Two new topics today – the van got a facelift and I’ve been putting time on a 2009 RM-Z450.
The van was a perk that AJ at Victory Circle Graphix helped us out with. Joe and I have often talked about how to grow our presence at races and on the .www and this was one of the ways we discussed. We might have pushed to do it for our 2008 GNCC series adventure had we thought the bikes would remain in the van. Ultimately we feared the advertising would draw the wrong kind of people and we’d wake up at some far away hotel with sprung doors and no bikes, or worse yet, no van and no bikes.
My wife thinks I’ve totally lost it. Now I’m advertising that I spend tons of time and money on the events that suggest I’m wallowing in my adolescence. But I’m super stoked with it. Thanks, AJ!
Some of my favorite things.
And the 450. It’s entirely possible that I’m aimlessly wandering through this whole motorcycle race experience searching for something that’s not there – the perfect set up. I’ve been on six different machines in six years. Two of these machines, this 450 included, are bikes that I probably already had dismissed as too fringe for me to ride competitively in a regional off-road series. Remember my RM144 project bike? That was the one that had a modified cylinder, pipe, flywheel, and suspension in an effort to give me the lightest woods weapon possible. Ended up that I can’t ride an engine that small. I’m too heavy and I never learned to ride a bike in the upper revs the way that bike had to be ridden. While it was fun to ride, it was not fast for me.
The 450 is on the opposing end of the chart. It’s big, heavy and powerful. I definitely had no place for a bike like this in my off-road racing stable just a few months ago. The RM-Z250 did it all for me – turned like a champ, has decent power, and is reasonably light and flickable. But at these few opening rounds of the District 16 Hare Scramble series I’ve found myself wanting a little more poop. I’ve needed more speed on the straights and needed more thrust to get me up the hills. That translates into me thinking I need more power.
When I dissect what it takes to go fast in the woods it boils down to just a few things: the ability to process everything that’s coming at you very quickly and some combination of physiological abilities. The quick processing thing comes naturally for the fastest riders. It’s instinct; they don’t spend anytime or energy processing stuff like balance, throttle control, where to look on the trail. To be on the higher level physiologically you’d have a bigger and more refined capacity than the rest of us. You can do more work, more efficiently. Put fast processing speed and a gifted body together and you get Josh Strang.
I don’t have the natural instincts that the faster, more precise riders do. Most of what I do on the trail happens like this: I’m in 3rd gear weaving thru the woods, there is dirt under me and trees around me. Hey look, a big log. Hmmm. Should I go around or over? Darn – too late, guess I’m going over. Hope this thing starts when I remount.
Okay, that leads me to why I like the 450, and in case you were wondering, I REALLY like the 450. While it is heavier than all of the bikes I have ridden previously, it has super friendly power (in my opinion – Joe might disagree with me here because he felt it was ferocious). If you want it to creep along, it will. If you want leap up and over a puddle, rock, log or mound, it will.
This is my first experience with a computer-controlled fuel system. I suspect I’ve joined the masses that are all saying, “how did we get along without it!?” It really is magical in terms of immediate throttle response, linear power delivery and, clean, clean jetting. Thanks to Shane Nalley at FMF Suzuki for the CPU mapping!
I less than three hours of ride time on the 450 but here’s what I think. The weight it is carrying over the 250 is noticeable at all speeds but in different ways. At low speed – one foot off the peg, body off the center of the bike, reefing on the bars to place the bike somewhere – the 450 is top heavy. I find that I need to be more careful about where my weight is on the bike at slow speeds because it takes on a mind of its own that is hard to coax back into shape if I get out of sorts. At higher speeds the weight becomes your friend by creating stability. The bike plows thru trail trash and small whoops rather than being bounced or deflected (Some of this could be a fresh tune on a killer Factory Connection set up. Thanks FC!). The 450 feels more settled at speed than the 250 does.
And the POWER. I might be faster on the 450 just because I love feeling all that acceleration. Every time I can see daylight I grab a handful and ride along in bliss.
But there are bigger caveats I need to acknowledge. No matter the machine, I still make mistakes that cost me time. Stalling. Not getting by lappers fast enough. Trying too hard. I have to eliminate or at least significantly reduce the number of errors I make in order to capitalize on the benefits I see in the 450. That all starts now.
The time I have on the 450 is all at Dyracuse. I’m so familiar with the terrain there that its not that great for bringing demons to the surface. I need to spend some time at Homann’s riding in super tight woods to get a better understanding of low speed 450 challenges. With luck that will happen this next week and with more luck I’ll be racing the 450 at Hixton next weekend. Woohoo!
