Ride Engineering 22mm Triple Clamp and One Piece Bar Mount (Suzuki RM-Z450)

Ride Engineering’s 2020 Suzuki RM-Z450 22mm offset triple clamps (stock is 21.5mm) are anodized black, are 4.5 ounces lighter than stock and grip the fork 12mm higher up than the stock clamp. The one-piece bar mounts feature 12mm posts instead of 10mm for much-needed additional strength. The bar mounts retain the stock height and can be adjusted plus or minus 3–5mm and 5-10mm spacers are available for bar-height adjustment. Finally, soft poly cones isolate the bar post from the triple clamps, which provide additional plushness for your hands. The clamps come equipped with a steering stem and a tapered bearing pressed on, so they are ready to install once you unbox them.

The Suzuki RM-Z450 doesn’t need much help through corners, but it does need a little help in between each corner. The stock RM-Z450 is a little rigid feeling, can get a little twitchy on de-cel bumps and give the rider some oversteer when trying to load the front end on flat corners. It needs a little more stability and less of a harsh feel around the track. This is where the 22mm Ride Engineering Triple Clamps and one-piece bar mounts come into play. The clamping zones where the Ride Engineering lower clamp grip the fork leg are 12mm higher than stock. What this does is provide a different fulcrum point that allows the fork to get some additional flex. What this does is translate the RM-Z450 into a slightly more forgiving ride without sacrificing the cornering characteristics.

The 22mm offset helps settle the RM-Z450 into area 1 of corners for me as well as my test riders. With the fork set at 5mm up in the clamp the RM-Z450 now drops into a rut without that off throttle front end wiggle and the RM-Z450 now has an increase in cornering stability. Cornering stability comes into play when the rut is hammered and chopped out. The 22mm clamps provide more comfort in those conditions slightly more and allows the Suzuki to settle better. 

The adjustability of the bar mounts allows a wide range of riders the ability to dial in their cockpit area as well. For Ride Engineering weight savings and a more forgiving feel are always the goal and they seemed to accomplish this with this Suzuki set up. The Ride Engineering bar mount cones come in three durometers, which allow you to dial in the degree to which the bar mounts will give under loads. The softer the cone, the more movement you get, which increases comfort, but also can feel disconnected when you push into corners very hard. Naturally, some faster riders DO NOT like the bar mounts flexing and they prefer the stiffest of the bar mount cones, but I am more of a medium, more flex type of cone guy. 

The Ride Engineering RM-Z450 triple clamps offer some real performance value ($549.99 clamps and $104.95 for the mounts) and are offered in a cool blue and black anodized look. An investment like this should offer some sort of performance advantage on the track, not just look pretty. The Ride Engineering clamps/mounts offer a change in the handling and to me it was mostly for the better. I say “mostly” because I did feel like the Ride Engineering clamps will fade if you leave your bike in the pits, under the sun too long. Make sure to cover up your front end with a towel so that the sun is not beating directly onto the clamps anodizing.

If you’re looking for more information on this product or have nay questions please email me at kris@keeferinctesting.com. 

2020 FMF Factory RCT 4.1 Stainless Full System (Suzuki RM-Z450)

FMF has helped us on many builds and you may be wondering why do we use them so much? Well… A couple reasons are because FMF is a great American made company, they are easily accessible to us dumb media people and they actually care about the results of their product. If for whatever reason they missed the mark on a muffler setting they are willing to make changes asap to make their product even better. There are only a few companies that are easy to work within this business and FMF is one of those. 

Suzuki hasn't won a shootout or for that matter won any professional races in quite sometime, but that doesn't mean it can’t be a great bike for the motocross enthusiast. One of my photographers/test riders Dallas Dunn purchased a RM-Z450 because this is what he could afford and he wanted to ride a dirt bike. Suzuki is selling their machines at a much cheaper price than other manufacturers and that is important to the growth of our sport. We need companies like Suzuki to stick around and help this sport grow. With that being said I wanted to try and get the heavy monstrosity that is the RM-Z450 muffler system off and get an FMF 4.1 system on in order to get you guys some feedback on what it can do to the RMaRMY’s power character. 

First thing’s first. We picked stainless steel because it costs less and is more durable than a titanium slip fit joint. The titanium joints are known to wear out a little faster and you’re not going to save a crap ton of weight going to titanium. If you’re the type of rider that wants lightweight and looks then titanium is your jam, but if you’re looking to just lose some weight over stock and get some durability there is nothing “not cool” about stainless. Speaking of weight the stainless FMF 4.1 system weighs in at 6 pounds 11 ounces which is almost a three pound weight loss from the stock piece. WOW! Bolting on the FMF 4.1 system is simple and takes almost not time at all. 

On the track the FMF’s muffler pitch has a deeper more throaty pitch to it and sounds clean (with stock or lean couplers installed). We will say that you will not get a noticeable amount of more bottom end with the FMF 4.1 system installed, but what you will get is a cleaner, more linear, longer pulling power than the stock system. Out of corners you will feel more connection to the rear wheel and an overall lighter revving feel. It’s tough to find more connection when getting a lighter revving feel, but for whatever reason this is how the Suzuki’s engine and FMF system blend itself together. Pulling second and third gears longer is made easier with the FMF installed, so if you want to be slightly lazier with your shifting after the corner (leave it in second gear longer), the FMF system can provide that for you. One thing you will not be getting is more third gear recovery, so if you’re looking to lug the RM-Z450 more with the FMF 4.1, it will not magically give you a ton more pick up in third gear. That area of the power remains similar to the stock muffler character. The over-rev of the 4.1 is noticeably better with the standard coupler, but if you’re using the white (lean) coupler you may want to give the stock coupler a try again to gain even more over-rev from the stock system. For $749.99 the FMF 4.1 stainless system is a good upgrade from your heavy, slightly lethargic feeling stock muffler engine delivery. Visit fmfracing.com to get yours or you can go to keeferinctesting.com and click on the RMATVMC banner to take you to their website to purchase. 

Weights:

Stock System 9.07 oz

FMF 4.1 Stainless System 6.11 oz

RIDE ENGINEERING 2018-2020 Suzuki RM-Z 450 Performance Link

By Dallas Dunn:

I’ve been helping out Keefer with photography content for some time now, but I’ve been wanting to get more into the testing side of things so Kris has gave me the opportunity to ride the 2020 Suzuki RM-Z450 test bike for the year, so the first mod for this bike was going to be the Ride Engineering 1mm longer lowering link. I wanted to give you a normal everyday blue collar perspective. I am by no means a professional test rider, in fact I am a heavy equipment operator that likes to ride his dirt bike. So if you can relate to that and have a RM-Z450, maybe you can relate to this test as well.

Simply installing the Ride Engineering link helped balance the RM-Z out on de-cel. If you’re running the stock suspension (valving/springs) this simple mod will help the RM-Z from wanting to transfer its weight towards the front end. The RM-Z450’s BFRC shock is known for unloading on de-cel (or riding high off throttle) and that can cause oversteer (knifing) on entrances of corners. Once you install the longer Ride Engineering link arms on the Suzuki it will settle down on de-cel and not pitch towards the front end as much. I noticed right away the bike felt more predictable and compliant coming into choppy braking bumps while keeping the rear end planted with less diving on de-cel. It gave me more sense of predictability and control when entering corners compared to the stock setup. Having comfort and predictability are things I look for when trying to improve my speed and technique. Running the sag at 107mm (fork height 4-5mm) with the link arm will alleviate some of your balance issues on the #RMaRMy. 

This Ride Engineering link Retails for $219.99 at www.ride-engineering.com.

You can use the code Keefer-20 to save some dough as well.