TEST RIDETM’s INCREDIBLE MX450 Fi

2016 TM MX 450Fi

With the weather in British Columbia re-maining mild, but the motocross season not starting until March 19, I had an insatiable itch to get on a bike myself and go riding at a track. I got in contact with Popkum Mo-tor Park, located an hour east of Vancouver BC to see what they had to rent. I was in-formed that they had in their possession, a 2016 TM MX 450Fi, a bike about as close to a works bike as one can get. Suppos-edly, these are extraordinarily hard to come by, one MX magazine recently boasting that they had the “only one in America.” But Pop-kum seems to have had theirs for a while, so all the more reason for riders to come to beautiful BC and rip some laps here! I didn’t need any special inside factory TM social connections to ride this bike, either. I didn’t have to pull favors from related industry in-siders; I just showed up to the track, signed a waiver, paid the rental fee, had a tech-nician set the suspension sag up for my weight, and rode. Simple. I was even able to rent riding gear there, which was great, because even though I own my own gear, I foolishly forgot to double check that I had

it all before I came. And as I got suited up, I realized forgot my knee pads at home. But the staff at Popkum were great, and got me a brand new set of knee pads. I also rented a neck brace, a piece of safety equipment that I was curious about, but to date had not yet purchased for myself. The track today (February 26) was freshly groomed, and most of the track was holding moisture in the soil perfectly. Some parts of the track situated more in the forest and saw less of the sun were a little bit muddy, but still quite ridable. Like many others in the Northern climate, I haven’t ridden that much in the off-season. Actually, I have not ridden since last spring after I sold my 2006 Suzuki RM250. Having ridden Japa-nese 2-stroke MX bikes exclusively for mo-tocross, riding an exotic 2016 Italian four stroke on a mint track was an opportunity that I was not going to pass up. And the TM did not disappoint; it is an extraordinary mo-torcycle. Not flawless mind you, but none-theless, extraordinary.

FIRST IMPRESSIONSitting on the bike, one cannot help but no-

Mild days abound in BC. What are you doing to get ready for the 2016 season?

tice the slim feeling from front to back, and the flat seat. There are no odd bulges, any-where, and the brake pedal and shifter were easy to reach for my size 10 boot. The bars had a slightly high rise to them, perhaps due to the bar clamps being a bit on the tall side. Were they not so tall though, adjusting the compression dampers on the top of the fork tube would necessitate removing the handle bar itself, as the adjustment screw is directly below the bar itself. The hydrau-lic clutch was super light to pull, and the lever has an adjustment knob on it, allowing riders with different sized hands to easily adjust the lever distance closer or farther from the bar. The bike features a cold start, and fired up effortlessly with one kick, and settled into idle within a second or two. Al-though this bike did not have it, an option from the factory is an electric start. In fact, many options are available from the factory, as each bike is handmade according to the preferences of the customer. One can order custom shock linkage, a slipper clutch, an Öhlins shock, billet parts, etc., the list goes on and one. Potentially, no two bikes would be the same out of the factory!

ENGINEThe 5-speed 449cc fuel injected engine is equipped with 4 titanium valves in a direct overhead cam (DOHC) configuration. There are two map settings on the handlebar to choose from. Map 1 gives the bike a bit

more bottom end, while Map 2 allows the power to come on a bit later. The bike has a healthy growl to it, but the noise level is pleasantly subdued, especially compared to other bikes, or other exhaust manufactur-ers. Idling through the pits, the bike seems to have some urgency to it, seemingly want-ing to get you to the starting line ASAP. If you ride tight, twisty trails or like crawling over technical obstacles, this bike’s motor would not be a great candidate for that kind of riding. On the first ride down the start straight, you get a sense of this en-gine’s capabilities – it rockets down the line, building power and momentum as quick as you twist the throttle. In turns, you can roll the throttle on a bit, and the bike predict-ably moves you forward through the turn in a very controlled manner without wheel spin. Roll it on some more out of the turn, and things begin to happen in a hurry – un-less you decided to shift gears and let the mid-range pull you through obstacles with-out the tremendous inertia that 450s are known for. The gearbox shifted effortlessly, and the spaces between the gears were all well-placed. The bike revved quickly, and if you needed power at the last minute to clear an obstacle, the power was there, ap-pearing as soon as you ask for it, in the pro-portion needed. There was no hesitation, no bogging, and very little vibration. This mo-tor simply put, delivers.

Those aren’t holes in the gas tank, they are holes for the airbox. You can see the green Twin Air filter inside, which allows plenty of air for the motor to breath.

As if the placement of the gas tank and airbox wasn’t cool enough, you can bling your ride with carbon fiber versions of both the tank and the airbox from the factory.

BRAKESThe 270mm front rotor and 245 mm rear rotor were mated to Brembo calipers and steel braided lines, and the stopping per-formance was excellent. Like the motor, the brakes had an excellent feel to them, requiring very little energy to engage. There was enough braking power to stop yourself and your buddy on his Japanese 450 be-hind you. ‘Nuff said.

SUSPENSIONThere is no area on a motorcycle more par-ticular and rider-specific than suspension. Personally, I hate reading magazine articles where the test riders make comments like “Bike X has terrible suspension, while Bike Y has great suspension.” This is not at all helpful because it underscores the fact that even basic suspension tuning (e.g., setting the correct sag, tracking your compression and rebound settings) is an absolute must on any bike, and in the event that you want to explore your suspension performance even further, high-quality suspension tuning services are both affordable and easy to ob-tain nowadays. The costs of these services are not only small in relation to the cost of the bike, but represent the single most ef-ficient allocation of your dollars in regard to increasing your bike’s performance and a rider’s speed. Personally, I don’t think that the suspension performance should be a deciding factor, as to whether a rider buys a certain bike or not, yet some shootout win-ners in magazines over the years have been decided upon the suspension settings. The

TM features a shock hand-built from the factory, with fins on the canister for per-formance and appearance enhancements. After setting the sag, the performance of the shock was excellent, favoring aggres-sive riding (meaning it was stiff), but doing everything predictably and without any dra-ma. Through corners, over braking bumps the rear end tracked well, and the bike did not swap side to side exiting turns, even un-der hard throttle. Big jumps were absorbed by the shock with ease. I could seat bounce the bike on the face of jumps, without being jarred for doing so. The shock was as close to perfect as I could have asked, no clicker adjustments required today on the Popkum track. Likely only clicker adjustments would be required to get similar performance on tracks with different surfaces. On the front of the 450, the forks are not hand-made; they are Kayaba SSS, which means they have a spring in them, and are an excellent platform to build your custom suspension settings from. On the smoother parts of the track, the forks were generally well-bal-anced to the rear shock, which allowed the bike to feel solid and planted. Under hard braking in smooth corners the forks did not dive, which allowed higher entrance speed and more aggressive riding into turns. How-ever, in corners with more pronounced brak-ing bumps, the forks did not absorb these as well as the shock, leaving the rider to feel each bump much more acutely. Perfor-mance of the fork over big jumps was stiff in the initial part of the stroke, but softer in the mid-stroke, and stiff again at the end of the stroke. I think this was better than a fork that has an under-sprung feel all the way through the stroke, but personally, if I owned this bike, I would spend a few bucks at RMR or Rider’s Edge Suspension to get the fork performance improved, especially for the mid-stroke performance and braking bumps. HANDLINGThe handling of the bike was excellent, and the bike rails corners like a boss, inspiring a sense of confidence which allowed me to push my entrance speed up through the

turns. Over jumps, the bike tracks straight with a slight rearward weight bias; not sur-prising perhaps because the translucent gas tank is under the seat for a lower cen-ter of gravity and increased mass central-ization. The airbox is in front of the seat, where the gas tank on other bikes is tradi-tionally located. This resulted in a slightly different riding sensation which felt great exiting turns under acceleration, as the rear weight bias allowed a very effortless feel the front end allowing the rider pick any line desired. Over jumps, the slight rear bias re-quired me to lean a bit more over the fork to keep the bike level in the air. Not dramati-cally, but more so than on other bikes with the gas tank above the motor, rather than behind it.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONI like the 2016 TM MX 450 Fi. A lot. It is a hand-built machine with exquisite compo-nents throughout, that make it desirous to own, and easy to live with. In my opinion, it would be made even more superb with a bit of money invested into the fork to really fine tune it. I would not spend any money anywhere else on this bike, because the performance in virtually every other area is top-notch. The motor needs nothing. The brakes need nothing. The gearing, at least for Popkum was spot-on. You might want to put some money into minor things, like dif-ferent grips or a different handle bar if you don’t like the stock profile of those items. But me? I would simply have the fork dialed, throw my racing number on the plates and show up at the track. It’s that good. It is as close to a factory bike as one can get. If you are curious about riding the 2016 TM MX 450 Fi, give the good folks at Popkum a call, and book a day to come out to their pristine track to try it out. The rates are extremely reasonable, and the bike can be rented in a 1-hour, 3-hour, or all-day increment. If you haven’t bought your bike for this year yet, or are thinking about switching brands, then the rental option gives you a great idea of what at least one of your options are. Look for more rental bikes to show up at Popkum in the coming weeks and months. I person-

ally am looking forward to the arrival of the TM MX 300 2T into their rental lineup. No, that is not a misprint; TM makes a 294cc two stroke MX bike, and soon you can rent it at Popkum!

About TMYou may not know this, but TM makes 7 different 2-stroke motocross bikes; the MX 80/85/100 (with various wheel sizes 14/17, 16/19 for supermini, and 12/12 if you want to try supermoto!), as well as the MX 125/144 and MX 250/300. They make MX 4-strokes in three sizes to cover every need: MX 250 and 450 of course, but there is also a 528cc displacement option for rid-ers requiring a little more jam than a lowly 60HP 450. TM also produces these same engine configurations in enduro versions. In-terestingly TM also sells supermoto-ready bikes equipped with a smaller front wheel (16.5”) optional Marzocchi fork and 305mm disc brake. Not to be outdone, TM even of-fers a flat track bike based on the MX 450! You can download the full-color brochure and find your local TM dealer here: http://tmracingmotorcycles.com

Kyle Cochlin rails a berm at the 2015 Future West Moto round at Popkum Motor Park. Watch for Kyle and more TM MX bikes to show up at your local track in 2016.

March 19-20 : VictoriaApril 2-3 : KamloopsApril 9-10 : Popkum

April 30-May 1 : PopkumMay 28-29 : Nanaimo

June 18-19 : CloverdaleJune 25-26 : Cloverdale

Sept. 3-4 – Kelowna

The 2016 Future West Moto series season begins shortly:

Check out http://futurewestmoto.ca/ for more details