KTM450EXC-v-HUSQVARNA TE450-v-TM450FES-v-HUSABERG FE450-v-YAMAHA WR450

I wasn't looking forward to this exercise, mainly because of the logistics involved. Pick up five bikes, take them to my place, check 'em over, fuel them about five times over a two day period, clean then, photograph them, then haul them back to where they came from. Organising a stunt like this takes a lot of time and scrabbling around, and there's always the worry the one of the bikes won't turn up for whatever reason. But there's a good bunch of mates helping me on this mag and that calms me down when the Zoloft's wearing off and I'm starting to unravel because I've left the fuel money at home; lost the key for the WR; put a 256mb card in the camera when I need a one gig card; or I'm whining because "now I have to wash all these bloody things!"

Taking on the five most popular 450cc four-strokes, and coming up with ratings that make sense, is a big ask. The main problem with a shootout like this is that there isn't bad bike in the bunch, so a lot of what we do you would call nit picking. Still, these bikes are different, there's no doubt about that. Even when two manufacturers produce a motorcycle for the same purpose, they invariably come at it from different directions and that's what makes a shootout interesting. The Husaberg is nothing like the Yamaha, for example, and none of these bikes has an engine like the TM450, although the Husky comes as close as you can get without resorting to industrial espionage. 

HOW DID WE DO IT?
This shootout took place over two days, the second day for photography. All the testers are experienced trail riders, and to give us the definitive racer's point of view we asked Jake Stapleton to come along too. Jake's the current 125cc Australian Enduro Champion and a very handy bloke to have around when you're picking little nits. He also looks great on a bike and that makes the photo session run smoother.

We always test bikes over the same terrain, because we know what to expect when we run bikes in the same conditions all the time. The route took us from corporate headquarters (my joint) and from there we rode through the Watagan Mountains and over to a little place called Laguna, not far from Wollombi on the edge of the Yengo National Park, where we fuel up, check the fuel consumption of each bike, grab a feed and then ride home. It's about 200 kays there and back through a vegetable smorgasbord of terrain including expert-grade hills, nifty single-track, very fast open trails and swoopy gravel roads. It's pretty much the track we run when we're trail riding on the weekend and we know every inch of it.

Did we pick a winner after all that? Yeah, so keep reading.

RETAIL PRICING: THE EMPTY PIGGYBANK AWARD
Contrary to popular belief, not every dirt rider has millions in disposable income. Some people walk into a dealership and lay down cash but most of us can't do that. Any discussion of bike prices must also take into account a tendency in the trade to discount heavily, most commonly among large dealerships who can afford to. The prices below are recommended retail (and don't include pre-delivery or on-road costs) but what you see below is rarely what you'll actually pay for the bike. Anyway, here's what to tell your bank manager:

TM450E - $13,790.
Husaberg FE450 - $12,699
KTM450EXC - $12,399.
Husqvarna TE450 - $12,290.
Yamaha WR450 - $11,899

ERGONOMICS: THE SOFT BUM AWARD
Every tester agreed, the KTM450EXC has the best ergonomics. This bike has a nice set of quality tapered bars, a slim profile, a seat that's easy to move around on and a damn near perfect relationship between the bars, seat and pegs. It's a comfortable bike right away, and grows on you the more you ride it, but the thing about the KTM is that it feels lighter and smaller than the others, and as a consequence seems more agile and easier to ride in shitty stuff. We can't think of anything that would improve this bike's ergonomics. It's 10 out of 10 perfect.

As runner up in the ergonomics comparo we'd probably pick the Husqvarna TE450. The Husky has always been a fairly hard-arse race bike but over the past couple of years has undergone changes to reposition it for the trail bike market. We think Husqvarna has done a bang-up job. The 05 450 feels larger than the KTM or the Yamaha but now has a softer personality that we believe trail riders will like. This is a very nice dirt bike, and as you'll learn shortly, it ain't slow.

Is there a loser in the ergo stakes? Not really. The Husaberg retains its eccentricities, while sharing what is now a largely universal ergonomic layout, but theyellow Berger definitely feels bigger than the other bikes. It has a good seat-bar-pegs arrangement, but the highest and widest bar setup. There's a lot of induction noise, if you like that sort of thing, and this engine seems to develop more mechanical noise than the others. The tank is a somewhat bulbous affair with fat radiator shrouds that get in the way if you like a lot of weight forward when you're on the pegs- that's why serious racers fit slim-line aluminium tanks to Husabergs in Europe - and the bike feels very tall in the front.

But here's a funny thing. If we were riding from Cairns to Cape York tomorrow, we'd be doing it on the Yamaha, not the perfectly formed KTM. Why? because the WR is the most comfortable of these high performance bikes for long distance stints, one of several reasons this clever Yamaha is Australia's top selling motorcycle. It's not all sunny-side up, though. The WR450 is not a good bike for tall riders because there's too little room at the front of the machine. Rob Moss - 6ft 3inchesand all man - liked the Yamaha but said he felt cramped on it and couldn't own one.

FUEL CONSUMPTION: THE GET-ME-THERE-BACK AWARD
Because we run the same test route all the time, we know what sort of fuel consumption to expect from any street legal dirt bike. This time the fuel test was made more interesting with Yamaha having dumped the 10 litre tank on the WR450 for an 8.5 litre unit. Our route is about 85 kilometres one way, give or take five or six kays depending on which way we go. This time it worked out to exactly 83 kilometres by the time all the little testers lined up at Laguna for fuel and a sausage roll. Here's how it panned out before anyone switched to reserve:

... so the KTM used the least fuel and the Husky the most.

As you'd expect, with the smallest tank the Yamaha hit reserve first.

( That's probably why Yamaha had Stephan Gall claiming huge mileage figures from the WR450 about the time the small-tank WR450 was released in Australia.) The bike has a reserve of just over three litres, nearly half the total fuel volume, but unless you coast everywhere you won't be getting 100 kays from the main tank so keep that in mind. Most trail riders don't like taking chances in these matters, even if a smaller tank makes the WR450 slimmer and more comfortable to move around on. You can buy a larger tank but not before you hand over 500 bucks.

STRONGEST ENGINE: THE FUNK ME! AWARD
Too easy. It's the TM.

Every bike in this class has a strong engine but the TM is way out front in developing what feels like enormous horsepower, and getting it to the ground. All the 450s seem to rev harder than the TM but this engine still has a midrange punch that leaves them gaping. If Osama Bin Laden is on one of these it's no wonder they can't catch the bastard. The Husaberg and the Husqvarna are the two hardest revvers, but if all you care about is spreading shrapnel everywhere you'll do it with the least effort on the TM.

There is a downside though. This bike is aggressive, that's what makes it so exciting to ride, and not intimidating for anyone who knows what to expect, but it has such firm suspension that after an hour of spreading shrapnel everywhere, you're absolutely rooted. The bike handles beautifully, it's confidence inspiring, but hanging on to the thing when you're trying hard requires a gorilla grip and a crusader's commitment.

As Rob Moss said when he stepped off the TM, "That thing deserves respect!" He nailed it. Everyone loved this bike but everyone also agreed that riding it all day, as fast as they can ride, was a big ask and beyond most of them. TM has done a lot to tone down the 450's killer instincts and make it more attractive to the majority of recreational riders, and we applaud them for that. However, and forgive us for having the audacity to suggest this, the TM would be even more attractive to trail riders if the factory would come up with a suspension spec that suited trail riders, not racers. Trail suspension simply doesn't have to be this brutal. There's no justification for it and, worse still, it won't help the blokes who have to sell this otherwise sensational bike.

Our second best award in the engine contest goes to the Husqvarna TE450, a bike that hour by hour grew in our estimation. This Husky engine revs to the stratosphere but still produces a broad spread of power. "That's my kind of engine!" Dr Dan remarked when he climbed off it, and we reckon most blokes would agree. The penalty for all this big rpm may be heavier fuel consumption, or it may be the Husky's larger carb

( 41mm Keihin for the TE450 and a 39mm Keihin for the others) but most trail riders will put up with that for the pleasure of listening to the Husky roar as they fang through the undergrowth.

Remarkably, as it turns out, we thought the KTM had the least aggressive engine, although the way it works with the chassis and suspension makes the EXC package the most cohesive. Although all these bikes are fast, if nothing else the KTM proved that having the toughest engine won't necessarily make you the fastest rider. In a side-by-side drag race the TM will knock off the other 450s, but you'll ride the KTM (or the Husky or the Yamaha or the Husaberg) faster for longer, and that's what most of us want.

BEST HANDLING: THE TIP IT IN AWARD
This is the toughest category in which to find a winner or even one bike that rises above the others. The choice is made more difficult in that one of these bikes is more trail oriented that the others.

Still, we reckon the Yamaha has the best trail suspension. It's softer and less punishing than the other setups so it won't bash you around, no matter how long you spend in the saddle. It's too soft for racing, and goes too far through the stroke on fast whoops, nevertheless, even in standard trim the Yamaha tracks accurately and is very predictable on flat slippery turns, the sort of thing that'll bring you undone if you're inexperienced. The average bloke can push his WR hard without a near-death experience and that's another feature that makes the Yamaha so popular with so many trail riders.

If we're talking race bikes, the KTM has the best suspension, although not by a huge margin. Everyone wanted to ride the KTM after a few hours because the EXC felt predictable. From rider's point of view the KTM is simply a drop-dead beautiful bike and handles any terrain really well.

But there's a downside here too: head-shake. The 450EXC head-shakes under acceleration on ruts, small rocks and so on, and this is a nasty business. The faster you ride the more pronounced the effect, so good riders will have to deal with it more often and to a greater degree. KTM has copped criticism over this for a while but doesn't seem inclined to do anything about it. It's not as if the head-shake is severe enough to scare you off the 450EXC, and lowering the rear of the bike with a little less spring preload may help, but since none of the other 450s suffer this disease, you can't help wondering why KTM has allowed the mutant gene to infect one model after another for so long.

Like Husqvarna, Husaberg has attempted to make the FE450 more attractive to ordinary blokes who trail ride and to a large extent they've succeeded. The 450FE gives a very plush ride alright, and it's certainly fast, but the 450 is not the sharp handler it once was. The bike definitely feels bigger than earlier models and in our opinion doesn't tip in like it used to. The engine is terrific and always has been - Husaberg practically invented the high revving single-cylinder four-stroke - and the FE retains its distinctive styling, ergonomics and mechanical layout - unitary construction engine, the airbox in the frame, and so on. We thought the-front-end had a tendency to let go on slippery or flat surfaces and this spoiled an otherwise pleasurable riding experience.

THE COST OF ORIGINAL SPARES
Head to head in the hip pocket.

Note: Prices collated November 2004.

AND IF YOU'LL HAND ME THE ENVELOPE ...
Our pick of the 2005 450s.

THE BEST BIKE OVERALL AWARD
Tough call this one, but we reckon that despite head-shaking, KTM's 450EXC is the best bike overall. The KTM feels the smallest and lightest of the lot, and is such a nicely balanced bike that it gets out Best Overall Award, and unanimously.

Everyone liked this bike because it was the easiest to ride fast and asked very little from the rider in physical effort. You always feel in control on the KTM and the bike changes direction almost instinctively. Combine those features with the world's best ergos and you have an adrenaline pump you couldn't stop with a sledge hammer.

THE BEST TRAIL BIKE AWARD
The Yamaha WR450, no doubt about it.

We said this is a clever bike and it is. You can build a race bike that's difficult and expensive to turn into a trail bike, or build a trail bike that's easily turned into a competitive race bike and Yamaha was smart enough to do the latter.

The WR is fast, it handles well, it's predictable, it's comfortable, and anyone who knows how to change gears and pump petrol can ride it. It's a known quantity, the Commodore of dirt bikes, and although it's a bit ponderous in tight terrain and at times feels quite heavy, even as a trail bike it's every bit as fast as the more race-oriented bikes we compared it with. It's not only a great trail bike but a brilliant piece of marketing.

THE X-FACTOR AWARD
No contest, the TM450.

The TM is the fastest 450 any of our testers have ridden. The bastards loved it. Trouble was, their love ran out when arm-pump set it in. If TM would fit real trail suspension to this bike, some riders would find it difficult to buy anything else, Cross-Country Action could make a killing and we'd finally nail Osama Bin Laden.

THE MOST IMPROVED BIKE AWARD
It's the Husqvarna TE450.

In recognition that more people buy dirt bikes to trail ride than to race, the TE450 has gone from an all-out race bike to a civilised and very enjoyable trail bike. It's more comfortable than it was a few years ago, and Husqvarna has managed the transition skilfully while giving us an engine the majority of trail riders will appreciate. We think the Husky has the strongest engine after the TM450. It also has terrific brakes, neutral handling and nice ergonomics. We've ridden the TE510 and definitely prefer the 450. By a long shot. Why you'd buy the 510 we have no idea.