G450X Setup Question/Training Day

Yesterday (Mon) I had a one on one trg day on the new 450X with ‘NGage’ up near Doncaster on a privately owned practice track called ‘The Prison!’. The track was extremely boggy due to an unusually high amount of recent rainfall, so as a result we spent the morning practicing braking and powershifting on an ‘oval’ track we carved into the grass.

I was then hammered on a Figure of 8 until my hands were bleeding and my forearms felt like popeye! After lunch we went onto the track for an hour of rut riding…………….bugger me was it hard with the average rut depth being 1 and a half feet deep and one rut ran for about 200m. Great for the technique and really felt like I learnt a lot. Would thoroughly recommend NGage for anybody who wishes to have decent 1 on 1 training.

Gaz (the instructor) was very impressed with the 450 (first he had seen) and a couple of times he jumped on it to carry out realistic demos as opposed to using his Yam 125cc 2 stroke which skipped through the ruts with ease. He said the setup was completely wrong for the conditions and the bike was virtually unrideable through the ruts (he still made it look easy!).

I know it is impossible to describe on a chat forum, but he explained that the bike was too light on the front and skipping away at the rear as soon as the power was applied. I am no setup Ninja by any stretch of the imagination and the bike is set up as stock (less a couple of very minor tweaks that Possu made prior to collection).

Where do I start? What do people recommend……..keep adjusting eitherway until it feels right? Adjust one way and then ride for a few hours? Get somebody to observe the bike being ridden hard etc etc?

Would love some positive advice if possible?

Many Thanks.

PS – Possu…….any sign of my NOG sticker?

Hi Alex, you sound serious about this riding lark, are you going to chatteris with TBEC?
Dave.

Porthos1 said:

Would love some positive advice if possible?

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Only change one thing at a time!

Dunno what to change though!

Greg

As you're in Wattisham - talk to Darren at MCT in Stowmarket. He'll give you a free quote for a suspension setup. He really knows his stuff - do a search on here or on Google and you'll see what I mean.

Sammo said:

Hi Alex, you sound serious about this riding lark, are you going to chatteris with TBEC?
Dave.

Click to expand...

Dave

Yes I will be doing Chatteris. Will you be there........team BMW

Tobermory Womble said:

As you're in Wattisham - talk to Darren at MCT in Stowmarket. He'll give you a free quote for a suspension setup. He really knows his stuff - do a search on here or on Google and you'll see what I mean.

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Thanks for the advice............see what you mean about MCT. Will give them a call in the morning

from what is described it sounds like you either have to low a ride height on the rear or too high on the frount. normally it's easier to adjust the rear but i would recommend running the standard suspension for a while first to bed it in then change the fork oil (you'll get a smoother movement) then start setting the bike as per the manual using the limits of the adjustment to adjust the handling for diffrent curcumstances. lower rear suspension slower steering better high speed stable. Higher rear suspension faster steering less stable high speed.

Alex, I will be at Chatteris, hopefully i will do better than Rendlesham!! Looking forward to it. See you there.

i would put all the settings back to stock.
and from there make change, modern bikes dont come with bad suspensio, just bad settings.

Possu had givven different settings thanthe stock setting.(the front is to hard for enduro(if you're not a pro, fot MX its ok).

One big difference was the compression of the front, 24 clics(10 is stock).
bmw advice 8 click for MX.

I'm going to try it these weekende if the weather is ok.
rebound was a little more 15 clicks, and the rear is for my ok in stock modus, but the alternative settings were close to stock.

make sure yo have the 40mm static sag(and 105-110 dynamic sag, if the dynamic sag is to big >110mm then that a stronger spring)

Alex, make sure you take plenty of Fuel and maybe a spare Air Filter to Chatteris.

Porthos1 said:

Thanks for the advice............see what you mean about MCT. Will give them a call in the morning

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I popped over briefly today and mentioned you, and I think Darren's interested just to see the bike, as much as anything else.

I'll let you guess what the prognosis was on my 1996 DR650's springers.

the soft front setup rebound 15 compresion 24 is VERY NICE for the enduro thing kind of work.

IK used the setup that Possu said on adv rider.
Thanks!

Also adjusted the rear, was even better then before.

to bad some else had to smah into me (from behind) and twisted my knee, very swollen en very instable.... could ride on....