Every four or five years the Yamaha Blu Cru team of technicians release the latest and greatest version of their most popular selling motorcycle, the WR450F. The all-new MY24 Yamaha WR450F was released late last year but for a bunch of reasons it took it's sweet time getting here! It's been a few years since a brand new WR450F hit the trails and I was fortunate enough to receive an invite to the Australian Yamaha WR450F launch up in the hills of Stroud on NSW's midnorth coast. It had also been three years since I'd thrown a leg over a WR450F, so I was chomping at the bit to get out there and see what this new machine was all about.
Now, if you are a die-hard Yamaha fan, you would have probably known that the new WR was coming because Yamaha unveiled the all-new YZ450F in 2022 and Yamaha have used the YZ450F as their base. Over the last decade or so, we have seen that when the YZ450F gets an overhaul, generally in the year that follows, the WR-F gets those updates too. Yamaha heavily rely on the YZ450F platform as the base for the WR450F because aside from Australia, the WR450F isn't all that popular. They then customize and adjust the motor and chassis to suit the more mellow off-road side of life.
Now, when I say off-road side of life, I mean that they soften the
