Suzuki 450 test with Dave Willet
December 13, 2007
The Future is here fuel injection dirt bikes yes Suzuki is the first and won’t be the last believe me. Anyway as you can imagine I was looking forward to putting some laps in on the bike, also riding around the famous Valksward circuit where the first World championship was held.
I arrived at the circuit and started to get changed into my race gear in a room that was full of motocross memorabilia, pictures everywhere of the past greats, well some not so late D.T himself who is still going strong winning his 4th title this year.
My adrenalin kicked in and I could not wait to throw my leg over the yellow machine which looked mega, as I stepped nearer to the bike I noticed certain changes from last year. Such as the slimmer frame and the front exhaust with a new bomb header.
Also once I sat on the bike I notice it had a high feel to it or was this due to me being short in the leg?
When I started the bike and rode off on to the track I was surprised by the response on the throttle and also the torque of the engine which I most say was very impressive. I felt confident on the bike straight away which I feel was due to the rider friendly motor.
Once on the track I became aware of the advantage the fuel injection made, no bogging even after flat landing the thing and trying to get it to bog or to cause it to delay it did not let me down I was pleased about this as I did not want to do a head plant in front of all the Japanese techs.
So impressed with the fuel injection (yes) it was sharp. But I still had a few questions in my head that needed answers regarding performance etc.
One being the gear box which I felt was also much improved from last year’s model selecting gears no problems which I felt was a problem with last year’s bike, also the new five speed gear box which I felt was a must, totally changed the characteristic of the motor ( A BIG PLUS ) resulting in a smoother ride. But I still felt second gear was a bit short.
On to the steering Suzuki changed the frame to give more flexibility and aid the bike to corner better which did work well, but I still found that I would lose the front end on the tight turns and steering with the rear end. I also felt when riding the bike it was shouting for more rear end traction in the soft sand causing a hovering feeling.
SUSPENSION front end seemed to be too soft which also causes problems, i.e. loss of front end on tight turns.
SUSPENSION rear coped well with the circuit.
I only had two sessions on the bike, after which the mechanics needed twenty minutes to work on the bike to get ready for the next test resulting in them having more time on the bike than me, plus the bike seemed to get hot very quick.
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