Get New 2016 Wr450F?

I'm thinking about adding another bike to the garage. I hear the all new 2016 WR450F rides much smoother on street than it's predecessor. Any thoughts on making one street legal and turning it into a supermoto/Dual sport? I see there is a guy on youtube who got one and says it's awesome on street.

It's hard to speculate on ease of conversion to street legal without knowing where you live. Some of the WRF bikes come street legal from the factory in Australia and some states (like California) make it almost impossible to ever get plates for one.

Here in Idaho a dirt bike is street legal if it has headlight, tail/brake light, horn, one mirror, and a license plate. No official inspections are required to get the plate. Compliance is up to the police or judge to determine later if they have reason to question it. The exhaust system is supposed to be no louder than factory, but that's tough for a police officer to prove unless you've got a crazy loud pipe.

IMHO the biggest advantage of the WRR, and the reason I chose it over the more powerful WRF, is the bomber tough 10,000 RPM engine with crazy long maintenance intervals and confidence in cruising 65 MPH for hours on end.

wwguy wrote:

It's hard to speculate on ease of conversion to street legal without knowing where you live.  Some of the WRF bikes come street legal from the factory in Australia and some states (like California) make it almost impossible to ever get plates for one.

Here in Idaho a dirt bike is street legal if it has headlight, tail/brake light, horn, one mirror, and a license plate.  No official inspections are required to get the plate.  Compliance is up to the police or judge to determine later if they have reason to question it.  The exhaust system is supposed to be no louder than factory, but that's tough for a police officer to prove unless you've got a crazy loud pipe.

IMHO the biggest advantage of the WRR, and the reason I chose it over the more powerful WRF, is the bomber tough 10,000 RPM engine with crazy long maintenance intervals and confidence in cruising 65 MPH for hours on end.

I'm in Ohio, we can make a WRF street legal here just like Idaho. I'm not getting rid of my wr250r, just adding a third bike to the garage. I agree with you, better to have less maintenance and a 6th gear. It will be nice to have two trail bikes, one as a back-up.

Given the price, I'd look hard at the Beta RS430 or 480. Both have really nice suspension, reputation for quality and are basically plated dirt bikes that are street legal. Once they're street legal and sold that way, they can't take that away from you. Same with the dual sport KTM and Husky stuff. Several states have started to institute programs where if you have a plated dirt bike that was originally intended for off road use, they're pulling the registrations at renewal time. If it wasn't sold in the states as a legal dirt bike but was "gray" converted, the state can pull it at any time and there is no recourse. They're allowing you to operate a bike that has "sold for offroad use only" on the certificate of origin, on public roads. Those loopholes are closing in some places. Just keep in mind that because you can get a plate for it now, it doesn't mean that you will get to keep it.

Traveller wrote:

Given the price, I'd look hard at the Beta RS430 or 480.   Both have really nice suspension, reputation for quality and are basically plated dirt bikes that are street legal.   Once they're street legal and sold that way, they can't take that away from you.   Same with the dual sport KTM and Husky stuff.  Several states have started to institute programs where if you have a plated dirt bike that was originally intended for off road use, they're pulling the registrations at renewal time.  If it wasn't sold in the states as a legal dirt bike but was "gray" converted, the state can pull it at any time and there is no recourse.  They're allowing you to operate a bike that has "sold for offroad use only" on the certificate of origin, on public roads.   Those loopholes are closing in some places.   Just keep in mind that because you can get a plate for it now, it doesn't mean that you will get to keep it.  

This is true. I was talking to a guy at a dealership who converted a wr250f street legal and he tried to turn around and register it in his home state of FL and was coldly DENIED, said bikes with original off-road only titles could NOT be titled in FL. So he ended up having to keep the bike in ohio where he works in the summertime. Yeah, I'll skip the street legal conversion bs, espcially after reading your comment.

Thanks for the feedback!