TM 400E

John Hall and his son Malcolm (Cross-Country Action) wanted to bring in TM's four-stroke line-up a long time ago - about four years actually - but the factory took way longer than expected to come up with the goods.

Back in 1998, during the Six-Day in Victoria, John and Mal broke bread with the head poo-bahs from TM and, somewhere in there, between the lamb rosette and the gelato with hundreds-and-thousands, they were more or less assured that the first TM four-stroke would be available for Australian consumption "in about sixa months". Beaudy!

Only nobody consumed anything. They didn't arrive. For a small factory like TM to develop and put into production a brand new four-stroke engine - or two of them if you count the 250 and the 400 as separate designs - turned out to be a lot more difficult and time consuming than even TM expected.

Back in Cessnock a couple of months later, and then a few years later, John and Mal were in a bit of a bind. TM's two-stroke models were selling well, but by then four-strokes were the flavour of the month and that's what everyone wanted. Unfortunately, all the boys could do was tear out hair in great smouldering chunks, while they looked for an alternative four-stroke that could fill the void left by the TM's embarrassing no-show.

As we all know now, what they unearthed was the VOR range and these bikes subsequently went on to scrape out a niche for themselves among dirt riders who wanted something big, black and bad. The irony is that, now the TM four-strokes have arrived, J & M Hall will have to come up with a marketing strategy that distinguishes one brand from the other. It's a bit like having too much of a good thing.

COOL LOOKING BIKE
But that's another story. What we're here for is to describe the new TM and give you some idea of what it's like to ride. Before we kick into first slot and nick off though, let's have a close look at it - because this is a cool bike.

For starters, it doesn't look like anything the Japanese would make. I don't mean that in derogatory sense; it's just that TMs look hand-made in a way that only the Italians achieve. That's because they are hand-made. Every one of them. The tubular perimeter frame has some odd angles that you wouldn't see on a Japanese production bike, but, like all those that preceded it, this TM carries on the tradition of using only the best equipment in a race-bred package that trail riders can handle.

TM does much of its own aluminium casting for more critical components like the CNC machined billet aluminium hubs, the brake pedal and the rear sprocket. So in that sense the Italian factory may contribute more to these bikes than its Japanese counterparts contribute to theirs. (Mind you, corporate interconnections these days make it difficult to know who owns what and where the parts come from: Suzuki owns a slice of Harley-Davidson; Yamaha uses KYB suspension but has an interest in Ohlins; KYB has an interest in Paoli; Honda owns Showa and Keihin; and KTM owns WP. And that's just for starters.)

The powerful and nicely modulated brakes on the TM400 are somewhat hybrid too in that the front master cylinder is a Brembo, the rear unit a Nissin, and the two calipers are Brembo, exerting their retarding forces via a 240mm disc on the rear and a full-floating 270mm rotor up front.

Mechanical detail is handled stylishly too, as you'd expect from fussy Italians who practically build one bike at a time. For example, the gap between the frame rails underneath the engine is covered by a neat and precisely made laser-cut polished aluminium bashplate. That means you won't have to protect that part of the bike with an aftermarket item that looks like a homemade backhoe bucket.

The slinky header-pipes slip into a graceful Gianelli muffler, and the rims, blue Takasago Excels which tend to look overwrought on any other bike, are perfectly appropriate to the TM's extroverted sense of fashion. We've seen blue rims on a Yamaha. Not good. You have to be Italian to pull that one off.

The tyres are Michelin's Competition Enduros (the FIM's eco tyre), with an 18-incher on the rear. Nineteen-inch rear tyres have a lower profile with a larger contact patch, and therefore potentially better traction, but also the potential for more punctures and sidewall damage. Modern motocross bikes all come with 19-inch rear tyres because motocross racers are willing to sacrifice durability for maximum traction. With enduro bikes it's the other way around. We all want traction, sure, but a trail bike is vulnerable to more accidental damage from rocks, sticks, sharp-toothed wombats and general trail crap than a track-bound race bike. I guess it's a nuisance thing: who wants to fix a bloody puncture in the middle of nowhere with the fuel running low, the sun going down and the wife's award winning meatloaf goin' off? Not me.

FEELS GOOD TOO
For years European dirt bikes were criticised for feeling like European bikes. In other words they had a quirky style of ergonomics that made them feel boxy compared with their Japanese counterparts, or at least that's how Australians seemed to see it. To some extent that's still true, but not with the TM. To me a Husaberg feels as if it's sloping downhill but the TM has an up-front-and-aggro riding position that Australian riders will recognise right away, and feel comfortable with.

The seat is firm without being a nutcracker, like the KTM's, and the tapered Reikon bars are a nice shape with just the right amount of rise. The Maguira hydraulic clutch isn't all that light but has a positive action, and an on-the-fly freeplay adjustor, so you can't complain about that. The test bike was fitted with a pretty little analogue speedo mounted in a carbon-fibre panel but Mal Hall says Australian production models will get a digital speedo. Either way, it's a neat arrangement and looks trick.

The gearbox is a five-speed unit and, but for a reluctance to drop into neutral, like many high performance four-strokes for some reason, in both directions the shifts are precise, smooth and short.

The engine casing has a large engine-oil sight glass built into it on the righthand side so you can quickly check your oil level. That's okay, nothing wrong with checking the oil level, but if you buy one of these babies, don't let that become a substitute for conscientious maintenance. This is a high performance engine and needs frequent oil changes with a top brand four-stroke lubricant to get the most out of it over prolonged ownership.

TMs have always had a reputation for high performance and that's a large part of their appeal, even to riders who can't make use of all the testicle-flattening acceleration. Since Cross-Country Action sells most of its VORs and TMs to trail riders, we'd be the first to criticise this bike if it were an experts-only proposition, but it's not. The 400 has as much power as any sane trail rider will ever want and probably too much for some of us, but it's a wonderfully exhilarating thing to ride.

The engine howls through the first three gears, to the extent that you're tempted to snick the box back to first and do it all over again, just for the hell of it. The 399cc engine is a bottom-end to midrange performer, precisely what you want in the bush where top gear is seldom used on the twisty bits that feel good. Engine response is very snappy, which suggests a light flywheel weight, and you can actually use the tractive effort in third gear to sucks rocks right out of the ground. On the other hand, and of more importance to trail riders, at the same time the TM engine delivers plenty of low-speed torque to tractor up snotty hills and gouge its way through pigswill bog holes.

Standard gearing is 13-50. That's perfect for slashing around an enduro course but it's too short for trail riders, most of whom use lots of bitumen getting to and from their favourite tracks. At 80 to 100km/h the engine is pumping out a lot of revs. I think the TM would feel more comfortable, and use less fuel through the five-speed box, if the gearing were a tad higher, say 14-50, or if you'd rather spend more money on a rear sprocket, 13-48, either of which would give you better road speed with less noise while leaving a bit more juice in the 10 litre see-through tank.

I found the Ohlins setup a little stiff for me but that's because I'm no dirt champ. Still, the TM didn't do anything clumsy or unexpected, even with me doing clumsy and unexpected things to it. With its massive (46mm) Ohlins fork and nice geometry it slices through tight turns and asks for little physical effort to make it change direction - the principle reason I like this bike so much. It gives you confidence and makes difficult things easier which is, for me, the signature of a fine motorcycle.

By the end of 30 minutes I was having a ball. They say a good bike will make you better, quicker. That being the case, if I ride a TM400 every day for the next 20 years I should be ready for the Motocross des Nations. There's only one teensy problem with that: I'll be 76.

But here's another thing I like about the TM400: in Australia we get the electric-start version; in America they don't. Suck that, George.