If you’ re buying a new Yamaha off the floor, there’ s a record that says this bike is yours and it’ s legitimate. That’ s decent peace of mind for the hard-earned money you’ re handing over.
GETTING RACE READY After a great day in the Yamaha workshop, I got it home and spent the following days making it my own. I started by putting a graphics kit on it, along with a set of Zeta bars and levers. I gave the new bike a few heat cycles riding around the house... and that was about it. It was then taken straight into a local NCES round, followed by backto-back weekends of the NZ Enduro Championship. My mates reckoned I was mad sorting a brand new bike a week out from the season kicking off. Honestly, I was pretty calm about it, and that comes down to what the WR turns up with. Normally I’ d have to spend time sourcing a bigger tank, fabricating a bracket for a fan and switch, and chasing a list of other bits before a bike is anything like ready to race. The WR, though, just has all of
it. It’ s the most race equipped machine I’ ve had straight out of the box.
ON THE BIKE My first real gripe was the amount of engine braking. I find it excessive as it comes out of the crate, and trying to reduce it by running a gear higher didn’ t get rid of it. That’ s what the Power Tuner app is there for. So, I jumped in and loaded a Keefer Testing map. There was a noticeable difference straight away, especially on corner entry and on downhills where the bike was previously trying to slow itself down more than I wanted [ Liam has spent a long time racing two-strokes- Ed ]. If you’ re buying one of these Yamahas, download the app to your phone on day one- you don’ t need a tuner, just your phone and the Yamaha app. It’ s free and it turns a small annoyance into a non-issue. On the suspension front, I set the sag at 105mm and haven’ t touched a clicker yet all season. That’ s not laziness, it’ s just that Yamaha has found a good happy medium here. It holds up for the big hits without packing down over
34 KIWI RIDER