On Track Off Road No. 188

TEST
Transformations this dramatic normally
only take place when Dr Jekyll
drinks a potion, or Clark Kent puts
on a cape. Minutes ago the WR450F was
being mild-mannered and polite, obligingly
helping me negotiate a muddy hill with
its gentle power delivery, light weight and
knobbly rubber.
Now I’m on a wide gravel fire-road, and the
same bike is going ballistic – answering
a tweak of throttle by simultaneously lifting
its front wheel and shooting out stones
with its rear tyre as it tears towards the
horizon with shoulder-wrenching force.
The change is so striking that the WR feels
like a different bike. And all I did, after
turning onto the fire-road, was press the
illuminated blue button on its left handlebar.
This instantly changed the power map,
restoring full performance to what is
essentially an open-class enduro weapon,
closely related to Yamaha’s YZ450F motocrosser.
Such performance would of course not remotely
faze the riders frequently pictured
launching motocross projectiles through
the air on these pages. But as a motorcyclist
who’s ridden off-road a fair bit but
never competitively, I’d previously viewed
big YZs and WRs as knobbly-tyred MotoGP
bikes – fast, light, slightly mad and
best left well alone.
A blast on the latest WR450F, borrowed
from the excellent Yamaha Off Road Experience
(www.yamaha-offroad-experience.
co.uk) in central Wales, put me right.
Turns out the big blue single is as riderfriendly
as it is rapid, partly due to the
new power button that is among this
year’s many changes.
The basic format remains: a dohc, fourvalve
single engine with reversed cylinder
head sits in a YZ250F-derived aluminium
frame.