I was thinking of installing a Recluse to reduce engine braking since I'm a 2 stroke rider but then I thought I'd be giving up one of the advantages of a 4 stroke. What's your opinion on recluse vs manual clutch? I think the yz450s feels heavy because they aren't narrow at the fuel tank shrouds and the fat bike makes you think it's heavier than it really is. The 2011 is even wider and only made a bit slimmer when they redesigned the air filter & box. BTW after we got the suspension revalved I thought they were the best forks I'd ever ridden.
Can't comment on the rekluse clutch but I'd love to try one tho. To slim the YZ down, Cycra makes a semi decent plastics kit for the yz450f, helps with the slender trim feel!. The down sides are, we can't fit the radiator braces and the air filter (may?) get dirty quicker. And keep the standard plastics for resale.
Yea totally agree it feels fatter than the fc and rmz too. Didn't look up the weight differences but I would imagine they're close. Would love to try the recluse also, but not sure if it would be that great in the sand. Also really want to ride the husky tx300 but again I'm worried it would run hot and seize like a lot of two strokes we've ridden in sand. Only real complaint about the YZ is the dam seat, after an hour or so even with padded monkey butt shorts on my ass is a tender mfer. Would like to know if anyone is running a softer seat foam and cover.
I have a custom sand MAP that I created from the GYTR snappy MAP only I took it to the next level and it must be used with VP110. My son took it to little Sahara for 3 days and beat every bike and 4 wheeler at the drag strip only losing to a couple V-8 sand rail dragsters. People were asking about his engine mods and scratching their heads when they noticed it still had stock exhaust. He would hang even or better with the dragsters until about 60 mph... Not bad for a bone stock engine. He liked the tune so much he kept it that way for all last season of motocross. He is 6'8" tall and can leverage the crap out of a bike doing stuff that would crash the average guy.. He said the tune is really sketchy woods riding. I haven't ridden it more then a 20 min stretch so I can't comment on the seat.
6'8 he's a big boy. I bet he can man handle the hell out of that bike. Looked at gytr tuner but I can't ride this thing to its full potential now! That's why I'm not gonna do a Dr D pipe. Every bike I've ever owned I put exhaust on dirt and street. Not this one it pulls hard in the sand and in the dirt which I've only ridden a couple times it's insane lol. Here's a GoPro shot from my boys of me after a hard ride, I was smoked got caught in a rut and kinda just fell over, ass was sore hands and forearms gone, my boys laughed and kept riding. Sucks getting old and when we ride they make me feel that way every time lol. VP110 with that tune I bet that thing rips, I just don't want to spend $5.00 a gallon on race fuel when my old ass can't ride it like I stole it anymore.
Btw I'm close to 50 years old 6 foot 205 lbs and not that bad out of shape, but my boys are 20 and 22 and 6'2 180 lbs so ya they kick my ass on the dirt bikes but they have no chance on street bikes. Lol.....
I have Cycra on it with braces but no guards. It's the third set of plastics Acherbis and UFO were the first two after the OEM got thrashed.
Purvines Racing crew being one such group , other local group being DP Racings Morgan and Statley. All
One of our crew got the YZ450FX...the thing is brilliant. he has a Rekluse and informed me to start in 3rd and never shift it, onto local single track....the FI is flawless and the thing chugs like a train, roll on the throttle and really hang on the thing rips hard. oem suspension plush like sofa very very nice machine
Nice mate nice, we have a 14 & 16 yzf's. No rekluse yet. My son was competing in mx, 2 weeks ago with the 14 at echo valley Toowoomba. After the 2nd race with disappointing results, I told him what you said about taking off in 3rd. He tried it. In the remaining three races he managed two 4th's and a 5th from a field of 24. Best results ever, he was (& me) chuffed. The starts are soo important. Thanks for the tip Robert
Good read http://motocrossactionmag.com/first-look-2018-yamaha-yz450f-yz250f/ really like the smart phone tuner app idea
Good true story My sons 16' yz450 suffered a cracked frame. Knowing of the 1 month warranty I didnt hold much hope. And the dealer we purchased from had shut shop. It is 10 months old with 51 hrs of racing..... I thought, the bikes is a write off. We went to the next yamaha dealer, 40k's away. To seek some help/advise. Spoke to the owner of Northstar yamaha, he was surprised. Then he took us into his office and phoned his contacts at yamaha. Once we supplied the vin # the ball started rolling. Yamaha were big enough to put their hand up. Not only did they replace the frame but they covered all of the labour cost. At no cost to us. Cost to Yamaha inxs of $3000. Fixed in less than 3 weeks. And the technicians did a superb job also. (Internet sources say) This is not a common fault with the bike but rather an issue with one of the robots in production, for a short time. Thank you Yamaha.
What's good is your riding the bike to the limit that's great your testing the frame. Companies like their product feed back wether it's good or bad. The weld cracked that's interesting. Good for you they covered the repair. Is that the weld above the clutch cover to the left? If so the joint maybe the wrong design for a frame joint. The filler rod can be too brittle too. We should never weld across a frame. They extent trailer truck and truck frame joints on an angle. Never in a vertical straight line across. I see this all the time on you tube on the TJ Jeep Wrangler frame repairs. There doing square verticle welds. Not good this verticle joint can fail along side the weld. There's a computer program for stress annalsis and in the engineering group I worked for missed using it. It saves time in designing structural components. Everyone's in a rush to manufacture. If they followed the simple rules they save rework time and money.
Yes, on the left hand side. Steering head coming down the main tube. As a welder by trade (boilermaker) I know the hassles of the repair. Drilling, veeing, preheating, cooling, machining the race etc. But as you say if the filler isnt the same "make up" (as in composition) you could be wasting your time. Then its scared for life and you couldnt sell it. Even if it did travel in a straight line. With the out come we got, we will be sticking with Yamaha And as a side note/edit I am reminded again in my late years, it is wise to stick with a family business such as the repairer (Northstar) for on going back up.
I just finished a freshen up on the 2011 yz450 after 80 hrs of woods riding followed by 50 hrs of motocross. It really didn't need it but the connecting rod for the 2011s were superseded and for fear of it breaking on the little end I decided to go through the entire engine. While waiting on parts I serviced the forks and shock, did the suspension bearings, wheel bearings, replaced the tires and added an oversized front rotor with new brake pads. I mapped it with a smooth power map for the woods and rode and tweaked the map a couple times before I was happy. Now it's buttery smooth and I've decided to ride it a bunch so I can make a choice between it and my recently freshened up 09 WR250 Husky. I'm going to have to sell one of them. I threw in a pic to show what $800 worth of parts looks like and another to show why I need to sell a bike or two. View attachment 80250 I
I've been adjusting the mapping on my 2011 yz450 to make it smoother and easier to ride in the woods. I only use vp110 fuel and have had to adjust the mapping a little to compensate for the slower burn of the race fuel however I think I've got another problem but can't prove it. Every once in a while if I'm not riding the bike aggressively it will die just as I blip the throttle at low rpm and slow speed. It never happens when the bike is being pushed hard and the engine and exhaust it are at full temp. I've been suspecting a blip it the TPS that is sending a voltage spike to the ECU but can't find any dead spots using the GYTR tuner. Unfortunately I no longer have access to an oscilloscope that would prove a voltage spike or static problem. A friend had a similar problem with a 2015 YZ450 and put a TPS on it and it fixed is problem. I don't like guessing and throwing parts at a problem especially when the parts are $100+. The live data on the GYTR tuner shows all the sensors are in spec and this problem has been with the bike almost from day one, it never bothered my son when he rode it because he almost never went slow... he did often say that you he had to ride the bike as fast as he could for everything to work right but since he's not a mechanic he never got into detail about why. So now that you have a background on this problem have any of you YZ owners had a similar problem and if so how did you fix it? I'd describe it as random low speed flame out that will occur once or twice during a 2 hour woods ride.
Have a 14 yz450 and nope never had any issues with the bike. Mine is completely stock, no after market pipe or anything bone stock. We ride in sand so I have had some slow speed stalls cause I was lugging the bike too much but never just die with a blip of the throttle. And yes your son is right the faster you ride the more it works if you/me can hang on lol. Got a buddy with a 2015 and another with a 2016 and no issues there either. Set back to stock for a ride or two and run 93 octane and see what happens.
