Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127813
#45, and we left the needle in the middle setting. We also leaned out the KTM a bit. We went from #175 main to a #172 and we raised the clip on the needle one pdsition. .. Per Suzuki's recommendations, we a so made some adjustments to the RM's exhaust valves. In stock condition, both the main and the secondary valves are set at half a turn in (from all the way out), but we changed them to a 5/8 turn in on the main valve and 1/4 turn in on the secondary valve. With these settings, the powetband is smooth.ed out slightly and there's less of an explosive hit. Looking back, everyone pretty much agreed· that there's more than enough "motor" in all five bikes to get the job done - with a lot left over. However, it is hard not to be thoroughly impressed by the Honda's Open-bike-like power. delivery. Even if it might be "too much" for some, it's next-to-impossible to Ja:.ock a motorcycle for having too much power, especially when it's still very much usable like the Honda's. Motorwise, we have to rate the KX's powerplant a close second to the Honda, the YZ's an even closer third, followed by the RM's and the SX'smills. Again, the Kawasaki and Honda are closely matched when it comes to the suspension department, and neither bike required major adjustments, but all five bikes required at least small adjustments to suit each rider's needs at each track. We spent a lot of our time on each (Right) Motorwise, the Yamaha rates right up there with the Honda and Kawasaki. (Below) Gordon Ward and Suzuki's Pat Alexander discuss the RM's suspension at Carlsbad. bike dialing their suspensions, and what follows are the "in-the-ballpark" suspension settings we found worked best on each bike. Kawasaki recommends the rear suspension sag, or ride height, be set at 97mm. All of our testers liked the stock rebound damping setting (10 clicks out, number-one setting being the stiffest, as is the case with all the bikes), and bumping up the compression two clicks (from 12 to 10) seemed to keep everyone happy. Up front, rebound was left at 12, but everyone felt more compression was needed. Ward settled on the #6 position, while pretty much everyone else was happy on the #8 position. We found these settings to work best on fast and rough tracks, like Carlsbad, while on slower-speed tracks with bigger jumps and more g-outs, we went farther to stiffen things up on the KX.. At Perris Raceway, which features more loamy track conditions, with plenty of big jumps and g-outs, the Kawasaki required stiffer .41 (from .40) springs and more oil to prevent bottoming. We raised the oil level by 5mm (decreasing airspace from 1l0mm to 105mm). Despite the heavier springs, we ended up bumping up the fork's compression damping from 12 to six. Both front and rear settings on the Honda are close right out of the crate. Up front, Ward increased both compression (~tandard #9) and rebound (standard #8) up front by one cUck, while everyone else went the opposite direction by a click or two. At both Carlsbad and Perris we stayed with the .40 fork springs and the same oil level. As far as the Honda's shock, the key is to first dial in the compression and rebound settings to the best of your ability, then use the high-speed adjuster for fine tuning. Honda recommends 102mm of sag, and you probably won't· venture too far from the standard #8 (both compression and rebound) damping settings - we didn't. Ward liked the stock positions but changed the high-speed damping to three-and-a-quarters turns out. Honda recommends making minute changes when it comes to the super-sensitive high-speed adjuster. The Suzuki has a super-progressivetype suspension that suits the slowerspeed tracks with bigger jumps and harder landings, a la supercross. On high-speed tracks. with a lot of squareedges, the Suzuki can sneak in a kick here and there. At Carlsbad, we managed to get the RM working okay, but it was at Perris, with all its jumps and gou ts, where· the Suzuki showed its stuff. At Carlsbad, we made small damping changes to the RM's conventional Showa forks. Due to the bike's harsh feeling out of the crate, we immediately started backing off the compression damping at both ends, but to no avail. The answer is to increase compression up front by at least a couple of clicks (standard is 12). We finally settled on nine clicks out on the compression and 10 clicks out on the rebound, while going five clicks softer on the shock's compression (from 10 to 15 clicks out).