A year ago, Yamaha took the wraps off a brand new 450 sport quad that was so exciting that ATV Sport magazine named the YFZ450R its "Sport Quad of the Year."
The ATV featured a lighter chassis, higher-performance engine, upgraded suspension, improved ergonomics and several other upgrades over the standard YFZ450. Motocross racers and dune riders gushed about the machine and raved about its prowess, to the point where trail riders and others who purchased a standard YFZ couldn't help but to feel a little bit jealous.
"Where's our faster acceleration?" they asked. And suddenly the ergonomics and suspension that felt so right on the standard YFZ450 ATV now felt dated after knowing what else was possible.
Yamaha folks dodged the direct questions, and talked about the new R version as being a special edition of sorts. But they also seemed to avoid eye contact when confronted about the possibilities about a slightly more narrow, trail-oriented version of this upgraded YFZ. Clearly, they were hiding something - until now.
Big blue has taken the wraps off its 2010 ATV lineup, and the star attraction is a new model called the YFZ450X. By doing so, Yamaha did more than just claim its own stake to the 24th letter in the alphabet (think about it - DVX, DS 450 X, TRX 700XX, KFX, 525 XC, MXR, 450 MX, etc), it infused fresh life into a sport quad market that is threatening to grow stagnant, given the state of that end of the scene right now.
For 2010, Yamaha also added some new colors to a few of its ATVs, including the top Grizzly and the popular Raptor 250, while dropping two models that hadn't been pulling their weight the last couple of years (the Big Bear 250 and Wolverine 350).
0 Comments:
Post a Comment