KAWASAKI KX450F FL AT TRACK RACER
PROJECT
P86
Racing the beast
Playing dirt tracker is a different
thing for me. It's pretty rare I get the
chance to have a spin on a tracker
these days, and even rarer to have
one for more than a day.
With Kawasaki building this bike
for any journalist that wants it, it
surprised me to know I was the only
one consistently putting my hand up
for it (c'mon guys!). As such, I spent
the best part of two months bashing
around on the 450 and I promptly
learned I am not real good at this
form of racing.
The one area I had some pretty
big trouble with was the Rekluse
clutch, in that it would essentially
make the bike freewheel into corners
when the revs were low. Just in that
transition point from closed throttle
and brake to open throttle, the 450
would lose all engine braking and
just go in a straight line, which is far
from optimal on a flat tracker when
you're trying to turn left.
Beefing up the springs and rais-
ing the idle speed finally cured the
issue, in time for me to get third in a
club race at Perris, and from then on
the Kawi and I became good friends.
Chavez had the fork set absolutely
perfectly for my 195 pound frame,
meaning that the main thing which
was going to make me faster was
improving my riding, not screwing
around with the bike.
A 450 motocrosser, any current
450, is way more capable of turning
fast laps than I am, so getting used
to being smooth on the gas and
not allowing the back to step out
was always the way to go faster. It's
an old cliché in racing but slowing
down actually did make me faster.
Improving throttle control and making
only incremental changes to body
position made a massive difference
to overall lap times.
I was lucky enough to pick up a
few pro tips from KTM Singles hot
shot Dan Bromley in charging into
the corners harder than I was (this is
a recurring theme for all my racing!),
which helped me in a couple of club
races at Perris and City of Industry.
The Kawasaki KX450F that Mike
Chavez built would be enough mo-
torcycle for me for the next 10 years.
It's ideally set up for a punk like me
and it wouldn't take much for a fast
guy like Bromley to get the most out
of it. The thing holding it back is the
monkey behind the controls! CN
Backing it in is far
from the fastest
way around the
track but at least
it looks cool!
