yamafitter
Reigning NERDS Granite Lane Gold Medalist
One of my club members dad works for Yamaha Canada and brought home the new 2016 WR450F. This bike was so new it had a sticker on it that said, "For Internal Use Only" which means that Yamaha Canada cannot sell the bike to the general public and is intended for display and demo purposes only. It is also the only '16 WR450F in Canada so I was very surprised when I was offered a test ride in the Ganaraska Forest.
That grinning idiot is me....
The big change is that the '16 WR450F now has the "backwards" motor with the exhaust exiting the rear of the motor and the intake is at the front...
Other new additions for 2016 is a larger front brake rotor from 2015, twin chamber front forks like those that are on the motocrosser and the factory installed rad fan...
The WR450 has been fuel injected for a bit now but with the "backwards" motor the airbox moves up near the triple clamps. This becomes obvious as soon as you start the bike in that the intake noise is very noticeable.
I had to learn how to use a clutch all over again since my last two dirt bikes have a Recluse clutch that has made me very lazy. This bike had all the "free" mods already done (air snorkel, throttle stop and exhaust pea shooter all removed) and the first noticeable difference from my bike was how quick the throttle response was compared to my carbureted bike. The bike responded immediately to the throttle and we were off.
When I turned onto the first single track the forks were working very nicely to the whoops and the steering was more precise and quicker to respond to input.
We had a lot of rain the day before and some of the laneways had turned into lakes so I was skirting the edges trying not to get the bike too dirty and also trying not to give myself a soaker. I failed on both counts.
While trying to get up on the edge of one waterhole I was a little too tentative, forgot about the need to feather the clutch lever since my Recluse does that for me on my own bike, stalled the bike and tipped over falling into the water. My hands were now soaked, my boots full of water and the bike is on its side not running but the motor and airbox did not get submerged thankfully.
It took me a while to get the bike uprighted since I was having a problem getting good footing in the waterhole as my boots continued to fill with nice cold water. once I got to dry ground I wanted to be sure no water got into the motor so I pulled the airbox cover (3 quick release fasteners to pop off the cover) and thankfully the filter was nice and dry. Bonus I thought as I hit the starter switch. The motor was spinning over but it was not starting. Pull the cold start lever out and tried again. No go = oh oh. I don't have the tools to pull the plug plus I'm positive I didn't get any water into the motor.
For a second I thought about a tip over switch but dismiss it as why would anybody put a tip over switch on a dirt bike? Wrong............ there is a tip over switch because of the fuel injection that I didn't know about. I found out later that all the fuel injected dirt bikes have them to stop the bike from running when tipped over in case of lubrication failure should the bike be allowed to continue running while tipped over for an extended period.
On the Yamaha to reset the tip over switch you are required to hold the kill switch for a few seconds. Again I found this out long, long after the fact. Instead I pushed the bike out of the woods about 1.5 km until some kind soul with a pickup truck came along the dirt road that I was on and gave me and the bike a ride back to my truck which was still another 2 kilometers away.
When I got the bike back to the parking lot trail head I called Justin who had dropped the bike off for me. He was just heading home and was close by so he came over and tried starting it and he was not having any luck either. I helped him load the bike up and he took it home and it wasn't until Justin talked to his dad that we both found out about how to reset the tip over switch. By this time the switch had reset itself after sitting for about 20 minutes.
The moral to this story is sometimes technology can bite you in the ass.
That grinning idiot is me....
The big change is that the '16 WR450F now has the "backwards" motor with the exhaust exiting the rear of the motor and the intake is at the front...
Other new additions for 2016 is a larger front brake rotor from 2015, twin chamber front forks like those that are on the motocrosser and the factory installed rad fan...
The WR450 has been fuel injected for a bit now but with the "backwards" motor the airbox moves up near the triple clamps. This becomes obvious as soon as you start the bike in that the intake noise is very noticeable.
I had to learn how to use a clutch all over again since my last two dirt bikes have a Recluse clutch that has made me very lazy. This bike had all the "free" mods already done (air snorkel, throttle stop and exhaust pea shooter all removed) and the first noticeable difference from my bike was how quick the throttle response was compared to my carbureted bike. The bike responded immediately to the throttle and we were off.
When I turned onto the first single track the forks were working very nicely to the whoops and the steering was more precise and quicker to respond to input.
We had a lot of rain the day before and some of the laneways had turned into lakes so I was skirting the edges trying not to get the bike too dirty and also trying not to give myself a soaker. I failed on both counts.
While trying to get up on the edge of one waterhole I was a little too tentative, forgot about the need to feather the clutch lever since my Recluse does that for me on my own bike, stalled the bike and tipped over falling into the water. My hands were now soaked, my boots full of water and the bike is on its side not running but the motor and airbox did not get submerged thankfully.
It took me a while to get the bike uprighted since I was having a problem getting good footing in the waterhole as my boots continued to fill with nice cold water. once I got to dry ground I wanted to be sure no water got into the motor so I pulled the airbox cover (3 quick release fasteners to pop off the cover) and thankfully the filter was nice and dry. Bonus I thought as I hit the starter switch. The motor was spinning over but it was not starting. Pull the cold start lever out and tried again. No go = oh oh. I don't have the tools to pull the plug plus I'm positive I didn't get any water into the motor.
For a second I thought about a tip over switch but dismiss it as why would anybody put a tip over switch on a dirt bike? Wrong............ there is a tip over switch because of the fuel injection that I didn't know about. I found out later that all the fuel injected dirt bikes have them to stop the bike from running when tipped over in case of lubrication failure should the bike be allowed to continue running while tipped over for an extended period.
On the Yamaha to reset the tip over switch you are required to hold the kill switch for a few seconds. Again I found this out long, long after the fact. Instead I pushed the bike out of the woods about 1.5 km until some kind soul with a pickup truck came along the dirt road that I was on and gave me and the bike a ride back to my truck which was still another 2 kilometers away.
When I got the bike back to the parking lot trail head I called Justin who had dropped the bike off for me. He was just heading home and was close by so he came over and tried starting it and he was not having any luck either. I helped him load the bike up and he took it home and it wasn't until Justin talked to his dad that we both found out about how to reset the tip over switch. By this time the switch had reset itself after sitting for about 20 minutes.
The moral to this story is sometimes technology can bite you in the ass.
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