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.

Fox Podium X - install

The Tarantula Performance Racing project YFZ450R build continues this week with the addition of our Fox Podium X rear shock.

The install begins with the removal of the stock rear shock on our 2009 Yamaha YFZ450R project quad. The rear shock on the YFZR can be easily removed by removing the lower linkage arm bolted to the frame, unbolting the shock and dropping it out through the swingarm. The first step is to loosen the top shock mount bolt.

Here, we loosen the top shock bolt. Yamaha's engineers put some thought into this quad, as many of its parts can be removed easily without un-bolting a ton of other parts, including the rear shock.

Next, we unbolted the lower linkage and removed the lower shock mount bolt.

The link knuckle, shown to the left, simply rotates back and out of the way so the stock shock can drop out through the swingarm. You have to remove the link arm, shown at right.

After removing the linkage arm that connects to the frame, you can remove the top shock bolt and drop it down through the swingarm. We had to wrestle a little bit with our Motoworks SR4 exhaust system by pulling on it slightly to wiggle the shock out of its upper mount. For the most part, the rear shock un-bolted very easily.




With the stock rear shock removed, the Fox Podium X slides easily up through the swingarm. Again, there's a bit of finagling required to get the shock lined up and in the upper mount. But again, our new Fox shock installed just as easily as the stocker was removed.




We did have some clearance concerns with the Fox shock. The reservoir on the stock shock has about 1/4-inch clearance to the exhaust. And Fox attached the reservoir for our Podium X to the shock body in the same location as the stock reservoir with the compression adjusters on the bottom. Fortunately, the reservoir on the Podium X actually has more clearance than the stock reservoir.

The camera angle is deceiving, but the reservoir on our new Podium X rear shock (at right) actually has more clearance for the Motoworks SR4 exhaust than the stock shock reservoir (left).

After sliding the upper shock bolt in place, we re-installed and connected the lower shock links before tightening the upper shock bolt.

Lining up the lower shock link (top) after installing our Fox Podium X rear and torquing the bolts to spec (bottom).

We used Loctite throughout the TPR project YFZ450R build for peace of mind knowing everything will stay intact while racing.

We expect the addition of the Fox Podium X rear shock will greatly improve the handling of the TPR project YFZ450R. We also added an RPM Dominator II axle to hold up to the bigger and faster hits the quad will now be capable of withstanding thanks to the new Fox suspension.


The build will continue with the addition of ATV Four Play's MGC MX long-travel a-arms and a set of Fox Float X Evol front shocks. Keep the TPR project YFZ450R blog bookmarked to stay up-to-date as we get closer to testing the build with ATVOnDemand.com.

Now that's a pro-level rear end set-up! Thanks to RPM, Fox and Galfer.

Stopping power - Galfer

I've said it before and I'll say it again ... Sometimes you have to slow down to go fast!

Galfer is handling the stopping duties on the TPR project YFZ450R by providing front and rear stainless steel brake lines for the quad. We'll start by explaining the rear line installation with a short how-to installation. We'll tackle the front lines when we get our shocks from Fox and bolt those on with our ATV Four Play a-arms.

Galfer sponsored the TPR project YFZ450R with a set of front and rear stainless brake lines.

The rear line installation started by disconnecting the parking brake cable from the caliper. The cable disconnects in the same manner as a throttle or clutch cable. Disengage the parking brake, take in the slack and pop the cable out of its actuator arm on the left side of the caliper. Do this before you loosen the arm itself.

Remove the parking brake cable from the caliper before you do anything else.

Next, simply loosen the two bolts and remove the parking brake lever from the clutch perch. Then carefully snake the cable through the frame and out the front. It helps to have all the plastic removed. Once the cable is out, you can remove all the small brackets on the engine and frame that held the parking brake cable in place.

Now, you can remove the actuator arm from the caliper. You'll need to have purchased a parking brake block off plate to install in place of the arm.

The next step is removing the stock brake line. First, remove the two brackets holding the stock line to the swingarm. Then remove the bolts attaching the line to the master cylinder and caliper. You're going to have some brake fluid spillage, so be sure to have a rag handy and work quickly to install the new line.

The Galfer rear line installed easily and pumped back up to full pressure quickly.

The Galfer brake lines come with the brake line bolts and washers to seal the hydraulic system. When installing the Galfer line, slide the bolt through the line fixture at each end, but be sure you have one of the supplied spacers located on the bolt on each side of the fixture. Thread the lines in and you're practically done!

The Galfer rear brake line adds to the sea of silver on the TPR project YFZ450R rear end. Galfer also labeled their line, so we knew which end attached to the master cylinder.

After installing the line, bleed the rear brake to adequate pressure and you're ready to ride.

As you can see, we've still got some work to do. So the TPR project YFZ450R will be in the garage for at least a few more days...

Get hosed

The next addition to the TPR project YFZ450R includes a set of CV4 coolant hoses and a Hinson Racing billet clutch cover. We started the build with a set of Cycra handguards and Spider SLT grips on our stock Pro Taper handlebars.

For the hoses, we started by removing the stock pinch clamps with a set of pliers.

The stock hoses weren't difficult to remove, but they weren't easy either. The silicone hoses should remove much easier for maintenance and other work.

We used a special type of hose clamp for the pure silicone hoses from CV4. Because the hoses are pure silicone, the material can actually be squeezed through the slots found in typical hose clamps. Our clamps feature a liner that covers the slots to keep our hoses from being damaged.





The silicone CV4 hoses slid right on to the radiator and engine ports. The blue hoses definitely look cool, but they also improve flow and can withstand hotter temperatures than the stock rubber hoses.

CV4 sponsored the TPR project YFZ450R with a set of their coolant hoses, which installed in minutes and add performance and style.

Both hoses are visible from each side of the engine. The pure silicone hoses greatly improve the looks of our project quad.

Our last step in installing the hoses was to re-fill the radiator with coolant. Our stock coolant had been through a top-end rebuild and dyno runs at ATP Racing Engines, so we opted to replace it with Honda's pre-mixed coolant solution. We have run HP coolant in the past with great success compared to some of the costly coolant options out there that claim to reduce operating temperatures.




We also added Hinson's billet clutch cover to improve the looks of the TPR project YFZ450R and increase the protection for our clutch components. Hinson also sponsored the build with a clutch pack and heavy duty springs, which we'll install after we run through the stock clutch.

In addition to the hoses, Hinson's billet clutch cover really makes the engine in our project quad stand out and look stylin'.

The Hinson and CV4 products improve both the looks of our project motocross quad and its performance. We'll continue the build with a complete Fox Shox suspension set up, a set of Galfer brake lines front and rear, an RPM Dominator II axle, a set of TPR nerf bars and a TPR front bumper. Stay tuned.