All Purpose Yamaha

2012 Yamaha WR450F Conversion

When I was invited to ride on the Class 60 Pro team for the first Baja race of the year the San Felipe 250 I didn’t want to ride my KTM 350 as a pre runner bike, quite frankly I didn’t think it had enough power for the sand. So I bought a “08” Yamaha WR450F that was all set up for desert riding. My thought was to use it to pre ride on then sell it when I got back. But after three days of pre running I really liked the bike and decided to sell my licensed Suzuki DRZ 400E and try to Dual Sport the WR.

Well I had no problem selling the Suzuki and was getting ready to order a Dual Sport kit for the WR when the new 2012 Yamaha WR 450F’s showed up at my local dealer. I shouldn’t have looked at one but did and I promised myself I wouldn’t buy the 2012 bike until I sold the “08” WR, well that didn’t take long either. Interesting to note the WR is going to be shipped to Mongolia in China.

As you probably already know the new WR is made of a mixture of Yamaha products. A 2012 YZ250F frame, a WR swing arm, YZ 450 suspension internal components, and the motor is as I understand it basically a “09” YZ 450F with wide ratio gearing,  is fuel injected and been used in their ATV’s for a few years now. Another interesting thing is the motor is tilted back, no it’s not the backwards YZ motor but the motor is mounted in the YZ frame so that it is actually tilted back a little. Something to do with positioning the cams more centrally, I’m sure it also has something to with weight distribution and handling as well. It’s interesting to note the bikes handling is very sensitive to the fork tube height small changes make a difference.

One of the main reasons I bought the bike (Besides the fact it was new and fuel injected) was to try and Dual Sport it and to use it for desert riding.(One of my latest new passions) But my first ride on it was on the MX sand track at E street, and the second on the sand track at MMX. The bike worked so well in that environment I decided to ride it at an upcoming Old Timer International MX event, which I did. I had a couple friends ride the bike on the MX track to see what they thought of it, all were impressed, including Eric #33. (Eric had ridden one in So Cal as part of a team of test riders who had ridden the new 450 off road models from KTM, Beta, Husky, TM, and Yamaha for an upcoming magazine article) All the riders who rode it are capable of clearing the biggest jumps on those two tracks and did so with no problems, even with stock suspension set up for me. The bike is stable and doesn’t doing anything scary, accept for being a little twitchy. This WR does do something WR’s aren’t really noted for; it turns very well.

I put a GYTR/FMF muffler spark arrestor on it, changed the ECU and had the mapping set to FMF’s specs. Put a Scotts Steering Stabilizer on it because it turns so well it’s a little twitchy, and changed the gearing slightly from 13/50 to 13/51 but also purchased a 14 tooth counter shaft sprocket for desert and dual Sport riding.

I’ve ridden two motocross events, actually seven motos on it so far and would say without a doubt the bike works very well on sand tracks. Only in the last two motos of the last race I could say the bikes weight started to bother me and that’s because I’m old and the track had gotten extremely rough.

The next thing on my list is to install a Rekluse and go trail riding. As you know I’m old, lazy and a big Rekluse fan. I’m not a big Core EXP fan, and don’t mind the soft feel of the clutch lever and just prefer the Z-Pro Start. The Dual Sport kit from Baja Designs is now available so I’ve ordered one and IMS has just made available a 3.0 gallon fuel tank.

A couple of issues have shown up on the new WR, one is starting, cold or hot. It’s not consistent, sometimes it starts right up and sometimes it doesn’t. Roseville Yamaha has been able to help if not almost cure the starting issues by using a diagnostic tool to change the initial fuel delivery.  Another minor issue is the clutch cable on mine at least appears to be a tad short after I installed taller bars, so that when you turn the bars all the way to the right it pulls on the clutch cable I was able to lengthen it with adjustments, but when I installed the Rekluse you need a lot of slack and I couldn’t get enough adjustment, so I ended up rerouting the cable and using a Works Connection clutch lever assembly.  I installed the Baja Kit without any big issues; it just takes a lot of time, but everything worked the first time. After a few trials and a few errors I now have a CA licensed 2012 WR450f Dual Sport bike. I’m thinking about creating a list of what I had to do in order to license it in CA and make it available to anyone would wants it through this website. 

I’ve now put a few hundred miles of Dual Sport and trail riding on the bike and can say the bike works very well in that environment as well, as of this date I still haven’t ridden it in the desert, but I’m confident it will work well.

I’m going to ride the annual RUTS (Racers Under The Sun), fund raising Dual Sport Ride the middle of August on that ride I will get to test the bike on all manner of trails. The “A” loops on this ride are usually very technical and challenging. I’ll know doubt write an article about this ride and will give you my impressions of the bike in that environment.

Incidentally Roseville Yamaha has taken a new WR450 and basically set it up as a motocross bike, it works extremely well although it is still a tad heavier than a YZ the only time you really notice it is when you half to pick it up or put it on a stand. (You can actually remove the starter and battery to save weight if you want to Roseville shaved 13.5 lbs off the bike.) The handling and power are a little friendlier to us mortals.

Doug 21J