Have any of you actually seen the 450R in action? NO! so how can you say that it sux?! or that the yfz is better?! Honda has always ALWAYS had better handling than yamaha, honda's are naturally more reliable than yamaha. for all of you that say "duhhh honda really dropped the ball on this one'' or "im dissapointed its the yfz for me'' i think that you guys are just scurred or something, still in denial maybe??? like someone else quoted on here sonewhere "what are you expecting a gift from god?" or gods personal atv maybe?

 

Is the yfz engine based on the new 450 motor or the outdated 426, look closely.

 

It will be interesting to see what a head to head shootout reveals. Has anyone thought about Honda waiting a couple of years and doing to this quad what it did to the 250R for the '88 model year? Maybe Yamaha has some more tricks up their sleeve? Whichever quad proves to be superior, I hope it really pisses the other manufacturer off. Maybe this IS the revamped 400EX, but if so, it is odd that the electric starter disappeared. Will the 400EX stay in production? Who knows? I hope this starts a nasty fued between the manufacturers, with every other major player jumping in head first. I think it would be neat for KTM to make a race quad. They have some pretty hateful four strokes. Husaberg made a few race quads, and I am good friends with someone who is a dealer and was a test rider, and he said it would rip your arms off. Whether you love or hate the new Honda, we are all better off because of new quads like this one and the Yamaha than we were just a few short years ago. It is a good time to be a quad rider.

 

That is consistant with my weights...I had 368.4lbs dry 382.2lbs wet on an all stock bike. I think yammaha's 350lbs is done with helium filled tires!

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

I would speculate that Honda took a 10 year old chassis and a five year old engine, put them together and it rips everyones latest up-to-date techno quads to pieces. Am I close?

 

Mine were dry...no oil, water or gas. And wet... add previous.

 

I had oil and antifreeze in mine .. i had the headlights off because one of them stopped working so i just stripped them both for the time being .. Im going to weigh those too cause they feel like they are more than a pound a piece.. I also have my fenders trimmed and the bumper was currently removed but the bumper probably dont weigh much .. and i doubt that little bit of plastic made a huge difference. but who knows ? i think the hmf however feels about 2-3 lbs lighter than the stock exhaust.

 

if im not mistaken in the world of dirtbikes doesnt the old outdated 426 have the same power output as the 450 honda

 

I Really don't see where any of this makes a huge deal of difference .. YFZ can beat this.. YFZ can beat that .. man in the few months that i have owned the yfz its been in the shop more than on the track .. my engine Quit idling.. i busted the right front shock, then after a few hours of riding i can't get the d@mn thing to start.. for about 30-40 minutes, my left front headlight quit working.. and some days when im riding it and start to Accelerate i get about half throttle and it starts to die .. i probably only have about 25-30 hours on it.

Another guy that rides at the local track has one too and so far his engine will quit idling after about 15-20 minutes of riding and his has Completely quit running Twice in the last month his axle bent when he landed a 20ft jump and he had to replace his left front upper A-arm .. he only has about 16-17 hours on his..

I for one will probably be checking out the New trx450r in january .. I doubt i will buy one right away but if i dont hear about people running into alot of problems with them , im gonna switch brands on the other hand if they do start having alot of problems im gonna buy my Z back .. not that im saying the yfz is crap because i can blow alot of the other Quads of the track but im getting nervous about the dependability of the engine .. i will admit that the frame is very very Durable because i have been hitting some big jumps and landing hard and have only busted one of the shocks.. and if this thing ran Right now as it did the first 10-15 hours i put on it i would never complain. its not smoking or the engine is not pinging and nothing besides 91 octane has been in the tank , the oil is changed every 3rd ride .. something is Definitely going wrong with it ..

 

I was comparing the specs of the 450r to the 400ex and I now know that the 450r will really fly.

400ex:

Engine Type 397cc RFVC air-cooled dry-sump single-cylinder four-stroke
Bore and Stroke 85.0mm x 70.0mm
Carburetion 38mm piston-valve with accelerator pump
Ignition Solid-state CD with electronic advance
Starter Electric

Dry Weight 375.0 pounds
Fuel Capacity 2.6 gallons, including 0.4-gallon reserve


450r:
ENGINE
Engine Type 450cc liquid-cooled single-cylinder four-stroke
Bore and Stroke 94.0mm x 64.8mm
Compression Ratio 10.5:1
Valve Train Unicam; four-valve
Carburetion Keihin 42.0mm with throttle position sensor (TPS)
Ignition CD with electronic advance
Starter Forward kick

Dry Weight 350.0 pounds
Fuel Capacity 3.2 gallons


What I have in bold is what I found especially important in comparing the two machines. I can see that the Stroke on the 450r is smaller than on the 400ex. It looks like Honda wanted the engine to rev higher with a larger bore. Also by looking at the weight, the 450r is 25 pounds lighter than the 400ex (dry) but the 450r has a larger fuel tank. Although if you count the reserve on the 400ex, then the 450r only has 0.2 gallons more than the 400ex so it's safe to say that the 450r will remain about 25 pounds lighter. It's nice to see that the 450r has a better power:weight ratio than the 400ex.

Hopefully with the 450r released, the 300ex and 400ex prices will drop for a used one[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]