Reflex MX 450F Shootout

I saw this forum asking which 450 is best. Clearly there is alot of biased opinions, so I decided to test them all and see which one really is best. Why did I do this? Because I was bored. I completed career, have over a million dollars to spend on extra vehicles, and could'nt connect online at the time. Thats why I did this. All bikes were tested in the follow areas on varying terrain. Accelleration, Top Speed, Suspension, and Tire Grip. All of these tests were done the exact same way for each bike. They all had Stock OEM parts, completely untuned. Suspension: For the suspension tests I tested at 2 national tracks. The soft and bumpy sand of Sandwick, and the harpacked, high-flying jumps of Pinetop. Sand: 1.Honda, 4/5. The Honda was amazingly smooth over the bumpy sand track. Even smoother than the Suzuki, which is what I thought would be the best. 2.Suzuki, 3.5/5 Slightly less smooth than the Honda, but still really really smooth. 3.Yamaha, 3.5/5 About as smooth as the Suzuki, but the Yamaha did one section with much more difficulty than the Suzuki, giving the Yamaha 3rd. 4.KTM, 2.5/5 I knew before the tests that KTM's are known for their very hard suspension. The KTM bounced and struggled around the whole track, but nothing a bit of tuning could'nt fix. 5.Kawasaki, 2/5 Clearly Not the bike you want to ride Outdoors. It would take alot of tuning to get this thing set for Sandwick and other nationals. HardPacked: 1.Kawasaki, 5/5 Completely opposite from its scores on the Sand tracks, The Kawasaki was hands-down the best bike on huge jumps. Even overshooting the biggest jump on the track, I still rode away clean. This is definetaly the bike you want for freestyle or SX. 2.KTM, 4.5/5 The KTM is the same deal as the Kawasaki, but slightly better on sand and slightly worse on hardpacked tracks. 3.Suzuki. 4/5 I was surprised to see how well the Suzuki performed on Pinetop when it was untuned. A very solid bike on all terrain. 4.Honda, 3/5 The Honda did about as well on hard tracks as soft tracks. You can get an aftermarket part to increase performance, but not much tuning is needed. 5.Yamaha, 3/5 Same as the Honda, but The Honda had a better overall score. Grip: To test the grip of the bikes, I again went to 2 tracks. Sandwick's loose and deep sand, and Prairie Valley's slippery hardpacked track. Soft terrain: 1.Kawasaki, 4/5 The Kawaski's had amazing grip in the soft stuff. Tune the suspension to go with it and you will have a very fast bike. 2.Suzuki, 3.5/5 With the Suzuki's naturally sticky tires, i knew it would be able to perform well in soft terrain. And it did just that. 3.Yamaha, 3.5/5 Another tie between Suzuki and Yamaha. Suzuki takes the overall for getting the better position in the soft stuff. 4.Honda, 2.5/5. The honda slid around the sandy track alot. But, if you can tune it right with some maxxis tires, combine that and the excellent suspension and you have a true contender. 5.KTM, 2/5. The KTM must truely be a SX bike only. Maybe thats why its the 450SX-F! Hard Terrain: 1.Honda, 4.5/5 The Honda did extremely well on Prairie Valley compared to Sandwick. It had amazing grip on hardpacked terrain. 2.Kawasaki, 4/5 The Kawasaki clearly is the most all-around bike when it comes to grip. great in soft stuff, great on hardpacked. 3.Suzuki, 4/5. Tied with the Kawasaki, but the kawasaki had a better suspension rating on hardpacked, giving Suzuki 3rd place. 4.KTM, 3.5/5 average performance for grip on the hard terrain. 5.Yamaha,3.5/5, tied with the KTM, but like the Kawasaki-Suzuki tie, KTM got the better suspension rating on hard stuff. Accelleration:For this i just timed how long it took them to get down the Pinetop starting straight. It really was a good distance to test accelleration. As I guessed, all of the bikes would be really close, but there was a clear winner and a loser. 1,Kawasaki, 7.5 seconds. The most powerful bike. period. I even noticed it when i rode. 2. Suzuki, Honda, and KTM all got 8 seconds. Only 0.5 seconds difference between them and the Kawi, but 0.5 seconds could be the difference between getting the holeshot and getting ran over by 11 other riders online. 3.Yamaha. 9 seconds. 1.5 seconds back from the Kawasaki. The bike really felt underpowered compared to the other 450's when riding. Top Speed:To test this, i went to Hillsgrove, NY, and timed how long it took for the bikes to get from the mud at the beginning to the water all the way down the east side. 1.Kawasaki, 23 seconds. A full second faster than anyone else, this bike has the most power of any 450, hands-down. Take this and its incredible suspension and grip ratings on the hardpacked tracks, you have the ultimate SX bike. This bike seems to have the hardest hit in the mid to high RPM range. 2.Suzuki, 24 seconds. The Suzuki has the hardest hit in the low to mid RPM's of any bike. with the right Accelleration over Speed setup, it could be the fastest 450. 2. Honda, 24 seconds. Tied with the Suzuki, The Honda has tons of power in all RPM ranges. 3. KTM, 25 seconds, I was actually expecting a faster time from the KTM, but it was definetaly a 25. like the Kawasaki, it gets alot of power in the mid to high RPM's. 4. Yamaha, 25 seconds. Loses to the KTM due to slower accelleration. Gets a good amount of power from all RPM's, but still feel's underpowered compared to the others. Overall: And the best 450 in Reflex is... 1.Kawasaki, 25pts. Clearly the most dominant bike. 2.Honda, 22pts. An excellent all-around bike. An average place of 2.3. 3.Suzuki, 22pts. My personal favourite. With the right setup, it could be the best nationals bike. Lost to the Honda by the average finish position. Suzuki had a 2.8. 4. KTM, 16pts. A good SX bike, but not a good overall bike, unless you like to do alot of tuning. 5. Yamaha, with 13pts. Didnt finish all that well in any event, and felt really underpowered.