2006 Yamaha WR450 Photo Gallery

We were able to get our grubby hands on six, count 'em six, large-bore enduros and took them out for punishment, 'er evaluation. Check out how this bike did in our 2006 450 Enduro Shootout

Ripping through the woods is just as easy on the Yamaha as putting around the back yard, or blasting sand washes, or hopping logs, or railing ruts… The WR does it all.

Bouncing over rocky obstacles is a real pleasure with the stable WR. The solid chassis, suspension and weight plow through rough sections like an oil tanker.

Kenny takes a little detour to try his hand at trailblazing.

This particular hillclimb had our number even on the potent Yamaha, though not many hills could say the same when faced with the gnarly WR.

Without a spare lever, this bend was actually a blessing. Stock levers don’t last long on any bike and the Yamaha is no different.

Brian is a fairly even-mined fellow, but we had a hard time getting him off of the WR. He charged every hill he could find on old Blue.

BC was all praises for the Yamaha. Even though it’s heavier than everything but the ATK, the Yammie overcomes it’s faults with a basketful of high points.

JC and Ken try to come up with something to complain about on the WR.

JC takes a peek to see if his miserable attempt was caught on film. Sorry, pal. Big Brother is always watching.

An awesome motor and excellent gearing allow the WR450F to forgive wobbly hillclimb attempts like this one. Normal riders will crest more hills on this bike than any of the others.tem.

Aluminum engine guards are a sweet feature when riding rocks.

The WR has great low-end grunt on the trail. A super-low first gear allows for tractor-like pull in tight, slow maneuvering.

Darin Hecker: 'The Yamaha prevailed over anything in its path, and with little effort.'

We bent more than just the levers on the Yamaha.

The WR comes green sticker legal, but the version we tested wasn’t due to a throttle modification.

A seamless transition onto a smooth rock face made this one of our favorite jumps in the Corral Canyon trails.

Brian Chamberlain: The Yamaha provides a good combination of quick steering, high-speed stability and tractability.”

A mindless motor and transmission allow Ken to focus on not dabbing his feet through the rocky Corral Canyon trail system.

Lensman Tyler Maddox gets the bird’s-eye view of Yamaha’s stable front end. Our testers took note of it as well.

Even with a sweet motor, sometimes it just isn’t enough to overcome rider technique. Darin shows us why it’s a good idea to actually raise the front end through puddles.