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2009 Yamaha
ATV Models Dealer Show Report
All New YFZ450R Sport ATV Revealed
(Las Vegas, NV) - In 2004, Yamaha
was the first manufacturer to step up and produce
the first 450cc race quad in the industry, the YFZ450.
Yamaha had phenomenal success with the YFZ, which
soon became the industry standard for 450cc ATV’s.
Over the last few years, the YFZ has not changed
to drastically; however, the recent upsurge of competition
among the manufacturers spurred Yamaha to go back
to the drawing board in 2006 and begin redesigning
its flagship racer. Now, after two years in development,
the highly anticipated YFZ450R has made its debut.
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In 1985,
Yamaha released their first high performance
all terrain vehicle, the Tri-Z250 (above
left), and after 3 wheelers were banned,
Yamaha released the Banshee 350 &
Blaster 200, which they continued to produce
through out the 90’s when other
manufacturers discounted producing high
performance sport ATVs. In 2004, Yamaha
released the YFZ450, which changed the
definition of a sport ATVs, and now for
2009, Yamaha has raised the bar once again
with the YFZ450R (above right), which
provides another model option for race
/ sport ATV enthusiast to choice from
when making their next ATV purchase for
racing or play
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ATVriders.com was invited to Yamaha’s 2009
annual dealer show and business meeting in Las
Vegas, NV recently to get an up close look at
this impressive new machine along with the rest
of the 2009 Yamaha ATV model line-up. Also, we
would have the opportunity to talk with Yamaha
Factory ATV racers Bill Ballance and Dustin Nelson
about the development of the new YFZ450R and how
soon will they be hitting the race track on the
new YFZ450R.
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Yamaha's
multi-time & reigning GNCC Champions,
Bill Ballance & Traci Cecco, were
invited on stage to speak to the dealers,
and the following day, all the Yamaha
factory racers signed autographs for the
dealers
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Dustin Nelson, who races in both the WORCS and
ITP Quadcross series’, could be riding the
new YFZ450R within the next month or two. “I’m
hoping to be on it for the last two rounds of
Quadcross, but I probably won’t be riding
it for WORCS until next season,” stated
Nelson.
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8-Time
GNCC Pro ATV Champion, is well on his
way to securing a record breaking 9th
Championship with just 2 rounds of racing
left in 2008, and it will be his 4th on
the Yamaha YFZ450 ATV
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Eight-time National GNCC Pro ATV Champion, Bill
Ballance, is also eager to get the new machine
out on the track. “I think I’ll actually
be able to race it this year. It’s going
to depend on how I’m doing in the points
race, but I think we might be able to get it out
there at the “Iron Man” round and
get it on the track for the first time, so the
public can see it,” said Ballance.
The new YFZ450R has many new features including
a hybrid cast aluminum/steel frame that was used
in the design of the YFZ’s bigger displacement
sibling, the Raptor 700. The frame of the new
YFZ450R is made out of all cast aluminum except
for the bottom rail. “It’s still made
out of steel because you need a lot of strength
on that bottom rail and if we would have made
it out of aluminum it would have been substantially
thicker and would have raised the engine up, which
would have hurt the handling, and we wanted to
keep the center of gravity as low as possible
on this machine,” explained Yamaha’s
Pat Biolsi. The frame is also bolted together
instead of welded in order to keep the integrity
of the frame and reduce weak points that could
be caused by welding the aluminum.
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Yamaha
YFZ450R Aluminum / Steel Frame is a first
for 450 Class ATVs |
Bill Ballance was a little skeptical about the
new frame at first, but that changed as soon as
he got it out on the track. “When I first
saw it and how it was put together it kind of
scared me a little bit, but then Pat Brown, Dustin
Nelson and myself went to four different motocross
facilities in California to test it. There were
some super big jumps we were sailing it off of.
Some of them were over 100 feet. We were flat
landing on purpose and trying to wad stuff up.
We put it through a whole week of hard pounding
and I don’t know any other quad that would
have went through a week of what we put it through
without breaking. I was pretty impressed with
it!” stated Ballance.
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