Yamaha YZ450F vs YZ450FX ?

summitboy · Feb 16, 2016

So the FX has been out on the snow for a while and i am curious to hear differences and thoughts on the two bikes. My concern is obviously weight, transmission, crank and flywheel weight etc. If you ridden both and have some experience lets hear it.

If you have thoughts such as different gearing on your kit for the FX over the F let me know a little about the setup. Does anyone know what the actual weight difference is without the wheels between the two ? Thoughts

jrusher · Feb 16, 2016

Ive been jumping back an forth from my buddies yz450f and my FX last couple rides and the 450f is noticeably snappier off the bottom end and does have abit lighter feeling handling wise. I do have alittle more added weight with lights and barkbusters bigger fuel tank then course the battery etc. Mid range and top end I don't notice any difference. I put a FMF system on last trip and a leaner/+timing map and made some good gains. ( have couple other mods in the works should help out) The heavier flywheel is nice in the tight steep stuff she chugs along easier. Its a trade off loose some snap gain some weight but having the easy button and a back up kicker is worth it too me . I ran a 450f 2 seasons prior wont go back to a kicker only bike. Tranny wise 3rd is hard to pull in a deep steeper climb same as my 450f. The tall 5th sure is nice for the longer trail rides which I usually have to do Im 62mph on trail . Haven't played with gearing yet

Rush44 · Feb 16, 2016

Chris you just sold yourself on the YZF in your opening statement. Yes the YZFX has some cool add ons and is almost as good as the YZF in some respects, but the YZF is the type of motor/trans/weight combo you know you want.

Is the YZFX a nice bike? Absolutely. And if your riding style was more geared towards the 500xcw or 501 Husky then the FX would be a step up from those bikes. But you are a 450 race or 500 smoker guy... go with your brain and give up the kick start and extra accessories power and get the bike that does it right. Besides, I don't know anyone with a YZF that can't run the accessories they need with the stock stator output anyways.

YZFX only makes sense if you like the big slower revving thumpers and want more snappyness OR you plan to do a lot of dual season riding since the YZFX would be a better woods bike.

Edit: FYI I've spent decent seat time on a couple 14+ YZ450F's and a full day on the YZFX. So far my favorite YZF has been Nick Donovan's (Ice Age/Wheel House Motorsports) YZ. I rode that thing 2 weeks ago with the TSS/16 ST and it was an absolute ripper. Very fun bike.

Rush44 · Feb 16, 2016

And as you know... all the things the YZFX has that makes the MX bike better is on the SXF/XCF or Husky FC. But I know your reason for not choosing these bikes and it's because the price of parts to replace something blown up. If you don't turbo, do the 520BB, or modify the internals I would say the chance of that is extremely small.

I would say don't blow up your sh!t and take good care of it, but I learned this year that sometimes it's simply out of your hands. I got a cam assembly that didn't get proper heat treating at the factory and nearly grenaded at 20 hours. It was outside of warranty by about 5 months and the repair bill was around $1800. KTM/Husky did me a solid and covered most of that bill. Can't say I've heard about any jap bike manufacturers doing that... but blowing a bike up before a couple hundred hours doesn't happen often either.

summitboy · Feb 16, 2016

Your so wise Rush !! LOL

lundracing · Feb 16, 2016

This was my first year in the snowbike game and if I was going to build a new bike knowing what I know now it would be the FX for sure. Just for the simple fact it has both electric start and kick start. That alone is a huge selling point for me.

Wheel House Motorsports · Feb 16, 2016

I really like the amenities the YZFX has to offer but I love how well my YZ works and have a really hard time justifying the cost increase (especially compared to hold over or lightly used YZ options) as well as the weight. The YZ rips so dang hard and starts so good, The extra cost of a FX vs a holdover 15 YZ pays for almost my whole season of bike fuel and diesel in the truck. Also, kinda a weight freak so hard to swallow having 15+ pounds lumped on all day every day.

For a slightly less aggressive rider who just wants a rock solid easy to use setup I think its a killer alternative to the KTM's especially since its e-start and kick still packaged in a Moto style setup vs the KTM xc-w package.

happy tree · Feb 16, 2016

What made you decide to give up the 500?

dooman92 · Feb 16, 2016

For those who have ridden the YZ450FX did you notice a difference in ,vibration compared to the YZ or other 4t? Yamaha says new improved counterbalance. Wondering if noticable?

jrusher · Feb 16, 2016

dooman92 said:
For those who have ridden the YZ450FX did you notice a difference in ,vibration compared to the YZ or other 4t? Yamaha says new improved counterbalance. Wondering if noticable?

Way smoother than the Ktms ive owned and raced.. Steel frame = lots of vibes through the bars. Not a big deal for a snow biking long Mx motos are a different story

summitboy · Feb 17, 2016

Has anyone tried any tuning or gearing on the FX to get it a little snappier closer to the F ?

Wheel House Motorsports · Feb 17, 2016

The heavier flywheels is going to just tame it down no matter how you slice it, but Im sure, like on my YZ if you throw a bit of timing at it with the GYTR tuner it definately crisps up the powerband. Mine hits damn hard as I roll into the advanced section of my mapping.

summitboy · Feb 17, 2016

Anyone know the gearing of the KTM/Husky 450 SXF ? Just for a comparison ?

portgrinder · Feb 17, 2016

gave up on the cr5 or what?

800tundra · Dec 24, 2016

Anyone have more time/ride reviews/issues on the FX.the Good Bad etc? Have a yeti on 07 Yz 450 . And thinkin about upgrading

wwillf01 · Dec 24, 2016

There is one on a camso here... I know he put in the gytr yz cams and changed the mapping.. at this point it is as close as it is going to get with the better electrical power output.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

jrusher · Dec 24, 2016

800tundra said:
Anyone have more time/ride reviews/issues on the FX.the Good Bad etc? Have a yeti on 07 Yz 450 . And thinkin about upgrading

I put a 17 129 yeti on my FX this season and got three days on it last week thing rips even better now! Lost 30 pounds going to the yeti i weighed my bike with the timber kit then with the yeti. The kit free wheels so much easier and puts more hp to the snow. Im pulling 3rd gear way easier up stuff compared to my timber kit and the new track hooks up awesome

tube · Dec 25, 2016

summitboy said:
Has anyone tried any tuning or gearing on the FX to get it a little snappier closer to the F ?

On the yeti I found that a 39T top gear made a very big improvement overall. The problem with the fx is the jump from 2nd to 3rd, it's just too big of a gap. The 39T made this transition workable, at the expense of a very deep 1st gear

GangGreen · Jul 19, 2017

3rd gear

1st 2nd and 3nd gear are all lower than the 450f , 4th is the same and 5th is higher so it should pull harder in third than the 450f. I have a hard time in 3rd on steep hills on my 450f with a t.s. LT.

Robster · Jul 31, 2017

jrusher said:
Way smoother than the Ktms ive owned and raced.. Steel frame = lots of vibes through the bars. Not a big deal for a snow biking long Mx motos are a different story

Old post I know, but this needs a more correct answer.

Actually the steel frames PREVENT vibes quite a lot versus the aluminium frames that transports vibes thru the whole bike. That is why KTM switched from aluminium and so will many more further on as they realize that ultra high strength steel is a superb material for use in bikes etc.

Yamaha YZ450F vs YZ450FX ?

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