did some reviews on them on a Yamaha and KTM. He talked about how he lost a little comfort on lean just curious if that is the same on the KX.
The stock fork oil volume (just like the previous generation) is 321ml. On the previous generation bike, I was much happier after raising the fork oil volume to 370ml. If I want to try this on the '24, is there any reason I couldn't just use a syringe to inject 50ml of fork fluid through the air bleed holes on the fork to accomplish this?
Post a reply to: 2024 Kawasaki KX450 and KX450X