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2002 TM400E
THE NEW TM 400E GETS ONLY ONE
CHANGE FOR J02 J BUT ITJS A DOOZIE.
all, how many of these Italian
thumpers did you see at your last
enduro? Not many (if any), I'm sure.
One might take this lack of popularity
as a bad sign; I mean, if the TM was
such a good bike, then everyone
By KIT PALMER
\'f7 ou might
U TM 400E
have noticed that the
hasn't taken the world
by storm. In fact, you might not have
even noticed the TM 400E all! After
would be riding them, wouldn't they?
But the funny thing here is, the TM
400E is actually a pretty darn good
off-road bike. The only problem with
it is that it doesn't have the name
Yamaha or Honda (or Suzuki or
TWS USA, the TM Importers in Upland, Callfomla, gave us a chance to try out the
TM 400E for a day. We gave It a good workout and it passed with flying colors.
For '02, the bike gets new Ohlins forks.
44
MARCH 13,2002'
cue
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Kawasaki, for that matter) stenciled
on its radiator shrouds, and there isn't
a TM dealership around every comer.
It just goes to show that a motorcycle
such as the TM 400E can be good
without being popular.
Part of the TM 400E's lack of popularity, however, is that it is in only its
second year of existence - which is
hardly an excuse at all, when you
consider just how popular the
YZ400F was after only its first two
years on this planet. The second-year
TM 400E isn't much different than the
first TM 400, but it did get one important change - new forks. In a wise
move, TM dumped the inverted Paioli
forks of the past and replaced them
with higher-quality 46mm Ohlins
forks, which are, of course, fully
adjustable (just like the rear Ohlins
shock).
The heart of the TM 400E is its
compact DOHC, 399cc, watercooled, four-stroke engine, which fits
snuggly inside the TM's round-tube
chrome-moly perimeter frame; this
allows ample room for the engine's
DOHC cylinder head, as well as for
the smallish 2.5-gallon fuel tank.
Unlike the 400E's off-road twostroke brothers (250 and 300cc) that
use five-speed wide-ratio transmissions, the 400 E uses a six-speed,
close-ratio gearbox. Like all of the
other TM models, however, the 400
features a hydraulically operated
clutch.
As far as useful stuff that off·roaders want, the TM features things like
lights (head and tail), hand guards
(made by Acerbis), a kickstand, a
spark arrester (though the bike I rode
was fitted with a motocross silencer)
and an l8-inch rear wheel. Unfortu-
