First of all, the 2016 is a good, solid machine. Yet, and I must say yet—people, I am not a little person—not fat but not petite or should I say not even close to the Yamaha’s target height/weight, ok, weight! Currently at 220, (yes I know I need to shed 15-20lb), but I am not the only rider in this zone and I see plenty of big dudes riding each and every weekend at the track.
Because Yamaha went with a softer shock spring for 2016, I was not even able to evaluate the bike in stock trip without slapping on a stock 2015 YZ450F spring, which is a 5.8Nm. That at least got me in the ballpark.
I have found a few good settings that I like on the 2016 Yamadog but it took some time and testing to get there. Completely stock with just the shock spring, I did not care for the bike and I felt uneasy and did not have a lot of confidence on the track. The engine had a flat area in the mid-range and it took too long to get into the meat of the power that I have loved in the past with this engine. For being a lot heaver than the target rider, the power delivery did not build very smooth or hard enough before it really got going. Once it started to rev up top it went, but trying to shift from second to third was a gamble. The saving grace to the Yamaha is the handheld computer to adjust fuel and ignition—almost a must-have for this bike. By simply adding fuel (1 to 2 numbers) and advancing the ignition in the mid and high rpm and more open throttle positions, helped tighten the gap between low-mid and top power, now the bike had amazing over-rev when needed. Be advised this is my preferred setting, you can pretty much move the power around as you please, I just did not care for the stock settings—no way, no how. At this point I still felt a gap between second and third dragging my lardass up jump faces so I went up one tooth on the rear sprocket. These changes gave me the power I wanted and made the bike fun to ride. More pull going into the mid and a better transition to the top and a sick over-rev.
OK, chassis, after a ride on the stock tires (Dunlop MX52) I had to slap on Dunlop MX 32s. I prefer the 32s over the 52s in most conditions unless the track is really dry and hard. 32s have a better feel, especially on square-edge bumps and breaking bumps.
The fork on the Yamaha is really good once I got it dialed in. For me, it wants to blow through the stroke a tad in transitional steep jump faces and rebounds too fast out. For this I simply stiffened the compression a few clicks and slowed the rebound to help combat the feeling. The fork/chassis setup was still a little vague and wants to push a little in flat turns so I moved the fork up in the clamp 5mm, which helped. I loved the fork bottoming control. If I owned the bike I would probably test adding 5-8cc of oil in the fork to hold it up on fast jump faces. This way I could back out the compression a click or two for small bump compliance. In the long run I wouldn’t mind also testing a few different fork triple clamp offsets just to cover all of the bases.
The shock worked pretty well once I installed the 2015 spec shock spring. Even with it, it still might be slightly too soft for my weight, but I was able to get 104-105mm of sag with 20-22mm of static sag. In a perfect world I like running static sag in the 30mm range. Just like the fork, to get comfortable I had to stiffen up the compression, and slow down the rebound a few clicks depending on the track.
I like the ’16 YZ450F, but I don’t love it. It was fun to ride after I got it dialed in, yet I hope to keep finding better settings. The bike is pretty stable but I wish it carved faster flat turns better. The power is there and we made it better for me and I think we can make it even better with further GYTR Power Tuner settings. The bike likes to be ridden aggressive and for me that also requires a little more input and energy to make the bike happy. I am not talking wrestling a bear or anything like that, it just likes to be told what to do, and it takes direction pretty well. Bigger and heavier riders will like the ’16 YZ450F but don’t expect to get on a stocker and head to the starting gate.