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Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
Lincoln Trail.
Welp. Joined team green yesterday - rebates had me in under $7k. Putz’d around this morning for break in. Gonna dump the oil and get susp setup this week in prep for some track time on Friday. Absolutely stoked.
Coming off a 24 Yz 450 the Kawi definitely felt sluggish stock off the bottom. I opened up the air box and gutted the stock can w/ a 51t rear sprocket. Definitely woke up the bottom end but I was still looking for a little more bottom end acceleration to get the bike into the middle faster.
I sent my Vortex that was on my 23 350sx back to MT Racing (US Vortex Distributor). He remapped it for the 24 Kawi for 125.00 bucks and turned it around within a day of receiving it. All I can say is that the Vortex with his maps worked great and was just what I was hoping for. Definitely livened up the bottom end and gave the bike a more complete power from bottom, mid to top. It feels like it now revs more freely than stock. Even though it definitely picks up faster off the bottom you can still push the bike pretty hard in the turns without it being too much. I’m super pumped with this bike now even with stock suspension. Well, I did add some oil to the forks.
Finally got to ride one. My buddy brought one right off the showroom floor. Never set the sag or anything, just ripped it for a couple laps back to back with my MC 350.
It's probably the best 450 (for me) that I have ever ridden. Very smooth power. Suspension was good just the way it was and it was planted and had good front end feel. Turning was way quicker than any other Kawi I ever rode. Front end felt low but I'm sure that's because I didn't set the sag. Surprisingly, the thing that I didn't like is the front brake! Not sure if it's just the weight of the bike but it took a handful to stop. I expected the Brembo to have more power. I definitely could have set the sag and maybe slid the forks down a hair and raced it just the way it was. Ergo's were perfect for me at 6'1.
Overall, I would definitely buy one. However, I am not sure I am ready to give up my 350 for one just yet...
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I also thought the brakes felt mushy on first ride. I’m going to bleed them and see if it makes a difference.
Also agree with the ergos and I’m only 5’9. Very planted, confidence inspiring feel. The bike also feels way lighter than the spec sheet tells.
I'll echo what's been said about the front Brembo. Pretty mushy from the dealer. Left it overnight with a band around the grip and lever, holding the piston in the master cylinder open. Helped a little, but if it doesn't get much better after the through bleed, I'm swapping a nissin back on. Takes way too much pressure to get the brake to work like a nissin does. Maybe they spec'd it with less aggressive pad compound? Not sure, but so far the Brembo is a downgrade.
The negative Brembo brake talk doesn’t compute… other than a difference in feel the Brembo set up is infinitely superior
Pull that mushy brake harder and watch the magic happen
I noticed my rotors were coated in crap. Used contact cleaner and a clean rag and you wouldn’t believe how much stuff was on the rag. Might be part of everyone’s lack of power.
How does having to pull the lever harder make the Brembo infinitely superior? If I wanted to use four fingers to stop, I'd ride a Harley
The nissin is very touchy, very little modulation.
some prefer that, where some prefer the Brembos feel and ability to modulate the power.
Why u selling? Got pics?
Yep, mine too. My white rag was black after wiping the rotors down with contact cleaner. I ride a new bike dragging the brakes one at a time until the glaze in the pads cuts through and they start getting grabby. Mine works good, not KTM good but maybe the difference is in the brake line?
Have a nagging back issue and the bike doesn’t leave my garage.
Could have definitely been the problem. It had 0.1 hours on it when I got on it and nothing was touched. I'm sure they would have worked better after riding it some more
Been riding my 24 this week after coming off the 23 model. I've got twin air flow kit, fmf exhaust, XPR Vortex, FCP Engine Hangars, X trigs, precision concepts suspension & I think that's it. Cut up the air box. I run sag at 106 & forks at 2.5 mm. Bike seems really good. Power is really good with the vortex. I've tried a few different maps & even the "smooth" map is awesome. I usually run map 1, which is overall best power map & with that one I can pull 3rd gear in some of the corners if i want to try to lug it around. It pulls further in each gear which i like a lot. The vortex is a drastic improvement to the power.
I did ride the bike with stock clamps & stock hangars & stock ECU. I had on the FMF & twin air flow kit the first time I rode it. I've heard people like the stock clamps but i felt like the front end was divey. I just really like the bar mount system with the x trigs & i figured the set up would help reduce vibration, that was true. The engine hangars & xtrigs helped reduce vibration a lot. It does not vibrate noticeably unless I hit the rev limiter, which I do not need to be doing anyway.
Overall it took a couple bolt ons & i'm feeling it on this bike. It turns good for sure. I feel like I have more potential for growth on this bike than the 23.
I was kind of all over the place here but if you have any questions let me know!
51T rear or stk Nic? - I’m on a 51 now but think I’ll drop back down. eSPy has my forks now.. Shock seems pretty good for me at this point, but the front does seem to dive a bit. Tried adding 20cc oil but midstroke seemed a little busy-
I’m confused on how clamps would make the bike feel divey? Now you’re just loco. 50 tooth in Minnesota dirt and sand and has no issues riding in 3rd.
Yeah man i'm not sure. Maybe had nothing to do with clamps. Let me rephrase. I felt better with the x trigs on than the stock clamps! I could see minnesota pulling 3rd gear more. The corners are long & soft. The tracks in Cali have a lot less traction, makes carrying the speed a little tougher. Maybe you are just going that much faster than me!
You can ask around in Minnesota about me but i'll tell you straight to face through the computer that I am pretty loco.
Pit Row
50 but I am going to try a 49 actually, get 2nd gear to rev out longer! I am small so got plenty of pull out of 49's on the old bikes so will try on this one & report back.
I've been back and forth on 50 vs 51, I think 51 is the way to go in soft dirt.
That is what most people are saying & my friends are running 51s as well. but do you have an ecu? No chance you can run a 49 without an ECU. It is a completely different power with the vortex so can run different gearing. Like I said I’ll report back.
Does anyone know if recall will show up after completed on the Kawi website?
The dealer did the frame recall on my bike but it never showed up on the Kawasaki website as actually needing it. Curious if it doesn’t show up after the recall is completed or something.
I have one for my 22 that I need to get mapped. I just want some more snap out of the corners, I was having to use second gear more than I should when the dirt is soft.
The brembos just suck compared to nissin. Don't know why people think it's a upgrade when its in reality is a big downgrade.
I bought a brembo factory sxs caliper for my ktm and it is still crapy compared to nissin.
I took my nissin brake off my 23 kawi and put it on the 24 kx.
there was no actual "recall" so its possible nothing will show up. Did they just do the patch job or actually replace the frame?
Just the patch job. People were running vin numbers to see whose frame was affected. Was that not on the recall website?
After about 5hrs on my 450x…I feel that the balance is way off. Yes, great front end steering bike but dives and tucks so much. At 180lbs, I feel that I need stiffer fork springs.
I bled my front brake and it works great. Took a minute for the pads to bite though.
what is your sag set at?
springs are all broken in. sadly the stock stuff is pretty divey. could try the adding oil method that most have talked about or just go have your suspension set up for you and itll be back to being extra solid.
Sag 105 and forks flush. Shock seems okay but seems to unload and deflect on decel.
I can run fork comp out and it feels better in my hands but definitely worsens the dive/tuck entry/med corner and vice versa turning comp in.
I will be re-valving next week. Just curious if any has done anything drastic to help the balance. I could definitely see how ride engineering clamps with different offset could help the stability as well.
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