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/128134
2002 Open-Class Four-Stroke Motocrossers Cannondale X440S VS. Honda CRF450R VS. Husaberg FC550 KTM 520 SX vs. Vertemati C500 vs. Vor 530MX So Cal tracks (we did that too), we arranged to spend two full days test· ing the bikes at Honey Lake Motocross Park, a beautiful new facil· ity north of Reno that associate editor Kit Palmer stumbled across while dri· ving Highway 395 during a recent vacation. So impressed was he with the glimpse that he literally dreamt of the place that nightl Needless to say, we had found our place. Most of the attention in thls class of late has focused on the Honda, Yamaha and KTM, but we wanted to be sure that our shootout reflected the variety that flourishes in the fourstroke category. Therefore, we invited every manufacturer of a water·cooled MX thumper - even the "little" guys and to our surprise and delight, nearly everyone participated (only Husq· varna couldn't take part, since their '02 TC510 still wasn't in the country). By THE CYCLE NEWS EDITORIAL STAFF PHOTOS BY BLAKE CONNER UiW e knew a long time ago that this W would be the most important Cycle News shootout of the year. After all, the big-bore four-stroke motocross segment has been a hot one ever since Yamaha's introduction of the YZ400F back in 1998. It gained more consequence when KTM unveiled its 520 SX in 2000; and this year, when Honda brought out its CRF450R, there remained little doubt that thumpers are the industry's current "it" bikes for a while (and after a few more years, they might be its only bikesl). That being the case, we wanted to treat our 2002 Big·Bore Four·Stroke Motocross Shootout with the significance it deserves. So rather than spend all of our time testing at local 6 DECEMBER 12, 2001 • cue • .. ne'IIVs Bikes like the Husaberg FC550 and Vertemati C500 really show how dif· ferent fOUT-strokes can be from one another. As manufacturers figure out what works best and the AMA's upcoming displacement-rule changes take effect, expect the divergence to narrow a bit in the coming years. For now, however, you would natu· rally assume that the diversity present in the class would make ranking the bikes easy. You would be wrong. Although we discovered each steed to be significantly different from the rest, we were quite impressed with them all, and the different ways that each bike went about achieving its respectable performance made our job that much more difficult. Nonetheless, dedicated effort revealed a clear (though not unanimous) winner, and considering the nature of the work and where it was taking place, it VS. VS. Yamaha YZ426F shouldn't come as a surprise that we didn't utter a single complaint. One final note: Because we never had all of the bikes together near an accurate scale, we were unable to gather precise weights on these bikes • a shame, since we know many of you place a high priority on those numbers. As a backup, we weighed the bikes (wet, but with no fuel) with non-calibrated scales on the Wosicks' concrete garage floor, and while we're not confident enough in the numbers to print them here, they were close enough that we've provided weight comparison information. Cycle News thanks Larry and Lise Wosick for their generous hospitality and the use of their Honey Lake Motocross Park, the manufacturers for their participation and support in our shootout, and DeCal Works for proViding the swingarm stickers.