2023 Yamaha YZ450F Review

Yamaha gives the YZ450F a complete re-do, and we give it a ride

Photography by Ryan Nitzen

Few places come to mind when you think of sacred ground. For some, it's Mecca, Jerusalem, Vatican City, or some historical site. For motocross racers, Ricky Carmichael's GOAT Farm, located in Cairo, Georgia, tops that list. Now in the hands of the Star Racing Yamaha Team, the 94-acre ranch, which Star Racing purchased from Carmichael last year, has seen recent renovations but still holds a certain, unmistakable aura. Yamaha chose this location to launch its all-new 2023 YZ450F.

The YZ450F enters a new generation in 2023. Yamaha says its goal was to make the bike lighter, faster, and easier to ride. Yamaha also wanted to eliminate some common complaints from both the magazines and consumers, such as the bike's heavy feeling, wide profile and a loud airbox noise. These gripes have been around for a while, too. If you haven't ridden a Yamaha, you’ve likely read about these or heard your buddy complain about them at the track.

Yamaha finally addressed these complaints with a laundry list of changes. A new frame and engine highlight the revisions, and you can't help but notice its new sharp, futuristic bodywork that gives the bike a unique look. The bike is five pounds lighter, and three of those pounds were taken from the engine alone. It still retains the downdraft intake with the airbox up front, but the rev limit has been extended by 500 rpm, and the overall power output is up five percent, says Yamaha. Internally, you will also find new exhaust and intake port shapes, larger diameter titanium intake valves, a new forged aluminum piston, a new cylinder, crankshaft and balancer assembly, and a new dry-sump (formerly wet-sump) lubrication system.

Yamaha chose to stick with a cable-actuated clutch that now features a disc spring and integrates the primary gear and basket into a single steel unit. This design ditches the old-school multi-spring design for a single cone-spring system, similar to what KTM has been successfully using the past few years. There are several benefits, according to Yamaha—the single-spring design is lighter and more compact, and it improves engagement and feel for the rider. While the bike comes stock with the cable clutch, a GYTR hydraulic option will soon be available for purchase.

Yamaha has given the five-speed gearbox a new tri-shaft layout that vertically stacks the transmission shafts. The center shaft has been raised, forming a triangle between the crank, drive shaft and main shaft. The result, Yamaha claims, is a lighter and more compact transmission. Other internal notes, like eyelets on the crank and the removal of the y-shaped water pump pipe are also aimed at overall weight savings.

Launch Control is back and you now have Traction Control. Yamaha gives you three levels of TC: high, low and off. Both Launch Control and TC can be controlled via Yamaha's updated Power Tuner App. Launch Control now features an rpm limiter which can be adjusted in 500 rpm increments between 6000 and 11,000 rpm. You can now toggle from one preloaded engine map to another on the fly via one of two new handlebar-mounted switches.

The chassis got a major overhaul, as well. The YZ's bilateral aluminum frame is now made up of 10 different components that are all welded together. Yamaha says this gave designers a more precise way of tuning in the desired amount of flex to improve feel and handling on the track.

Yamaha went all out to give the YZ450F more comfort. The seat is flatter, and the bike's profile is slimmer between the rider's legs, especially around the fuel tank and airbox area. The airbox has been completely redesigned. It's narrower now and has a redesigned air intake pathway. Aiding ergonomics ever further, the handlebar/seat/footpeg relationship has been reworked to give the rider more room to spread out.

The YZ450F is known for its outstanding out-of-the-box suspension, so Yamaha didn't mess with much in this department. It didn't want to shake up an already good thing, but it did make the front KYB SSS spring fork easier to tune by installing hand-operated compression damping adjusters. The shock got updated settings to go along with all the chassis mods.

You immediately feel the changes just by throwing a leg over the bike. The razor-thin cockpit is a far cry from the YZ of old. Right away, the rider triangle feels narrower but more open and comfortable for taller riders like ours. New bodywork also offers more rider contact points to grip with the knees. Along with this, the side plate plastics feel much less intrusive or dramatic than before. Right out of the gate, moving around on the bike feels easier.

This bike is fast. I’d say it ranks as one of the fastest stock bikes I’ve ridden. But don't mistake fast for unrideable. It barks like a ’19-’20 Honda CRF450R but doesn't have that light switch or pull-your-arms-off power. The engine's character is surprisingly linear and pops strong off the bottom with a smooth but powerful transition through the midrange.

Top-end power is another area of improvement. With an extended rev limiter and a reworked transmission, the engineers have almost eliminated the need to shift. Both our test riders could get around the full national-style track with only one real shift point. If you really wanted to push it and have no regard for rebuilds, you could leave this bike in second for the entire track. And that's on a fast outdoor layout. We can only imagine what this bike would be like on a shorter, tighter layout.

It's hard to keep the front end down with all this power. The throttle is ultra-connected to the rear wheel, and the slightest movement in the rider's wrist results in forward acceleration. We played around with the maps, and ended up staying with the more linear map early on and still pulled wheelies in most areas on the track. Part of this, we agreed, is due to the opened-up rider triangle. The pegs further back create a slightly more upright position and puts your butt right over the rear shock. The front wheel wants to lift under power, so sitting forward is even more critical on the YZ-F.

But sitting forward on the bike is easier than ever, thanks to the new seat and airbox design. The seat is flatter, rounder, and extends up to the bars. This allows the rider to get way up on the tank and lean the bike into those tight ruts. Previously, the Yamaha required more rider input to lean and turn, but this bike feels skinny and light between the knees.

Speaking of the front of the bike, the airbox's loud "tractor noise" is all but gone. You won't need to pack a set of earplugs anymore, as the bike's front end is much quieter than before. The exhaust, however, has a much gruntier tone. Not in the same sense as the high-strung YZ250F, but a much throatier sound that feels fast. Perhaps the exhaust drowns out the airbox noise, but either way, we like it.

Suspension is still top-notch. The SSS fork is arguably the best stock setup on the market, and new toolless compression adjusters make it even easier to tune. The only change we made to the fork was going one click out to soften it as the track dried out later in the day and to help with the wheelies we mentioned earlier. The shock is familiar and perhaps a touch on the stiff side. Ride it fast, and it gets better, especially with some of the bigger hits on the track. With the new cockpit, the shock feels directly under the rider, which slightly exaggerates the shock movements and could have played a part into that stiffer feeling.

Ditch your preconceived ideas or complaints about the current YZ450F because this bike is now a distant relative. The strong engine, blue plastics and plush suspension are about the only similarities we can think of when comparing the two bikes. Even then, the engine is much better, and the plastics are way thinner. The only complaint I had, if any, was pulling wheelies in every straightaway. But is that even a real complaint?

Yamaha's goal of making the bike fast, skinny and nimble was certainly achieved. Did we say fast? Lucky for us, the updated Power Tuner App makes it easy to fine-tune the engine in either direction. The overall experience of riding at the GOAT Farm will be hard to top, and the brand-new YZ450F was undoubtedly the cherry on top. CN