Palmdale, CA - We were highly
anticipating the second day of our test ride on
Yamaha’s new YFZ450R and could not wait
to put it to the test in its preferred environment,
the motocross track. We had high hopes for this
machine and once we hit the track, the YFZ450R
aimed to please.
Los Angeles County Raceway (LACR) motocross
track, which is not usually open to ATVs, was
where we would be heading to for our final ride
on the YFZ450R. LACR is a long track with a
sandy consistency and no rocks. It also boasts
wide-open sections, lots of hill climbs, tight
corners, a whoop section and some descent size
jumps, including a big uphill triple, all of
which was the perfect environment for our motocross
test ride.
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Los
Angeles County Raceway (LACR) motocross
track provided the perfect test track
for evaluating the all new Yamaha YFZ450R
ATV |
The weather was perfect for a day at the track
with sunny skies and temperatures hovering right
around 80 degrees, which is very typical for
southern CA this time of year. When we arrived
at our destination we were pleasantly surprised
to find out that we would be joined on the track
by Yamaha Factory ATV racer and 2008 Yamaha
/ ITP Quadcross Pro ATV Champion, Dustin Nelson,
who played an integral roll in the development
of Yamaha’s YFZ450R. “I’m
really looking forward to racing this bike next
season. Yamaha has done a great job on it and
I think it will definitely do well,” said
Dustin, who will be racing the YFZ450R in both
the ITP Quadcross and WORCS series for the 2009
season.
Yamaha had one YFZ450R available to each media
outlet in stock form for us to test the entire
day, but they also had two tricked out units
with GYTR components, which were shared among
all the media outlets the second half of the
day after everyone had a chance to become familiar
with the LACR motocross track and the stock
YFZ450R.
Once we hit the track on the stock machines,
it was obvious right from the start that the
YFZ450R is most at home on the motocross track.
We were immediately impressed with the way the
YFZ450R handled. “The extra width was
really noticeable and made the quad handle really
well in the corners,” said Jarrod McClure,
who was our test rider once again for day two.
“The stock suspension settings, which
seemed a little stiff on the trails yesterday,
worked perfectly on the motocross track. It
handled the whoops really well and soaked up
the jumps.”
After countless laps on the stock unit in the
morning, we got a chance to check out the YFZ450R
with a GYTR cylinder head, exhaust system, power
commander, nerf bars, and ITP Quadcross tires.
These few bolt on mods had an incredible impact
on the performance. “The GYTR cylinder
head & pipe really made a difference. It
seemed to rev faster and it increased the power
through out the power band, but it was most
noticeable on the bottom end,” said Jarrod.
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two GYTR demo units were equipped with
a full exhaust system, clutch kit, ported
cylinder head with performance cams, nerf
bars, power commander, nerf bars, bumper,
skid plates, ITP tires & wheels, and
many more minor items |
