theboondorks Yamaha WR450 blog

A motorcycle sure looks sad without handlebars

8/31/2016

I did a couple of things to the Yamaha WR 450 today. first I put some new Knight Design foot pegs on it which are 1 inch lower than the factory foot pegs. When I lowered my seat 1 inch that put me a little too close to the factory foot pegs and my knees were bent too much so by putting 1 inch lower foot pegs on it that made the seating position normal again. It was an easy installation but required adjusting the rear brake pedal and the gearshift lever down a little bit but that's not hard to do.

The other thing I did was put higher handlebars on it. They're not much higher only about an inch but it does make it a little more comfortable when I stand up on the Yamaha WR450. I would actually prefer higher handlebars like dirt bikes had back in the day, but high handlebars for dirt bikes are hard to find nowadays. These Pro taper bars with the Pastrana bend are the highest ones I could find in the kind of bars that fit the 2016 Yamaha WR450, which is a 1 1/8 middle diameter and 7/8 diameter on the ends. I don't know if low bars are just a style or they actually make you a better rider but it seems like professional motocross riders and enduro riders back a long time ago did everything they needed to do with high handlebars and I always found them very comfortable.

The foot pegs that the Yamaha WR450 comes with

The new 1 inch lower Knight Design foot pegs

1 inch Higher Pro taper handlebars

theboondork

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I got a little tipsey

8/8/2016

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Today I got out and did something I had been planning to do for a long time, I raised the front forks in the triple trees on the Yamaha WR450. I moved them up about half an inch which will put me just a little bit closer to the ground. When you put a Yamalink on the bike you're supposed to raise the forks about a 3rd of an inch to level it out but I raised them just a little bit more to get the Yamaha just a little bit lower.

I dropped the Yamaha while riding in the woods a couple days ago and it happened in a way that I knew was going to happen as soon as I sat on the bike for the first time. The problem with a bike when you can barely touch the ground is that if the ground is uneven one foot might not reach the ground that's what happened to me. It was completely predictable, I knew it was coming, I just didn't know when.

I was turning around on a slope, not a steep slope, I'm talking about a slope that looked flat but was one inch lower on one side of the motorcycle than the other. So when the Yamaha leaned a little I put my foot down and there was no ground there and by the time my foot found some ground the bike was leaning too far for me to hold it up. Now I've done this before on dirt bikes but never on a slope that looked so flat I couldn't even tell it was a slope until I got up and tryed to figure out what had happened.

There was no harm done, it was a slow-motion fall and neither I or the Yamaha received a scratch. In fact on the way down to the ground I can remember telling myself "I knew that was going to happen I just knew it ". Two good things did come of it. One is that I had always wondered if I was going to be able to pick up the bike when it fell over and the answer to that is yes. The other thing I learned is I don't think I will ever be comfortable on the Yamaha until I can get it another inch or so lower to the ground. So it looks like I may have to talk to a suspension expert and see what can be done to save me from a lifetime of embarrassing slow-motion tip overs.

theboondork

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