Ive been thinking. there has been plenty of enduro bikes adventurised over the past couple of years and by far the most popular is the 525/30 Xcw and the WR450. How would you build your 450F? Lets talk fuel, luggage, gearing and so on.
Lets take a moment to reflect on what the oil in a WR450 will look like at 25hrs..... And now lets pause for a moment to visualize the effort involved with replacing said oil while in the back of beyond.... And finally, while on our seattle to fairbanks tour, shall we consider the piston replacement somewhere on the dempster? Rally bike? Absolutely. With service every night, an extra $10k in body mods... hell, I have a G450x if you want to go that route. But the lightness and performance come at a price. Its like comparing a 525 and LC4, wildly different beasts. And one's an adventure bike, the other is a weekend toy for the local trails.
Why are people paying money to put mud clogging, low clearance fenders on dirt bikes? It seems counter intuitive.
Its a rally build. The low fender keeps you from launching rocks into your rad. And results in less mud getting thrown up into your light and face. Traditionally rally is held on drier terrains (higher speeds and longer distances), and mud-packing isn't an issue. The occasional clay section is just there for our amusement.
The oil on the Yamaha is easy to change. One bolt to drain and one to fill. I could handle that in the woods. Check and see how many hours people put on these bikes. I think you'd be surprised how far past the recommended amount by the Yamaha manual. The lack of 6th gear sucks but the durability is proven for long rides. There is a thread right now with a WR needing it's first valve adjustment at 160 hours. That is a long ride weekend trail ride.
Lilbit, I did 11600km (450-500hr)on my first motor. I did not touch the valves. I should of though, but i never did. Guys are fitting HT coolers to the 450's and 525's and running them for 2-3k miles on dualsport rides. With just that little amount extra, I dont want to know what the bottomend is going through. That being said, it can be done. Doubtfull Ill ever do more the 10hours on a change. The manual points out to change the oil every 1000km/600miles. Thats about 30hours?!?!!?
I'd love to see more threads of this type popping up for the Japanese large bore enduro bikes. Solutions to oil capacity etc. discussed. My 2003 yamaha YZF just needed its first set of valves and only its second piston, not bad for a seven year old race bike. So I beleive a WR450 with the same basic motor design could be utilized for long offroad journeys with not much thought. I just got back from a three country, month long, offroad based trip on my KTM 525EXC so I believe my 525 might disagree with Dump-a-thump pigeon holing it into weekend toy status. Fact is some of us prefer to take a light weight bike over a lardy dual sport/ADV if we are heading into difficult terrain. Both bikes would most likely make it and the lardy dual sport no doubt with less maintenance. However due to dementia I enjoy a lightweight race bike on the trips I do more than a DRZ, LC-4, WR-R, etc. Not sure about others but I love motorbikes for the fun it gives me, nothing pragmatic about it. I want to have fun, period. Fun for me is whistling over the tops off whoops, picking along a tight singletrack hopping roots and rocks, etc. and more often than not a lightweight Enduro bike turns my ugly mug into smiles quicker than a KLX, GS650, LC-4 ever can. For me I'll take lovely, sexy, Lolita with the Doc Martins, push up bra, and dark eye make-up from Philosophy class over frumpy ole Martha in her baggy UCLA sweatshirt and tennies, from Home Economics class any day. Not the right choice for everyone but the right choice for me. I'm guessing the original poster might have the same proclivity and hence his desire to see what WR's pressed into long riding duties look like.
well said! There are a lot of companies catering to the enduro market with aftermarket goodies. Fastway - Pro moto Billet racks Giant Loop bags Fender packs Bigger Fuel tanks. Personally I think the 6.6l is a big overkill, unless you going through remote area's with no fuel. Yes the big tank looks cool, but its horrible in sand, theres nothing I hate more then a front end thats pushing in sand. Proper dualsport tires that wear well. Dunlop 606/907/8, Mt21's, TKC's ect.
Is it the lack of oil in these machines what makes them need oil changes so soon. say if the engine held twice as much oil would the oil last twice as long? It should be fairly easy to fab up a bigger sump or tank for the oil plus fitting a cooler would help things out a bit.
more oil with an oil cooler should space your change intervals out abit. If you are going to do distance, gear the bike for it and cruise at 5-6k rpm. No need to pull the ear all the time!
6.6 Acerbis I prefer the 15l When riding normally I get about 50mpg. The 15L should see about 150-180miles. Thats more then enough. Your ass will complain way before you run out of fuel :)
I reckon you are right there Steve. The Ascerbis just looks too big, much like the safari tank for the X Challenge. Would have been happy with one that filled the normal lines of the shrouds etc to pick up an extra few litres each side to go with the main tank.
The Touratech Xchallenge tank is huge too. But on a bike like the Xchallenge it makes sense to have a decent fuel range. although they do like 25km/l or something. So on like 30 liters you could probably do about 700km. I have a couple of mates with them and they often travel into malawi/mozambique and even further up into africa.
Yeah, with the excellent fuel economy they get, I would have been happy with an extra 10 litres max on the front tank, 5 litres a side. You can't sit on the fence post seat for 700 klms anyway. Ended up fitting the X Tank for 17 1/2 litres total.
My primary ride is an '01 WR426. I've tried to set it up to ride on the highway as well as riding on technical trails. Mods: 3.3 gal Clarke tank (biggest available for my bike) 1.2 gal Baja Designs auxillary tank this gives me a total range for 200 miles. 15/50 gearing with a Rekluse clutch - the 5 speed transmission is not wide enough for me. 15/50 gearing lets me run 82 MPH at 9000 ft elevation. The Rekluse slips the clutch well enough that I can still crawl over technical obsticles. I've also run 15/48 gearing on less technical rides, this setup will get me up to 95 MPH. Steel valves - the valves came from a WR400, but they are not compatable with the 450. I've heard of doing a steel valve conversion on the 450 for rally bikes, but I don't know where to get the parts. GPR steering stabilizer - helps a lot on the highway and in sand. Other stuff: Guts racing seat, big skid plate, tall bars. I plan to add an oil cooler some day. There is a thread on Thumpertalk where a guy has added one to his 450.
Not the best bike for long ADV pavement, but will handle the dirt perfectly. All the garbage about checking valves, new piston, daily oil change, blah blah blah, is just that Garbage. I know several people including myself who have ran, or currently run WR450's from 2003-2006's. Not a single one of them ever replaced a piston, a few checked the valves maybe once twice at the most. Highest mileage one is a 03 with 15k running stock piston, valves, oil changed every 500-1000 miles. Regularly rode on pavement, and flogged hard it's entire life. Never ran on pavement for more then a couple hours straight, but dirt ridden all day often. Too much maintenance and screwing with shit only leads to trouble. Only concern I would have is long hours 4+ hours of constant highway speeds/RPM's with stock gearing. If it can be re-geared (im in that process now) to run at highway speeds 70-80mph at decent RPM I would have little worry.
what is the best cruising Rpm? 7000rpm to high? try the 15/45 combo for cruising, gave me a topspeed over 100mph on gravel.
