The suspension is
excellent out of the
box. I never touched
the forks and found
them quite plush
and surprisingly
bottom-resistant
The steel Chassis is a European-only thing
now in competition dirt bikes. Strong, light
and with excellent flex characteristics the
chassis is very well received worldwide and
has excellent results to back it up. And,
because it is much smaller in tube size, it
allows for superior layout and packaging
than the more bulky alloy frames. The
actual handling at turn-in is noticeably
slower than the EXC enduro models, a little
less planted, but less likely to tuck the front
under in deep sand and better suited to
faster turns and berms. While the EXC does
turn-in quicker, is more agile in the tight
and with a more planted feel, it is slightly
less stable in fast turns. So, the up-shot
54 KIWI RIDER
is… the TX is about spot-on for XC work –
horses for courses and all that.
The suspension is excellent out of
the box. I never touched the forks and
found them quite plush and surprisingly
bottom-resistant. The shock felt a little
soft and bouncy in sand whoops so I went
harder to 12- clicks out on low speed
compression and half a turn harder on
high speed compression and my problems
were solved. I left the rebound on the
standard setting. As with all test bikes time
constraints reduce tinkering time, but I’d
only want to play more with suspension
adjustments if I was to seriously race the
300… so that’s a bloody good result.