Jonah Street’s Yamaha WR450 Dakar racer

This is Jonah Street’s new Dakar racer. The American rider finished seventh overall last year on a KTM, but the advent of the new 450cc capacity limit has seen him migrate to a 2011 Yamaha WR450-based racer. Two of these bikes were built, Jonah will take one to Argentina and is selling the other (the practice bike) to help fund his efforts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRqoXF-E73c

Built by Spain’s JVO Racing, this WR450 incorporates typical Dakar features like a huge fairing, a self-supporting tail unit that incorporates one of the two gas tanks giving the bike a total of 9.2 gallons of capacity. For controlling the weight distribution, a tap selects whether the engine draws from the front or rear tank or both.

Here’s the complete list of additons:

-Self Supporting Tail

-Tail Mounted Toolbox

-35 liter Fuel Capacity

-Plastic Petrol Tanks

-Diaphragm Air Fuel Pump

-Decanter Fuel Filter

-Tap for emptying front and rear tanks separately or at the same time

-Quick Fuel Line Disconnects for Fuel Tanks

-"ICO"odometer mount

-Repeating courses mount

-GPS, Tri-Track and CAP Repeater antenna mounts

-Manually and automatically activated electric fans

-MD Roadbook holder

-All in one Road Book and ICO switch holder

-Over sized 300 mm front disk (with clip holder and ICO sensor mount)

-Low or high mudguards (Carbon/Kevlar) depending on the terrain

-carbon/kevlar fiber fairing

-Carbon/kevlar skid plate with water tank

-Elevated air filter cage

-Higher capacity battery

-Carburetor kits

-Seat (adjustable to three different heights as needed by the rider)

-Handle bar risers for riding in a standing position

-Frame mounted fairing stay

-Electric Kit installation independent of the bike's system, split into two parts, the frame part and the upper part on the fairing stay with an eight element fuse box, with a fuse and an independent connection for every navigation system and extra features like xenon lights, oil pressure LEDs, manual fan button, Roadbook, ICO, GPS, Sentiel, Iritrack, etc.

-Rear dust light

All in, the Dakar kit adds just 31 lbs to the WR450’s 267 lb wet weight (we’re guessing that addition doesn’t include fuel in the tanks). Jonah’s asking $20,000 for the practice bike, which sounds pretty reasonable for a turn-key rally competitor. The bike is being sold by Jonah’s sponsor, Touratech-USA.

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