To make my Moto street legal or upgrade?

[Gravy]

99 YZ400F
IMS Desert Tank
Tusk Bark busters
FMF exhaust
Trail Tech kickstand
13T front 50T rear
extra wheel and paddle tire.

I adore the bike so far, it's fast, it gets excellent fuel mileage, and the suspension is excellent.

However, I have some nice trails within 5-10 miles of my house and I don't love having to load it up in the truck just to unload it a few miles down the road, plus the opportunity to link trails like in Moab is very very attractive.

I figure it will cost me $370-$420ish to make is street legal
because in need a steet legal kit like the Tusk one.

http://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/p...-Enduro-Lighting-Kit?term=yz400f lighting kit

plus a headlight

and a lighting stator to run the lights.

http://www.steahlyoffroad.com/light...f-04-09-yz-400f-450f-99-05-lighting-coil.html

(unless there is a cheaper kit) Who has made their bike street legal? what did it cost you?

so the question is: do I upgrade the bike? or do I sell it and get a bike that's closer to street legal? like a WR or CFRX

I don't want anything less than a 400cc and I don't want a DRZ because I don't like the old school forks.

I would guess conservatively my bike is worth $1300-$1500 based on KSL sales.

What says RME?

 

[ChestonScout]

ummmm



tough call. You havent been impressed with Russ' or my WR. My guess is you would be better off just street legaling yours.


If it was my bike I would sell it and upgrade.


So basically Im no help what so ever

 

[zukijames]

I'm no help either I just ride mine around and hope I don't get pulled over

 

[Gravy]

ummmm



tough call. You havent been impressed with Russ' or my WR. My guess is you would be better off just street legaling yours.


If it was my bike I would sell it and upgrade.


So basically Im no help what so ever

Oh I like yours I just don't know if it's in the budget to get one like it.
Maybe PM me what you spent so I know what I'm getting into?

Or you guys can go crazy on KSL and help me spend some money!

 

[Greg]

If you can afford it, I'd buy a different, street legal bike. Plating an older YZF isn't really an investment, IMO.... you probably won't get that money back out of the bike if you decide you want to change down the road.

Sounds like your options are between a WR and CRF... IMO the CRF is more of a high-perf bike... which IMO means more maintenance. Obviously the WR is more of a trail/desert bike. What do YOU want to do?

 

[Gravy]

If you can afford it, I'd buy a different, street legal bike. Plating an older YZF isn't really an investment, IMO.... you probably won't get that money back out of the bike if you decide you want to change down the road.

Sounds like your options are between a WR and CRF... IMO the CRF is more of a high-perf bike... which IMO means more maintenance. Obviously the WR is more of a trail/desert bike. What do YOU want to do?

well the CRFX is to the CRF what the WR is to the YZ. They are very much trail bike with lower service intervals.
Even the brand new CRFX's are carbed still.

Very true though about getting my money back.

 

[Gravy]

Honestly I don't know what I want to do! I could probably swing $2k if I sell my bike for a decent price.

 

[Greg]

Honestly I don't know what I want to do! I could probably swing $2k if I sell my bike for a decent price.

$2k is about the bottom line for buying a decent, plated CRFx or WR450, IMO. From there, you'd have to outfit it for you... more $$$. If you're interested in a WR, the best years are '04+. The '03's had starter gear issues, IIRC.

I don't know much about the CRF's, other than the factory valves blow goats and are a mandatory replacement if you want the engine to last any time at all. I guess I'm not a big Honda fan, never owned one!

 

[Caleb]

well the CRFX is to the CRF what the WR is to the YZ. They are very much trail bike with lower service intervals.
Even the brand new CRFX's are carbed still.

Very true though about getting my money back.

That's not true on the crfx. Their maintenance is still very high for a "trail" bike, especially compared to a wr. Carbbed or not has nothing to do with the maintenance. IMO, the crf is still a good bike, but if I were to get a bike to street it (even just a little) and budget was a concern, it would, without a doubt, be a wr.

 

[Gravy]

All I know is Jon has beat the snot out of his 05 and put more miles on it on and off the road than anyone else I know and it's still on the factory valves, and his maintenance style is "forgetful." And I love how fast Derrick's CRF is!

The head is different, the cam is different, the compression ratio is different. The only reason I even mentioned it was carbed was just to reinforce that the X is a different machine than the R. The fact that Honda has won every Baja 1000 they've entered on a 450x tells me it's a decent machine.

I am not, however, against a WR at all. I've ridden a bunch of them. I like the power delivery of the WR and they are super durable. Everyone says they last and that sounds good to me.
I'm totally fine with a WR.

The only reason I haven't looked harder at the "trail" bikes is they seem to wheeze out on the top end and the suspension seams a little soft if I wanted to take it to the track.
for some reason the CRF's and YZ's seem to kill the WR's and x's in the sand.

I'm not against maintenance if I can squeeze a bit more performance out of a bike, as it is I'm afraid to kill mine so I'm religious about maintenance.

I guess I need to decide if I modify a track bike to be more usable on the trails or a trail bike to get a bit more steam.

The street legal portion will be very small. I've only felt like I "missed out" when I wasn't legal in Moab and running up to the trails around town. But I'm not going to be running more than 45mph or so on the road much in either situation.

I'm not unhappy with my bike at all. It would just be nice to be able to go on the road and possibly at some point add a recluse (which I can't on my bike now).

I'm probably asking too much for a machine in my budget. I could probably swing $3k.

Any ideas what to start with?

 

[Tonkaman]

There are great deals on CRFRs and they are fairly cheap to legalize. Best of both worlds!

 

[Gravy]

There are great deals on CRFRs and they are fairly cheap to legalize. Best of both worlds!

I kinda like this one
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=26025198&cat=236&lpid=&search=crf450x&ad_cid=8

 

[ChestonScout]

I vote buy it

 

[rockreligious]

I kinda like this one
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=26025198&cat=236&lpid=&search=crf450x&ad_cid=8

yep looks like a good deal, Id ask them if they did the valve stock, or the upgrade, if upgrade id buy.

 

[rholbrook]

Sounds to me like you ought to buy another bike and keep the YZ. You like the dunes too much and true, WRs and CRFx just dont tackle the dunes like a true track bike. There are lots of things you can do to a WR or a CRFx to make them run. Its cheaper to modify a CRFx than a WR. There are more CRF's out there for donor parts because they don't hold together like a Yamaha. Its a fact and all the mags say the same thing. That wouldn't keep me from buying a Honda because I actually like Hondas. I have had many over the years. When the time comes you can upgrade the CRFx head to a steel valved CRF head for under $400 and then find a CRF cam, toss on a good exhaust, jet it and it will run. The suspension you can modify too. Its only money.

I absolutely love my WR. Sure its an 06 but its set up how I like it. I have no need for a track bike because I don't really care for the dunes because I get bored there, I am too old and fat to enjoy the track. Single and double track in the hills or desert is what I like. My WR is perfect for that, the motor is bullet proof, the suspension is nice and plush for this old man and it flat out runs well and I can lug the hell out of it. I change the oil every three or four rides and have only adjusted the valves once and that was only because I put in a YZ exhaust cam. I like the headlight, it was easy to make street legal, I like the gear ratio for my type of riding. My son will be needing a new bike when he gets home and I wouldnt hesitate getting him a CRFx 450. Caleb had the best looking one a while back.

I am putting a light kit on a WR250 for a neighbor if you want to come help. I got the parts through Caleb as always.

 

[B2-Bomber]

I don't want a DRZ because I don't like the old school forks

is that the only thing about a dr-z that turns you off?

the right fork swap, and boom, you're golden. if you use the 47mm inverted showa forks from a late-model RM 2-stroke, its a perfect swap. since the outer fork-tube diameters are the same, I was even able to use the factory headlight brackets from an sm-model to keep the factory headlight/shroud (all aftermarket headlights seem to suck/leave plenty to be desired). The fork length is the same, and the spring rate is only 2-hundredths of a kg/mm different so it isn't unbalanced.

I would snap some close-ups of mine, but I literally just sold it yesterday.

but the dr-z does lack power when compared to an mx bike. but the maintenance is considerably less. of the 3 dr-z's that I have owned since new. none of the 3 needed a valve adjustment until after 4,000 miles. which is approximately 100hrs. if you check the service manuals for most 4stroke mx bikes, by 100 hrs. you would have adjusted the valves at least 3-4 times, and redone the top-end at least once.

on some of the 2-stroke bikes that I street-legalized I just used a pair of r/c batteries to run the signals/horn/taillight and kept the headlight off unless it was dark. They held a charge forever just running led lights. and would even run the headlight for quite a while too

this eliminated the need for a lighting stator (they didn't offer one for those models). and the batteries were super light so I wasn't adding any major weight with a heavier battery.

 

[Gravy]

The DR-Z is considerably less powerful than the bike I have now, but I really really enjoyed riding Jared's DR-Z on the trail, the power was so smooth and the gearing felt spot on for what we were doing. I didn't love how heavy it was, but I felt like the weight was mostly low in the chassis.

I just don't think it would give me that buzzy feeling at WOT in the dunes!

I hadn't considered putting together a street legal kit with batteries. That might be a great solution for the short term!

 

[B2-Bomber]

That might be a great solution for the short term!

you know, on the long term it isn't bad. especially if you ride in the daylight hours mostly. You can leave the headlight off, or use the little 5w D.R.L. that most aftermarket headlights have in them. and the batteries are more than sufficient, that is if you spend the money at the hobby shop on good batteries (the cheap ones won't last as long) . and since the turn signals and taillight are all LED they draw next to no power at all. RC batteries are like 7 volts, so in series makes 14v. so the 12v components draw less than the capacity and therefore don't drain them very fast (as opposed to say a 14v draw, on a 12v battery, which would drain the batteries much faster).

I have done it both ways, (2) batteries in series, and (4) batteries in series/parallel to give a longer battery life, this was on my rm250 2-stroke that I rode 13-miles each way to work, and didn't want to charge batteries every night

 

[rholbrook]

I have the tusk battery still in the wrapping. Didn't end up using it.

 

[B2-Bomber]

^^ the tusk one, the Baja designs one, and the like all seemed to suck when I tried using them over the years. In fact it was their suckiness that led me to the R/C batteries

in fact I cut one apart to find (8) rechargeable AA batteries soldered in a series (1.5v X 8=12V) I never had any real luck with them, and they are designed to be used with a lighting stator when the revs are low, to help when the stator isn't putting out a lot, even at full-functioning capacity they can't run a light, and signals at the same time