Swaping out from new to old?

[CaptainKnobby]

I picked up my new 2011 YZ450 today at the shop:banana: and was wanting to change out some things on it.

First off I all ready have a 2010 YZ450 That has a full 4.1 FMF exhaust and I have a Flexx handle bar on it. I'm going to take them off and put them on the 2011.

I'm wondering if I should take the forks and shock off the 2010 and put them on the 2011. The reason for this is......My 2010 had the DDT kit in the forks and the shock was re-sprung and re shimmed to the softer side. I went from the stock 5.6kg spring to the 5.4kg on the shock cause the stock spring was to stiff for me. I couldn't get the bike to turn that good. Since I had it re-sprung it turns better for me now(squats in the turns better).

My 2010 had the DDT kit put in it at 11.4 hours. I had the forks serviced when it had 41.0 hrs and that's when the shock was re-sprung and shimmed. Now it has 55.2 hours on it and I was just wondering if I should swap the forks/shock out to the 2011?

Seemed like I gave around $700.00 for the kit and to have it installed. I just didn't want to have to buy another kit if I could just use the forks/shock on my 2010. Didn't know if the used forks/shock on the 2010 would complement the 2011 since it was a new ride. I guess the forks/shock on any bike would be considered new if one kept them serviced and kept them up.

My 2010 forks just have scratch marks on them at the bottom where the pinch bolts are at and the upper tubes have little pits in them where dirt or rocks hit it but nothing major like dents or anything.

I was just wondering what to do or the best way to do it.

[crf450319]

If I were you I'd swap your 2010 suspension onto your 2011. For the $$ you spent on it, which will basically be given away when you sell the 2010 and because you know how many hours are on it I'd keep it.

What'd I'd do is take the inner cartridges out of your 2010 forks and swap with the '11. That way you get the new fork tubes/legs but you still have the valving that you paid for. You could do the same with the shock shaft/piston/valving assembly, but I think I'd just swap the whole unit.

Swapping the inner cartridge(s) in the forks is a very easy job if you haven't done it before.

[Mutley53]

I would do the same as what crf450319 recommends. Swap the inner cartridges in the forks and the entire shock. I know if I bought a newer bike I would hate to see all the pit marks on the old fork outers on a new bike. If yours doesn't look too bad, or it doesn't bother you, you could just swap entire forks, but swapping internals would essentially require just an oil change, which is never a bad idea.

[eazrider]

I picked up my new 2011 YZ450 today at the shop:banana: and was wanting to change out some things on it.

My 2010 had the DDT kit put in it at 11.4 hours. I had the forks serviced when it had 41.0 hrs and that's when the shock was re-sprung and shimmed. Now it has 55.2 hours on it and I was just wondering if I should swap the forks/shock out to the 2011?

I was just wondering what to do or the best way to do it.

The best thing would have been to buy new graphics and kept your 2010, particularly if it only had 55.2 hours on it...what's up with that..? The only difference is the new one had not been modified to work the way you wanted it..?

[CaptainKnobby]

The best thing would have been to buy new graphics and kept your 2010, particularly if it only had 55.2 hours on it...what's up with that..? The only difference is the new one had not been modified to work the way you wanted it..?

Well your right. But for $6500.00 OTD for the 2011 was hard to pass up.

[CaptainKnobby]

I just had my tuner to get me another whole kit for the 2011 and he said he would help me out on it and we would build it much better than the 2010.

He said he knew what to do this time to make it work for me even better than before since there were several updates from when it was installed til now.

[grayracer513]

That's the thing about working with SMART Performance, even indirectly through one of his installers. Dave never stands pat on anything. He's always trying new stuff, and the stuff that works ends up with the customer.

[CaptainKnobby]

That is true. I have faith in dave and know he will build a great kit to go in my bike. The other one he done helped me tremendously and could tell a lot of difference but it just needed a little something else that I couldnt put a finger on.

I told him about it and he said he knew what to do by what I told him and by when he was looking at my build sheet while talking with him on the phone.

He said my mid-valve needed to be opened up some more and the shim stack modified to the less agressive side,said it was a little on the stiff side.

[CaptainKnobby]

"Dave"......Dont know if you remember or not but I just wanted to touch base with ya. I had you to build me a DDT kit for my 2011 "Patton Yamaha" YZ450F that was built slightly different than the kit that was in my 2010 450F. I have.....(since the kit was installed by Litz racing) have had the opportunity to ride it and do some good testing with it at three different tracks. The bike has about 6.5 Hours ride time on it now and probably still needs some more breaking in time on the forks and shock .

"Anyways".....compaing it to my 2010 setup the 2011 is by far a whole lot better. One of my biggest concerns that I didn't like with the 2010 was the forks seeming like they were flattening out on long straights where you could get up some speed. When I woud hit these long straights on my 2010 model the forks would be fine after the first few bumps but seemed like when I wanted to go faster the forks didn't want to keep up thus causeing me to slow up.

I got to test this part at a kinda sandy track (sand on top with a dirt base) last saturday on the NC,SC border at a track called Windy Hill MX. "I must say" .....The 2011 setup was by far uncomparable to the 2010. The stretch at this track you could pin it in 3rd and then shift up into 4th gear for about 50 yrds,This was when I could tell where the 2011 setup shined.

My race sag was set at 102mm and the Forks height in the clamps was 3mm up. Forks Comp was set at 10 out(from all the way in) rebound was 10 out (from all the way in).

Shock HS was 1 and 3/4 out (from all the way in) LS was at 10 out and the Rebound was at 38 clicks out of a total of 59.

The bike just hauled through this stretch with no issues. This time when I was wanting to go faster and the bikes forks wanting to flatten out I was running out of a stretch. The performance was amazing through this section and like I said the forks didn't want to flatten out like before and they stayed up through all rough spots in the straight and the bars stayed straight and no headshake the rear tracked straight and no hoping around and I was able to accelerate through the whole stretch. Good job Dave!

Only issue I had that day was in the turns. Seemed like the front wanted to push a tad and want to climb up out of the ruts a tad also. When approaching a sweeping banked turn seemed like the bike wanted to steer kinda wide. All though I didn't make any changes but I believe i can cure the problem by moving the forks up in the tube a couple more mm's (to 5mm up) and maybe go out 2 clicks on fork compression. Either way........ this set up is by far ......what I was wanting and was looking for in a setup.

As far as breaking bumps go........no problem......some of the breaking bumps at this track looked like small doubles they were so big but the forks soaked them right up and the bike stayed planted. I really like how well the bike handles now down those fast straights. My buddy said I was really hauling mail down that straight. It felt good passing people down this stretch and still keeping it hammered.

Thanks again Dave for a great build!