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Aftermarket muffler manufacturers rejoice! The 2024 Kawasaki KX450 has A LOT of room for improvement with its muffler system. The stock muffler is choked up and makes the KX450 feel somewhat lethargic for a 450. Yes, I know what you’re thinking.. “Kris, it’s a 450, how much power do we actually need”? You would be right, but also there is a fine line of too slow and too fast on 450 machines. The KX450 is super smooth down low which can make the KX450 feel heavy in certain areas of the track. It took me a few tracks to be able to feel this, but nonetheless the KX450 power down low can make the green bike feel heavy in tight corners. Besides drilling holes in the left side cover, this Kawasaki needs to breathe, so enter Pro Circuit’s Ti-6 muffler system. PC was one of the first to have a muffler ready for production so why not test it out, so we did!
Let me bitch about something first! What the hell was Kawasaki thinking when they put together the headpipe access point? Getting to the nuts that hold the headpipe on is going to take some patience, which apparently I don’t have a lot of. You can’t get a t-handle nor a socket/ratchet in between the frame and radiator hoses. The only thing I could do, to get the headpipe nuts off was an open end wrench. If you have a swivel tool or a open end ratchet wrench that is the only thing that I had in my tool box to get the stock headpipe off and the Ti-6 headpipe on.
The Pro Circuit Ti-6 muffler system will take off 1.8 pounds from your stock muffler and looks nice on the machine. Unlike last year’s muffler, this new style Ti-6 doesn’t look like a bazooka from the rear of the bike. The sound (with the insert in) is not as loud as previous year’s Ti-6’s so that is also a nice feature.
On the track you’ll immediately notice when leaving the pits is that you have more throttle response immediately. The touch of the throttle will be more “alive” than the stock muffler which makes the KX450 feel lighter (side to side) than in stock form. Power delivery of the KX450 now feels like it pulls much harder than the stock muffler and getting out of a soft berm or rut has more pick up than in stock form as well. The Ti-6 makes the engine character feel a little quicker/lighter than the “chuggy” nature of the stock system. The engine feels like it spools up freer and in that sense it makes the impression that the bike is lighter in slower sections of tracks. Mid range is also increased slightly but that is not as drastic of a feeling as the low end pull or low RPM throttle response. You’ll immediately notice more low end snap but it might be hard to decipher if you have more mid range, but trust me, the KX450 (with PC installed) does have an increased mid range feel in 2nd-3rd gears. Each of these gears will be more usable with the PC system and the KX450 does become a little more lugable with the Ti-6, so you vet riders should appreciate this. Top end/over-rev is not that much better than stock, if at all. You don’t lose top end/over-rev but I don’t think you’ll be gaining much up near the peak RPM’s.
Overall, this system is a no brainer for people who want more low-mid range out of their 24′ KX450. It will not be hard to make a better muffler system for the KX450 in 2024, but it’s nice PC knew where to put the power where the KX450 needed it! For $1400.00 this is one of those times that the juice is worth the squeeze when it comes to muffler systems.
Mapping: The map below is the map we were running when we tested the PC Ti-6 at the time. We are currently working on an updated map.
