new 09 WR450F - not a slow turd stock!

[usedtobefast]

Just picked up a new 2009 WR450F yesterday. I had read lots on here about all the power-up mods and I bought the AIS removal kit (even thou I'll leave the AIS on as I'm in CA, mostly wanted all the jets and throttle stop bolt).

So I decided to ride it around the driveway stock to see how pathetic it was. To my surprise it ran really well! Wow. Maybe my expectations were so low that they were exceeded, but I kind of liked it.

Now I'm a bit worried that all the mods will make it too fast (and I'm an A enduro rider).

Anyway, after looking at the carb and deciding that, yup you do need to take the subframe off to be able to even touch it, I decided to just ride it this Saturday as-is and then I'll pull it all apart on Sunday and do all the power-up stuff.

But ... I was thinking I could ride this thing with just the throttle stop screw swapped out.

Anyone else leave them basically stock?

Or does everyone do the normal:

- remove smallest inner piece in tail pipe

- unplug grey wire

- pull all the airbox snorkle stuff off

- rejet the carb from the AIS GYTR kit

Or some combo of this list?

Maybe after my Sat. ride I'll be wondering what I was thinking, but we'll see.

I figure I'll do one totally stock ride, then do all the power-up stuff and take it out again and compare.

Guess I'm curious if others have done something in the middle.

Thanks.

[ASternad]

If you run it stock, be careful not to overheat, check your pipe color often. Mine is a lovely shade of blue.

Your on the street test is going to be far different than off road, unless your dealer does some type of pre-prep mod's. Mine did.

I would suggest performing the free mod's regardless, so the beast can breath proper from the get. Rejet if you need to, ride it and see what if anything it needs. Should be pretty lean stock.

My Mods:

Gry Wire

Snorkel

Throttle stop

YZ Exh (dealer gave me a GYTR insert, it was no good)

Jetting

[the_smoo]

my 2c

i have left mine stock.. mind you, I havent ridden it much since I have had it due to family commitments..

I was the same, thought it would be dead slow after reading comments here.. I guess if you are used to riding 450's then yeah maybe it is. But for someone like me having not ridden a modern off road bike for many years, it has plenty of punt..

Im sure the more I ride it, I will uncork.. but until then, plenty enough poke for me

[OUTERLIMITS]

I don't spend a lot of time above half throttle, which is where the throttle stop comes in, but will say that if you do any kind of hill climbing or riding in sand washes you will want (and need!) that throttle stop replaced or modified.

Most of the magazines have tested this bike with no jetting changes, only the throttle stop replaced, inner exhaust tip removed, airbox opened up, and I believe the grey wire unplugged. It has worked just fine in their tests this way, but when you rejet it, it gets just a bit better and runs a whole lot cooler. Lean jetting is not a healthy thing.

[jw423]

You don't have to take the carb off. I just finished changing my needle position and all I had to do is remove the seat and tank. I have changed out the pilot jet without removing the carb too. The first time I dug into it I removed the carb too. After removing the sub frame and shock, I think it's a bit easier to just leave the thing in there. Just my 2 bits though.

I felt the same when I brought mine home. After digging into it to get the mods done I found out the dealer had removed the pea shooter and cut the throttle stop already. They didn't bother to tell me though. I had to do the gray wire and AIS kit though. It's nice to get some better jetting and a adjustable needle in there.

Congrats on the new bike! Have a blast, I know you will. ?

[panaman]

i agree... i thought mine had tons of balls stock......

If there is one mod I would do it would be the throttle stop just for the fact that it feels strange not being able to twist the thottle.....

jetting is good for you location so you bike runs properly in your altitude.

Also, grease the crap out of your axels... i found out the hard way.....

[rkwfxd1]

I rode mine stock.

Once.

Then I pulled the carb and put all the GYTR jets in and the YZ throttle stop.

Left the AIS on as I am in California also.

Left grey wire alone - I don't need any more top end.

Removed pea shooter from exhaust

Removed air box snorkle

Installed 52t Ironman rear sprocket.

I am the slowest adult male rider I know. I am VERY happy with these mods. Plenty of very controllable power and it runs MUCH cooler than it did in stock form.

Edit: I ride from sea level to about 3500 / 4000 feet with no problems.

[JSanfilippo]

A WR with YZ throttle stop, pea shooter drilled out, and gray wire disconnected isn't hurting for speed. I mean its plenty fast provided you twist the throttle far enough. However the type of power is kinda disappointing...Its way soft off of the bottom and the revs feel empty (weak pull) under load. The only superlative trait of this engine as delivered off of the showroom floor is the speed and willingness it has to build RPMs. In that respect its almost like a big 250f.

[Col Psoas]

The bike minus the throttle stop and snorkle is no joke. I've said this before but I have Serious doubts on how many people there are out there using any modern 450 to its true potential. That being said I think that almost everyone does the free mods and will jet it to their location. It just seems to make sense to get all the power you can without spending money to make it

[usedtobefast]

Ok, so I got out into some real dirt today (vs. the driveway! ? )

Rode it completely stock.

I'm not sure if the 2009 comes less restricted than other years, but the bike runs great stock (well, with the exception of the silly throttle stop). I know my dealer did nothing to it (big mega dealer, doesn't really know what a WR450F is).

I'm still on the fence with the mods ... I'm actually thinking of just swapping out the throttle stop screw and call it done for now ... thinking is:

- super quiet

- all that snorkle crap might keep the air filter cleaner

- the bike doesn't seem that lean, comes off the choke really quickly (used to lean bikes needing choke for ages at start up, this one only needs seconds on the choke ... 60 degrees, 500ft above sea level)

- this bike is a replacement for a KTM 300 ... looking for smooth 4 stroke power ... don't want to create a bike that lights up the rear tire more than the 300

Again, I'm an A enduro rider (so not a newbie), and this bike rips out of corners, super easy to loft the front wheel over ruts, whoops, etc.

If it was easy to get to the carb I wouldn't be spending so much time fretting over this ... but geez, this bike is a pain to work on. To get to carb, remove subframe ... to remove subframe disconnect ~20 hoses, wires, tubes first ... so major effort to get into the carb.

Oh the easy days of my 2002 YZ250F, with tank/seat still on, you could rotate the carb and get the top to make needle changes or the float bowl to do main/pilot changes ... I can't really even see the carb on the 450!!

Oh, on Sunday I do something to the carb ... maybe I'll just flip a coin ... heads just do the throttle stop screw ... tails put in all the jets from the GYTR kit, pull the snorkle and pea shooter, pull the grey wire.

[Col Psoas]

Pleas let us know the outcome of your coin flip and if your happy with the free mods, I have a feeling you will be ?

... and its not exactly like its hard to go back to stock if you choose to, except for the throttle stop anyways...

let us know:thumbsup:

[rkwfxd1]

Getting to the card is not as hard as it sounds. Just a matter of spinning some wrenches. Pay attention, remove one nut/bolt/part at a time and the next thing you know you are holding the card in your hand. Change jets and reverse. Simple.

[tribalbc]

Ok, so I got out into some real dirt today (vs. the driveway! ? )

Rode it completely stock.

I'm not sure if the 2009 comes less restricted than other years, but the bike runs great stock (well, with the exception of the silly throttle stop). I know my dealer did nothing to it (big mega dealer, doesn't really know what a WR450F is).

I'm still on the fence with the mods ... I'm actually thinking of just swapping out the throttle stop screw and call it done for now ... thinking is:

- super quiet

- all that snorkle crap might keep the air filter cleaner

- the bike doesn't seem that lean, comes off the choke really quickly (used to lean bikes needing choke for ages at start up, this one only needs seconds on the choke ... 60 degrees, 500ft above sea level)

- this bike is a replacement for a KTM 300 ... looking for smooth 4 stroke power ... don't want to create a bike that lights up the rear tire more than the 300

Again, I'm an A enduro rider (so not a newbie), and this bike rips out of corners, super easy to loft the front wheel over ruts, whoops, etc.

If it was easy to get to the carb I wouldn't be spending so much time fretting over this ... but geez, this bike is a pain to work on. To get to carb, remove subframe ... to remove subframe disconnect ~20 hoses, wires, tubes first ... so major effort to get into the carb.

Oh the easy days of my 2002 YZ250F, with tank/seat still on, you could rotate the carb and get the top to make needle changes or the float bowl to do main/pilot changes ... I can't really even see the carb on the 450!!

Oh, on Sunday I do something to the carb ... maybe I'll just flip a coin ... heads just do the throttle stop screw ... tails put in all the jets from the GYTR kit, pull the snorkle and pea shooter, pull the grey wire.

You don't need to remove the subframe. Simply remove the bottom bolts and loosen the top. Pull the carb boot and tie the subframe to the bars up out of the way. You will need to remove the top bolt to get the airbox boot back on the carb.

[Paco Paez]

I have an 09 I got my boddy who is the owner of an 07 to help did everything in a about 2+hrs including the lube job wich is a must do wile you have it a part what part of cal are you Im willing to give you a hand Im in fontana ca.

[usedtobefast]

Coin toss came up tails, so I put the full kit on! (left the AIS on, again, CA thing ... some rangers at some parks check for them).

Cool approach on the subframe!! ? Thanks for posting that up, I'll do that next time. It did seem crazy to remove every darn hose and wire to pull that off.

My suspension is off to Smart Performance for a revalve, so no ride report until probably next weekend.

Took me 3.5 hours to pull the subframe, shock, forks, carb, rejet, carb back on, air box mod, pull pea shooter from silencer. I snipped the grey wire and put a connector on it, I want to try it connected vs. disconnected and feel the difference. I believe I read that someone hooked it up to a map switch? Gotta do some searches on that.

Oh yeah, seat is off to Guts Racing ... going with a tall size with medium density foam and a competition cover ... neat thing, you ship them your seat and they install the new foam & cover for free! (Well, you gotta pay shipping both ways). And I believe they said 24 hour turn around (could be wrong about that ... bike is all apart so I wasn't too worried if it was 1 or 2 day turn around). That's pretty awesome. I'm really bad at putting on new seat covers ... stamples never go in, real pain.

I'm in the San Jose, CA area. No help needed with the work, just complaining. ?

I'm a capable and lazy mechanic! For example, I bought an hour meter ... tried to find the spark plug cap ... finally traced it down amoungst a couple of huge hoses and figured I'd never be able to get 5 wraps of wire around that so the hour meter is on the bench and I'll just track miles vs. hours.

[jw423]

I'm a capable and lazy mechanic! For example, I bought an hour meter ... tried to find the spark plug cap ... finally traced it down amoungst a couple of huge hoses and figured I'd never be able to get 5 wraps of wire around that so the hour meter is on the bench and I'll just track miles vs. hours.

If you realy want to use that Hour meter take the spark plug off and run the hour meter into the coil over ignition with the orange signal wire. Check it out here at about minute 6:00. ?

[drofman]

usetobefast, I want to do the same Guts Seat. How much so I can save for it?

[usedtobefast]

usetobefast, I want to do the same Guts Seat. How much so I can save for it?

http://gutsracing.com/pages/yamahamain.html

$65.90 cover

$59.90 foam

$00.00 to pull stock cover and foam and put on new foam & cover

About $10 for me to ship it to them, about $10 for them to ship it back.

Haven't ridden with it yet.

[drofman]

Thanks

[usedtobefast]

Ok, had a chance to take it out and ride it after doing the "normal" mods.

I still stand by my first thinking, with just changing the throttle stop, I think the bike runs fine and feel like I could race it in the A enduro class and the power wouldn't be a factor in how I placed.

But ... one person made a great point that having a bike too lean makes it run hotter and not last as long.

So I did the normal stuff:

- bought the Yamaha AIS removal kit

- left the AIS on (in CA)

- changed all the jets in the kit

- added a remote fuel/air screw

- pulled out the airbox snorkle

- pulled out the pea shooter thing in the pipe (the smallest insert)

- disconnected the gray wire

- put in the shorter throttle stop screw

And the results? Runs great, not a monster, and actually, I don't notice a huge difference.

Certainly the throttle stop change is a huge difference, but the power characteristics seems the same. Maybe a bit quicker reving, more "lively", but nothing that drastic.

But now I gotta focus on the suspension ... that needs a bunch of work.