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KTM 450 5X
,N,
Hondo CRF45On
Yomoho,
the
"iEv€ntor'
bI th6
bodC'fifdqt;ffiI
gle-cylinder
four'elroke
rootosroac8r,
is out to
recloim supremocy
in the clqss by
pulling
out oll
the stops ond redesigning
its 450 lrom the
ground
up,
giving
it on oluminum frome ond
giving
bock
its fifth
geor.
Suzuki, which
gove
Hondo
q
bit o{
q
scqle
with its Iirst 450 eflort lost
yeor,
mqde
q
num-
ber ol chonges to the
RM-Zt motor und chossis,
qnd
Kqwqsqki
went oll out
with its Iirst
pioduction
450cc thumper. KTM,
on the other hond, took o
more conservqtive route, relying rnostly on
refine-
ments to rejuvenote its olreody
good
450 SX lor'06.
And
whot
qbout
the king? Well, the CRF450R
took
on mony chonges
lor'06, but most ol them
were...well, to
keep it
the
some.
(We'11
exploin lqler.)
As lqr
qs
test riders for
this shooiout, we hqd o
whole slew ol them with vorying skill levels, {rom
slow
shooters to iqst
young guns,
to
just
obout
everyone
in between. When it come to the
jqst
guys, we
utilized
the services of
pro
motocrossers
Tommy
Hqirison,
Joe
Oehlhol ond Austroliqn
Tom
Jones,
who linished lilth in the Austrqlion
Nqtionql MX Series
in
'05
qnd
third in the ,eqture
event
qt
the Dqy In The Dirt. Even former Nqtionql
MX Chompion Gory
Jones
gove
us some input. So
you
might
soy
thot we hod oll ol the bqses covered.
We olso rode the
bikes ct severGl trqcks oround
Southern Colilorniq,
including
some ol our
Iqvoites circuits such
os Glen Helen Rocewoy
ond Cohuillq Creek MX
Pork.
As usuol, our stqndord MX shootout rules
were
in ellect
-
the bikes were to remsin stock. We do,
howevet ollow
lor
ietting
chonges ond suspen-
sion
odjustments,
viq
"clickers"
only. This
yeor,
we
even kept
the tires stock. In other
words, if it didn't
come
lvith it, we didn't use it.
HONDA CRF4SOR
I
