[Merriman®]

Well for the past month I have been forced to deal with the possiblity of a weak link in the YFZ's frame. From what I have gathered, since this issue hasn't blown up all over the net yet, that it's not a huge issue (like the Z400 shock mounts) until you flip your YFZ pretty good. From what I have seen, and gathered is that most of the Pro Racer bikes are not guessted(yet?), and seem to be holding up ok, but if you flip one over on it's nose your going to have troubles. I flipped my bike on it's nose real hard, and crushed the top of the frame in through the radiator. It landed so hard the the pastic mounts on the frame went through the plastics and folded over. My steering stem is almost a complete 90% now, and it was pushed through the gast tank. The only way I got the tank out was to cut it's plastic cover off. Luckily if your Tank is not cracked, then you can leave it in the sun for a few hours, and it will "Pop" back into shape......I was lucky.

On to the Frame:

The weak link that I am talking about is the top of the frame from the shock mounts to the rear gussets were the tank bolts up. THERE ARE NO SUPPORT BARS RUNNING FROM THE BOTTOM TO THE TOP FRAME RAILS. So if you flip it on it's handle bars, it takes the leverage (like a giant lever) and kinks the frame right behind the radiator, cause there is nothing there to distribute the impact, and prevent it.

The upper steering stem support tube was bent back, and twisted because of the way the bike landed. All my plastic tabs were bent in one form or another. My cross brace was also bent and both my main upper frame rails were bent. The left hand side was bent so bad that it crushed the top of the radiator aswell. In fact the way the top of the frame bent, and twisted my radiator was mangled in 3 different directions. But again luckily it was not broken, so a simple run to the local radiator shop they were able to straighten it back out as good as new, and it only cost me 50 bucks versus 217.95 for a new one. My frame was in such bad shape that we decided to cut off the top and start completely over. From what I can tell we burnt the paint off an old peace of frame tube, and it did not have a seam like standard steel has, so it must be some form of Chromoly, just not sure on the grade.

Well I'm not good at written explanations, but it can be fixed. I have a million pictures that I've taken along the way so if anyone has this unfortunate accident, and is compatent they can rebuild a frame then just let me know, and I'll give all the guidance I can.

This is what I have been working on for the past month.


In this picture you can see the top tube collapsed in on the radiator, and the steering stem upper support bar was bent pretty far back, and twisted sideways. The radiator was bent 3 different ways, but luckily it didn't break, so I got it straightened for 50 bucks.

Up close

Our solution was to cut the top off and start over.

The end result is alot more 4130 chromoly, and a much stronger frame.

And everything fits perfectly. Also my extra bars are hard to see with the plastics on so that's a plus

Right now it's at the powdercoater's getting finished up, so my bike should be back together within 2 weeks. :rock

 

[edgerat]

Levi, I want you to take a deep breath and realise that you flipped the shit out of your quad. Maybe it isnt a weak link in the frame but a HUGE FUKING WRECK!!!!!!! j/k Even an aftermarket frame wouldnt hold up to that kind of crash man. Glad that you are getting it fixed so you can ride some more.
Isaac

 

[Cron]

Interesting...considering I just noticed my frame is bent to the right yesterday. Last night I did a stoppie ont eh YFZ and went end over end but it was slow and only flipped onto its bars but the frame was fine.

 

[YFZ-suprfly]

i flipped mine over down a hill... just one flip (thanks to a tree) and the handlebars just bent down (like someone loosened the clamp and pushed them down) then other then some stress marks in the plastic and a bent tab everything is ok! do you have before pics of the quad before you ripped it apart??? gonna look closely at my frame to see how if it is tweeked... YFZ where is your frame bent?

 

[Merriman®]

Yeah it was a good wreck, but with those 2 extra bars in there, a lot of the damage could have been prevented. And just looking at the frame you can tell that that is a weak spot that could have been eliminated. Plus I have seen many aftermarket frames with the extra bars behind the radiator......so......

 

[edgerat]

thats true the Roll LOBO looks like that. Maybe when I tear mine down for the winter I will add a couple of them thar bars just in case.
isaac

 

[RESCUE YFZ]

WOW WHAT A CRASH, YOU MUST HAVE BAILED OUT JUST IN TIME. I' VE DECIDED INSTEAD OF REINFORCING MY FRAME I WILL JUST AVOID FLIPPING IT . NICE WORK ON THE FRAME THOUGH IT LOOKS VERY GOOD.

 

[wv_yfz_450]

I tried to tell the ppl that on yfzracer.com and they wouldnt listen a buddy of mine flipped his back on a wheelie and it trashed his frame....

 

[YFZ_53]

you bent the frame cuz the YFZ is for advanced riders only :lol learn how to ride than hop back on it :lol j/j man

 

[schwendi]

WOW! :O :O You guys dont mess around! You didnt add the permanent skids like on crazie's Z? How is his frame holding up??

did you price a new frame?

 

[cjpoole1]

:O I'll be sure not to flip!!!!

 

[RiPPiNiTuP7]

seeing this thread, and yfz's quad....im starting to wonder??????? 8| :uhoh

 

[FAST1]

get a good insurance binder and claim it as a total with a wreck like that..

Glad to see that your still able to take photos, type on the key board and still haven't lost your cerebral skills and its only the YFZ frame...

 

[yfzonly.com]

Insurance, now that's what I'm talking about. I've heard too many horror stories of people without insurance. It's not that expensive.

 

[NHYFZ450]

VERY NICE WORK!!!!

You should keep the specs of the tubing bends, and sell it as a gusset kit.

I would be interested in buying it!!

I planned on powder coating my frame this winter, and that would be the perfect time to install those.

 

[Cron]

Originally posted by RiPPiNiTuP7@Sep 15 2003, 09:43 PM
seeing this thread, and yfz's quad....im starting to wonder??????? 8| :uhoh

Well as you can see Merriman had a bad crash... I do not know any frame that could with hold what it looks like he went through. All frames would have gotten some damage.

I will let everyone know what is up w/ mine after I know. My dealer was saying he thinks the swing arm could have warped, and been defective. I'll let everyone know asap. As long as Yamaha warranties it I do not care. My other YFZ is perfectly fine and I have rode that one a lot harder and raced that one and its fine.

 

[trueblue450]

how fast was the wreck??
better put weak frames on the questionare yamaha sends us!

 

[Merriman®]

Originally posted by schwendi@Sep 15 2003, 07:06 PM
WOW! :O :O You guys dont mess around! You didnt add the permanent skids like on crazie's Z? How is his frame holding up??

did you price a new frame?

Crazie's Frame is holding up just fine. I did not add the permanent skids like we did to his either. Soon we are going to rip his bike down to the frame, and do a complete frame rebuild, and gusset kit. We are also going to cut his skid plates off, since they were only meant as a temperary solution at the time because we were to lazy to completely pull his bike apart at the time. :zzz

The wreck was about 35-40mph? I was thrown over a berm about 15 feet in the air then I decided to seperate myself from my bike, I landed into the "tuck and roll.....for your life" position. My bike landed on it's nose, bounced up then gently smacked me in the helmet as it bounced over me (I'm very thrilled that it didn't land on me). I tumbled into a barbwire fence, and got up flipped my bike over and said "CHIT!" THe only thing I suffered was an impact bruise to my left ankle that was sore for about 2 weeks.

I am thinking about the insurance stuff now, but it didn't cost me that much to repair it, so we'll see.

$70.00 worth of chromoly to rebuild the frame.......This is why I didn't price a new frame.
$300.00 for my steering stem (but it was getting replaced anyways And I cut my old one apart, and made another one out of chromoly (extra :lol ))
$180.00 for new plastics up front.
$50.00 to straighten my radiator.

I think that's it?

Oh and as far as this being a gusset kit, if you were to do this to your stock (non-crashed, you don't have to replace tubing) frame then there are no bends in any of the extra bars, and gussets. I pretty easy to do, and aslong as you have a grinder, cut-off saw, and a welder, you can do this. The most important thing though is before you weld in anything solid, mount and remount all the hardware that could be affected by the gussets your installing. I can't count how many time I mounted my plastics, motor, and radiator just to make double sure everything was going to fit the first time. :uhoh

 

[NHYFZ450]

Thanks for the info. It is hard to tell from the picture which of the tubes had bends, and which ones didnt. The only thing I dont have is a tubing bender, and I have no intrest at this point in buying one, thats why I asked about the possiblity of a kit.