My time with the 2024 Yamaha YZ450F long termer has been thoroughly enjoyed. Right from the first ride I felt at home on the YZ. It’s a bike that I gelled with very well.

The chassis on the YZ450F has changed much over the last two decades. I originally started racing YZ’s back in 2001. I raced a YZ426 as a 16 year old and my first 450 came in 2007.

Back then the YZ had an aluminium frame but the engine was a conventional five valve engine. That model was a great bike and I raced that generation of YZ in the Australian MX Nationals and Supercross until Yamaha reversed the engine in 2010. During those first years with the reverse engine the YZ had some trouble. The engine was always powerful but the bike lost some of its better handling characteristics.

While I rode every generation of YZ across the years, I didn’t find myself riding and racing a YZ450F again until 2016 when I had the 2016 model YZ450F long term test bike. Yamaha stuck with the reverse engine design which was focused at centralizing as much mass as possible but revised it and made it better with each model. With every year the bike got better until the point where I can honestly say without a doubt in my mind that the 2024 Yamaha YZ450F is not only the best model YZ I have ever ridden but also the best production motocross bike I have ever ridden.

I know that’s a bold claim but I have been fortunate enough to test ride every brand and every model ever made in the last ten years so I have the experience to back that claim. Furthermore, if I had to spend my own money on any motorcycle and I had to be stuck with it forever then I would hands down choose the 2024 YZ450F without a second guess.

Now after I have given the YZ all that praise, it’s time for us to be torn apart. The YZ has been sold and it’s about to head off to its new home. I got my last few rides in on the YZ and even got to a few local races where I have been renamed the holeshot king because I am yet to lose a start on the YZ. The YZ will always hold a special place in my heart.

Both my kids started riding this year and we began going away for weekends as a family riding and all those special pics of our weekends away contain pics of the YZ. It’s not only me that has grown fond of the YZ but my kids as well. Even my wife tells me I look good on a blue bike.

As much as I love the YZ, it is time to move on. I just hope whatever I end up on next, I will enjoy it just as much as I have the YZ.

MAT BOYD

2024 YAMAHA YZ450F

RRP

$15,149.00 INC GST

WARRANTY

Three months, parts only

DISTRIBUTOR

Yamaha Australia

INTERNET

yamaha-motor.com.au