Fuel Injected 450

Take our 2021 readers survey for a chance to fin free tires and wheels. WHERE IS THE ALL-NEW HONDA TRX450R?! We can't hide the truth. Our beloved sport ATV market has been taken over by roll cage-equipped machines. Do we want to stick our noses up at the UTV market? Of course not! Those machines are a blast to drive and get more people included in our favorite hobby: off-roading. But, if we are honest, we are very bummed out that the sport ATV market has fallen off the radar of most major manufacturers. In…

The Dirt Wheels crew will ride a box-stock quad for awhile, but then we start thinking about ways to improve its performance. Building project quads is a way of life for us. Here is a list of some that made it into the Dirt Wheels Project Quad Hall of Fame. Click on the links above each picture to go straight to the articles. PROJECT HONDA TRX400EX BUDGET BUILD PROJECT HONDA ATC 250R REBUILD PROJECT RAT ROD QUAD PROJECT RACE WALSHZILLA VS. CRF450R PROJECT HONDA TRX450R SAND SLINGER PROJECT DUNCAN SUZUKI…

Over the years we have tested many fully built machines that we have given rave reviews over and some we haven’t liked much at all. Since the new sport ATV world is stagnant at the moment, we have been building plenty of older machines that prove that they are still very worthy of competing. Our last build with Golden West Cycle and Duncan Racing turned out very well. The WORCS-style Honda 450R we built was great on the track, trail and in the dunes. Afterwards, we contacted Duncan to build us a full MX-style YFZ450R with…

Yamaha’s YFZ450R has already won a couple of our shootouts. It handles great, gets around a track quickly and is fun to ride. However, when you get the machine away from the track, it is limited by its top speed. The YFZ450R and YFZ450X have nearly the slowest top speeds in their respective classes. We wanted to find out if we could get some more mph out of this machine with some simple bolt-on parts. Before we started, we installed a complete Dubach exhaust system. If you own a YFZ450R or any other sport quad, chances…

Another year has passed, which means new and exciting ATV models have hit the market. Nowadays, these machines are coming with more features at better price points. Power steering is becoming a standard feature on a lot of new machines, which is a nice thing to have. The 4x4 market is gaining new models every year, which is a major plus; unfortunately, the sport-quad side of things is beginning to dwindle. There are less offerings of sport ATVs than we have seen in a long time. Yamaha’s Raptor 250 and 125 have become more…

What happens when you take a modern race chassis and stuff the most powerful ATV engine ever produced inside? A Suzuki dream machine is born. You see, the chassis kits Walsh Race Craft build are based on the legendary Suzuki LT-R450 Quadracer roller and is the top choice of any open-class racer today. Walsh components are found on top racers in both GNCC and AMA ATV MX racing, under names like Chris Borich and Chad Wienen who are current champions of the sport. That powerful engine is not a modern four-stroke, but a…

ATV's where obviously designed to be off-road machines that can tackle all types of terrain. If you have ever ridden your quad on the asphalt or concrete then you know how horribly an ATV handles on the hard stuff. However, that doesn't stop riders from turning their machines into road worthy warriors like this radical Supermoto Suzuki LT-R450. TRACTION ACTION Maxxis has two different compounds of the flat track tires. Ultra Soft is for dirt riding, and Medium Soft is for very hardpacked or blue-grooved dirt or…

One good thing that has come out of the recent economic recession is smoking hot deals on used quads everywhere. Desperate people are liquidating some of their disposable assets, and savvy shoppers can take advantage of the bargains. Here on the West Coast, sport quads seem to be the most available. We see deals on almost-mint 400–450cc sport quads for less than half of what they sell for new. The following is an example of two deals that we recently found on Craigslist listed for $3000 each. The new owner talked the seller…

Back in 2005 and 2006 when the sport quad industry was booming, every manufacturer was in a race to come up with the best performance 450 around. First was Yamaha, and then came Honda with their trailready 450s. Suzuki shocked the industry by coming out with the first production sport ATV with a 50-inch-wide stance that meant the machine was track-ready. Suzuki built this machine with the help of industry experts like Wayne Hinson and racer Doug Gust. With its release in 2006, the LT-R450 quickly became the quad amateurs and…

Yamaha’s YFZ450R is one impressive sport ATV right out of the box. The engine is powerful, the suspension outperforms all other stock sport quad suspensions, and the overall performance of the machine is very satisfying. Without question, Yamaha continues to upgrade this quad each year, and the 2015 YFZ450R Special Edition was not left out of that process. The SE comes with a radical color combination, mating a red frame with black and white plastic. PLENTY OF PONIES From the factory, the YFZ450R has never left us…

The aftermarket parts industry for ATVs and UTVs is continuing to grow, yet choosing the right performance products for your machine is not always a simple task. We decided to take a popular ATV in the sport quad category to the guys at Empire Industries for performance dyno testing. We started with Yamaha’s race-ready, fuel-injected YFZ450R in stock form and began adding popular, inexpensive, bolt-on parts to gain more engine horsepower. Installing aftermarket performance parts without knowing how and what they do to…

When Suzuki introduced the track-ready, 49-inch wide LT-R450, they turned a lot of heads. Now amateur MX racers had a machine they could take off the dealer showroom floor, add a few safety features, and race it that weekend. They would save thousands in aftermarket A-arms, shocks and tires. Furthermore, Suzuki had a product that their racers could win with on Sunday to increase sales on Monday. Unfortunately, Suzuki alienated a customer base that wanted a 450cc quad that they could comfortably ride deep into the woods.…