yomo195 wrote:Honestly i reckon unless you are a VERY highly skilled rider noone will would really notice the difference. And if they can it would make Jack-all difference to their lap times. IMO colour is probably the defining factor between all of them. WOO black honda CRF250R for me...
Then why is Reed so much faster on the Suzuki and James so much slow on the Yamaha? And why does Villopoto keep dropping the front end on his Kawi just like James did? At any rate according to yomo I'm a highly skilled rider, damn that feels good. LOL We were out on the ice riding last weekend and coming into this tight corner on my bike ('07 Honda) I had to use two fingers on the front brake to squeeze the brakes hard enough. On my brothers bike ('07 Kawi) I could get away just using one finger on the front brake. Plus, oddly enough, the Kawi tracks a lot better mid corner than the Honda, which feels more floaty mid corner. Hmm, maybe my feel isn't that good after all, lol.
Firstly i was meaning stock bikes not the full on factory bikes by the manufactures. Chad reed's RMZ450 puts out over 50 Horse power... that is over 10 Horse power more than the stock bike. Then he has his own suspension, brakes, tires etc etc etc.... same with the other guys.
secondly... granted each bike is different and obviously they not literally the same and the only difference is colour... but seriously if everyone were to ride each different bike (with the right settings and tires for the track) and had time to adjust to it im pretty certain the lap times would be fairly comparable.
I dunno really... ive only really ridden honda before ahaha
There's no doubt that 99% of us are limited in lap time by our riding ability. To say that none of us can feel the difference between a bike is ridiculous though. I think you meant that the factory bikes put out over 60HP, and that was when they were carburated, I'm guessing now they are nearing 70HP.
From what I have read on the 450's, most of the Factory teams aren't adding horsepower. They are taming the beast. The bike already has the power for anyone, they are just putting it on the ground. I'm sure a Factory 450 wouldn't feel like your getting your arms ripped off. It'd probably, if anything, feel like a heavy 250f, with damn good traction (for a 450) and more acceleration, not overall power.
Windhams crf450 has 62hp, and a stock one has 50. So they do add hp.
If you want hp charts; akrapovics website has for every bike but ktm.
I remember ktm had the most hp and tourqe of the big 5 from a bike test from motocrossmagazine or something like that.
"I wanted the shape of the powerband to be very linear. I got in many conflicts with the engine engineers at first. They wanted more compression and bigger carburetors for maximum power output, but this produced uncontrollable power. In theory it looked like the way to go. In reality on the racetrack it resulted in slower lap times."
Josh Vanderhoof
Sole Proprietor jlv@mxsimulator.com
If you email, put "MX Simulator" in the subject to make sure it gets through my spam filter.
This issue goes both ways, The more horsepower a motor produces, the smoother it can be. Most work done on factory bikes is conecentrated in the head of the engine, all have low friction bearings, and lightweight bolts. You can get a crank, rod,piston and cam, but they wont do much if the head will not flow enough to feed it. You can change the power delivery of a bike very easy. Factory bikes are made for that specific ride, If you get on Tim Ferrys bike, then get on Ryan Villopoto's bike you would think they are two totally different bikes, and thats because they are. A 450 makes about 52 hp stock off of the showroom floor, 60 or 70 is not that far fetch especially if you have all the tools and know how. The more Horses you have, the more places you can put them. I have rode bikes that feel like there the slowest bike in the world (my honda is like this) but i am much much faster on it than my kx and much more relaxed. My kx on the other hand, i have to go warp speed to beat the lap times i turn with my crf.
in my old bike i have it full prepared, now i got my new and just changed CDI, also a good carburation and suspension, but i think at nationals i will put some pieces
Kawasakis wrote:Hah yeah, because basketball and football requires just one ball - two balls just only for motocross riders haha
