TM450

TMs have always had a reputation as tough, competition-oriented bikes you had to be pretty good to ride, and until now the typical TM rolled into Oz with everything you needed to win races, including a take-no-prisoners attitude. Firm suspension, sharp handling, and instant throttle response in an engine that hunts to kill were all part of the TM package.

Trouble is, only a few riders could handle the package. Most of us are trail riders, not Six Day stars, and in the long run these undeniably beautiful Italian bikes proved undeniably aggressive, too much so for the average bloke, and too hard to move from the showroom floor. Australian importer, John Hall at Cross Country Action (CCA) found it easier to shift that other beautiful Italian bike, the VOR, and we can't say we're surprised. The VOR 450 is a great bike, far less in-your-face than any TM we've ridden, and that's why CCA sold twice as many VORs this year as TMs.

By the beginning of 2004, John realised that if he was going to shift more TM four-strokes he needed a blue bike more like the black bike - a TM more like the VOR. In a nutshell, if TM were to have any future in Australia, or any real future in the global market, Hall believed, someone had to convince the head poo-bahs in Italy that building bikes for world champions is not going to sell bikes to the average trail rider. Champions don't buy their bikes. Selling bikes to the average trail rider is what this gig is all about, and that's what TM had to learn to do. 

It's a sign of his commitment to the product that John had the guts to pack this argument in a briefcase and take it to TM headquarters. Mind you, the boys at CCA, and Nigel Pitsch at Pit Stop Motorcycles, had already done a tonne of work getting the TM 450 four-stroke to behave in a more civil manner. They modified the camshafts, among many other things, and after months of hard slog and a mountain of money produced the 450 they believe TM should be building. It's what they call the "041/2" model, meaning, it had their engine refinements but not the other improvements that eventually would arrive with the 05 models. And a blueprint for the '041/2 engine' is what John whacked on Gastone Serafini's desk when he lobbed in Pesaro early this year.

No doubt the argument was delivered with Hall's characteristic diplomacy. John's a gentleman. Still, one can imagine how a proud Italian industrialist reacted when the importer from his smallest foreign market bobs up and starts telling him how to build bikes. "They're too aggressive, Gazza. We have to tone 'em down a bit, mate. It's not working! We can't sell the bloody things! You know what I'm saying?

Mr Serafini's reaction to Mr Hall's line of reasoning was, according to John's son and business partner Malcolm Hall, "unfortunate". TM didn't like the noises coming from the cheeky Australian and wouldn't listen to his argument. The long and short of it is that the factory refused point-blank to do anything. And then six months later changed their minds. Apparently a certain amount of testing with different cam profiles was carried out in the intervening period, and eventually, having quietly digested humble pie ( with a little pasta of course) the poo-bahs had to admit that these changes, derived entirely from an idea born in Cessnock NSW, had indeed made their four-strokes more rideable and a lot less lethal.

So, eventually we got a TM more like a VOR. A little company in Australia suggested to a big company in Italy that they change the way they build their engines, and by definition, the way they market their bikes. Although the big guys put up a fight, finally they had to concede that the Aussies had a point. TM shipped a consignment of the new camshafts to CCA for fitment to unsold 2004 models still sitting in the shop, and will deploy those cams on all 05 TM four-strokes for global consumption. 

The second way a bike can be aggressive is with harsh suspension, intended for fast blokes who expect a bike to keep tracking in a straight line no matter what it hits, even a tram. These blokes don't care about ride quality. In some of their more isolated communities, harsh or even brutal suspension is a sign of manhood.

The third way in which a bike can be aggressive is to sign a deal with the devil, to constitute the unholy alliance between harsh suspension and a brutal engine, in other words, the bikes TM used to build.

This TM is still set up for fast guys but it's not harsh and it's certainly not brutal. Actually, there are two sides to this suspension story. If you're fast enough to need this suspension then you can ride the TM hard, knowing it won't do anything snotty, weird or shitful. You can drive this bike at any object with total confidence - a mega-rut full of boulders? - and know that life will continue.

The other side of the story is that suspension this capable comes at a price, and the price is a firm ride and not a lot of give and take at slow speeds. This particular Ohlins setup wouldn't give you a Cadillac ride over decorative gravel, but it will make sure you can dive into that mega-rut full of boulders and come out the other side in good shape for the next mega-whatever.

I'm happy to let the fast blokes have firm suspension. If this was my bike, I'd get the Ohlins setup revalved to achieve a softer ride at the speeds I travel. There's nothing wrong with softer suspension if it doesn't bottom, or bottoms only occasionally, and that's what most trail riders want. You're supposed to use most of your suspension travel anyway, aren't you? And not only when you hit a tram. This is young man's suspension but, thanks very much, I'll have old man's valving.

Come to think of it, I have old man's valving. 

We loved this thing. It needed no physical effort to tip it into turns, it slides predictably at any speed, it holds a line like Rex Hunt and it has a capacity for rip roaring grunt that you can't help but admire. It needs a little clutch during slow going in tight country, and doesn't have the low-down punch of the fuel injected 450 Gas Gas, but it's happy to lend a hand with plenty of low rpm torque when you're grinding your way up a slippery incline and Dr Dan's behind you, laughing his nuts off. The engine is so strong it could easily carry another gear. A six-speed box would help take the tingling out of the pegs and bars at 80 to 90 km/h too, and make this bike a lot more cruisy at legal speed limits.

The TM still has a few idiosyncrasies - like why is the fuel tap under the righthand radiator shroud? - but as far as we're concerned the blokes at Cross Country Action and Pit Stop Motorcycles deserve a slap on the back. Even combined, their resources barely register in the overall scheme of things, yet they've managed to take an engine that for many was simply too hot to handle and civilise it to the point of desirability. And that's a hell of an achievement.

by Barry Ashenhurst