11/17/2025
Couldnāt be happier with the performance, reliability, comfort of the FE450 this year at the Baja 1000. It was a great platform for this type of race. We kept the engine and ECU completely stock with the exception of a RS-12 stainless exhaust system.
We ran a variety of guards and hard parts that held up to a lot of abuse! We ran the Tusk rear shark fin, radiator guards, fork lug protectors, start/stop buttons, Tusk Impact wheels, rotors, and Ti hardware. We torqued all the spokes prior to the race and the wheels still spin true and round, despite all the sand sharks we hit in the silt and San Felipe whoops šŖš¼
Some other guards we ran were swingarm guards, carbon front disc guard, chain guide, pro bend full wrap hand guards (we ran the same OEM levers the entire race). A full coverage skid plate wouldāve been nice to better protect rear shock linkage from rocks and peppering from rocksā¦
On the comfort side of things we couldnāt have been happier with the MotoXperts suspension set up. Front and rear end were balanced, plush in the choppy, rocky terrain, yet had great high speed hold-up while hitting hard Supercross style whoops and the deep, soft sandy rollers. The comfort seat was also our best friend when our legs needed a rest ā¤ļø
Latest gen Austrian bikes have a bad fuel pump design that cause your pump to run dry with up to a gallon of fuel remaining in the bottom of the tank. Thanks to Jay Clark recommendation we installed a 3.2 gallon tank that accepts the old style OEM fuel pump that sits in the bottom of the tank, allowing you to use 100% of the fuel before running out. This setup allowed us to run ~ 100 miles of range which was plenty to get us from pit to pit without fuel range anxiety.
Baja designs dual XL Pro light set up was bright and worked well, but a little overkill for us and added a bit of weight to the front of the bike. Weāll likely run a single XL80 next time with helmet lights.
Will post a video later to get more into some other details šš¼