Story by: Rado Bartovic – Dirt N Iron

 I used to think that the WR450 was a bulky and slow offroad bike for easy cruising until I got to ride one and was completely shocked how much fun I had on an uncorked Yamaha WR450. I fell in love with the platform. I had several WR450 through the years and when I saw this 2015 WR450 for $2300 in “non running” conditions on the marketplace I knew I had to buy her and do something cool! This is the last WR450 with the “correct” tank and airbox placement – an old school dirt bike design.  This is the model year when Yamaha put a 450 engine into a 250f frame and created a really good platform for offroad riding. This bike had 300 hours before we took her apart, the plan was to do a complete frame up restoration – kind of a rebirth and make this bike better than new, ready for another 300 hours of pure fun!

This is how everything started, we picked up this non running 2015 WR450 with 300 hours
Plan was simple, make her better than new and ready for another 300 hours at minimum
Taking bike apart is always fun, although this one was bit more complicated with all the sensors and wire connectors
Cleaning and degreasing all the parts so we can take it all apart and rebuild
Frame all clean and hydroblasted ready for new ProX bearings
Rounded up majority of our parts while we were rebuilding the engine, Racetech took care of our suspension, lots of ProX parts, IMS tank, Works Connection parts, full FMF system, Bulletproof protection, ODI bars and radiators done by IMS
Brad @parapros rebuilt our engine with wiseco piston, proX valves, crank and bearings, full rekluse auto clutch, cometic gaskets and specbolt restoration kit hardware. Engine parts have been hydroblasted and cerakoted by @sanometalfinishing
Assembly step 1 with all new bearings and fresh grease 🙂
Start looking like a dirt bike again!
Decal Works custom graphics, MXplastics all blue plastics and custom seat cover from Motoseat brought this bike together nicely!

Check out the time lapse video of the WR450 build!