It's Doc Hobbly!
By TMX Archives on 14th Apr 03
LAST MONTH I signed off in pain with a knacking ankle after a small incident at a track near Atlanta. Well, after a week of walking around I figured it couldn't have been broken - it still hurt like hell but I'm a total pussy when it comes to pain. Well, the supercross circus rolled into Indianapolis and while I was doing my Friday 'd'ya have enough goggles for practice' lap of Smith-sponsored riders I came across Davey Castillo, one of our guys who also owns the Asterisk knee brace company. Asterisk have got a mobile medical rig at the races with a fully qualified ER (casualty) doctor in attendance - Doc Bodnar - and after explaining for the 50th time why I was walking like a gimp, Davey said to go see the doc and ask him what his professional opinion was. Well, after removing my shoe he looked concerned (and not just because of the smell) and decided an x-ray was in order. And the result? Yup, I've broken me tibia... I can still walk on it - although I have to wear a Forrest Gump stylee brace - but I'm off the long-term YZF for six to eight weeks so there will not be much in the way of riding to report for a couple of months (I've had a few people saying I was looking miserable when I was seen on the start of the Indy SX on TV - now you know why). So instead of riding I'll start showing you what I have done to the team dbr/Ride MX YZ450F as, instead of a year-long modification job like the last bike, this was all prepped for the show at Stoneleigh. Firstly, as with all new bikes, I went for a total strip down to the bare frame when - if necessary - any small welding jobs can get done (none in this case as the Works Connection skidplate uses the stock mounting brackets). She was then sent off for the hard-wearing powder-coat. Now the blue on a Yamaha is really hard to match but who cares - I was looking for a factory look (the factory YZFs have bare ally frames) and decided to go for a metallic silver finish which I think looks the nuts. The rebuild was done in a rush to get finished in time for the show, although I went over the bike again afterwards to make sure she was good enough to ride. The motor has been left standard as the bike is sooo fast as it is but I did plump for a FMF Power Bomb header and silencer, all in titanium of course. The motor was cleaned and polished on the bench and the ignition, rocker and clutch covers all went for bead blasting as they're magnesium and therefore can't be anodised. After a few days the mag goes a really cool dull grey colour and the painted finish will soon look scabby once I start to ride the thing. The oil filter and waterpump covers were anodised black and a stainless steel Scott's oil filter was fitted to ease any worries about that. Before fitting the motor back into the frame (after grinding the powder-coating off the motor mounts) I also had the top headstay anodised a cool red colour along with the side plate on the carb. Although the anodiser, Rob, looked concerned when this didn't come out the right colour I was pumped as it came back with a cool brownish factory look. Then with a little wet and dry I polished up the Keihin on the side - not that anyone notices! Next for attention were the oil pipes that run from the frame to the motor. I wanted to anodise one red and one blue like the race car oil lines - but you can't anodise anything that isn't aluminium and the ends of these have a pipe attached with a steel collar. Well, I talked Rob into masking these parts and just dipping the exposed end into the tanks. I think they look about the coolest thing on the bike (apart from the suspension of course). With the motor in the frame the rads and electrics went on easy enough with just an I-Cat fitted on the ignition wire (I'll go into these awesome things next month). Then it was time for the swingarm and linkage - just a good polish was in order here and with the new Ohlins shock in place I gave the airbox the once over (sealed the rubber seal), polished the subframe and slapped it on. Next were the triple clamps. Now Steve Dixon - who's run the Yamaha UK squad for as long as anyone can remember - and LA Tooling's Neil Sheppard (a former Brit thumper champ) have started to manufacture their own triple clamps and bar mounts. These are about as factory as it gets and offer an option of bar diameters as well as positions as far as forward and backwards goes. Steve also has a really cool steering nut which I believe is a Yamaha part number from some big road bike although which one is a mystery - and I don't think Steve is about to tell! Also from the Yamaha UK workshops, Steve is manufacturing factory-copy billet rear brake levers which are proper cool and stronger than stock. A result both ways. And they shouldn't be much more expensive than a stock replacement part should you break one. Next to go on is the single most expensive - but also the trickest - mod and that's the Ohlins forks. Now I know these are an extravagant add-on but I genuinely believe they are the best on the market and have been for years. Period. The fact that they look the absolute nuts would be enough for me to own them but you get the best working forks available to the public at a fraction of the cost of a set of factory kit stuff (which you have to sell with the bike at the end of the season). With this stuff you just transplant them onto next year's bike. Simple. The only downside is that the white fork guards look gay - but if this is the only complaint then it's not so bad, eh? Next month I'll go into the wheels and the rest of the bike... Words by Doc Wobbly