First Ride: 2012 Kawasaki KX450F

We just finished up two full days of riding on the new 2012 Kawasaki KX450F at the famous RedBud Track 'N' Trail motocross facility in Michigan, where Kawasaki introduced the bike to members of the moto media. A rough track, large jumps and near 100-degree temperatures and high humidity put both bike and test riders through the ringer.

Flat out, what we like best about the new KX is its mega adjustability. If you can't find just the right setting for suspension, ergonomics or power control on this bike...well, just keep trying, you will eventually.

Our test riders liked the dramatic difference in the many handlebar placements possibilities, and how you can adjust the height of the footpegs, because once you feel comfortable on the bike, it makes it much easier to concentrate on fine-tuning the motor and suspension.

Once we found the sweet spot when it came to ergonomics, we spent much of our time "playing" with the KX's adjustable ignition maps, which is easy to do, not to mention just plain fun to fool around with. Right out of the crate, the KX450F makes excellent, useable power, much like it did last year, but the simple-to-use interchangeable pre-programmed couplers (which come with the bike) that change the ECU mappings and thus power characteristics make the KX even more adjustable to suite your own riding style and/or track conditions.

There are three pre-programmed ignition maps (couplers) to choose from: standard, hard (for hard terrain) and soft (for soft terrain). The hard coupler actually mellows out the power a bit to improve traction on "hard" ground, while the soft coupler actually provides a more aggressive, harder-hitting power setting for "soft" terrain - it's can be a little confusing as to what the hard and soft terms actually mean, but we ended up basically just referring to each color-coded coupler as green (standard), black (hard terrain, smoother power) and white (soft terrain, aggressive power). While you could still adjust the mapping on the '11 KX, you had to purchase Kawasaki's FI Calibration Kit to do so and needed a laptop computer to make the adjustments, but with the couplers, you don't need all that - just swap out the couplers that are positioned by the steering head. Easy.

On the track, the differences among the three couplers are very noticeable, and after trying all three, we settled on one we liked best, and here's the cool part, we were able fine-tune that coupler's setting even further, which you can still do via Kawasaki's FI Calibration Kit. And that setting can be saved or returned back to the original setting later on.

Track 'N Trail, Labor Productivity Benchmarks and International Gap Analysis

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