Enduro and trail fanatics have been waiting for it for a year, and their patience has been rewarded with the arrival on Canadian soil of the G450X - a street-legal machine that is in fact a ferocious off-road competitor ready to give the category's battle-hardened leaders a run for their money in top level Enduro races, as well a act as a great dirt bike for lucky amateur riders.
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The G450X has arrived with some original concepts and do well in Canadian competition. |
Fine tuned in Europe for the past two years and winner of the 2008 German and European Enduro championships, the G450X lands here just in time for the all-new-for 2009 Canadian Enduro Championship, as well as for various off-road race series organized by regional associations across the country.
When designers have carte blancheThe brand-new G450X offers up a sophisticated blend of technologies inherited from the K1300-Series engine and the BMW F1 technology group as well. The designers created a light, durable and well handling chassis, and a reliable, powerful engine with gobs of low-end torque, wrapped up in a simple easy-to-maintain package. And with the help of the valiant Guy Giroux (It was -7oc when we tested the bike), 15-time Quebec Champion and three-time Canadian Enduro Champion, we established that the mix is effective and that this is one mean machine ready for prime time.
The road-ready side of the 450X means that the machine comes with turn signals, a catalytic converter, an electric starter and a balance shaft to reduce the large one-cylinder's vibrations. The mill, designed by BMW and built by Kymco in Taiwan, delivers nothing less than 51 ponies in its street-legal North American version. It also boasts enough torque to satisfy top-level professional riders, and the clutch and transmission smoothly transfer torque to the rear wheel.
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The Öhlins shock and the Marzocchi fork worked well during our test despite the frigid conditions and icy trail. |