

This man is happy only because he hasn't yet seen the dyno chart for the bike that he confidently and proudly rode way out into the middle of nowhere. Sometimes it's what you know, rather than what you don't know, that hurts...

maximum number produced among several attempts - and Chris didn't hold back anything as he pushed the bike to its limit with each run. Needless to say, this result was even poorer than expected. After the realization had set-in that my 450cc WR only produced a little more power than a souped-up KTM 65cc 2-stroke, I nearly slipped into a depression (editor's note: members of the local riding community, employees of PPS and University colleagues set up an around-the-clock watch on Dustin just to make sure that a combination of anguish and access to race gas didn't get the best of him during this delicate time). I began to go through stages of denial and isolation, hopelessness and loss of confidence, anxiety and anger,... I needed to take care of this ASAP to preserve my dignity. This brings us to phase 2. But first, for the Yamaha loyalists out there who may feel that they cannot read any more of this, I want to say that this, thankfully, is a story of overcoming hopelessness and regret with a happy ending...so read on. So just how corked is the out-of-the-box 2008 WR? Well you may be quite surprised by the dyno results. Dyno runs (honest ones, anyway) are rarely supplied by OEMs. In the case of the WR I'm sure this is out of pure shame and utter embarrassment. I have just two words for you: Nineteen horsepower. That's right, don't rub your eyes - the bone stock WR450F profiled here produced a walloping 19.2 maximum horsepower during the initial dyno runs. Worse yet, this was thenumber produced among several attempts - and Chris didn't hold back anything as he pushed the bike to its limit with each run. Needless to say, this result was even poorer than expected. After the realization had set-in that my 450cc WR only produced a little more power than a souped-up KTM 65cc 2-stroke, I nearly slipped into a depression (editor's note: members of the local riding community, employees of PPS and University colleagues set up an around-the-clock watch on Dustin just to make sure that a combination of anguish and access to race gas didn't get the best of him during this delicate time). I began to go through stages of denial and isolation, hopelessness and loss of confidence, anxiety and anger,... I needed to take care of this ASAP to preserve my dignity. This brings us to phase 2. But first, for the Yamaha loyalists out there who may feel that they cannot read any more of this, I want to say that this, thankfully, is a story of overcoming hopelessness and regret with a happy ending...so read on.