RUST Magazine: RUST #47

2021 YAMAHA WR450F
Dave to chat about, but just perhaps…
Aluminium frames remain the primary
distinction between the Japanese
offerings and the orange, white and now
red Austrian siblings, plus a few other
‘endurocentric’ smaller manufacturers. It’s
an interesting and important one though,
as having put some hours on the Honda
CRF250RX this/last year, and had access
to a YZ-F of my own in the past, it is easy
to believe the early claims of the Austrians
that steel affords a better refined, more
compliant enduro bike than its aluminium
competitor. A few years ago you’d also be
forgiven for being a cynic and suggesting
the tooling costs, material costs etc for cast
components might be the real issue, but
you’d be wrong. In any case KTM now have
the lion’s share of any enduro line up, so
if they wanted to go aluminium, I dare say
they could, but I’m a signed up believer that
the flex in the frame really does help the
thing behave in the more technical going.
However… the Yamaha blurb explains
this frame has been sculpted and refined
to allow for more flex: “the rigidity of the
frame is finely tuned to give a higher level
of feedback on various types of terrain”. I
read that with interest, but do I believe it?
On the experience of this test – you bet!
Jumping on the bike you can immediately
feel something has changed, and very
much for the better. The bike tracks
incredibly well, and I instantly feel at home.
I make no bones about the fact I’ve ridden
the large part of 2019 and 2020 (until
March anyway!) on Austrian bikes, indeed
I clocked up over 350 hours on them in
that time, so for the WR-F to feel like an old
friend is quite a thing indeed. It does turn
w
www.rustsports.com 23