BMW G450 vis XR 400

Ok I’m crap and could be talking rubbish but this is my feeling.

The BM is so easy to ride, feels like a 250 and no where near as aggressive as I imagined. In fact whilst I didn’t rev it hard (running in) I reckon the XR would thrash it in the lower end of the range. The XR has way more torque bottom end and pulls much harder. It could be that I was going faster but just didn’t feel like it.

The major plus – Handling ! I never realised what a good handling bike feels like.

Within half an hour I felt much more confident in the wet mud / ruts than on the XR. I can’t give a technical explanation but it just ‘sticks’ to the ground and I don’t feel like it is going to climb out of the ruts all the time. I even managed to keep going with the sun in me eyes. I would never do this on the XR cos I always needed to be looking where the front wheel is and wondering where it’s going to go next.

This may be due to the counter rotating crank which apparently pushes the front wheel down during acceleration.

And the magic button – what can I say. This will save me around half an hour each Enduro (including recovery time after trying to start the XR)

Bad points.

Engine braking – it’s a bugger. Soon as you shut the throttle its like stamping on the brakes. Has its uses but I like to ‘blip’ the throttle going up the tracks and it’s like riding a chuffing rocking horse (guess I’ll get used to it).

Side stand – SH&T

I've only ever ridden one which was switched to high power and it went link stink in a very aggresive way and was all over the tail of my 650 XC

The engine braking was quite a shock to me on my first ride.

I changed to a 13t sprocket and it seemed to be a lot easier.

Now this may be nothing to do with the sprocket and more me getting used to it.


Agree side stand is useless.

It was the kick start that persuaded me to sell the XR400.

There's a good comparative review of the BMW G450X and the Husaberg FE450 in this month's TBM. Conclusions are that BMW is point-and-squirt (my words) whilst the HBerg is more nimble. The HBerg doesn't have much engine braking and brakes are not as good. The unnecessarily tall gearing of the BMW was criticised--is there a BMW that has a suitably low first gear? Which meant constantly having to slip the clutch.

End result was a win for the HBerg.

Tim

I like the engine brake

dont know what the problem is with the side stand, when riding around i never use it......'

with the 14/48 and powerplug ande remus it's e fine bike (it was a fine bike withe the orginal muffler, but now is a bit finer).

it goes from very low rev very smooth, still have a good topspeed (wich i almost never manege to reach).
For rally i would go for the 15 front sprocket because of longer distance 350-500km a day and higher speed then the mud and sans in the dutch.
with a 13 front sprocket it 's a weapon i guess. to much power for me

Thanks Brommer that settles it I will be changeing the sprocket from 15 tooth to 13.Fitted the tourtech switch for the plug in so I can go between the two power settings.Rode it for 2 hours on Sunday and to be honest I cant say I noticed a lot of difference between the two,if anything the higher power setting made the fuel injection a little smoother and was not as jerky.
On the second side stand now and thats starting to show signs of bending - BMW would not cover the first one on warranty!!
Jay B

HI
i found the difference between the 2 power mode's:
a: low power, you need to be more in higeher revs if youre on a track ore gravel ore fast forrest path no problem if you have thight stuff i like to put the first /second gear in an go on idle throught the forrest wich just a nutch of gas every once and a while, then the high power mode is very very fine, the bike pics up very good in the low revs.
B: low power is less fuell if youre on a rally and have a long road contection road etc, put it on low power save fuell, when youre on the the CP1 CP2 then put on the high power.(i dont have the powerswitch but when next year im going on a rally it will be installed for the reaseon of the fuell)

In holland there a lot of deep mud and the high power is very nice then.

with the 13 fitted be careful not to land on youre ass when you flip the throttle open.