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mattyhamz2
9/24/2018 7:34am
9/24/2018 7:34am
Edited Date/Time
10/4/2018 8:52am
TWMX:
1) Kawasaki
2) Yamaha
3) Honda
4) Husky
5) KTM
6) Suzuki
The Shop
I am completely transparent with my shootout, interview riders and get their results as soon as they're done so you can hear the emotion behind each choice. In our second day of Shootout's Michael was on hand to ride the track and I interviewed Michael about "Shootout's". It's a good listen.
We will also be discussing all of this tonight on the Pulp MX Show and I am sure Michael and I will get together at some point again to shoot the shit about dirt bikes for the show real soon.
Dirt Bike Magazine has only announced their winner.
Keefer announces his final results tonight.
Vital: 1 - Yamaha, 2 - Kawasaki, 2 - Honda (we had a tie for second), 4 - Husqvarna, 5 - KTM, 6 - Suzuki
TWMX: 1 - Kawasaki, 2 - Yamaha, 3 - Honda, 4 - Husqvarna, 5 - KTM, 6 - Suzuki
MXA: 1 - KTM, 2 - Husqvarna, 3 - Yamaha, 4 - Kawasaki, 5 - Honda, 6 - Suzuki
Dirt Bike: 1 - Kawasaki (they only confirmed the winner, I believe the rest of the results are something like this: 2 KTM, 3 Husky, 4 Honda, 5 Yamaha, 6 Suzuki)
Keefer: Announcing tonight, if you've been listening to his podcasts you'll know it's between Yamaha and Kawasaki for the win.
DBT: 1 - Yamaha, 2 - Kawasaki, 3 - Honda, 4 - KTM, 5 - Husqvarna, 6 - Suzuki
CycleNews hasn't announced yet.
DirtRider hasn't announced yet.
Adding them all up, confirmed results
Yamaha - 7
Kawasaki - 9
Honda - 13
Husky - 15
KTM - 15
Suzuki - 24
It's just interesting to hear 3 different outlets say one thing and then have MXA almost completely reverse it. I like quite a few of the guys over there, but they are sorta like a broken record year after year. You can almost guarantee KTM and Husky will be first and second, Suzuki will be last and 3-5 are a toss up between the other 3.
A little off topic, but how has Sunrise been? I believe that's where I am headed Saturday.
I'm someone who would never buy a bike based on reviews by anyone but I do like to listen to them to hear what bikes seem to work for certain people.
system that makes for a good/not so good bike. They break down engine, suspension, handling, ergos, etc. in detail and include lap times and details from several riders. Way more real world and specific. MXAs just came off as a bit opinionated and emotional (pissed that Kawi launched a bike that developed a squeak). For me it makes it hard to take them seriously. To each their own I️ guess but kodos to Keefer and Vital.
Like the average vet guy or average rider is at the level of the "beginner/ vet/ intermediate" rider selected for all these shootouts. So because everyone thinks the Kawi is best, it's the best bike for anyone. Hardly. On the flip side, if you bought a Suzuki, you'd be throwing your money away? Not likely.
Picking a media favorite is fine but if you like the RMZ or the Honda or the Kawi...then who cares what the media think?
Unless there's some glaring defect...you can make any of these bikes work...even the yellow ones. This year, there are no glaring defects with any of the bikes. Pick a color and enjoy your purchase.
If you are in the market to buy a bike, you have a ton of options. It's a good time to be a new bike buyer.
For what it's worth:
If the media wants a truly unbiased test, they'd buy a bike, from a dealer outside of Southern California, without any set-up or assistance from the manufacturers. The average consumer doesn't have that option, why should the media?
So while some media like Keefer Inc doesn't take ad dollars and the others do, ad dollars are kinda irrelevant. The media still get their bikes set up by the manufactures...prepped for shootouts. Not a real world test in my opinion because it's not the same experience a consumer gets.
(I will not be replying to any comments regarding my opinion. Feel free to talk among yourselves.) haha
Pit Row
If indeed it's say 20 hours - and indeed the kx450f has the couple issues it had - I DO feel that sort of stuff should be included against a bike. Years back people said all I worked on/liked were yamahas - but the reality was they were all I DIDN'T have to work on - making them a GREAT long term value despite minor handling quirks.
Then all I "worked" on cared about were kawis - which was half true - all I WORKED on were kawis - they broke a lot!
When you buy a bike - THESE days I think it's all emotional with consumers. What the FEEL is best for them trumps any other consideration.
But looking at 50 hour cost and 100 hour cost can't be overlooked IMHO if you love to ride. No shootout is really addressing that because it's hard to do so accurately - not enough bike sample size.
I have a great friend who has been involved with a magazine build that got "rave reviews" - when the reality was the build blew up at hour 2 - had nothing but tuning issues, was slow right out of the gate - and was an all around POS
Somehow the magazine article gushed about it - imagine that.
All the bikes are good - all can win a race, so pick your favorite attribute and buy it for that.
If I'm buying a bike, I appreciate as much info as I can get and appreciate all of the shootouts, but am not going to take any one of them as definitive.
Maybe I'm just looking too far into it though.
The best answer would be to let me ride each bike at my regular track! Keefer, you need a 51yo slow dude for your east coast test!
"We went to a toxic waste dump for our beauty shots of the bikes..."
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