Where to find WR450 Engines(Socal)

[Spetsnazos]

Wow either the dirtbike scene is completely underground or I am looking in the wrong places.

I am looking for a WR450 engine or a YFZ450 but I cant find a single shop, junkyard, or retailer that carries them.

We'd like to keep our relationship with Yamaha because they've been good to us.

Anyone have any great ideas?(Besides buying a full WR450 bike and then parting it out).

Thanks!
-Southern California area

[Spetsnazos]

Wow either the dirtbike scene is completely underground or I am looking in the wrong places.

I am looking for a WR450 engine or a YFZ450 but I cant find a single shop, junkyard, or retailer that carries them.

We'd like to keep our relationship with Yamaha because they've been good to us.

Anyone have any great ideas?(Besides buying a full WR450 bike and then parting it out).

Thanks!
-Southern California area

[BMH]

Should be able to find one on ebay.

[Spetsnazos]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by BMH:
Should be able to find one on ebay. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

We would like to do it local so that we can at least test the engine and inspect it for damage. Ebays return/fraud policy could kill our whole project as it takes forever to get our $$ back. Not only that but the shipping is going to be killer on 80lbs+

[Dsenechal]

We are just buying a quad this year and parting it out. Gonna be alot cheaper in the long run than buying the ebay special. Plus, you can start the engine and ride it, a nice benefit. IF you can afford to keep the money tied up until you part, that a decent way to go

[Spetsnazos]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dsenechal:
We are just buying a quad this year and parting it out. Gonna be alot cheaper in the long run than buying the ebay special. Plus, you can start the engine and ride it, a nice benefit. IF you can afford to keep the money tied up until you part, that a decent way to go </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I proposed this once to the team and everyone gave me the evil eye...

[Kirk Feldkamp]

Spetnazos,

Which school are you from? SLO, Pomona, USC, Fullerton, Irvine, UCSD, etc?

-Kirk

[Spetsnazos]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Kirk Feldkamp:
Spetnazos,

Which school are you from? SLO, Pomona, USC, Fullerton, Irvine, UCSD, etc?

-Kirk </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Northridge

[Kirk Feldkamp]

Aha! The only one I forgot. (sorry)

The Yamaha offroad testing facility is in the area, might try to dig up some contacts over there. Graves Motorsports up there in the valley has strong factory Yamaha connections. Probably not a bad place to start the search.

-Kirk

[Spetsnazos]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Kirk Feldkamp:
Aha! The only one I forgot. (sorry)

The Yamaha offroad testing facility is in the area, might try to dig up some contacts over there. Graves Motorsports up there in the valley has strong factory Yamaha connections. Probably not a bad place to start the search.

-Kirk </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks for the information Kirk, will contact them ASAP!

Thanks!

[MalcolmG]

obviously it's a bit different for us, being from a much smaller country, but last year when we switched to the single our only option was buying complete bikes, so we bought and parted 2 of them. The big problem is that people don't destroy motocross bike frames, leaving the engine intact, as often as they do on sports bikes.

[Spetsnazos]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by MalcolmG:
obviously it's a bit different for us, being from a much smaller country, but last year when we switched to the single our only option was buying complete bikes, so we bought and parted 2 of them. The big problem is that people don't destroy motocross bike frames, leaving the engine intact, as often as they do on sports bikes. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm going to try to run this by the team again if we cant find anything, thanks.

It really does seem like people are either not riding their dirtbike or if they're crashing them then they are just fixing the frame/parts and keeping their engines intact.

Ontop of that being surrounded by nothing but city doesnt help!

Will keep searching. If anyone knows a reliable place to get this motor please let me know!

Thansk again!

[Kirk Feldkamp]

You're in possibly the densest, most active region for offroad, motocross, and supermoto bikes in the world. They're all over the place here in SoCal. It's just a different crowd than you're used to with the sportbikes, so you have to look in different places. The thumper forums are probably going to be a better bet for finding engines than ebay or craigslist (usually)... although I have seen them on those before. Just have to keep your eyes and ears open.

-Kirk

[wagemd]

We picked one up last year but it was extremely hard to find. We ended up getting a full bike and parting it. It hadn't even been crashed and was fully functional.

One of the arguments I've heard (without any opinion on its validity) is that they are just such a popular and well built bike that people just dont turn them... We'll see...

One of the primary reasons we haven't run one yet is just the big lack of availability, at least compared to the F4i.