Enough tech talk, the bottom line here is a faster-than-ever WR450F. Fans of the class mark your calendars: 2005 is shaping up to be the year of the 450 enduro. With the impending arrival of Honda's CRF450X in the class, revised KTMs, Husqvarna back on solid ground, a new Gas Gas and Sherco adding a model to its line, it was do-or-die time for the blue woods wonder. And it looks as though the Yamaha got its training plan in order and it'll be a tough customer to beat. By this stage of the game our 2004 WR450F was as comfortable as a pair of well-broken-in boots. However, a stint on the '05 made it just feel fat and lazy. The new WR450F spins up to the power zone so fast that at first you'll think you're on a 250F, but you won't think that for too long. It has all the vigor of a 450 thumper, and that burst arrives more quickly than you can say accelerate. It's a good thing the clutch action was improved and the pull made easier; in the tight stuff you need to be one with that left lever to control the straining pony. It lunges out of corners, up hills and across any open space. This speedy revving hides the soft underbelly of the 450's power: the bottom-end. It still shares the rpm-happy delivery of the YZ-F and comes on strong in the midrange, and it keeps building into a healthy upper end. Sure, it will cruise all day on the lower throttle settings, but turn the right grip more than halfway and the pace becomes a full action/adventure feature.
With all the hoopla over the lower center of gravity, we must talk about turning. Changing course was never a WR strong suit, but the '05 will let you flick it around much more easily. You must still overcome the gyroscopic effect of 449cc's worth of rotating mass, so in the really twisty areas the big-bore can be a handful. If that's OK with you, the new Yamaha will be a delight; the cg now feels as if it's located between your ankles. The bike drops over for turns without much thought. Or a simple stomp on the sensitive but not-quite-a-light-switch rear brake, a shift of the waist and you've turned. It's that easy most of the time. Climbing snaking uphill trails requires more clutch dexterity to keep on track and prevent the front end from heading upward. But most fire-breathers require that attentiveness, too.
We spent the most time trying to sort out the WR450F's suspension. On our initial foray at the press intro at Hungry Valley SVRA in Gorman, California, things were nice until we reached a section in a loose sand wash. Going into corners was disconcerting. The front end pushed, and the rear end wanted to wag. After setting sag (at 100mm) and turning the fork compression out four clicks from stock and the rebound one click out, the front was willing to settle into turns better and track straighter in the sand. We even put the bike through its paces on a new, fast, sweeping and mostly natural-terrain MX track, Competitive Edge in Hesperia, California, which features sandy dirt and few jumps. The WR-Fs share fork size and basic frame design with their YZ-F cousins, so flex isn't an issue, and-surprisingly for an off-road machine-neither is bottoming. Coming up short on a double took care of that test. Both ends soaked the miscue with a slight kick off course, but nothing catastrophic. Yeah, this is an off-road bike that appears capable of holding its own on a natural-terrain MX track-fine for open Western conditions or a WORCS race, but likely too stiff for the roots and rocks more common to the Northern and Eastern states. In the bike's defense, it cushioned whoops, braking bumps and rocks we found in Hungry Valley to comfortable levels in a controlled manner. Once in a while we did encounter some twitchiness; it doesn't seem as planted as our '04 did, perhaps due to the lighter feel of the bike.