Luke Trail: Reader’s Ride
What: 2010 Yamaha YZ450F
Who: Luke Trail
Where I bought it: Bike and Power, Dural
When: January 2010
How Much: $12,199 RRP
Why I bought it: Reliable, powerful, handling and great support.
Why I bought it: I wanted to have a bike with heaps of power that handled really well, as well as being reliable. My Yamaha fits that criteria perfectly, thanks to my sponsors, Bike and Power Dural, Ficeda Imports, JH Engineering, Boyd’s Motorcycle Surgery and Pitstop Motorcycles. I have ridden all kinds of supermoto bikes, but this bike is the only bike I feel completely comfortable with.
How she’s performed: Because it started out as a standard MX bike, it took quite a lot of time and effort to convert it over to supermoto, as the geometry had to be changed. It’s now a pleasure to ride, steering into corners very smoothly, gripping the road amazingly and being very fast. As well as having a whole lot of power to pull me through the turns and up the straights it still handles all the bumps and jumps of the dirt sections perfectly.
The Maintenance Regime: The bike and air filter get washed after every ride and completely checked over. I also change the oil after every ride and use BelRay Thumper oil. It gets a new set of Dunlop super-soft race slicks before each round of the National Titles and gets a new piston and valves three times a year, or sooner if necessary.
Should you buy one? It can be quite costly to set up a supermoto bike but it is some of the best fun I have ever had and I would recommend to anyone to give it a go. Most supermoto clubs have beginner classes so you can get out there and try it out for yourself. There is even a class for bikes with standard size rims and road legal tyres.
WHAT I DID:
• High compression gas ported CP piston
• Boyd’s Moto Surgery ported and flowed head
• Custom ground cam shafts
• DRD exhaust system
• Remapped ignition
• Slipper clutch with custom tension spring
• Custom oil and coolant overflow catch tank
• Geometry optimised by JH Engineering using Moto GP “Computrak” technology.
• Custom, low offset adjustable triple clamps
• Shortened swingarm
• Eibach springs
• Dunlop super soft race slicks
• 16.5×3.5-inch front wheel and 17×5.5-inch rear wheel
• Racetech valved suspension lowered 30mm
• DID VX2 gold chain
• Sunstar pressed stainless steel sprockets (42-46 tooth)
• 320mm Artrax front brake disc
• 6-piston Berringer calliper and master cylinder
• Bendix brake pads
• BelRay oils
• Meiwa oil filter
• 02 Rush Unifilter airfilter
• DRD hour meter
• Cycra hand guards and plastics
• Custom Podium MX sticker kit
