2015 YAMAHA YZ450F
FIRST RIDE
P62
Go ahead, ride the YZ450F hard. It loves it.
for that, at least not yet. Air or
not, Yamaha's SSS fork is very
good; in fact, for many years, it
has been regarded by many as
the best production spring fork in
recent years, so Yamaha isn't in
any hurry to jump on the air-fork
bandwagon. And we're definitely
okay with that, but who knows for
how long? We should know after
we spend more time living with
the new-generation TAC air forks
now found on the KX450F, Hon-
da CRF450R and RM-Z450s.
For 2015, Yamaha made some
changes to the SSS fork. The
upper fork tubes are redesigned
for better compliance (flexing),
and the springs are stiffer. It was
also revalved to match the other
changes.
The updated fork is a definite
improvement over the '14 fork.
We felt that the '14 fork lost a little
bit of that Yamaha cush in the ini-
tial part of the stroke and didn't
hold up as well in the midstroke;
it just didn't seem to match the
new chassis probably as good as
it could have. That's now a thing
of the past. The feeling of the old
(2013) SSS fork is back. It has
the plush feeling again and holds
up much better in the middle of
the stroke while still maintaining
excellent bottoming resistance.
Another big plus of the SSS
fork is its wide range of adjust-
ability. Our 180-plus-pound test
rider felt that the fork was well
sprung for his weight, while our
30-pound lighter rider was able
to make a few adjustments and
get everything to his liking.
For some, the simplicity and
excellent performance of the
SSS fork might be an advantage
over the more complex air forks
