I've been saying someone else needs a 350 out there other than ktm and husky, but at the same time, I have a 2019 kx450 and the power is soooooo smooth, it honestly in my opinion feels like a slightly beefed up 350 with really smooth consistent power all the way through, I've rode new yamaha 450 and 18 honda 450, both of their powers was wayyyyyyyyyyyy more aggressive than the 19 kawi, i always hated kawi too, always told.myself my next bike would be a ktm but once the 19 kx450 came out with hydraulic clutch and spring front, I was sold on it, then once I felt how smooth and consistent the power is I fell in love, I don't see myself getting a different brand unless they manage to take away what I love with future models
Only think that could be better on the new yamahas is starting up, and move the shift and brake lever out more or come with an adjustable one, as someone who wears size 13 shoes it is ridiculously hard to shift well in boots
Jordan Burow I’m still running my 2006 model still love the bike at this point the only thing stock on it is the frame but she still rips. I’ve put 5 top ends in it over the years
New bike for me soon, I'd love to try this bike 450 tho, I'm switching from Suzuki after 25yrs, they don't seem to want to invest in their motocross bikes anymore, either Kawi or Yamaha.
they want to be better than the 19 model , timing chains failed at 10 hours gearboxes failing at 14 hours ,they made the gears in the gearbox lighter to counter for the extra weight gained by adding a starter motor and they were failing at 14 hours as well as the heat treating process of the gears were a failure because the gear dogs were soft like mild steel i know because my son has one, and there is was no gears to fix the bike because yamaha stopped getting the gears from that supplier because of the problems so yamaha now are fitting 18 model gears in 19 model cases using the same shafts this is what the race teams have had to do and the new 2020 models are going back to eighteen gears. ! dumb ass yamaha engineers i could not think of a worse place to try and remove weight.also the timing chain guide coating was to hard and was wearing the timing chain away and the tensioner body was two short and the tensioner spring was to stiff causing the chain to wear away and fail at around ten hours yamaha then brought a bulletin out to cover there ass saying to change the timing chain at 12 hours ,what a joke . i know because i am a mechanic in the trade for thirty five years and when i set up a dial indicator on fifth gear the dogs were only engaging 2.8 mm no gearbox is going to last like this and there is a problem with the timing of the shift drum this is why yamaha are changing all gears and shift drum back to the 18 model ones .yamaha tried to hide the fact until they couldn't any more when they found out i know my shit and admitted to me i was correct.i took the engine from the yamaha dealer home to my automotive shop and looked into it and they did not like that i caught them out. what makes it worse is they new before they released these bikes in australia that they were all failing because they were failing on the race teams in america long before they came to australia but instead of recalling them they just sold them anyway. when the dealer went to get a yamaha special gearbox bearing to fix my sons bike there was no bearing available because the race teams bought all of them and yamaha told me it would be two months before japan would have any bearings from there supplier and a further 14 days to get them to australia so i have a bike that i paid $11500 for and it can't be fixed for three months with only 14 hours on it .yamaha are the worst company i have ever dealt with and accept no liability for nothing there after sale support is rubbish and they are only fixing mine because i caught them out and they had to admit to me i was correct.
