Racer 450 Magazine
1350cc Shootout
January, 2007

ERGONOMICS:
By now everyone reading this has probably ridden the 450R and made up their mind. We say it’s comfortable. If you don’t find it comfortable you probably are not old enough to legally buy this machine or your tall enough to play for an NBA team. Hand to foot placement are spot on, shifter, foot brake and hand controls magically line up exactly were they should be and the removable front fenders allow excellent vision and even stop some flying debris from time to time. The seat is spot on in size, shape and stiffness.

Hopefully we aren’t making you sick but we really like how the Honda feels.

Yamaha on the other hand has continually improved their ergonomics year after year. Although we actually preferred their stiff as can be “KTM Style” seat over the newer cuts the rest of the world seams to like the Cadillac seats Yamaha now employees. Speaking of which, also have a great size and shape. Hand to foot placement on the Yamaha is good, as it seems to cater to taller riders slightly better than the Honda. Improved controls are really good and keep getting better, hence the new Pro Taper bars. Small things like lever shape and perch castings are just ever so slightly behind the Honda.

The Suzuki is near perfect. Blind folded you would swear you were setting on a lowered 450R. Although we would still ditch the steel handlebars, everything else is spot on. Hand to foot placement is great. The seat is firm yet comfy. The levers are correctly placed. The only problem we encountered was feeling cramped by the front fenders. If you’ve ever ridden a Z400 without trimmed fenders you know exactly what we mean. As cramped as it feels there is actually plenty of room. If we were keeping a Suzuki we would trim the backs off the front fenders first thing.

FINAL ANSWER:
These are three great machines, none of them a full blown racer, yet none of them just a sport quad. They all have their ups and downs. On a track, how would they fair?

If you were to enter the 450R, YFZ450 and LT-R450 on a motocross track without making any changes, stock for stock, directly off the showroom floor the Suzuki would win hands down. Why? Not because of the fuel injection. Not because of the advertised race suspension. Simply because of the low profile 20 inch front and 18 inch rear tires paired with the low and wide stance, something Honda and Yamaha could do without batting an eye.

None of these machines feature a tether switch (kill switch) or nerf bars, something every ATV racing organization requires. If Suzuki added these to the Suzuki it could be called an out of the box race machine. From a motocross stand point the Honda and Yamaha are a couple inches too narrow and a couple inches too tall to compete with the Suzuki. In order to match the Suzuki head to head you will need new shorter tires ($250), +2 inch a-arms ($550) and an extended axle ($400) and the Suzuki would have absolutely no advantage. Unfortunately the additional $1200 you need to spend will bring the price of the Honda or Yamaha higher than that of the Quad Racer.

On a cross country course, it would be a toss up between the Honda 450ER and the Yamaha. The Suzuki is simply too low and too wide. The Honda and Yamaha are equally paired for this task depending on which machine you like the best. We found the Honda to be a little less tiring to the arms but there are a lot guys out there that are Yamaha all the way.

Even though Honda has constantly dominated the professional TT racing series we are going to call this a toss up. If the only thing you could do was exchange the OE tires for Hoosiers and the three ATVS were raced the Suzuki would probably prevail because of the low wide stance. Considering all the changes that really need to be made to race a successful TT machine we don’t feel any manufacture has the heads up here, it’s all rider preference and machine set up.

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