2009 Yamaha WR450 Web Test

I'm guessing our 2009 Yamaha WR450 has about 30 hours on it. And I'm having a hard time remembering when I've had a better time on a stock(ish) WR.

No, you didn't miss a press release announcing an all-new Yamaha WR450. It's not a new bike. It's actually an old bike-one that has little or no updates in the past three years. But, as is often the case, as we approach the end of a model's lifespan before a major overhaul, we really know what to do to the bike to make it work in the real world. And our WR is really working.

First, let's recap what the stock WR is. It's really solid, basically. With ample power in a quiet and comfortable package, Yamaha's big off-road bike can handle the tightest, sharpest trails with ease and confidence. Motorability (that's a made up word for easy-to-use power delivery with a torque heavy punch) is the key and propels this pony from steering stop to steering stop around the trees, up the hills and over the woods. The clutch is a pleasure to pull and the bike resists boiling over quite well but has a reservoir bottle in case you tend to abuse.

WR 450 motors are fast, too. How fast? Uh, it's hard to tell because they're almost silent. But what happens is this: you twist the throttle and Motorability happens (I made that up, too). Then, the front tire lifts off the ground and you're in a wheelie even though you don't hear anything. I suggest turning your wrist clockwise to avoid blowing by the fast approaching corner. It's a motor that torques down low, rips in the mid and goes on, and on, and on, and on. It's cool.

If you need a reminder of the durability of Yamaha WR motors pleaser refer back to our 2007 Yamaha WR 250 Long Haul test bike which laughed off over 200 hours of not-nice riding by the jerks (myself included) at Dirt Rider.

The chassis is just on the rigid side with a tall-standing feeling from the pegs to the gas cap and it reacts quickly to your body's movements. Ergonomics are spread out nicely for big-and-tall guys as well as the average male rider in the 5'10" range. WR's are also well know for having the magic ability to fit shorter-legged pilots and most female riders due to their low-ish seat height.

Even though it seems at home in tight and technical trail situations, the WR really enjoys the fast lane. It has a stable nature to it that is almost unmatched in high-speed roads and the transmission has the gears to pull you and your business down whatever fast section you desire. And the transmission works better out in the open as well. In the tracks and trails of the world, the spacing from 2-to-3 and 3-to-4 can be just wide enough to have a rev-bog relationship that's annoying.

Interestingly, when the speeds pick up, the stock WR runs into a bit of a performance ceiling based solely on its suspension. As a compromise to handle abrupt hits, Yamaha has the stock fork and shock combo valved and sprung on the soft end of the spectrum. This is nice in the slow-go but when you hit the third sand whoop, anywhere between 45 and 900 mph, the wallow monster shows up in full force. All of a sudden, the bike gets heavy, slow steering and hard to predict. Sometimes it ends up on one side of the trail and you end up in a cactus. It will give you plenty of warning, though. So back her down a notch on the bumps.

With this general consensus on the WR lineup we went to work on the bike for this year's shootout. To get the Japanese bikes on par with the best offerings from Europe, we decided to add a few modifications. After all, KTM's and Husabergs are delivered as "Race Ready" and Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha build trail bikes. We need to compare apples to apples so we made apples that you'd likely build or buy. The overall character of the WR is greatly enhanced by these changes and if you currently own a WR and are considering an upgrade, check out what a little aftermarket love can do for your ride.

First on the Yamaha was the Factory Connection suspension service. Factory Connection (www.factoryconnection.com) serves up a sweet mix of WR goodness with their mods. And, since they deliver components and setup for the AmPro Yamaha GNCC team, they should be good at it. Our goal was to get the WR more into the mildly aggressive realm and away from the sit-down-and-trail-ride side. We wanted a lighter-feeling bike with better bottoming resistance and much more progression in the bottom half or third of the stroke. We didn't want to sacrifice slow and sharp bump compliance either. That's exactly what Factory Connection delivered.

It's almost unbelievable the difference the suspension modifications made on this model. It takes the bike from soft and squishy to standing tall and being reactive. It will have your confidence skyrocketing. In fact, I recently raced this bike in a WORCS race that was full of sand whoops the size storage sheds and it was only a bit too heavy and soft in the last 20 minutes of the hour-long race. My body was making the task pretty hard for the bike as well as it exhaustively leaned on the Yamaha. On a stock WR, I would have likely been making sand angels at the half-hour mark. My only complaints on the day of high-speed, big bump racing was the aforementioned transmission gaps and adjusting to going this fast so quietly which was a true joy when I realized I was invisible to the guys I was passing. Boo!