Well, let the phantom testing begin... It's always funny how so many know how a machine they've never even seen in person will compare to the others.

Personally, if it can keep up with the '04 improved 400EX I'll be real surprised. That larger carb, other minute changes and new graphics should make the YFZ450's job of making a first impression especially difficult...LOL!!!

I think this is going to be an awesome machine. It looks like a Raptor and a 250R met, fell in love, and had a baby. And golly what a baby!!

 

Thanks Kiwi Craig...........nothing like facts and data!

Enough arm chair riding and trashing bashing.........looking forward to hearing real ride reviews, which should be coming out soon.........

G'day Mate! I'll be coming down to NZ soon! Unless you're bringing your machine up with you in your carry on luggage? <grins>

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of riding with the Krazy Kiwi, watch out, he'll make you look bad on your own machine...........<grins> I'm not kidding either!

 

well now............. I have a personal contact in Yamaha who rode the prototype 12 months ago, his comment was that it makes the Raptor look very very slow.......................... This is Yamahs ne flag ship quad make no mistakes.

YZF 450 VX KTM 525/530: Our expereince is that the YZF will pull the KTM by 1 to 2 bike lengths initially then on long straights the KTM claws it a back do to faster overall gearing. In NZ MX the YZF's rule.

CRF, these have been having terrible reliability problems in NZ: 3 siezed at the NZ nationals alone due to over heating of the engine oil / foaming of the oil. My brother sponsors a YZF race team, has done since the first YZF400's came out, have not blown one engine in 5 years running both 250's and 400/426 and now 450's. When the CRF came out a good personnel friend swapped from his YZF 250/426's to the Honda, his season was a misery, 3 blown transmissons, one blown clutch, engine vibration problems (never solved), piston ring sealing problems, valves sealing problems. Whilst the CRF is a race competitive package, the maintenance schedule is hell in comparision to the YZF's.





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Prototype and production are going to be two different machines. I would be absolutely shocked if Yamaha actually uncorks that machine. Don't get me wrong, I hope they do, but I would be shocked. Has anyone looked at the gear ratio's yet? Is it identical to the WR? Just curious as to whether yamaha dropped a motorcycle tranny directly into a quad again. I'm sure all the reviews are going to be great on this thing. Personally I'd wait a year before considering getting one. But man, at 350 lbs, the thing must be a rocket with that engine, no matter how you look at it. A friend of mine owns the local honda/yamaha dealership, I was promised that as soon as they get one in we're going riding. Of course, he doesn't know when he'll get one in yet.

yzf450 & ktm520 has less to do with the gearing, and more to do with the fact that the yzf puts out 50rwhp, while the 520 puts out almost 65 rwhp. Any way you cut it, the ktm is going to smoke it. Put identical gearing in the two bikes, and the ktm is going to leave a yzf like it's standing still.

In regards to the CRF, my friend who owns the dealership also sponsors a race team. I hear nothing but praises from the racers and the sponsor for the bike. In regards to your friend blowing transmissions/clutches. I hope he kept up on all the news for the crf. As you know the engine oil and transmission/clutch oil are kept in seperate reservoirs. If you follow the manual for filling the trans oil reservoir, you will blow the trans/clutch out. They filled the trans reservoir in a test, then xrayed the case. They found that the oil level at that point doesn't touch the bottom of the gears. If your friend was filling it to spec, I could understand why it may of been blowing up on him. Valve and air filter problems were known issues with 02's. Overheating of the engine oil sounds to me like they either rode the bike to slow (the idle circuit is very lean, you can't putt around on this bike), or they need to learn how to properly jet their bikes, because the main jets were too lean, causing overheating. Piston ring sealing problems? Maybe he needs to have someone else do the top end for him. I rebuild my top end every 6 races, haven't had any problems at all. It'll still rip your arms off.

But we could go on and on with the my friend, his friend, my uncles buddy, etc....

I am curious though, your friend raced both the yz250 and a yzf426? So he raced both a 2 stroke and a 4 stroke? That's an amazing feat. Most guys can't do that. And on the maintenance schedule, pull the shop manuals on both bikes and you'll find out that it's the same.

But I'll stop debating an issue that you have no experience or 1st hand knowledge about. I feel like I'm debating an environmentalist.

 

Nocando

 

Did you read my post? Look at the maintenance schedules in the shop manual for both the yzf450 and crf450. I have it in front of me, it's virtually identical. The engines in these bikes are NOT the engine being put into the new quad, and that might be part of the reason. Build a four stroke to the hilt, one that can compete with the 250cc 2 strokes, and it's going to need a top end more often. You show me a factory racer that runs all year without a top end rebuild. There's no such thing. I don't know much about the new quad, but just by looking at the compression ratio, it's not the same engine as being put into the bikes. Go buy the new yammy, heat it up to the same level as the bikes, and you will not get a full race season out of that engine, unless you ride real slow in Ohio....

 

Bluerulz: Have alook at the KTM 520 quad on my web page, I know a thing or three about these.

My brother is a franchise Yamaha and Suzuki dealer, he sponsors both YZ & YZF 250's, a YZF 450 and an RM 125 this year as well as supporting production road racing. My info is first hand.

I didn't say he ran a YZ and YZF, read the post. My friend Mike who had the season from hell on his CRF ran the YZF 250 first year out, seasons before that YZF 400/426. Point was that he could run a whole season on the YZF engines with zero mechanical problems, never a failure or DNF and pretty well routine maintenance, the CRF, well he just never knew if it would last the days racing out, CRF was maintained by Honda race mechs, he didn't wrench on it, and forget the "slow poke jetting cracks" this guy is quick. Whilst the Honda is undoutably fast, they are fragile and need alot of wrenching in comparision was the point I was making.

The 450 quad engine is essentially the WR ,which is last years YZF with different cams and electric leg. The quad gets a fdiffernt piston to get in under the 440 limit and gee only 11.9:1 compression................., main problem will be the choked up Raptor type exhaust can and a choked up airbox lid. The engine been fitted into the YFZ is essentially the YZF family line with ALOT in common. 48 - 50 reliable HP will be an exhaust cam change, decent pipe, airbox unchoke and rejet away. The YZ450 cams fit the earlier YZF and WR engines, they all share the same basic head casting apparently.

I'll bet a crate of your favourate ale that Honda will NEVER release a quad with an engine based on the CRF 450 layout with the seperate engine oil / tranny oil deal.

Whilst delivery is still been confirmed I can expect mine (all ready back ordered) within 6 weeks according to Yamaha, I sure hope so !!! we will soon get that puppy onto the dyno and see what it produces ........................ My pick, factory stock, 40 - 42 hp all corked up.

 

It might tear up the Rappy on an MX track. But it doesn't have the Raptor's power potential. I predict that a piped YZF and a piped Raptor will be about dead nuts in a drag. Here's my reasoning. If the motor does come from the factory with the YZ's 55 HP rating then it will put down approximately 46 RWHP. Which is in line with a piped Raptor. However when we talk modded bikes. The YZF is in a much more radical tune from the factory. If the Raptor came from the factory with 11.9 compression (like the YZF) and a bigger cam(like the YZF), the Raptor would kill it. Mod for mod, the Raptor has it beat. There's no substitute for cubic inches.

 

The big problem with the Raps is they just won't rev out hard, they go as flat as on top, sure they have the grunt to short shift and the 686, 727 and 770 work on this aspect. When I visited Powroll 2 odd years ago they had there 770 on the dyno, they had a Raptor head on the bench next to a 426 head, the difference was amazing, the 660 was so choked up............ They theroised that the 660 would never be a strong revving mill because of the restrictive head and would focus on huge torque by way of the 770 stroker. Guys who do get them revving better are spitting rods and having alsorts of reliability problems, from our limited experince in NZ, 686's high 50's - low 60's hp are marginal reliability wise with rod replacements at no more than 100 hours run time (sometimes dramatically less), and the 770's well that can't even get off the dyno yet without someit going, mind you 70 rwhp !..............

The raptors strong points are it's tractor torque and ease of riding especially in trail situations. YFZ is a totally different deal, the lighter weight and lower CofG will do wonders for the handling and a rev happy engine will make it a bullet, but not everyones ideal quad as you'll have to be on the ball due to the lower torque output. Looking forward to get my YFZ and running it against my mildly modded Raptor thats for sure. Bigger isn't always better, RPM ability is important and weight is the enemy !