BMW has a long, storied history of doing things its own way. Back when there wasn't a conventional path to follow, things like opposed-twin engines, shaft drive and 800cc dirt bikes just sort of happened. But as motorcycle design became more homogenized, both off-road and on, BMW didn't exactly adapt with it. It just went ahead and pioneered a few things along its merry way, despite what everyone else was doing. Anti-lock brakes, single-sided swingarms, bigger and more powerful opposed-twin Boxer motors as well as flat four-cylinder Bricks. What does any of this have to do with the G450X? Well, it will all come together now since we finally get what this bike is doing.
See, BMW decided it wanted to get into the dirt bike business. And in almost the biggest way you can aside from going supercross or motocross racing, the German company was going to build a flagship 450cc enduro bike, arguably the most crowded segment in the dirt bike world, It was going to do it right by making the bike dual-sport as well. And BMW was going to do it its way which, as we've pointed out, differs from the norm.
With unconventional design throughout the bike-a clutch on the end of the crank, an engine that spins backward of every other bike out there, a swingarm pivot center on the countershaft sprocket and a lot of residual tweaks-the G450X would not only cry out by being different, it had all the odds stacked against it because it was so. And the 2009 bike arrived with some of the most horrific standard suspension settings in recent history. It was so bad, in fact, that Dirt Rider could never get comfortable on the bike or dial a setting in the suspension to actually feel what the bike was trying to accomplish. This was not for lack of trying. Then we struggled to get the performance parts the bike was being sold with, never got some replacement parts that we broke and, since the bike was only a 49-state release and we were based in California, all parties decided it best to just wait for 2010. That was probably a good thing.
BMW went back and put proper suspension settings on the new bike with a whole new fork cartridge in the Marzocchi front end plus a tighter offset on the fork dropout (32.5mm instead of 35mm) while the triple clamp offset remains at 27mm. The rake on the frame was pulled in almost a degree as well. The Öhlins shock was tweaked, but not drastically. The seat was redesigned with a less brick-like foam density. Some minor revisions inside the electronics of the bike have it starting easier and pulling even better, especially in the competition setting. And with every bike comes the racing kit that includes a smaller taillight, a muffler, a jumper to activate the competition power setting, a reduced size rear fender mud flap and two separate smaller countershaft sprockets so there is no getting lost in unleashing the bike the G can be.
Even with all these goodies one of the best things about the BMW is that you can just ride it box stock and it will perform admirably if you don't mind a lower peak power and some tall and gappy gear spacing. Like a Honda CRF450X, you can ride it right off the dealer's showroom. Better than the Honda, you can ride it down the street and not get in trouble! It is likely the only truthfully competition-based dual-sport bike that you can do this on. Yes, it runs this much better than a showroom stock KTM. Thank the wonders of fuel injection for that.