EP#55 - Yamaha YZ450F v Triumph TF450-X TESTED!

How similar are the Yamaha YZ450F and Triumph TF450-X? Both have KYB suspension and both have alloy frames so we put the up against each other to find out. Hint, they're nothing alike....

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the ADB podcast where we talk all things dirt with your host, Mitch Lee. All right, the question everyone's been asking, is the Yamaha and the Triumph really that similar? Yes, they both run alloy chazois. Yes, they both have KYB suspension, but they are from two different areas of the world, two completely different manufacturers, one that's been doing motocross bikes and dirt bikes for 50, 60 years, the other one that's been doing it for not even 24 months in this capacity. So we wanted to compare the two of them to dispel a whole bunch of myths that everyone keeps asking us about and telling us, oh, that's just a Yamaha with a KDM motor or whatever it is. So we thought we'd put them up against each other. That is the Yamaha YZ450F and the Triumph TF450MX. How different are they? That's what we want to know. And Yamaha won hour the 450cc motocross shootout last year. It is the king uh in that space. It's just because of its incredible power. Can the Triumph A TF450 MX take it down? This is the MX model, not the RC model, not to be confused with the Ryan Ricky Carmichael model. Uh the Ricky Carmichael model is the kind of dark art, this is the upper spec version, but this is the MX, which is the stock triumph of TF450 motocross bike. So we got uh three testers, three different very different testers to jump on this bike and go back to back. We had a induro motocross guy in Jeff Braco, we had a full-blown motocross guy in Wes Mills, and we had uh Jeff Briggs, who is also uh a motocross guy who does Enduro. They all kind of fit the 250 or 450 caliber and they rip. So their feedback was uh crucial to us. So here's what they thought of the Yamaha versus the Triumph the Tier 450 MX, if you're trying to make up your mind on which one to buy. Uh before I rip into this test, we stuck the microphone under them as soon as they got off the bike. So here's their raw feedback. But before we even do that, I'm gonna thank Dunlop for sponsoring the show with the 8082 tire. Thank you, Dunlop, for helping us get this podcast out. It's a cool tire, it's multi-directional, which means if the terrain changes, you can flick the tire around and get more traction on one side of the knob, depending on whether or not the terrain is soft or hard, and then turn it back around for the other uh composition. So that's a cool tire. Hayden Degan's running one in Supercross, so it must be pretty good. So go check it out. That's the Dunlop AT82. Anyway, without further ado, let's rip into our test on the Yamaha YZ450F versus the Triumph TF450MX. Okay, we are now done with the 2026 Yamaha YZ450F versus the 2026 Triumph TF450X. Um we've rung in Briggsy, we didn't have him here for the intro, apologies, but we've brought in Briggsy to do some testing with us too, because he's ridden both of these and every other 450 motorcyc 40cc motocross bike under the sun at our 2025 motocross shootout last year. Uh now we'll start with you, Braco, over there. Um you were faster on the Triumph uh by a second and a half on our lap times. Um how do the are the two bikes actually this might be a good question for all of you are the two bikes as similar as everyone assumes they are because they have a similar frame or similar similar characteristics? Are these two bikes the same?

SPEAKER_02 3:09

No, no.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

What breakout differences?

SPEAKER_03 3:12

Uh for me the Yamaha is a much more like just motocross purpose-built machine, whereas I feel that is the Triumph is a much more user-friendly machine. The seats, like for example, just basically seats softer, I feel that suspension's a lot softer. This thing here, the seat's a lot harder. The power's unbelievable on this bike. Um and just overall, I feel like this bike here is more of a just a hardcore motocross bike, whereas I think that one there is more of a vet motocross machine. They're both epic. Um I actually preferred saying if we're doing like a 30-minute moto, I think I'd survive more on the Triumph than the Yamaha just because of the comfort. Um, but um yeah, I mean that's the biggest thing is this thing just feels this is just more aggressive across the board, suspension, motor, like Ergos, everything's just a bit more um not so much refined, but just more aggressive.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Um you can obviously map these bikes. This this has mapping on the handlebar, so does that one. Um this has a few more gadgets on the traction control, launch control, quick shift of the bits and pieces. Do you think it would be possible to get that bike to feel like this one in stock trim or this or this one to feel like that one? What's going to be if you want more power, say out of the triumph, will it be easier getting into YZ power, or would it be easier buying a YZ and mellowing it down to be like a Triumph?

SPEAKER_03 4:33

I think you'd be better off mellowing this down. I prefer this in the the blue map, which is the mellower map, um, because you can always get the suspension a bit softer, whereas I think you do a little bit more work, whether it's mapping or exhaust or whatever, but this bike is by far the fastest 450 motocross uh I've ridden in a long time, and it's just it's just angry. And it's a it's a lot of fun too, because you just come out of a corner, it just explodes. Whereas that is just a lot more linear and more aggressive. But I just find I I think that was easier to ride for me. You know?

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Um we talked about we're gonna ask all you guys this gearing. Um we talked about this is quite a tall geared bike when we did our launch on this bike a couple of weeks ago. It's got geared tall, we think that's because it was geared for the American tracks to be a bit more fast and flowy and open. Um do you agree? And and now going back to back with the gearing, do you notice a difference in the gearing between the Yamaha and the Triumph?

SPEAKER_03 5:28

Yeah, the obviously this has been built for a very long time. That's in what, its second year? So there's still a few little teething issues with that. But the gear ratios and everything on this bike are pretty spot on, whereas that I still need a little bit more rider input, especially upshifting, the gearbox doesn't feel as clean. Um, but I mean yeah, it's it's still a very, very enjoyable bike. But I mean you've you'd because this won the shootout last year, didn't it? And I'm pretty sure it wins a lot of the 450 motocross shootout, so it's kind of hard putting it up against that, putting it up against the top dog class versus the new kid on the block sort of needs a bit of mucking around or whatever, but I think yeah, like everything else is pretty awesome on it.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

So yeah, yeah, that is the benchmark. Uh Wes Um yeah, this is the first time you've actually ridden either of these two bikes. Yep. Uh did they feel similar, hopping off them back to back? That's the comparison everyone makes when they looked at these when they came out. Oh, it's like a Yamaha because mainly because of the frame, I think, is what people are looking at.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

Uh not at all.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

And KYB suspension.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

Look, not at all. Like, but the th the funny thing is when you jump from one to the other, they're both fantastic bikes. So they both didn't do anything weird, like out of like that has comfort, that has comfort. The motor characteristics, what we just talked about, just being so smooth and linear, gives you that feeling of like, alright, I know exactly what the motor's gonna do quite quick early on, but then most of the day I've been working out the motor, what it will do, being aggressive, being smooth, so it's more of a longer time like a like a longer sort of period getting used to the motor with Yamaha. But for a new bike, with its I think with having a softer seat and um the ergos are perfect, really. Um, you you get comfortable straight away on that. Um I'm a bit biased because I've always had Yamahas and always never had issues, and always feel that comfort of like the most sketchy stuff I've ever done is on a YZ125, and having a blue fender in front kind of gives you that um kind of like consciousness of I'm on a Yamaha, you know these bikes a little bit. When you jump on that and you see a black fender, I'm like, am I doing freestyle or um am I riding? But that that really shocked me how how good it is for a new model bike. It's not like where it's got big teething issues, yeah. Like the tire the tyres make a big difference, but it just overall, as a package, the forks and everything like that gave you so much confidence to ride at a smooth pace. But I found that, like for instance, I stalled on this and we're doing lap times, it was a quick stall, but for me to panic to get going again, these have so much speed and power to catch back up on a straight. I stalled on a corner, had a straight. Yeah, and I felt like I was doing the same speed by the end, but it's not like in any marks, meaning that bike is slow, it's just that's wildly fast. You can just leave it in like like we were talking before about Wheelsie riding, supposedly riding Supercross all in second gear. Like I gave it a crack and it sounds cool. Like, yeah, so you know screen.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

So you were uh a second break. I was a second faster on this, you were a second and a half faster on that one. Yeah. Why why do you think that is? Where is it that you're getting a second and a half on the Yamaha instead of the Triumph?

SPEAKER_02 8:41

I think just because um I tend to be in a I I'm more of an aggressive rider just for riding little bikes for a long time, and it like luckily everything went well and the bike was working and I felt comfortable. I think it's just my style being a little bit more on the aggressive side. I tend to it like I lent towards the enjoyment of having something quite exciting. But if I was to punch out motos, long motos and train and want to I would probably lean towards the triumph.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Yeah, okay. Uh Brizzy, now you're you have ridden, like I said earlier, every single motocross bike on the planet. We case you can't think of one that you haven't. Fantic TM beta, um everything in between. We we rode this bike a couple of weeks ago and we wanted to know kind of where it sits against the rest. And it's always hard to tell when you ride a bike as a standalone how it goes against everything else, because you don't have the other bikes that are on the track at the same time. We did today, and we had the winner, like Braco said, of our 2025 motocross shootout. So, how does the YZF, sorry, the Triumph compare to the YZF? And how does the Triumph compare to maybe all those other bikes that you've ridden now that you've ridden one of the bikes back to back with it?

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Uh for me I'd put it it'd be third in in out of the eight bikes that we rode. I'd I'd say that, KDM, and then the Triumph. Yep. I'd put it above the Honda, above the Cowie, above the Husky Gas Gas. Um personally, I I really prefer the KYB. I felt like the KDM at that shootout had really good settings in the forks and the rear, it was a nice bike, but I don't think you can go wrong with the front ends and the rears on these. The KYB is the biggest takeaway for me, it's just so reliable and predictable. Uh the Yamaha, personally, for me, I found sort of pogoed a little more because of the aggressiveness. Like you'd come out of the out on the gas out of a corner, it wanted to pop the front wheel up more where this being so smooth. And I and like I said, I think changing the ratio, you would get a a more of a not a Yamaha feel, but more power with a two-teeth taller rear sprocket to bring it back to the same gearing as these. So it's kind of hard to compare, but as as they are, this one you you tend to just light it up. I end up finding I ride upper gear on that, which then feels more like the second gear on this versus the third on that. So uh I prefer the Yamaha personally, but it's not they're so close, it's I mean they're both great bikes, and I think if you set that one up a little bit more, just refined it like Braco said, a few different things, you could really get them pretty close.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Uh when you say so close, obviously you guys all said at the start, despite what everyone thinks it looks like a Yamaha, it's it's doesn't feel like a Yamaha at all. You mean closes in this is its own characteristics, but it's still also very good. That one's its own characteristics, it's good. Um why is it not close? What what do it feels like when you're standing, when you're standing and gripping with your knees, when you're sitting down and you're going through a rut, what is it that feels not close?

SPEAKER_01 11:38

It it's more about where you're gonna ride it to make it close or not close. So for me, that one I could go out on a pretty beat-up motocross track and have confidence that I can go faster on a motocross track than on this. Just this one, I feel like that little bit softer suspension, you just use you just find you're going a little bit more cautious. This settles a little bit easier in the corners at times, but then I find this turns better for me where Braco he actually preferred the turning of the triumph.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

So would it yeah, it would have been it would have been interesting if we had deep ruts today because I feel like this one would have just loved it. Turned in better. Uh not so much turning in, it just had so much mid-corner comfort. Yep. Um this this did as well, but that's where I found did you find that mostly in that corner?

SPEAKER_01 12:20

I actually f I I really but I've come off with Yamaha 450 last year, so I sort of maybe my comfort's there more for that reason. I found it that you sit there, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:30

You because this one, because this is so firm, I feel like you're sitting up high on the you're sitting up higher, and then it's got a higher bar bend, and so you sort of like maybe just a bit more off the ground, whereas that one is sort of instantly the seat's more comfortable, and so that you're sort of like okay, and then the bars are a bit lower. So I don't know whether it's just you just I feel like you sit a bit lower, so therefore you can be over top of it a bit more. I'm not sure, but that's where I was at with the turning part of it. I feel like I'm more over the top of that bike than this bike.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Both had incredible front wheel feel as well.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

It's interesting, like that, like you talked about Braco, just the despite having a similar frame, I guess, and KYB suspension, because of the geometry of the bike, it actually doesn't, despite those characteristics being the same on a spec sheet, it doesn't feel they don't feel the same because of that when you're riding.

SPEAKER_03 13:14

Yeah, and even the the levers, because the levers on this bike, this actually feels different, both like either one feels different either side, whereas down that they feel the same. And so I kind of I think I still prefer the Brembo brake and clutch setup, and so that sort of it's kind of it's it's kind of a nice hybrid mix. Like it's exactly what it is. Like you look at it and you think, oh, that's kind of you know, you don't really want to say it's kind of like a Yamaha frame and front and forks and shock with sort of like a Euro KDM sort of, you know, Brembo brakes there known to be on KDMs, and so you sort of look at it and go, Oh, it's a hybrid, and it's exactly how it yeah, exactly how I would imagine a KDM and a Yamaha sort of together. It's kind of and I don't want to take that away from Triumph because it's it is their own thing, but that's sort of they've built it on these proven rather products and yeah, the motor almost feels kind of like a Honda-ish too, I reckon, not that smoother. Yeah, it kind of feels like it is the motor is like it it's so much quieter as well, that bike and this bike, and it's just it's funny you come out of a corner and you go like this on the Yamaha and you go bop, and whereas on that it's just more like it just drives, yeah. Like it's hard to explain the how fast this thing is off the bottom. Like this thing is just incredible off the bottom.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Yeah, I nearly died on that today.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

So it's slippery. It's amazing like it's really, really, really impressive how much power this thing has. Yeah, honestly, if you had like an epic grass.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

I don't know how they got it out of it, like from a stock trim to be that they turned the murder around.

SPEAKER_03 14:38

Like on my FX that I had last year on a grass track when you had ruts to come into and you just got that, it's just so fun. You know, it's got that it's like where's it? It's like it's bloody exciting.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

It's like an old two-stroke feel. Yeah, it's just everything is more.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

I just I wonder what playlists were playing when they were building these, and what playlist was playing in Japan when they built this, like you know.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Uh okay, all right, there you kind of hear it uh from those that have gone back to back. We've done lap times, uh, and like we explained, the lap times have popped up in the video you've just seen, and they yeah, were uh Braco was faster than the Triumph, uh, and Wes and Briggsy were faster than the Yamaha. So uh and and with our split by about a second and a second a bit. So uh the boys also said that you know, despite sharing the same frame and suspension or a similar frame and suspension, they actually feel completely dis uh dissimilar. And yeah, the Triumph sounds like it's kind of a good breed between the Yamaha and a Eurobike. It's that kind of perfect combination. So we're gonna actually go and do some testing now on that brand and this brand in the bush with their Enduro model. So stay tuned for that video, guys. Uh, as for now, that's it, and we'll see you at the next one.