Film: Kyle Scott
Words: David Pingree
When Pro Circuit’s media relations director reached out to me and asked if I’d be interested in riding a 450 they had built, I thought about it for a fraction of a second, smiled from ear to ear and shouted, “Yes!” The Kawasaki is a great bike in stock form so to ride a bike that Kawasaki’s factory support team had built from the frame up had to be nothing short of works bike material, right?
This bike got every single part that Pro Circuit makes for a Kawasaki, as well as all the pieces they use on their race team. Let’s just jump right into it: This thing had triple clamps, fork and shock revalve with custom bladder cap, Ti-6 exhaust system, hi-compression piston with coated wrist pin, titanium exhaust valves, titanium intake valves, camshafts, valve springs, CNC head modifications, axle blocks, radiator hose kit, launch control device, ARC clutch assembly and composite brake lever, T-6 clutch cover, billet ignition cover, water pump cover with impeller, N-Style team graphics, oil filter cover, billet shift lever, carbon fiber chain guide, Twin Air filter, Renthal bars/grips/sprockets, engine plug kit, RK chain, throttle tube and brake hose clamp. Pro Circuit built the bike themselves and tallied the cost. The labor was $1,698.30, parts were $6,914.68 plus tax for grand total of … $9,148.87.
Was the juice worth the squeeze? We trekked up to LACR for our first ride on the KX and it didn’t disappoint. The engine was unreal; power from the first crack of the throttle until you were going so fast your eyes were watering. It wasn’t uncontrollable power either. The clutch was completely unnecessary because the bike had so much torque—you rolled the throttle on when you wanted to go and it responded. The shock worked really well but I was having some problems with the fork on our initial test ride. I couldn’t get it soft enough for my liking and after a call to Bones and some digging, they realized they had an old setting in the fork from earlier in the year. A second test ride with Bones sorted out any of the doubt I had about the suspension. They installed their spring conversion kit in the forks, which is a hybrid of spring with a little bit of air. The system allows for the feel of a spring with some of the additional tuning capability of air. After some adjustment we had it working great and feeling very comfortable.
I didn’t want to give the bike back but after a few days I had to. Thank you to the folks at Pro Circuit for reminding me just how good a bike can work. To see the whole test had over to racerxonline.com
Pro Circuit
Suspension, engine work and parts, exhaust, triple clamps, radiator hoses, brake pedal, chain guide, axle blocks, throttle tube, engine plug kit, clutch cover, ignition cover, water pump cover, oil filter cover.
N-Style
Pro Circuit race team graphics
VP Racing fuel
U4 race fuel
ARC
Clutch lever assembly and composite lever
Dunlop
MX3S front and rear
Renthal
Bars/grips/sprockets
RK Chain
Gold RK chain
