Top Mods For Your Yamaha 450
Story & Photos by Trevor Hunter
As we’ve come to learn with Yamaha’s newest generation YZ450FX, it’s drastically different than the previous model and while that has generally been a positive amongst our stable of test riders, it has left us searching for improvement in areas at times. Most of that search revolves around the chassis and improving stability and comfort at high speeds, something more unique to west coast off-road and what we mainly partake in. That’s not to say that some or all of these mods don’t translate to woods riders, but we feel the new bike, at least chassis wise, is in a very good spot for that kind of riding. While we’ve purposely kept a few things stock like suspension, handlebars, etc, we’ve primarily focused on the chassis and overall just making the bike more rider friendly. Without further adieu, let us take you through what we feel are some of the best and mostly inexpensive mods you can make to your 2024-2026 YZ450FX and you can even compare it to where we left off with last year’s finished bike build HERE.
This gearing mod helps with both power delivery and with chassis feel. Stock gearing is 13/50 but going up on both ends to 14/52-53 really helps smoothen and lengthen the power delivery while also helping chassis compliance and stability. The YZ FX power output is aggressive and there’s no shortage of power on tap which can be a handful at times. This gearing setup helps alleviate the initial hit and allows you to carry each gear longer than stock. In addition, the bigger sprockets helps with the chain torque and under acceleration, helps the bike feel as if it rides “across the top” of bumps vs “through” the bumps. It softens the blow and provides so much comfort and stability under acceleration. When doing this, it’s best to get the wheel as far back in the swingarm as possible.
We say this all the time but mapping affects more than just the engine performance — it affects the overall bike feel. Finding a map that you like helps tremendously and should be the first place you start. Jimmy Lewis’ map has been popular with our vet riders looking for an easier to ride map with smoother, broader power.
If you’re looking to improve the front brake feel and performance, we’ve ran a Spiegler steel braided brake line up front. This line offers more power than stock and retains a firm yet controllable feel. The brake can get very spongey at the lever with the stock line, and some “aftermarket” modifications can leave the lever feel being too touchy for our liking, and flat out just too expensive. So far, the Spiegler has been the best feeling setup we’ve tried and doesn’t break the bank in doing so. We did have some durability isues with the line and had to replace it after 40-50 hours, but we’re working on a remedy to fix that.
This is an expensive mod but it is one that we really like on this bike. The biggest change we’ve made is going to offset triple clamps. Different from last year where we ran Luxon 23.5mm offset clamps, we’re trying Ride Engineering’s 23.5mm offset triple clamps. We’ll have a more direct comparison between the two later on, but the different offset on both clamps helped greatly with chassis stability at speed and keeping the bike calmer with a flatter, less “see-saw” feeling bike driving through bumps, primarily on decel. The Ride clamps don’t offer as much as cornering precision and feel as the Luxon’s, but the offset change is a big positive and they offer good bump comfort without losing any comfort over the stock clamps.
