2023 KX450X Enduro Build/Impressions Pt.2

Welcome to part two of the KX450x impressions. After months spent riding and racing the green machine I've become very familiar with the bike and have updates on, well, everything!

I've been able to ride the bike on varying terrain, from motocross tracks with 100ft jumps, endurocross with pro level obstacles, the desert terrain of California and the tight twisty's of British Columbia. Throughout this time I've replaced parts, made some modifications to suite my riding style, and fallen in love with the Kawasaki.

I'll start with some of the obvious things and touch on some of what I mentioned on part 1. The handlebar controls are nice in stock form, in fact I tried a different bend handlebar that I had in the garage (stock KTM bend), and went back to the Renthal 839 that came stock and stuck with that. I did badly bend one set of bars in a mid race crash, but that has nothing to do with the bike itself and would have happened on any brand. I did change out the rubber mounted bar mount cones for aluminum to prevent twisting of the bar clamp in crashing and found that to be a very worthwhile investment. I wouldn't mind trying one of the vibration dampening bar mounts out there on the bike, but most of them are at a price point that cuts to deep and would be more for comfort on my 34 year old body then performance. I stuck on a pair of ARC Memlon levers as I normally would, but I have to mention that ARC missed the mark on fitment for the KX. Both were a major pain to mount, and the clutch lever didn't fit properly and put pressure on the clutch, making me think my clutch was slipping on my first ride out. I modified the lever but couldn't get it to fit and work properly, so now it is a $150 wall hanger. Same story with the brake lever, although I was able to modify it enough to work on the KX and am still using it. I've bent a couple stock clutch levers, but never broke. The aluminum they use is more pliable then I'm used to and it's great, riding out with a bent lever is a lot better than a broken one.

I swapped back to a regular guts seat cover instead of the wing model. The KX has really nice boot and knee contact and I didn't find the wing necessary and now prefer the regular gripper seat from Guts. I've worn through multiple sets of grips, but through all the rough terrain and tumbles I was never able to break any of the handlebar hardware off. I run Enduro Engineering flag guards with the perch mounts, and their KX mounts are spot on.

One oddity is the way the rad shrouds and number plates become more brittle in cold temperature. No problem with the fenders, but a few rides in below zero temps saw me cracking and breaking some bits of plastic in the woods. Nothing terrible that shattered a piece right off, but they definitely don't bend as much as you'd expect. I would suspect that replacing them with Acerbis or UFO units would resolve this.

I stuck with a MX53 front tire 90% of the time, and had a few 120/18 rears I would pick between depending on terrain. That one big crash I mentioned earlier that bent my handlebars, also bent/flattened my front rim to the point I had to replace it. Again, not the bikes fault, any stock wheel would have done the same. I re-used the stock hub and spokes and laced it to a new Excel hoop.

After 60 hours I was still on the stock clutch with no signs of slipping, the valves hadn't moved one bit and the entire motor was still stock inside with no issues and ran like new. The motor is where I did make the most changes to suite me though, with two bolt on products that made a big difference in making the 450 an off road beast.

I ordered a 10oz flywheel weight first to calm down the power when I roll on the throttle and it made an immediate difference. Power delivery and lugging the motor in the woods was improved and it was an immediate game changer for where I ride. I took this one step further and bought a Vortex ECU for the bike, left it with the tunes that it comes with and stuck it in "cross country" mode. Now with the combo of the two, the KX450 became a woods weapon that was easier to handle and made my life behind the bars just that much better. My riding style doesn't suite a fire breathing 450 mx bike, and although I can ride and have fun on that, getting this motor tuned to be more enduro compliant was money well spent. I left these two mods in place regardless of where I rode, from tight woods to mx, it just worked. I will add that I wasn't in 100% race shape over the last 12 months as I have been in the past, and I'm sure that made me appreciate tuning the 450 down even more!

In summary, the 2023 KX450x was a great bike for all aspects of riding and racing. I didn't experience a single bike related issue in any of my riding or racing on it, which is at an above average level, and the only issues that arose were strictly rider error. Compared to the many bikes I've had in the past there will always be things to nitpick at when looking at what models can do certain tasks better, but for a well rounded package that has a strong heritage in the off road world, the Kawasaki should definitely be considered.

I love the chassis and rider cockpit, the two options for foot peg positions, the strong aftermarket parts availability, how the bike can work for a variety of riding styles and terrain and simply being a green bike in the woods makes me feel good.

I wish the bike came with a large gas tank and we didn't need to buy one aftermarket, that the bar mounts didn't twist when you crash, and that the stock kickstand tucked up and out of the way better. I was going to add that I'd like a smaller muffler, but this is just a cosmetic preference. I never felt lack of performance from the stock muffler and it was quite enough to pass racing regulations so I never did touch it!