New YZ450FX Diet!

2016 Yamaha YZ450FX part 2 

After weeks and weeks of looking at my wadded up and dirty 450FX I was just chomping at the bit to at least clean it up while patiently waiting to heal up I finally got to clean it and look at the damage which turned out to be minimal.

While waiting to heal the Rekluse, Scotts steering damper along with the kick stand removal kit arrived. I couldn’t believe how heavy the kick stand bracket was. The other thing I’m going to remove is the kick starter with the help of a GYTR kit, that will save almost two more pounds. (I’m all in, the electric starter either works or it doesn’t)

My first ride with my recently healed body and all the new stuff on the bike was at our SOTMC (Sierra Old Timers MC) ride day at Est. I stayed on the Vet track in the back except for one brief foray on the front more difficult track. It felt good and I started out slow. After riding twice I thought the suspension felt a little hard then realized I hadn’t checked the tire pressures, I had pumped air into them the day before and thought I’ll remember to check them before I ride (Not) they both had over 30 pounds in them, needless to say everything worked much better after lowering the pressures. After having tried a fifty two tooth and a fifty one tooth rear sprocket I’ve gone back to the stock 13/50 combination. My thought was to close up the wide ratio gearing for MX, but I ended up making it easier for the motor to get to the real horse power which invites whiskey throttle. (Not a good plan) The 450 has plenty of torque and with the stock gearing have a longer steadier pull in each gear. 

Bucky of SBB who did the suspension rode the bike to check out his work. He rides a 2015 YZ450F so was the perfect guy to try the 450FX. He said he liked it a lot and didn’t feel much difference in power between the two. One thing I noticed between the two bikes was the vibration, the 450FX has very little vibration I’m not sure why exactly but it does have a new counterbalance and the motor mounts are totally different.

After removing the kick starter I decided to weigh all the stuff I’ve taken off, my hope was to have taken a good honest ten pounds off the bike to bring to an honest 252/254 pounds with fuel.

So as a recap I’ve replaced the stock battery with a Sherai, removed the kick stand and the bracket, removed the kick starter gears and replaced the stock muffler. And all the stuff added up to 10.7 pounds less the weight of the Sherai battery and the foot peg bracket. Not bad, the only things you probably wouldn’t normally do are remove the kick stand and bracket and the kick starter gears. Those kits are around $30 each.

I don’t think you could find enough ways or dollars to make the FX as light as the KTM, but it’s now 10 pounds closer than it was. A couple of riders who have ridden the FX and currently ride Yamaha 450F’s didn’t mention anything about the weight.

So now that I have it set up it’s now a matter of riding it and getting use to it like any new bike. I’ll do an update on it latter.

Doug 21J