Just gotta dedicate this post to the last couple years of good riding on what I thought was an awesome bike, my 2008 YZ450F.

Things I loved:

• Looks: the white, black and red looked really good I thought… although the 2009 with the black wheels looked even better.
• Factory Connection suspension: before I even rode this bike, I sent the suspension off to Factory Connection and had them re-do the springs/valving for off-road/trail riding. It ended up matching my style of riding perfectly and felt like a cadillac through all the little technical chop. It was a little soft on the whoops and any type of significant jump, but I don’t do that very much anyway.
• Coming off my CRF450X, this bike felt a lot smaller and lighter with a lower center of gravity, seemed like it was a lot easier to recover if I lost my balance or got crossed up in ruts and roots.
• Power was plenty for me and easy to manage.
• Reliable, I never had any type of serious problem with this bike, just regular maintenance and TLC.

Things I didn’t like:

• Kicking it, I was spoiled that my first real bike had e-start. Fortunately, I learned how to hold my mouth just right in about any situation and could usually start it in just a couple of kicks. Cold= choke, 3 squirts, don’t touch the throttle, kick. Hot= half squirt, barely pull on hot start, kick. After wreck= hop on right foot while spinning counter-clockwise, hot start full open, kick 4 or 5 times… etc.
• No kickstand, took me a little while to remember to turn off my gas every time I laid he bike down. Made it a lot harder to ride with the kids and jump off to help them when they tip it over.

I hope the gentleman who bought it off KSL will enjoy it as much as I did!

New (to me) bike: 2009 KTM 450 XCF. Thanks to my buddy Zac for giving me a deal I couldn’t pass up. He took really good care of this bike and it has quite a bit less hours than my Yamaha was getting on it. So far, I’ve ridden it in Moab, Cherry Creek, California, and a couple of trails up by Dayton, ID. I love it! It’s already a lot more scratched and probably feels a lot more abused than when Zac had it, but I think this is the start of my favorite bike relationship. Hopefully, I’ll be able to stay injury free and find time to get it out regularly.