Riding in the breeze and the sun in your face brings a warm feeling but even a warmer feeling is when you can find yourself a great deal and are able to fix it up while maintaining a budget.  Being on a budget doesn’t mean you cannot have fun you just need to be more creative.   Progress thus far on budget mode has been good but the need for entertainment is desired.  We got the urge to head back to the sand dunes, we needed a plan to follow in order to not derail our budget but also treat ourselves to some fun. We decided that we should purchase a quad as we have had dirt bikes, atc three-wheelers, before.

We sold a few things on craigslist and gathered enough cash to purchase project number one.  We had to set the standards for what we were looking for because when you are on a budget it can get pretty discouraging what you can afford.  We were willing to settle for a quad that would need work as long as the engine had good compression and the cosmetics of the quad would not be too far gone.  Just as long as the engine is good. Since we hope to be able to travel with our quads a title would be a must.   So the black hole of craigslist inquiries began.  Our first find was a flop.  We drove straight after work twenty miles in what the owner of the quad told us that it was running like a top and would be worth the drive and money.  It was a little over the price that we hoped for but if the quad was as good looking in person as it was in the pictures it would be worth it for a Raptor 660. 

We arrived and the quad was rolled out from under a cover only to reveal an over sprayed, tortured, twice busted quad.  As we held on to optimism, we figured that the hype would be the engine.  The engine fired up and a plume of white smoke filled the air.  We didn’t even want a test drive or attempt to haggle.  Disappointment always accompanies settling for the next best thing, which out here it is hard to find the next best thing.  Anything that looks promising is already sold or the seller wants to sell it but not really sell it. Confusing it is.

After a few more fails and even door to door shop visits we found a possible candidate once again out of town about 20 miles east.  Feeling hesitant after all the disappointments we decided to go look.  We drove up to house to find the quad chained to a tree.  The seller was firm on the price until we pointed out how bent the steering stem was.  He looked shocked and we came to an agreement and loaded her up.  A 2006 YZF450. The first year of the new look from the previous generation of YZFs.  The engine was tight and there were several things that need attention but this was a good candidate to bring back to awesome condition.

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As mentioned the steering stem was bent…bad.  Having called every single motorcycle/atv shop in town no one had a steering stem. It could only be ordered for about 200 dollars and would take about a week and  half to arrive.  We decided to fix the stem on our own.  Having visited all the hardware shops in town no one had the correct diameter of steel pole.  Our last hope was the Ramsey Steel company in our town.  They had the correct diameter of steel and it was $20.00 for 20’.  Although we needed only a small piece we would have pieces for experiments later. We measured and welded and we then had our new steering stem!  It did not look very pretty but it worked.

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The engine was covered with oil that had been sloshing out of the oil tank from a leaky o-ring.  This made the engine look worn and dirty.  We replaced the o-ring on the dipstick and the residual of oil would be no more.  The engine was looking better after we degreased it.  The ball joints were destroyed, crispy and crunchy.  We did not notice that this quad already had extended a-arms until we began looking for the replacement boots!  We removed the a-arms and spray painted them with epoxy and painted the chips in the shocks with nail polish.

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The rest of the repairs were cosmetic.  The covers by the pegs were broken.  We searched for them on ebay where they ranged in price from 50.00 to 200.00 which was out of our price range.  We decided to straighten the guards as much as possible and rivet a small piece of metal to the back.  Now the exhaust was LOUD.  Loud exhaust is sweet but this one was ridiculously loud.  We considered replacing the entire exhaust because it was also scratched and blemished.  We looked them up and the price of even a generic brand was going for $400. So yes lets fix the one it came with.  Upon further examination, we realized that the baffling had been taken out.  We found exhaust baffling at Cycle Gear and ten dollars later we had a nice mellow exhaust. 

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The header pipe was a mess but we were able to polish it to remove the rusty mess.  The original heat shield was not on the bike for the exhaust.  That sucker gets hot, like fry your calves hot.  To work with what we have we snagged a small heat shield off of my old BMW motorcycle exhaust and welded screw holes to attach!

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We had money left over that we had set aside for repairs but since we were able to repair them with things that we already had we were able to grab a set of sand paddles and vinyl wrap!  We honestly tried to make our own stickers, we really did.  We ended up wasting two rolls of Oracle Vinyl and the quad ended up looking like a penguin.

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We were unhappy with how it looked so we just gave in and purchased a vinyl graphics kit specially designed for this bike. We did not use all the money we allotted for repairs so we decided to go for the splurge.

YFZ450 project complete and ready for fun under the sun! Keep it cheeky!

Tags: ATV, ATV on a budget, budget project, DIY ATV repair, fun under the sun, Quad redo, sand dunes, sand paddles, yamaha, YFZ450