2WD Bike

My neighbor here at the Hostel is a Yamaha motorcycle dealer. I was I there getting the front brake caliper straightened and made friends with Rex the former owner that now comes in and helps out a few days a week. He was telling me about this bike he owned and was thinking about selling it. We took a ride out to his place so I could see it and take a few photos of it and have it on my website in case some of my friends would know of someone that would want it. Well, I guess we ALL want it but it is going to be a rather expensive bike as it is only one of 200 ever made and one of only two in New Zealand.

Here is the note i got from him listing the details on the bike. If anyone is interested in it or knows of anyone, let me know and I can forward any inquiry his way.

Here we have a 2005 Yamaha WR450 2-trak. Ohlins Research and Development (which is owned by Yamaha since 1988) has been working on a 2wd project with Yamaha since the early 90's.
In 2005 Yamaha provided 200 WR450 to them and these were produced. That year one was second in the Paris-Dakar despite having less than 1/2 the capacity of the majority entries. For sand, bogs, hills etc it is unparalleled. Whereas normally the driven rear wheel pushes the front wheel further into these problems, releiving weight on the rear wheel and thus reducing traction, on these machines the opposite happens. The driven pump in the front wheel is speed synchronised with the pump at the front sprocket. When the pair get out of sync then up to 23% of the power is transmitted to the front wheel. This winds it out of sand and bog, and on a steep hills allows you to put your riders weight over the front wheel which is by now driven. It is like cheating in these situations. There is a slight power loss, but only noticeable in top speed on the open sealed hi-way. There were rumours at the time that more units were to be made, but cost was prohibitive given the limited number. A kit was available from Ohlins for a while at over $12000NZ and it included front and rear suspension assemblies, front wheel and driven pump assembly and left engine cover and drive pump as well as hoses and accumulator etc. These bikes were $30000NZ and $26000AUS when new and most were sold in europe, none in USA as I believe. REXA

Here is the power take off from the sprocket to the hydraulic pump that drives the front wheel. Evidently the front wheel doesn’t drive unless the rear wheel slips maybe 20% and then power is transferred to the front wheel. I asked how it does in sand…. He said the front wheel just climbs out of the sand and away you go.

Ohlins is the company that made the front end and they are owned by Ayamaha since 1985 I think he said. Ohlins is a suspension company and are famous in the motorcycle and race car industry.

Just jump on and go anywhere. One of these bikes came in 2nd in the Paris Dakar Race.... on a 450cc !!!

He bought an old TV truck and is making it into a Toy hauler as well as a rig to haul his wife and daughters horses.

At the moment it is being set up for horses but the big box comes out for quads and bikes.

He just traded off one of his fast road bikes for this super nice new fishing boat. Rex loves to fish and this boat will be good for either lake fishing as well as ocean work. He loves to fish for salmon.

he said he has a lot of work to do on it yet like build in little bunks for the kids and finishing touches.

that front bar drops down so you can climb in from the beach and get in thru the hatch.