I got my ATV Sports Magazine on yesterday and they have an ad for the 450R which says "Standby for the Sporttrax 450R". This is a direct response Yamaha's Ad "Suddenly, Everything Else is On Standby".

It looks like Honda is going to start an advertising war as well. Should be interesting. What do you guys think? Is this great marketing or lack of creativity?

 

great marketing, i personally lean towards yamaha...i have a raptor. I would like to see some good competition between the two
just my .02

 

my buddy is thinking of putting a big bore, and port his blaster.....how strong does it run, say against your z400?

 

I'll get flamed for saying this but, my ported, big bore geared blaster runs VERY CLOSE TO THE z400 and will outrun a 400EX in a drag race. Please realize, I have over $1300.00 in the blaster's engine alone. If you build any two stroke it'll run, while I am impressed with my blaster's performance it is not as reliable as the 4 strokes. And to answer the question ahead of time, NO IT WILL NOT TOUCH THE YFZ.

 

i think that it is great that the two companies are battling it out. i like the honda better right off the bat becuz i am a hardcore honda fan. i also like the yamaha but i think that the honda will win out overall

 

2 strokes rule. moto4DX, don't worry about getting flamed by me, I'm right behind ya 100%.

As for the advertising war... GREAT! As long as the manufacturers are paying attention. Kinda like when Yami got MC to ride a 'shee after the 400EX came out.

as for the 400EX vs. YFZ... think of it this way... When Yamaha came out with the YFZ450 they made an entirely new super high-tech chassis with barely any reused parts. Just like they did for the YZF450.

BUT Honda gave us quad guys a chassis design that's not really that bad, but not really in the same class. The 400EX frame is kinda like an XR400 frame. When Honda came out with the CRF450R they didn't use an XR400 frame with new shocks and plastic, but they figured us quad guys were too stupid to care.

well, I guess we really are that stupid because it seems people don't care. Yamaha spent a lot of time and money on us, the consumer. They started from scratch. Honda didn't. Remember that when you're giving 6 grand to one of the two companies.

 

1986Suzuki,

The YFZ450 is about the same as a YZF426 which is about the same as the original YZF400 which was closely based on the YZ250. To say that Yamaha gave the market a new bike from the ground up is not true. The YFZ450 is obviously all new. Yamaha did a great job on it and I look forward to owning one someday.

How do you know that the 450R is not in the same class as the YFZ when speaking of the frames?? Have you broken out the protractor to see who has the better geometry? Have you inspected the tubing and welds to see who has the best manufacturing processes? Has EVERY aftermarket frame builder announced they are scraping their current designs all based on the famed Honda geometry to switch to the all new, revolutionary Yamaha design?

Your comparison of the EX frame to the XR400 frame is way off. The ex frame is much closer to state of the art quad race frames than an XR frame is to any race bike frame. The manufacturers haven't improved the race quad design since the '88 250R [depending how you feel about Cannondale]. Bikes on the other hand, both MX and enduro have undergone multiple evolutionary changes since then. So it's obvious Honda wasn't gonna drop the CRF450 into the XR400 frame for the same reasons Yamaha didn't drop their new 250 4 stroke into their "XR-like" TT-R250 frame.

Don't hate the player, hate the player's game. But you can't hate the player's game until you've seen him play. Capisce?

 

Honda didn't need to scrap their frame design and come up with something totally new - Yamaha had to do that. They ddidn't have any of their other frames to use for a race quad - the Warrior? No. The Raptor? Definately not. The Banshee.....ummmm...NO! Blaster? No. Honda already had two race bred and proven designs to work with - the 250r and the 400ex. So scrapping those two designs and starting over would have been rediculous! They improved on them to fit this new engine - and I trust that Honda did what was necessary to make sure their 450r frame will prove itself on the track as well. That is just Honda for you. I'm not bashing Yamaha - I am tickled silly to see them step up and make a race quad as nice as their 450. And I've owned 3 Yamahas.....but my very best quad has been my 440 - and I don't think anyone should be knocking Honda until that quad hits the race tracks and has been tested thoroughly....... [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

Based on what i seen on the new Honda's spec., the seat height is higher then on the Yamaha, the wheel base is smaller then on the Yamaha. On top of that, a kickstart! I hope its much easier to start then on the bikes.

 

The crf dirt bike is easy to start in the first place, and why would honda mess with sucess? and change there great frame designes? That would be stupid.