WR450 information?

[ahaidet]

I have to admit that after this years U.S. competitions I have been looking rather seriously at single cylinder motors, specifically the WR450. I have a few questions for teams running them:

1)How is the service life between rebuilds? I have read the single cylinder thread and that seemed to be one of the main concerns was the rebuild life.

2) After only quick search, google, local wreckers, ebay.. I have found it rather difficult to find these motors for sale. How are teams getting this motor? I read that some teams buy the whole bike and sell off all the parts? How much have you recovered in the selling off of un-needed parts to offset the initial price? Has anyone talked to Yamaha North America yet? I remember reading about a deal the Australian teams had with Yamaha "down under"? How has this deal worked for Aussie teams? and could a North American team get in on this?

[TG]

I think I remember on previous threads that some single teams were buying entire bikes and ripping the engine out. I haven't seen any singles at junkyards, either. Our engine leader was hard up for using a single, but we couldn't find one at a decent price.

[Ehsan]

They are much harder to find than 4 cylinders because unlike the street bikes, dirt bikes don't get parted out and auctioned off when crashed. The rider just dusts himself off, picks it up and keeps going. Hence, no motors for sale.

I too have heard of the entire bike method and, yes it can be expensive. You can also try getting the motors directly from motorcycle dealerships but that too will be pricey. A final option is to find a bike with a blown motor and buy the thing cheap and rebuild it. Maybe try to find motocross racers who are dumping bikes at the end of a season.

[Kirk Feldkamp]

There are various forums (Thumpertalk is one that comes to mind) that you can find bikes in various states-of-spanked for relatively cheap. Ebay seems to have singles once in a while for ~1200+ depending on what year you're looking for. ATV 450s seem to be much cheaper, probably because of lower demand. You can pick up a completely spanked bike for ~$2500 if you hunt around. They're all over the place (at least here in the US)! You can always part out the rest of the 450 if you go that route. Just don't expect to get too much for the rest of the parts.

I've been looking for a cheap 250 four stroke single for my kart. I really don't like dealing with 2 strokes. PM me if you come across a good deal on one!

EDIT: cycletrader.com seems to have a wide selection of complete bikes. There are a few that are REALLY cheap!

-Kirk

[karter11]

We at Lehigh University have been dealing with the 4-stroke singles for 3 years now. The first one we has was a wr426 which was retrofitted with an Italian electric start. We were able to grab that motor off the Yamaha USA R&D line. Unfortunately they were less enthusiastic about giving us a wr450.

We've bought two wr450 bikes over the past two years in order to obtain the motor. We purchased them for about 5k-6.5k a piece We still have a bike sans motor sittin in our room if anyone knows of someone who needs it. Please don't hesitate to contact us.

I know that Yamaha manufactures the motor at least two times a year. I know for sure one of the dates is december. We were never able to convince them to grab one for us, however, I'm sure if a bunch of team write they would try and grab some off the line so get talking!!!! I know this is very similar to what the SAE-A teams do who run the wr450.

The motor is only 65lbs wet and offers a simple solution to drivetrain once the starter clutch issue is resolved at least. It's also about 10 inches shorter overall than an R6!! Possibilities.

Turbotwig, why the hate towards 2-strokes? I just don't see the advantae to the 4-stroke in a 2-stroke dominant area. I've run 125cc 2-stroke karts for years, and they are just phenominal once you get the tuning down. Sure they're dirty, but the 4's are twice the displacement, much heavier and don't have the top end! Yea I've moved on to formula fords, but I'll always have a place for 2-stroke karts in my heart. Break out your carb charts, learn the 2-stroke ways, you'll be faster http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif. But I know for cetain that Yamaha produces a 250cc 4 for couple of years to compete with the 125cc 2'. There is also the Biland SA250, but that is a competitor to the rotax 125cc two stroke, However, it is pretty expensive.

Sorry about the long post! hopefully it was informative. Good luck in the upcoming year! Hopefully there will be more singles!

-Bill Valet