Soft bars by ATV Four Play

We're using a lot of brand-new products on the TPR project YFZ450R motocross build, including a set of Soft Bars from ATV Four Play.

A set of ATV Four Play's Generation II Soft Bars adorns the TPR project YFZ450R.

ATV Four Play has helped win countless championships with their a-arms. They clearly know how ATV suspension should work. So it made perfect sense to complement the MGC MX long-travel a-arms we're using with a set of their new Soft Bars. The bars were introduced last year to help cushion the hard impacts motocross riding can deal to a racer's upper body.

The bars work much like your typical quad shock. An allen-head bolt can be tightened or loosened to stiffen or soften the bar travel on each side. The bushings used are a cone-shaped polyurethane. The Progressive Dampening System ensures the resistance increases the more you tighten the allen head and as the bar moves through its travel - just like an ATV shock.

The Soft Bars are designed to mount directly to an aftermarket steering stem. In addition, ATV Four Play offers two more bar sets with differing mount positions in order to fit the stock Yamaha YFZ450R stem and the stock KTM stem.

The view from overhead shows the 12-degree bar sweep, which feels very comfortable and is similar to the CR high bend bar.

The Soft Bars are made of T-3 2024 aluminum tubing and billet T-6 6061 aluminum. The pivot areas are sealed, but one great aspect of the bars is they feature grease zircs to maintain the life of the pivot bushing. The bars retail for $295.

ATV Four Play's Generation II Soft Bars - quad engineering at its best!

We haven't ridden the TPR project YFZ450R on a motocross track yet to provide a review of the bars, but we'll be getting ready to conduct our test video with ATVOnDemand.com hopefully in the next few weeks. And ATV.com will be running a series of stories on the project quad, including a complete ride review, this fall.

Our next post will feature the Tarantula Performance Racing MX-Series front bumper and a set of TPR's new Race Safer nerf bar and heel guard combo. Stay tuned...

Twin-Air maintenance kit

Twin-Air sponsored the TPR project YFZ450R with their Pro Flow filter mount kit and one of their dual-stage foam filters. It's always a good idea to have a back-up filter, so we bought a second filter from Twin-Air along with their filter maintenance kit.

Twin-Air's filter maintenance kit includes contact cleaner and dirt remover along with their filter treatment. They even throw in gloves and two tubs to stay clean while getting the job done!

Air filter maintenance can be a messy pain in the butt, yet keeping a clean air filter is one of the most important elements of riding when it comes to performance and engine longevity. Twin-Air understands both of these facts well, and their filter maintenance kit achieves both.

The kit includes contact cleaner and granular dirt remover. The kit comes with disposable plastic gloves to keep your hands clear of the corrosive elements in the cleaners and the super sticky filter oil. Plus the kit comes with two tubs; a "dirt remover" tub for cleaning dirty filters and an "oiling" tub for applying oil to a clean filter.

We haven't ridden the quad yet, so we haven't gotten the chance to get our filters dirty. But we'll run down the oiling process real quick.

Step one: Fill the oiling tub with Twin-Air's filter oil.

Steps two and three: Remove your new/clean filter from its storage bag and set it in the oiling tub.

Step four: Immerse the filter completely into the filter oil.

Step five: Make sure the filter has an even coating of filter oil. You may have to rotate the filter in the oil or turn it upside down.

After squeezing, not wringing, the excess oil out of the filter, cover the filter and let it dry for about two hours. Then you're ready to install and ride!

Repeat setps one through five for your spare filter. Squeeze the excess oil out and put the spare filter back into the storage bag it shipped in and keep it in a cool place out of direct sunlight. Now you'll have a spare filter you can throw on after a moto or a particularly muddy or dusty day of riding.

Rolling chassis - TPR project YFZ450R

After four long months, the TPR project YFZ450R has finally become a rolling chassis. Here are some quick pics of the quad now that we've got the Fox/ATV Four Play/RPM suspension and the Maxxis/DWT wheel combo installed.



You've probably noticed the steering stem and handlebars are missing. The stem is at ATV Four Play, where they are designing a set of their new Soft Bars to fit the stock YFZ450R stem.



We're also waiting on the MX-Series front bumper from Tarantula Performance Racing and their Race Safe nerf bar and heel guard combo.

John Pellan, over at ATVScene.com, is going to use the TPR project YFZ450R for an upcoming ATV Scene Girl photo shoot. We'll be conducting the shoot next weekend.

We should be conductin our video ride test with ATVOnDemand.com this month. The build will continue next week when we install our ATV Four Play Soft Bars and the final components - the Tarantula Performance Racing Race Safe nerf bars and MX-Series front bumper. Stay tuned.

Powder coat - 'chameleonization'

There is a God, and his name is Capital Powdercoating! I picked up the parts for the TPR project YFZ450R we chose to have powdercoated from Capital Powdercoating in Suffield (Portage County) Tuesday, and the color is simply amazing.

Capital Powdercoating, on Congress Lake Road in Suffield, Ohio, did an amazing job powder coating the ATV Four Play and DWT parts for the TPR project YFZ450R. Capital also did some miscellaneous brackets with a "shattered glass" coat that makes the parts sparkle in the sunlight.

Capital sponsored the build by coating the beadlock rings for our DWT Champion in a Box wheels, the ATV Four Play MGC MX A-arms and a few miscellaneous brackets, including the front engine mounts. The pictures here on the blog don't do the color justice. Twisting the parts in the sunlight makes them appear alive!

A close-up look at the ATV Four Play a-arms shows the "shattered glass" and cross fade from orange to blue. Below are the DWT beadlock wheels from their Champion in a Box kit.

One of the trickest aspects is the coat on the a-arms, which fades from ATV Four Play's orange to blue with a shattered glass coat that shimmers in the sun like the mid-day ocean. R.H., the owner of Capital Powdercoating, coined the term "chameleonization" to describe the custom powdercoat job.

The custom fade is available to all Capital Powdercoating customers, and its surprisingly affordable.

For the TPR project YFZ450R, we only opted to have a few parts powdercoated rather than strip the entire frame and engine cases and other parts. After all, this quad is going to be ridden, so we didn't want to go over the top like the Spyder Quad knowing the parts are going to get blasted by roost and the power washer.

The makings of a pro-level front end: Fox Float X Evol shocks, ATV Four Play MGC long-travel MX a-arms, DWT Rok N' Lok beadlock wheels and Maxxis Razr MX soft-compound tires.

Until Tuesday, I had been worried that perhaps the TPR project YFZ450R would look too plain, but this quad is sure to catch your eye. The colors are incredibly trick, and they're also going to stay looking good for a long time. Capital Powdercoating has been painting ATV parts for years, and their stuff is known to hold up.

Capital Powdercoating really gave our parts some shimmer and shine. This quad is guaranteed to attract attention.

The color combination featured on our parts is custom, but it's also available to the public. Capital Powdercoating can strip and powdercoat your parts for an incredibly low price. The custom colors are somewhat more expensive, but they offer an affordable method to grab the attention of a potential sponsor, and that's priceless.

The TPR project YFZ450R is nearly finished!

You can contact Capital Powdercoating for your next custom paint job at 330-388-2597.