Pics - Graphic kit on project YFZR

I've been asked to post up more pics of the Danger UK Graphics kit on the TPR project YFZ450R, so scroll down to check out the pics.

It's hard to believe that the picture at the right is where we began with this project about one year ago with ATP Racing Engines. The absolute last piece of the puzzle came together this month with the installation of the graphic kit, which you can read about by clicking on the link or scrolling down the home page.

The TPR project YFZR was a long journey that proved well worth it in the end, as you'll see in the photos. And we've still got one more story to go with ATV.com

Click on the images for a larger picture.

YFZR build tip #3

How-To: Install Yamaha's GYT-R tether kill switch on the YFZ450R

Installing a tether kill switch on an ATV for racing applications is often more complicated than it needs to be. This post will explain how to install a tether kill switch on Yamaha's YFZ450R with two products that make the task quick and fairly painless.

The first, of course, is Yamaha's GYT-R plug-and-play lanyard (tether kill switch). The second is Tarantula Performance Racing's new Tether Kill Switch Mount. The GYT-R tether kit includes a wiring adapter that plugs the kill switch directly into the stock wiring harness. The TPR tether mounting bracket makes room on your handlebars for the tether without shuffling levers.

Step 1: Remove the front plastic and gas tank, and mount the tether to the TPR mounting bracket. Then bolt the bracket in place where the stock parking brake lever bolts on top of the stock clutch lever. (In order to use the TPR bracket, the stock parking brake lever must be removed and the stock clutch lever used.)

Step 2: Next, you'll want to thread the two wires leading from the tether switch down the steering stem, through the frame and up alongside the main frame rail beneath the gas tank and alongside the quad's main wiring harness.

The longer, ground wire should be fed through the frame and along the sub frame and air box to the negative terminal on the battery. Be careful to feed both wires through spots on the chassis where they won't experience excess rub, which can cause wear of the casing and eventual exposure of the wire itself. The "hot" wire should, once you hit the fuel
injection assembly, be fed down behind the cylinder towards the countershaft sprocket.

Step 3: Connect the ground wire to the negative terminal on the battery.

Sounds easier than it actually is. For racers whose quads have some brand of FMI tuner, that module also has a ground wire on the negative battery terminal. Two additional grounds combined with the stock wiring harness ground makes for a crowded terminal post and makes it difficult to thread the bolt through into the fix nut. To solve this problem, we cut a small piece of foam to place beneath the locking nut in the battery terminal, so the lock nut is always within reach of the bolt despite the excess ground spacers on top of the terminal. This allows for easy removal and installation of the battery.

Step 4: Now you can use the wiring adapter included in the GYT-R lanyard kit to plug the "hot" wire from the kill switch into the quad's main harness at the ignition pick-up harness just below the fuel injector. Be sure to use some dialectric grease on these connections to keep water out and insure a strong connection.

After connecting the lead kill wire to the adapter, we crimped the connection and then used electrical tape to further secure the connection. The white plug-in connectors were secured with zip ties. We also made sure to use dialectric grease on these connections.

At left, we used dialectric grease on all the connections. At right, we secure the lead kill switch wire to the adapter harness in the GYT-R kit before finishing the connection.

The adapter harness plugs, at left, connect to the YFZR's main wiring harness via two male and female connectors. The harness connection is shown completed in the photo at the right.

Step 5: Wrap it up. Once all the connections are made, now you go back and secure the wires to each other and the stock wiring harness using electrical tape. Two or three quick wraps in a few spots should do it. Be sure to allow a little slack in between each connection. If the wires are too taut, they could snap or cause a broken connection if one gets caught on something while riding. Make sure the wires don't bind when the handlebars are turned fully to the left and right.

That's it! You should now be ready to ride and race in most sanctioned events that require the use of a tether kill switch. And we just made that installation easier thanks to GYT-R's tether kit and Tarantula Performance Racing's new Tether Kill Switch Mount.

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.