Exclusive: First Look at Bill Ballance’s YFZ450R

Doogie

• December 19 2008
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Exclusive: First Look at Bill Ballance’s YFZ450R

Story by John Howell

Photos by Jeremiah Jones

There is no doubt that Yamaha’s Bill Ballance is one of the best ATV racers of all time, regardless of category. The man is “the man” when it comes to GNCC racing and even though he’s not known as a moto-specialist, he can certainly hold his own on a motocross track.
Bill recently started prepping his new YFZ450R for the 2009 GNCC season and we have the first pictures of it right here! Our own executive editor John “Doogie” Howell sat down with Bill to catch up and see what else is new.

Quad Magazine: How long have you been doing testing with the new YFZ450R? Have you been able to get one fully-prepped and ready for GNCC racing?

Bill Ballance: I got a pre-production YFZR back in the beginning of September and we’ve been doing a lot of testing. We’re pretty happy with where it’s at so far.

Quad Magazine: How much stuff have you developed for the bike already?

Bill Ballance: I’ve been working with the guys over at GYTR—I plan on introducing a new line of products through my new company, Bill Ballance Racing. I’ve been testing and developing some new heel guards, pro pegs, nerf bars, A-arm kits, steering stems and suspension linkages. The A-arms, the steering stem and linkage kits are all going to be part of my Ballance Racing Pro Series items. And with the A-arms and linkages I’m going to be working with Ohlins to offer a kit that a person can buy as a complete package. I’m going to offer both a motocross and cross-country specific width kit that comes with Ohlins shocks that I’ve personally dialed-in with baseline settings from all my test sessions. We’ve been testing springs, valving, crossovers…basically everything for the past eight weeks. So once we get a final baseline setting, that’s how the shocks will come set up.
The rear Ohlins shock will also be sold with a one-piece linkage for motocross applications and the cross-country version will come with a two-piece linkage. All the shocks are the higher end stuff—we’re using the TTX version shocks that I’ve been racing on for about a year and a half.

Quad Magazine: That sounds like an awesome setup!

Bill Ballance: At first you’ll be able to get these parts through my shop, but ultimately it’s my goal to partner with GYTR so that the kits are available at any Yamaha dealer out there.

Quad Magazine: So you’ve taken a motocross-specific bike and have set it up for woods racing. How’s it working so far?

Bill Ballance: It’s working great. The process for this new bike started roughly three years ago… As they were developing the platform, Yamaha asked me for some feedback. We had a meeting in California and they asked me what I would do if I was asked to build the “perfect” quad. They ended up sending me a YFZ and told me no holds barred to do what I wanted to do to it. I ended up chopping it up and changed a bunch of things—I changed and repositioned suspension points, changed the width of the frame, basically the entire geometry. I spent eight to nine months on it, nitpicking things, changing stuff, just setting it up the way we wanted it.
Once we finally got to where we were happy with it, we sent it out to California and they tested it a bit out there and then they boxed it up and shipped it to Japan to be tested alongside other versions and other prototypes. Some of my feedback went into the finished quad that you see today.
So a lot of the stuff geometry-wise you see on this quad…well it may be set up as a motocross quad…but the dynamics and geometry of it…well it doesn’t care if it’s set up as a woods bike or a moto bike. The characteristics of the frame and all the geometry points all work perfectly no matter what configuration it’s set up as.

Quad Magazine: What about the engine?

Bill Ballance: The new engine is really nice. The beefed up bottom end, cases, crank, and crank bearings will allow us to throw a lot more horsepower into that engine. We’ve been doing a lot of engine testing—we’ve already gone past the limits of compression and horsepower that the old engine would allow us to do.
The fuel injection is something else, too. It was a learning curve for me. I’ve been stuck in my ways as far as being so used to a carb setup. But I’ve learned so much more about getting the most out of the EFI. We can get a ton of power out of it and it’s so much smoother to ride.

Quad Magazine: What about issues with dead starts?

Bill Ballance: (Laughs) I’d be lying if I said a fuel-injected bike starts as quick as a carb bike. Most people on EFI bikes have struggled a bit to get good starts with theirs. I know the Can-Am guys and Kawi guys have all struggled with their machines off the start and Borich did with his Suzuki. But I’m surrounded by a bunch of really good guys and I’m happy to say that we’ve got it figured out. My new bike starts just as good as last year’s bike. So I’m really looking forward to pulling more holeshots than anyone else.

Quad Magazine: Speaking of next season, before we look ahead, we have to talk about what an amazing season it was last year and what an amazing accomplishment it was to get your ninth consecutive championship! How does it feel to be the greatest cross-country racer of all-time?

Bill Ballance: (Pauses) Personally, I don’t feel that way. A lot of people ask me that and a lot of people see me that way. I just feel honored to be in this sport. The sport has paid me a whole lot more than I’ve ever paid it… I’m just having fun with it and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. It feels good to achieve all the championships that I have, but I’ll still be going to the first round in Florida with the same mindset that I had before I won my first championship—I’ll show up on the line just wanting to race.

Quad Magazine: You mentioned something at the GNCC banquet about how 2009 will be your last year as a full-time racer. Is this really true?

Bill Ballance: Yes, my plan is to get more involved with Yamaha with team management. I think I will be getting more involved across the board with their racing programs—in both motocross and GNCC. I still want to show up and race but I’m looking forward to relaxing a little bit more. I don’t want to be chasing a championship after next year. I hope to go race a few GNCCs and maybe even head out west and race a few WORCS events with Dustin Nelson. Maybe I’ll put together a team and race in France or even here in the U.S. Basically I want to transition over to a manager role and help everyone that is going to race for Yamaha—help them build bikes and test—you name it. I might even do a few schools with Jeremiah Jones once I can devote more time to it down the road.
We’ve also got our Ballance MX facility where we’re doing the GNC national in ’09 as well, so we’ll be busy with the track too. We might even hold some endurance races there in 2009 as well.

Quad Magazine: What about your program for 2009—any big changes?

Bill Ballance: The program is pretty similar but there are a few different companies helping out. Of course I’d like to thank Yamaha, Maxxis tires, Hyper wheels, Ohlins, GT Thunder, Fasst Co., Moose Racing, Klotz, Ballance Racing Products, GYTR, and I’d like to thank my crew as well.

Quad Magazine: Thanks Bill, and again, congratulations on your ninth championship!

Bill Ballance: Thanks a lot!