Gas Gas FSE450

Gas Gas sells about 300 bikes annually in Australia, through Solo Motorcycle Imports, and about half of those are 450s, so it's the most popular bike in the range. Almost going back to the drawing board has produced engine, chassis, suspension, bodywork and exhaust system changes that dramatically alter this bike. The Gasser also gets a slipper clutch, so you're getting quite a slab for the $12,700 asking price.

THE ENGINE
We liked last year's engine because it had great throttle response (thanks to fuel injection), the power was where you needed it and that power was easy to get at. This year, Gas Gas seems to have shifted the power upwards a little. The 05 engine has a more boofy midrange, and quite a strong top-end, but lacks the bottom-end punch it had last year.

That doesn't spoil it though. This is definitely not the fastest 450 we've ridden, in fact it feels a little like the VOR 450, which didn't seem to be doing much but got heaps of power to the ground and used that characteristic to keep up with its more powerful adversaries.

What makes the Gas Gas engine exceptional is the turbine-like smoothness, excellent throttle response, a total lack of intrusive vibration and a laser-cut power curve. There are no bumps or spikes anywhere in the rev range. This would have to be the smoothest engine anyone at Dirt Bike Trader has ever ridden, in fact it's the smoothest bike we've ever ridden. The worse the conditions get, the better this bike feels. And when that happens, you know you're on something special.

THE FUEL CONSUMPTION
Here's a weird little thing.

Gas Gas put a 6.7 litre tank on this bike, because a small capacity tank makes the bike narrower at the front where your wobbly bits go. Yamaha did the same thing with the WR450, then sent Stephen Gall out on a much publicised fuel consumption escapade to prove that anyone can get 200 kays from a WR450, and that putting tiny tanks on trail bikes isn't as stupid an idea as it sounds.

But unfortunately it is. And the Gas Gas, being fuel injected, has no reserve capacity; when you're outta gas on this one, you're outta gas, pal.

Hmmm…

So we did the fuel consumption thing again. Riding our usual route from my joint to Laguna On-Sea, we fuelled up before rissoles-in-a-bun and watched the Gasser suck up 4.9 litres for 79.6 kilometres. That's 16.2 kilometres per litre, boys, and that's bloody good fuel consumption from a 450, most of which return between 12 and 14km/l.

Later that day, when we got back to my joint, the odometer had 97 kilometres on it and the fuel level warning light hadn't come on. With that consumption you're likely to get as much as 110 kilometres from a 6.7 litre tank. But, as we all know, fuel consumption figures are somewhat rubbery and it could be 10 to 15 kays either side of that estimate, depending on how hard you ride and what the terrain is like.

Gas Gas distributor Solo Motorcycle Imports is acutely aware of how trail riders view small capacity fuel tanks and has done the sensible thing.

It's giving 450 buyers a 9.5 litre tank, free of charge. On this bike, from a 9.5 litre tank you can expect to ride as far as 150 kilometres.

Hmmm… Game over.

THE SUSPENSION
This is not a rip-and-tear bike like the TM450, but the average bloke will ride it a lot faster for a lot longer because the suspension is brilliant, and the engine such a good match for it.

The Marzocchi fork and Ohlins shock have been revalved this year, and frankly, we've never had our bums on anything better. We're trail riders here, not racers, so we want comfortable bikes we can ride all day and not come home with terminal monkey butt or organ meltdown. There's simply no need for any trail bike to have brutal suspension, and if every manufacturer could do what Gas Gas has done with this 450, as far as we're concerned it'd be drinks all round.

You can slam anything on this bike and the suspension will soak it up without the bike ricocheting from one rock to the next. You barely feel the small jittery stuff, yet both ends of the bike have excellent bottoming resistance, proof that Gas Gas got this one spot-on. You'll go a long way to find better trail suspension than this. The bike feels light and agile, because it is, it tips in beautifully, and you can get on the gas way early because the thing always feels stable and the power is so predictable.

WOULD I BUY ONE?
Not if I could talk Solo Imports into giving me one for nothing, but yeah, I'd buy one. I did two days of the Watagan Trail Bash on the Gasser, and frankly I didn't want to give the bloody thing back. Riding this 450 makes you wonder how much better a four-stroke trail bike can get.

WHAT THEY'VE DONE
450FSE: 05 mods

Engine:

THE SLIPPER CLUTCH
What is it and what does it do?

Slipper clutches are being used more and more on race bikes by luminaries like Stefan Merriman, and most people in the know seem to think they're the Next Big Thing. Apparently engineers are doing everything they can to limit or eliminate engine braking on race bikes – road and dirt - because no engine braking means no unintentional rear wheel lock-up, and the subsequent lack of directional stability that comes from it. If you lock the rear wheel and that causes the bike to jump off line coming into a corner, you won't get through that corner as quickly.

The slipper clutch, or Adler Power Torque Plate Clutch to give it its correct name, certainly prevents rear wheel lock-up, but the price you pay is the removal of even the last atom of engine braking. In some respects this seems, well, a little odd. After all, most people buy four-strokes because they like four-stroke characteristics, and of course engine braking is one of them.

On the other hand, the device does have advantages. I'll go out on a limb here. I didn't like this gadget at first. Without engine braking I was constantly overshooting corners - as in “Ah shit, I'm gunna get smashed again!” - and while spearing through the undergrowth I was feverishly building the argument in my head that most trail riders who like four-strokes will hate the slipper clutch, specially on nasty descents where the last thing they want is a truck-load of brake, or when they're coming up to corners where experience has conditioned them to rely on engine braking to reduce speed and they get …zilch!

But then I stopped crashing through the undergrowth, started getting used to the gadget, and bugger me what a surprise it turned out to be. After an hour or so I was coming into corners faster, using the front brake harder, using the gearbox to get myself into the right gear for the entry and exit, instead of coasting in on engine braking, and pretty soon I was getting through the corners faster than I had on any other bike.

Well paint me purple; this thing works!

And here's another thing. The slipper clutch removes any snatch from the drivetrain which, if you can believe it, makes power delivery from this extraordinary bike even smoother. When you're quickly on and off the gas, as you are when getting over a large trail obstacle like a fallen log, you're not hanging on like grim death while the bike bucks around underneath you.

The 450 comes with the slipper clutch as standard equipment but you can have a conventional clutch retro-fitted if you're in love with engine braking and can't live without it. The slipper clutch has some obvious benefits – light clutch pull, continuity of power, and some subtle ones you don't immediately appreciate. I came to like it. It's a racer's gadget but one that trail riders can learn to use. If I was buying one of these beautiful 450s, I'd sink the slipper in.

By Barry Ashenhurst