I currently ride a 400ex and love it, but I am wanting a 450er. The 400ex is a great bike that hardly needs maintenance. My question is if I buy the 450 would I have to spend more time working on it than riding it. Also does the HRC kit make a huge difference in performance. And does it hurt the reliability of the bike.

 

No, you won't spend time working on it. My bro has an '05 that he has had for about 2.5 years. Never touched it. I've had my yfz for 3 and never really done anything on it. As far as the HRC kit yes it makes a great difference and I highly recommend it. It's basically a cam and a exhaust mod but, if you get an aftermarket pipe go with the Hotcam Stage II. In my opinion it doesn't affect the reliability at all as long as the valves are set properly afterword. The way I see it the HRC is a Honda product. Doubt they would sell something to hurt their reputation of being reliable.

 

Hey thanks a lot Koopa, thats what I was hoping to hear. I live in the country and ride almost every day. Also thanks for the tip about the cam because I am deffinatly going to put on a full exhaust. yea I ride with a guy that has a YFZ, those are mean quads. I appreciate the advice bub.

 

Anytime, glad to help. In case you plan to put the cam in yourself let me give you a couple tips I learned.

You will need a shim kit. You won't know what size you need until, you gauge it. You have to have the feeler gauges that have the bend in them. The straight ones just don't work. The shim kits are a bit expensive. There was also a local shop in my area willing to sell them for a few bucks a piece with an understandably large deposit we could take his kit. Might check around.

It will take a couple of times to get it shimmed right. Listen carefully for the tick for a couple weeks. Chances are adjustments will need to be made within a month so keep the shims available. Some have told me that you will be constantly adjusting but, my bro has around 7 months of riding with no adjustments since the initial month.

 

Thanks again. You really sound like you know what you're talking about and thats what I was looking for on this forum.

 

Stick around. There are many people here that really know there stuff. This is where I turned when I installed mine.

 

Koopa, thanks again. I hope you don't mind me calling on you in the future for advice.

 

Not at all. happy to help.