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2010 Suzuki RMX450Z – First Test – Dirt Rider Magazine

By: Jimmy Lewis

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

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<p>We have been anticipating this Suzuki off-road 450 for quite some time. There were plenty of questions about the bike and its arrival even before it emerged, and now that it is here a whole new set of questions are coming along with our first ride and test, starting with, “What exactly is the RMX450Z for?”Times are tough and no other segment has felt this pinch as hard as the higher-performance side of the trail and off-road riding market. Simple economics have put many of the riders who are buying these types of bikes on the sidelines. Most don’t need a new machine every year, and for sure the performance of their old bike can carry them along for another skinny year. Suzuki says this is only a serious off-road machine, not sold or designed to be a racer. And a lot of the other Japanese manufacturers are not making 2010 releases of their own 450cc off-roaders so as an off-road guy, you have to give Suzuki credit for making a bike for you.That said, we darted off to the tacky dirt of Northern California for the introduction of the bike then got it back at our offices for a more thorough shakedown on familiar turf. After a few hundred miles on the bike we’re still asking the same question: “What exactly is this bike for?”The one thing we know is the RMX is a very finicky bike. It is sold in a corked-up form with a throttle stop, a snorkel in the airbox and a very restrictive muffler, making it green sticker-legal. Since we rode it on closed courses, we removed the throttle stop and pulled the snorkel out of the airbox but did not remove the muffler diffuser since the bike becomes obnoxiously loud. Plus, it runs crappy when the muffler flows too much, since the bike is set up lean. Stock, the engine side of the bike is tame. The suspension and chassis side of the machine have a totally different nature to them. The shock and fork act very stiff with resistant valving and light springs. The chassis is moto rigid. It is thin, looks lean and rides mean. The motor and chassis are from two separate sects. But this is what we were given so we went forward and tried to tune it to a happy place.On the scale the bike tips the meter at an average weight for an off-roader, that is 275 pounds with its 1.6-gallon fuel tank full, if you can call that a full tank in the first place. All of the ritualistic modifications that take a frontline motocrosser and turn it into a trail-capable machine add close to 25 pounds to the RMX, with the electric starting being the best of the additions. New to the game is fuel injection for Japanese off-road bikes, but somehow this RMX is fighting a battle here, too. Emissions compliance necessitates a very lean fuel setting and, compounded by a clutch leverage ratio that makes complete disengagement very difficult, stalling of this light-flywheeled Suzuki is common and restarting is best done in neutral.Once running, and it usually takes some cranking on the electric starter and some finesse with the throttle to bring her to life, the bike will idle fine and respond cleanly most of the time. It is not the best FI we’ve experienced. Once into gear, the wide-ratio five-speed is a simple shifting machine provided you have the clutch set with minimal to nil free-play. The engagement is long and smooth and we didn’t have any issues with the clutch getting grabby, the drag and long pull were its Kryptonite. The RMX will chug right along at low rpm and has plenty of torque, as long as the throttle is open. But when it’s shut, the bike is stall-prone. The clutch action doesn’t help, but turning up the idle does. When you’re rolling and into the throttle you’ll not be disappointed with the power delivered for such a quiet bike. It has some aggression in the delivery, more snap than is common with FI bikes and it revs out decently, enough for close to 90 mph on flat dirt. Way up top is not where the meat of the power is, so just shift up and let the bottom and mid do the work for you. It is easy to lift the front wheel with just the throttle. Fuel delivery-wise there was a fluttery spot when trying to get extremely technical with the throttle and there are lean backfires in the muffler on long deceleration drags, but for the most part the almost-instant throttle response overrides the downfall in mapping. We also tried a Yoshimura Cherry Bomb, which plugs into the wiring loom under the sidepanel, along with a sound-responsible Akrapovic full exhaust system. Since the Cherry Bomb is designed to run with an aftermarket exhaust, it richens up the FI mapping. Then the motor’s pull really broadens out and the bike becomes a little less prone to stalling. It gains more torque earlier in the throttle at all rpm and makes more power on top and revs further. Internally this motor is not true RM-Z spec. It has different cams, a different throttle body and its own unique mapping for the FI and ignition.
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The Suzuki is pointed at a certain type of rider./></a>
<p class="wp-caption-text">The Suzuki is pointed at a certain type of rider.</p>
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<p>The RMX, especially with the stock pipe, vibrates quite a bit, mostly in the footpegs. Through the handlebar it isn’t as noticeable. But the good thing about the bar is the roomy rider compartment it allows with just minor rotational adjustment. And, yes, the bike is thin and the footpegs are as high as you’d need to keep your toes clear and still not become cramped. The seat, thin in the rear, isn’t the best for sitting.In the handling department the Suzuki has a very light feel, especially in the steering. A lot of it comes from the thin motocross stance of the bike. It flips from side-to-side quickly but you can start to feel the higher placed weight of the exhaust, battery, instrument cluster and headlight here, too. The bike rides up high in the stroke most of the time giving it a light-on-its-wheels feel. The suspension aids in this, not letting the bike wallow one bit (wallowing makes a bike feel heavier). But for most of the riders who were under 210 pounds, it was a bit of a stiff ride. The front end tended to deflect off of rocks and ruts more than most felt comfortable with and there was a twitchy feeling most of the time, especially at higher speeds. Yes, some riders even got violent headshake. Since we rode the bike on everything from first-gear single-track to motocross tracks to desert terrain, we did a lot of playing with the setup as well. In fact, we were happiest with the back end of the bike at 105mm of sag and we also slid the fork legs up 5mm in the clamps. We hovered at least four, usually closer to 10, clicks lighter than stock on compression damping both front and rear but also added a little high-speed compression to the shock to keep the turning solid. Turning the RMX is great as long as there isn’t anything for the front to deflect off of. Overall, the ride is not plush and it transmits bumps to the rider. Once moving at a good clip the action of the suspension is controlled. On the bumps you expect it to bottom on, it does, and there is a bit of a clank, but nothing out of line for an off-road bike. It basically feels like motocross guys set up this bike and they didn’t mind the RMX beating them up a little when they rode. As for the deflection? Get a steering damper.Some of the little bits get stuff done and most bits just get by. For instance, the easy-access airbox is compounded by a battery that crushes the air filter and makes changes a trick. Just try to get a dirty air filter out of the bike without dumping dirt in the airboot. The brakes have good feel but the power on the front could be stronger to deal with the added weight of the bike. The kickstand just barely tucks out of the way, but at least it is excellent at holding the bike up! The headlight actually puts out decent light though our bulb did not like the motocross track jump landings. We ended up replacing it with a 55-watt bulb for better light, and the bike never whimpered. The stock trip/odo/voltmeter told us the bike charges the battery even at idle. It will kickstart and run with a dead battery, but it is a chore. When you get a dead battery, since you will forget to turn off the switch and the headlight stays on, it’s best to disconnect the battery, then kick. Is 1.6 gallons really enough fuel? We ran out at anywhere from 35 to 45 miles, with the low fuel light (yes, it has a low fuel light) coming on anywhere from 32 to 38 miles.Where does this leave the RMX standing? Well, there is one place this bike really shines. It is in the 20-40 mph range where you are riding aggressively. Here, the bike’s suspension handles what is thrown at it and you have just the right momentum so the deflection worries are overcome. The power is right in the working zone where there is plenty to get you going and stalling isn’t a concern. The chassis feels light and aggro, and combines with the good power to make it easy to ride fast. And when you think about the speed the average guy rides, and the kind of bikes the average guy uses (motocross machines), the RMX might just fit the bill for those riders, even if it involves some sacrifices and tweaking.
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The Suzuki is pointed at a certain type of rider./></a>
<p class="wp-caption-text">The Suzuki is pointed at a certain type of rider.</p>
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<td colspan="2"><strong>SPECIFICATIONS </strong></td>
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<td>Price</td>
<td>$8399</td>
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<td>Claimed weight</td>
<td>272 lb</td>
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<td>Weight (actual, tank full)</td>
<td>275 lb</td>
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<td>Seat height</td>
<td>37.7 in.</td>
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<td>Footpeg height</td>
<td>17.0 in.</td>
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<td>Ground clearance</td>
<td>12.9 in.</td>
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<p></TABLE><strong>Opinions</strong><strong>Jesse Ziegler</strong><br/><br />
5’10″/175 lb/Intermediate<br/><br />
BEEEEEEEE-OOOOOOOOO. That’s the sound in a game show when a contestant guesses the wrong answer. That same sound went through my head near the end of our initial RMX450Z testing. After one motocross track day (just for giggles), three tough trail riding days and an afternoon session on an immaculate GP course, this bike left me wanting less and more across the board. The good news in this story is the motor. The same linear and powerful delivery from the RM-Z is nicely disguised in an off-road package. The power will excellently chug up an incline without breaking traction and, if the clutch is fully released, the bike has great control and ease built into the power. It’s also nice riding a bike this quiet in sound-sensitive areas (like all riding areas). Yet the bike runs strangely for an injected bike, especially down low. It pops, fizzles and will stall in the most inopportune times. If it started well with the button, this wouldn’t be as big of an issue, but it doesn’t start too well, either. It’s too lean and opening the pipe will make it worse. Our bike needs some tuning to be close to as good as the carbureted version from any of the other colors. I didn’t get to ride it with the Cherry Bomb and Akro pipe yet. Even so, the “carburetion” isn’t the worst part. The suspension is. It’s too softly sprung to be ridden aggressively over jumps and too stiffly valved to hit rocks. It’s an unpleasant deflection ride in anything other than mid-gear, mid-speed, mid-rpm riding-that’s the only place it works well. Faster will give you instability and flinches in the corners. Slower will stall. Add in the tiny fuel tank and in my opinion it looks like Suzuki guessed wrong in its final settings for this ride. Let’s hope the potential is met soon so I can hear DING DING DING DING DING DING! WINNER!<strong>Chris Denison</strong><br/><br />
5’10″/155 lb/Intermediate<br/><br />
Suzuki may be new to the 450cc four-stroke off-road market, but it certainly knows its stuff when it comes to off-road. Drawing on experience that dates back over 20 years to the days of the RMX250 two-stroke, Suzuki’s engineers and development riders had all the tools necessary to build the ultimate off-road bike with the RMX450Z. However, somewhere along the way (probably in the budgeting department) it seems that they reverted to simply producing a spin-off version of its MXer. While it’d be unfair to say the RMX is just an RM-Z with a headlight, there’s no denying that the bikes share a lot in both parts and performance. This is good in some aspects (EFI and nimble ergos come to mind), but it’s tough to see past the short fuel range and heavy feel of the X version of the bike. That said, I did enjoy the RMX450Z’s familiar feel and long-pulling midrange, and even though you can really feel the extra weight on hard hits, the bike carries the extra pounds fairly well in terms of leaning and not feeling too awfully top-heavy. The only thing I wish was heavier on this bike is the flywheel, as the Suzuki stalled down low a few times while chugging. I spent a good bit of time on the machine at night and thought the headlight worked well (certainly better than other stockers in this class), and I have to give Suzuki credit for slapping on a quiet stock exhaust. While the RMX450Z isn’t exactly what I thought (or hoped) it would be, I look forward to playing with this bike more to see what it is really capable of.</div>

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