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Yamaha WR400 |
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Looking for an off-road tool, one of the guys got
me thinking towards a Yamaha WR400. He'd had one and loved it, reckoned
it was superior to the Honda XR400, (of course me being a Honda
fan thought this the way to go
ho hum) and so the seed of
thought had been sown. I sorted out a budget of £3000 and
figured I should get a goodun for that, no worries. For a couple
of weeks I looked through TMX and scoured the web sites, but what
I found all seemed to be a bit out of my price league as most seemed
to be in dealers.
Scouring TMX magazine at 6:30 Friday morning offered
several options of Yamaha WR400s, Suzuki DRZ400s and if needs must,
Honda XR400s.
So,
on Saturday I went off to a place called Sonning Common to see a
WR400 up for sale. Now, me being the type who likes to keep his
bikes sparkly clean, going to see Enduro bikes was rather a shock
as there is no such thing as a clean one, unless it's new of course.
The one I was looking at was X reg, so it certainly wasn't clean.
Roger by his own admission was a bit of an enduro nut, so the bike
had been put through its paces a few times to say the least. All
the paint was rubbed off in all the right places and the plastics
has all been bent here and there and the thing was covered in scratches.
But you have to look through all that and it's really the suspension,
engine, frame and wheels you're buying. Plastics are dirt (excuse
the pun) cheap, so are worth ignoring to an extent. Sound advice
from Tony and he's right. I rode it up the road, it seemed to do
what it should, the bars were a bit pissed, but could be straightened
and after all, I'd probably be doing it again anyway as I'm bound
to fall off it a lot. So I bought the thing and rode it away, about
50 miles in fact to my home. My arse was killing me after about
half a mile let alone 50!!!! But it was a ride worth doing as it
was a good test for the bike and me.
On the way through Guildford a guy on a XR400 SM
with gold wheels and road tyres was harassing some poor chap on
a ZXR and had left him for dead and then came past me, so I latched
on to him. I pulled up alongside him at the lights and he shouted
through the loud thud, thudding his and my bike were making, "You
wanna get some a deez on it you do!!" pointing at his Gold
Talon hubs, Excel rims and Michelin Pilot Intermediates. After all
that was part of the plan, I just nodded. He then pulled a monstrous
wheely and disappeared off to into a garage forecourt to fill up
his bike, these things don't hold much juice with standard tanks.
I
got the WR it back home, much to relief of my backside and started
to pull the bike apart to see what it was made of, give it a bit
of a clean, find out what went where and did what etc.
It seems to be worth the money. It starts OK when
hot, once you get the knack of it, but it's a bugger to get going
from cold. Maybe there is a knack to this too. I'll soon find it
and get it sussed, but in the meantime it's good exercise for my
right leg. No leccy start on these you see, you need a DRZ for that.
So, there you have it. I have added a WR400 to
my stable and I really like it.
Just remember not to touch the throttle before
you try and start it, otherwise you'll be kicking away for ages.
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Supermoto Tet. The
Yam WR400 goes motard |
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After
a very wet and muddy escapade in various bogs and fields with John,
I had decided that I was not cut out for winter off roading. Summer
off roading seemed much more pleasant, purely due to the weather
and being able to lie on nice lush green hillsides when a little
exhausted for a breather and take in the warm rays of sun from a
lovely English summer's afternoon. With this thought in mind the
WR was not likely to get used much during winter apart from popping
out occasionally for short trips. But this wasn't too clever on
knobblies in the wet, so I thought I'd pursue the Supermotard route.
That was the underlying reason I bought a 400 4-stroke in the first
place anyway, just in case mud and I didn't get on!
After scouring through Supermoto magazine and finding
out what it was I needed to make this little project happen, I then
did a price a search. For all the bits and bobs I required the sum
was fast approaching £1000 to get the job done. In the end
I called Dave Black at FWR and asked him for a quote, which of course
came in at considerably less than anyone else, and with Dave being
a friend there was also an element of trust. Items required to complete
the project were: 1 x Front wheel, 1 x rear wheel, (gold Talon hubs,
stainless spokes and satin black Morad rims), a 320 mm 'wavy' front
disc, caliper riser, (decided to retain OE calliper), a 42 tooth
rear sprocket, (gold of course), 2 x inner tubes, 2 x rim tapes
and 1 x rear tyre (160x70 profile). I didn't need a front as I had
several 'part worns' that would do the job.
Eight days after ordering I get a call from Barbara at FWR advising
my wheels were in! Next morning the City Link chap arrived with
two big boxes of goodies. When I opened them up I was surprised
at the brand name quality of some of the parts, which I just didn't
expect for the sum of money I had paid FWR. The caliper riser was
a delightful piece of billet aluminium with Talon embossed into
it, the front 'wavy' disc was a Braking item, (top notch this),
the wheels were just absolutely stunning and the rear sprocket was
Renthal. All in all, bloody good stuff. Not sure about the Avon
Azaro rear tyre though, but only because I'd never used Avon's before.
The rear wheel went in first only to find the chain was just catching
on the lip of the tyre. I called Chris at FWR and he advised this
was commonplace with SMs, but if I were to use a 150, I would be
very limited as to what rubber I could have, so as the chain just
touched it, ride it and see. Good enough advice for me, so the rear
wheel stays where it is. Then came the front wheel, I chose a Bridgestone
010 from the archives accumulated over the years and slipped it
on, with tube and rim tape in place. Everything slotted into it's
location nicely, but I could not get the caliper on the disc with
the pads in place, purely due to the size of the disc, easily solved
though. Once in, the front wheel did not want to turn too well either,
as it was catching on something, but I couldn't see what. I took
the caliper off again and found the offending item to be the pad
retaining clip that didn't sit quite flush with the Talon bracket,
nothing a file couldn't sort out, so that soon rectified also.
With
both wheels on, the end result was very pleasing to the eye. I rode
it around the block a couple of times to ensure it all felt OK and
then took her out for a 25 mile round trip of back roads and main
roads which at present are all covered in salt and winter crap.
The bike feels a lot lower at the front, but it has been reduced
by 4 inches due to wheel size and 1 inch on the rear. Once up and
running though she felt fine, the gearing was a good choice too,
15 tooth front, 42 tooth rear which makes top gear lovely for cruising
at about 70mph at low to medium revs, but without compromising the
acceleration of the lower gears.
The brakes seemed to work OK too, the front now
much improved due to circumference of the 320mm disc, the rear disc
remains OE. The chain did rip the edge of the tyre a bit, but it
seems to be fine and I may make a mod to this in time, but we'll
see how we go. Other than that though I was well chuffed with it,
but it now needs a clean, I just want some dry roads now to really
try it out. Can't wait!!
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The
Yam gets a Pipe |
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I received an e-mail from Fast Pete with a link in
it to the Enduro web site. "'Ere Tet, this link is for a full
Akropovic Titanium system for your WR, gotta be worth a look."
So I did, but decided that spending £250 quid on an exhaust
for a single cylinder bike was too much. Besides, I only wanted
an end can - don't ask why, even I don't know. Anyway, the seed
had been sown, so I started to scour the Supermoto mag web links
and looked at various exhaust systems, all too much money for what
they are I thought.
Then
I got on the American Akropovic site to get Db readings and of course
a price for a new system. Couldn't find the Db readings, but that
didn't matter when I saw what one of these things cost on the other
side of the Pond! $695.00 for a full new Akrapovic system! That
equates to £500 here in pricey UK. Blimey, far too much for
salty Brit roads on a super motard. Better call this bloke and see
if his secondhand system is still about.
Got through to a chap called Tony from oop North and he still had
it. "Why are you selling it?" I asked, "Ey oop chuck,
I sold me 426 and have a 610 (something or other), so I took this
off and still have it". "Right, best I send you a cheque
then and you send me the pipe, once cleared" This was pretty
much the extent of the conversation, my mind was made up.
It turned up, still in it's box, but it had been used Tony said.
Upon opening the box I could see it hadn't been used much, it was
far better than I thought it would be. It was on in about 15 mins
and it looked lovely. It sounds fantastic, but gone are the days
of no ear plugs on the SM now!!, Jesus, you should hear it! It sounds
lovely. Does it kick out some back pressure? Does a Bear shit in
the woods?? You know the answer.
A mega-test for the bike was a Sunday ride with the lads .. with
them on their R1s and Gixers! They clocked me at over 100mph at
times on the Yam, and it managed to keep up pretty well on the back
road scamps, but I was thrashing it flat out all the time and it
wouldn't last many Sundays at that rate.
In the end, after much fun and conderable expense I got rid of
the WR. The seat was just too painful, and for some odd reason I
went for a ride on my 'Blade and realised just how much better a
comfy sportsbike is!
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