SEARCH FOR THE BEST (THE OLD SCHOOL WAY): YAMAHA YZ450 EXHAUST PIPE SHOOTOUT

The Yamaha YZ450F was all-new in 2023, it stayed the same for 2024 and has some minor updates on the 2025 model. This bike won our 450 Shootout the last two years, but it’s still not a perfect machine. With this test, we wanted to manipulate the power to make the bottom-end engine character smoother and easier to ride. For this test, we lined up the FMF, Yoshimura, Pro Circuit, DR.D, HGS and stock exhausts and put them head-to-head for the ultimate shootout.

We didn’t water this test down with a decibel test, dyno runs, lap times, different ECUs or market foof—just one man in the sadddle on the same day telling what they felt like.

This test was done once last year with Dennis Stapleton and Josh Mosiman when the bike had a cable clutch, and we did it again (and filmed it this time) with Shawn Bushnell at the helm using Yamaha’s GYTR Brembo hydraulic clutch system.