I have a 99 400 with 10G on it runs great and is a low maintainence bike,15 cs is as large as you can go,I have a 15-47 combo an it is pretty smooth at 60-70 with that combo,I have Kenda K270's on both ends,they get great mileage,about 4000 before I change them,no good in mud but for rocks and greval rds they are fine,watch the frame slider behind the CS they wear fast because the frame weld is high under the slider I ride mine every day during deer season 38 miles each way Great Bike
The YZ400F was the first modern 4-stroke dirt bike and Yamaha didn't exactly know what they were getting into so they made it a little more bulletproof than it needed to be. Your bike has almost the same engine. One of the main reasons people think this bike is more reliable than other modern dirt bikes is the steel valves. On the 426 they went to Titanium like the CRFs have. Steel valves requre a lot less adjustment. This engine isn't any more reliable than older 4-stroke designs like the XR's, but it tends to do better than modern CRFs and LC4s. IMO it takes a lot of getting-used-to when riding it on the highway. As you point out, the bike wants accelerate (and turn) more than it wants to go in a straight line at a steady speed. Plus starting it kind of sucks. Some things that will help make it a better DS are a steering stabilizer, less-knobby tires, TPS cutoff switch, an auto-decompression cam, and a cush drive rear hub. ThumperTalk offers a lot of opinions on how much of this is really neccissary. Enjoy your bike.
I think you better get a good seat, and LOW fuel light. I seem to remember a ride where the seat was your enemy.
I have one I got from a guy after he rode it about 4-5 times and then had to sell it when his wife got pregnant. I got it licensed but mostly ride it off road on single track up in the mountains. We carry chainsaws to clear the trails when the snow first goes away and I have been horse whipppin' that scooter for 11 years now, and it has never once missed a beat or quit on me. A buddy I sometimes ride with (owns a Yamaha shop) told me when I first got it to not even bother looking at the valves (after the initial 500 mile check) till it had at least 15,000 miles on it. I wussed out and checked em at 14,000 and had two exhaust's out by one thousandth! Intakes were g STILL good! Amazed the heck out of me! I am bummed as I had to have a knee replaced here and now am thinking of unloading it as I do not want the constant kick start wear and tear on MY new part. Gonna pick up a newer one with a button and just hope it will be as good to me as this one has been. I probably ought to keep it and supertmotard it for the street! Even today I would not hesitate to ride it 60 miles to get to the trails and then another 40-60 miles of trails.
I had two. The first a '00 was bought very used. Had the bad rod bearing many are known for. Once inside i could see the crank had been rebuilt once before. Cost me a new crank and piston. Have no idea how many hours the bike had before me or while i owned it. Adjusted one valve while i had it. Bought a '99 with a tag. Was never happy with any gearing i tried. Decent dirt ruined the road and vice versa. Not a chuggy engine to begin with and high gearing made stalls easy. Kinda soggy power wise with high gearing too. I owned a tagged 300EXC at the same time and found myself never riding the 400s. Ended up lowering one(for quests that never rode it anyway) about 2" and softening the suspension way up. Think super plush sit down knarly trail bike with better power. Made it feel 30lbs lighter and REALLY fun for screwing around but didn't suit 95% of my trails. Sold them both and went to a 380EXC.
Got a 2000 wr 400. I think the valves need adjustment. Have maybe 20 hours on here. How do you you do it? Here in ny state you can not get a plate for my wr(( So, my only way to the trails is to got a ride there. So the low hours!!! ED!!
Back when I licensed it and up till a couple years ago they would let you license just about anything you wanted to here in NM. That seems to have changed though as I have heard from a couple buddies who recently tried to get dirt scooters licensed that they no longer will allow you to do that. I guess that alone is a good enough reason to hang on to the old WR!
That's because the Feds are cracking down on states that license vehicles for the road that were intended to be OHVs. Not that it's any of their business, but that's the environazis at the EPA for ya.
I'd heard some places like California, are reviewing the tags as they come up for renewal and revoking some of the "converted" bike's tags.
Unfortunately this is true. IF it is a 2005 or newer, or IF the plates were issued in 2005 (for an older bike) or more recently; then the new DMV computer scans the VIN upon re-registration, flags it, and then revokes the plate. The truly bad part is this is coming to most of the other states, and if the EPA has it's way then it will be ALL states for ALL plated OHV's.
Well THAT really sucks! I think I plated mine back in '99 or 2K. Course here in the land of entrapment it will probably take 5-7 years for them to catch up with the rest of the States....at least I hope. Maybe I should off load it and pick up one of the new WR250's! Sure wish Yamaha would follow Suzuki's lead and make a DS450!
Suzuki is making a 450, low maintenance, street legal dual sport? I hadn't heard that yet. Still love my WR250R though. I was a little nervous going down to a 250 but it's actually a great bike.
Well it is actually a street bike (supermotard), but with a change of tires it COULD be a DS! I have thought about picking one up and getting another set of wheels so you could change em out quickly and then have the best of both worlds!:eek1
I know of the DRZ400SM, and it does have the nicer forks than the normal DRZ dual sport, but I still don't see the 450 super motard. If it happens, a lot of people should be happy.
That auxiliary tank's been pretty good for me. The largest main tank I have found is 3.3 gallon, so with the extra 1.2 auxiliary tank I can ride trails all day without having to worry about coming out of the mountains to find gas. I have spent many hours routing fuel and breather hoses in order to get a reliable setup with the second tank. I had lots for fuel leaks with the suggested hose routing. Other minuses to this tank are if you are doing a steep uphill while running on the small tank, the fuel will move to the back and you will run out of gas. Also, if you mount a wide tire on the back it can interfere with the tank, but this really isn't a big deal. Also the tank takes the place of the radiator overflow. I tried a couple different plastic bottles as replacements, but they all melted. A fellow ADVer recommended using a turkey baster because it won't melt. That has been working for me for over a year now.
If you go by a Yamaha shop with your old ones and a list of what thicknesses you want, they will usually just swap them out. At least that is what they do out here. Saves a few bucks for the more important things needed out in the shop.....like some suds to suck down!
