Powering up the YFZ450 for the dunes

When we talk about horsepower, sand, apart from mud, is the biggest horsepower robber known to man. And this is the problem that a normal, conventional ATV faces whenever they ride the dunes. To top it all off, your ATV will truly suffer when it's heavy…it's like you're riding with large boulders tied to the back of your ATV. So, what does a good ATV rider do? He takes off some of the parts off his ATV, like the parking brake, lights and the other unnecessary ATV parts like the stock parts to make the machine lighter.

To a certain extent, removing certain parts of the ATV is good and it helps – but only to a certain extent. And when you're done riding the dunes, you'll have to spend loads of time putting all those parts back together again.

Now, what if your ATV came ready for the dunes? Something like the YFZ450? What if you took this four-stoke machine and turned into a dune rocket? This is a great alternative if you don't want to spend time tearing apart and putting together your ATV every time you head out for the dunes. Remember, riding your ATV over sand can cause quite a bit of damage to the ATV. If you modify the YFZ450, you could be getting something completely special and reliable that can be used during weekends and then kept and maintained other times when it's not in use.

Lonestar/Quad Tech YFZ50 The body frame is an exact copy of YFZ450 except that it was titanium. Titanium is a much lighter alternative for the body frame…but it all comes with a price (of course, should we expect less?) The cost of the titanium frame of this ATV is a whopping $6850; and if that's not enough add $1420 for the A-arms. Anyway, the ATV also comes with a 24-karat gold plating sub-frame which costs another $680.

That's the bulk of the cost of the YFZ450 because the other stuff like billet accessories were thrown in using low-cost accessories (gas cap, breather cap…etc) which adds another $200 to the price tag. But that's not all.

Some of the parts, like the Titanium frame, the A-arms, hubs, motor mounts and shock springs, of this ATV were powder-coated to protect it.

The Dune Speed Machine With all that talk about weight, what about adding a little bit of power to it…just so that we can see this rocket soar through the dunes? Dubach, who has more experience tinkling with the YFZ450 than anyone else, was called upon to work his magic on the machine. He did the cylinder porting, added the stepped head pipe and worked the spark-arrested racing exhaust. The stock air box lid was replaced with one that could filter sand better too. Other things done to the ATV was to change the clutch, tires, paddles and brakes were done up too to make the ATV faster on sand.

How did it turn out? With everything done up, seems as though the ATV is a rocket on the dunes! It literally floated and soared through the air effortlessly. After all that reworking of the machine, about 300 lbs was removed – no wonder it flew. Sure, there's nothing quite like a machine like this and I bet you're salivating at this mean thing right now but the big question would be…is it worth it? Wouldn't it better if you just stuck to removing and reinstalling the parts of your ATV as and when you wish?

First thing first, your budget. If you have the budget for it and if you love the dunes as much as you love your TV remote control, go for it! After all, it's not a one-off thing we're talking about…you're going to be using the modified machine anyway. No big deal. And it's a great way to steal the show (and the girls) with a machine like that. If not, you might as well stick to what you've got and make the best of it. Decals can work the girls just as well.

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