I have a couple of quick questions for you. Since you appear to have nearly every upgrade highlifter makes on your 450ES, let me ask you this. I have a stock 450ES, if you were to do it all over again, which ONE modification would you make to your new bike to make it run better/faster? My other question is, amongst the guys you ride with, what have you heard with regard to a good all round tire, a tire used primarily for trails and hardpack with a little deep water and mud occasionally. I'm a little scared to start tearing the motor down on my brand new scooter! tks in advance for your help.

 

Sorry to just be getting back to your question,but just got back from a week camping and mud slinging trip now I can honestly answer you.On my 450 I lost about 5mph on top end and a very small amount on bottom end but I still love them mudbugs.They performed outstanding in the type riding I done,combination of black top hardpack and mud,they didn't rub or bottom out and buy going wider my machine still handled very wellwhen turned side ways on hills.The sacrifice was worth it,however I am going to add a performance kit.Hope this helps .

 

You may not have really lost much top speed at all. You may have only changed the reading of your speedometer with the larger tire diameter. My speedometer dropped about 4 mph, but now its actually about right with the GPS. It doesn't accelerate as fast, but I don't think I lost any actual top speed on level ground. I just lost "speedometer indicated" top speed. The AC speedometers are a bit on the optimistic side.