Ktm 400 E/xc-G
KTM 400 E/XC-G
New Ride 2002V
“G” as in “green”
JIMMY LEWIS
ENJOY RIDING YOUR DIRTBIKE WHILE YOU STILL CAN, ’CAUSE our time is limited. From land closures to noise restrictions to emissions standards, your buddies the Sierra Club, the Wilderness Coalition and the Center for Biological Diversity are working overtime to erase off-road fun from your agenda. Between endangered species and erosion concerns, there’s not much you can do to make dirtbike riding politically correct.
Except, perhaps, for riding the new KTM 400 E/XC-G, a special clean-burning version of the Racing Four-Stroke (RFS). It’s the same basic bike the Austrian manufacturer has produced for the past few years with one big exception: Along with the similarly spec’d 520 E/XC-G, this no-compromise dirtbike meets California Green Sticker requirements, which include stringent emissions and noise standards, plus a mandated spark arrestor.
Big deal, you say? You don’t care how the hell they do it in California? Well, you better, brother, because in 2006, the Environmental Protection Agency plans to adopt near-Golden State emissions standards for the entire country. You want to ride your OHV on public lands? First, join the Blue Ribbon Coalition (www.sharetrails.org), then pay attention.
What did it take to make the 400 E/XC pass muster? Not much, to hear the KTM folks tell it, as the already relatively clean-burning four-stroke required only minor jetting changes in its Keihin 39mm carburetor to get down below the 1.2 grams of hydrocarbons and 15 grams of CO2 per kilometer necessary to appease government sniffers. The bike also passed the second-gear, full-throttle ride-by noise test, emitting less than 82 decibels at 50 feet, and did so with a spark arrestor inside its rectangular aluminum muffler.
Did performance suffer? Hell no, this thing rips! Unless you get really particular about having to use the choke every time you start the bike, and leaving it on a bit longer than you would on a non-G RFS, you’ll hardly notice the difference. Only during extreme hard running followed by a sudden chop of the throttle is there a slight hint of leanness. The only other unrestricted bike over 300cc that we know meets California Green Sticker standards is the Honda XR400R, and it doesn’t set any performance records.
Right off the bat, there is a lot to like about the 400 E/XC-G. Throttle response is excellent, without the lean bog common to clean-burning bikes. Power builds in a smooth, progressive fashion, and then revs and revs and revs. In fact, the standout characteristic of the RFS motor is the width of the power spread. You can torque it down better than most 400cc dirtbikes without stalling, which is especially impressive considering how light a flywheel feel the bike has. Up on top the power isn’t overwhelming, but it gets the job done. Our testers dubbed the 400 “the little bike that could” in reference to its hill-climbing tenacity.
Add to the engine performance the superbly spaced six-speed, wide-ratio transmission, controlled through a magical hydraulic clutch, and you have an “enduromatic” motor. And for those with an eye toward a dual-sport conversion, sixth gear is a real overdrive.
Chassis-wise, the KTM is a winner as well. Carrying 2.4 gallons of fuel in such a narrow gas tank, mated to a thick-yet-stiff seat, makes moving around on the bike a cinch. It stays thin all the way down to the footpegs, too, where the engine is noticeably slimmer than other four-strokes; it’s more like a two-stroke. And thanks to four-position handlebar mounting through an adjustable top triple-clamp, you can personalize the fit.
When it comes to suspension, the E/XC has overcome most of the initial stiffness that the PDS linkageless rear suspension was criticized for over the past few years. It’s now quite supple on little bumps, moves through its stroke well enough to suck up rocks or roots, yet can handle whoops better than most comparably plush dirtbikes. Stability is generally good as long as you hang on, but get lazy with the bars and the 400 will get a little loose and dance a bit-not enough to call it headshake, but enough to get your attention. With a slightly stiffer setting at both ends, we got better stability.
KTM 400 E/XC-G
$7048
Ups Plays by the rules without compromise is 400cc the perfect size for a Thumper? Electric starting!
Downs It’s not cheap Could use a skidplate and handguards Black plastic gets beatlooking fast
At 255 pounds without fuel, the E/XC is relatively lightweight for a full-featured, electric-start enduro. The engineers went to great lengths to keep weight down, such as eliminating a few extra wires by using the frame as the common ground for anything electric. Other contributing factors are the trick dished-head fasteners, aluminum * washers and lack of any unnecessary hardware.
We ran our 400 hard and beat it good, and the only part that failed was the floppy odometer cable that got sucked up in the front wheel. We even raced it in a few off-road grands prix, where it was way more competitive than we thought an enduro bike could be. As for trailriding, there are very few bikes that we’d rather be on for an all-day ride. It goes nearly 60 miles on a tank, has a bright enough headlight for nighttime riding and is really quiet-the bonus points stacked high! We never had overheating issues, even in abusive situations, and the clutch hung in there as well.
In the end, the 400 E/XC-G is all the things that Thumpers weren’t a few years ago: light, nimble and now cleanburning, finally addressing an issue that four-strokes
were supposed to be championing all along.
Judged on its own merits, this bike has what it takes to be a winner no matter how you slice it-it may just be the best machine in KTM’s lineup. And now with leaner jetting, it shows that we can still have great dirtbikes in the face of ridiculous, politically correct emission standards for off-highway vehicles. So, eco-weenies be damned, we say. Roost on! S3
