VOL. 51 ISSUE 35 SEPTEMBER 3, 2014 P63
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
JASON
ABBOTT
that need a lot of attention.
Once you get the YZ's fork di-
aled to your liking, that's it. Just
set it and forget it.
A year after getting a major
overhaul to the YZ450F's alumi-
num Bilateral Beam frame, the
2015's chassis is pretty much
the same as the '14's, though
Yamaha redesigned the lower
engine mount. It has a new
shape and is made out of steel
instead of aluminum which Ya-
maha claims results in improved
front-tire contact feel, more so
while entering the corners than
perhaps anywhere else on the
track. All we know is that the
new YZ450F is indeed a very
good turning motorcycle ever
since getting its big chassis up-
date last year (2014). As one of
our testers put it, "it just goes
everywhere you point it without
complaint."
And the YZ is quite agile and
can be thrown around in the air
with ease. Our test riders, how-
ever, would like to see the mid-
section of the bike narrowed up
a bit. It is a little wide through the
seat and shroud area.
The Yamaha is a very stable
machine at speed. It loves rough
tracks and likes to be ridden ag-
gressively. And it has the brakes
to haul everything down for the
corners, however, we are get-
ting a bit spoiled by the over-
sized front discs now found on
some of the other '15 bikes.
The 2015 YZ now comes fit-
ted with Dunlop's new MX52F
(front) and MX52 tires, which we
have found to work very well on
a wide range of surfaces. We
feel this is a big upgrade over
the previous YZ450F, which is
