Ok guys so I recently bought a yz450f 2007 and im heading to glamis april 2-4th for the first time. I just bought a dune flag for it and I'm curious which is the most common/ easiest / cheapest way of mounting it on the bike.

I've heard they break off too easily with the swingarm mounts, but im not looking to drop 20-30 bucks on one of the good frame mounting brackets.

Any good ideas? Like duct taping it to the chest protector or something? How do most people go about this?

Thanks!

Well, it is supposed to be mounted to the bike, but I cut my whip down to about 3-4ft. and put it in my hydration pack.

Yeah I'm leaning toward doing something like that because I don't want to put holes in my fenders either.

I have mine hooked up to my swingarm. I only started riding a big bike a little over a year ago, so I've taken my fair share of sand in the face

Never broken my whip though In fact my boyfriend has the mount on his subframe, and that breaks way more. Think about it the whip has more play up towards where your body is, that way if your leg or any other body part swings by it on a dismount, intentional or otherwise, it moves out of the way. On the subframe there's no play so it just snaps.

True, how does the swingarm take the jumps I would think the shock would be too much? I have heard using the swingarm mount plus a zip tie to the rear fender keeps it from swinging around too much too.

Used to have the flag mounted to my swing arm. Hated it. From a safety/visibility standpoint, I prefer it in my pack. When I stand on my pegs, which is 90% of the time, my flag is approx. 11-12ft off the ground compared to 7-8ft when on the swing arm.

Well now your talking to a newb when it comes to getting air. I'm not that cool yet But I forgot to add about the ziptie. A kid I ride with who does jump and rides like a bat outta hell has his flag mounted like that and he said he has no problems. I just haven't gotten around to that yet.

Charred is right about the visibility though - in your pack it's much taller.

I ride four wheels, but I do ride with several of you two wheeler types. In the past, the two wheelers in our group used the swing arm mounts and the whip in the chest protector. But now, all of the two wheelers in our group have switched to mounting their whip through the rear fender. You install it about 3-5 inches back from the seat. You just drill or melt a hole in your fender and install the standard bolted whip. All of them say that is the best way to do it.

Ok so since my last post I had picked up my 8 paddle and whip mount on the swingarm. I put the paddle on and attached the whip via the swingarm mount and am going to ziptie it to my rear fender some other time.

I will try it this way for my first trip out there, if it snaps i figure il tape it to my chest protector for the rest of the time. Then go with the hole in the rear fender method and see how that goes.

Appreciate all the help guys, never been to the dunes before, so im trying to get everything right the first time haha

Good luck and have fun!

BTW: Looks like your chain is a little tight.

Woah howd that happen lol good catch I totally didn't see that. Thats wierd it wasnt that tight when I looked at it but it is now.

Thanks, gonna go fix that haha

Remember to leave the zip tie to the fender a little loose.

Happens to me all the time!

k chain fixed haha

adbrothers: you think a quarter sized hole would be good for the ziptie?

Sorry, I wasnt too clear. I mean dont tighten the zip tie tight to the whip, I'm hoping your suspention moves so the whip will need to be albe to slide in the zip tie.

lol yeah I know what you mean

Thanks again guys, april 2-4th il be there so il let you know what happens haha

i have a steel piece that i had mounted on the side of my frame. it is bolted on to where the number plate is bolted to. i can take a pic of it if it will help you out.

If you're going to put a hole in the fender for a zip tie, why not just bolt the whip to the fender direct. Either way, you have a hole.

Yeah get some pics! lol

hondajimz: I could put a little barely noticeable hole on the side of my fender as opposed to a huge hole right in the middle of it. If the swingarm mount ends up being crappy however, i'm going to have to do it that way then.

edit: Put the hole and zip tie in it, look right?

Use a black ziptie, the blue doesn't match That's how I will do mine though, I like it

x2. this is the way to go.

i currently have it mounted to an fword industries swing arm mount. hate it. always hanging my leg up on the flag getting off and on the bike. gonna cut it down and mount it to my costco brand "camelback"

In 4 years, I have yet to break a whip this way.

been using this method for years. I stopped breaking whips after going to this method with the swingarm.

Always used this method, never had a problem, even had a spare rear fender for the dunes and would swap it with the paddle!

the blue isnt exact but close enough I had a blue and a kawi green one so i opted for blue lol

saychz: how much was your "costco" camelback?

i use the swingarm mount with no problem except getting my foot hung up in it getting on and off the bike. The fender mount scares me because if it breaks you will have that jagged piece of fiberglass in a bad spot

What's the reasoning behind mounting it the fender not breaking them as easy as the swingarm mount? The fact that the fender moves less i guess? It just seems like the swingarm mount plus the extra support from the ziptie on the fender would be more sturdy then just bolted to the fender.

sorry took so long. but here is a pic of my set up that i really do like.

Click to view attachment

Thats pretty sweet, you said it bolts with that bolt we see in the pic right?

yeah theres actually two bolts one for the pipe and the other for the number plate/seat mount bolt. i made it where it had two bolt holes to stay staytionary. never once had it broke of even after falling. just have to be a little carefull getting on and off the bike with your foot.

Thats cool, i'l think about doing that if I turn into a dune crazy person after this first trip haha

if you live near riverside just let me know and bring the bike on over and you will have one too.

haha awesome, I live in az tho glendale to be exact

K, got back sunday night from Glamis. Got to say I fkn LOVE THE DUNES! Only crashed 3 times lol and they were mostly because I tried riding up sideways on a dune that was like quicksand when you get on it. I hate that! You never know until your bike sinks into the sand.

As far as the whip goes. It worked great with the ziptie on the fender up until the last day. I noticed during the trip that the ziptie was getting cracked and about to break off but I kept forgetting to replace it. SO what I'm thinking happened is that when I hit a jump on the last day the ziptie finally broke off and all that was supporting the whip was the swingarm mount. It broke off and I ended up ziptying it to my chest protector for the final ride of sunday.

only 3 crashes thats great. Most all mine have been slow speed dumps when the front tire digs in.glad you had a good time

one of my friends has a swingarm mount and we broke two in one day, then he bought the fender mount and it worked great. I dont have one yet, so I just zip tie mine to my chest protector for now until i can find one that isnt a ripoff on price.

I live near Riverside

clicky

This is mount I use. Never broken a whip...3 seasons on it.

Click to view attachmentClick to view attachment

Sweet mount 50grit. I really like that its further back but also higher up for more visibility.

I do believe I'll be purchasing some of those.

This higher steel subframe style mount works wonders. I have broken SEVERAL swingarm mounts over the years.. They usually work well until I or one of the guys I ride with starts jumping.. If that higher loop is too small.. It will bind and snap.. Last trip, we broke 3 whips this way.. The only one I've broken mounted on the subframe like this one was when I endoed over a razor back and went to the Brawley Med center.. It's held up to quite a few crashes.

I'm baaaaaackkkkk! lol

My second Glamis trip is March 1st-6th or whenever I run out of gas. Whichever comes first.

However since my last trip resulted in a broken whip as documented in this thread, I had to improvise a mount for it this time. Didn't feel like spending any money and I had lots of time to mess with my idea.

Basically I wanted to make a mount that bolted to the number plate bolt and moved the flag back to the fender area. As I've seen done in this thread and on other websites. I'm not spending over 10$ for a whip mount, so armed with a sheet of metal, zipties, random bolts, and a grinder I "whipped" up a whip mount. It doesn't look professional at all lol, but it doesn't look that bad on the bike either so as long as it holds I think it will work for me.

What I did was make the metal fold around the flag stem and squeeze it between the metal, like a clamp. That is what the bolt is for (it holds the two metal sides together, which squeezes the stem) The zipties hold the mount to the rear fender as it makes it more secure (not the thickest or sturdiest metal) The mount is attached to the number plate/seat frame bolt. Seems pretty sturdy so can't wait to try it out.

You might want to turn that bolt around. Other than that be careful that is a big piece of metal sticking out. Looks good.

Good idea, I'll have to do that when I get to Glamis and put it back on the bike. I'm not too worried about the metal. I wear full riding boots/gear and don't really ever slide off the back of my bike so I "should" be ok.

Here is my homemade whip mount

I cut and welded some scrap steel together
Click to view attachment

Drilled holes in subframe
Click to view attachment

Mount on bike. Whip goes through gap in fender/side number plate
Fabricated same mount for my son's 85
Click to view attachment

Nice! I like that!

hey if you would like to have one too let me know. just gotta bring the bike over.

I like how high the flag is, but with this long of a reach i think it might be really vulnerable to snapping. We'll see

I have broken several whips over the years with swingarm mounts. I will definitely use one of these rear frame mounts before next trip.

Success! Crashed a couple times and the whip mount still worked.

Wish I could say the same for my license plate mount. It ended up getting bent and got caught by one of the paddles as I was riding and actually bent the whole rear fender inward. There's actually black tire marks on the TOP of my rear fender. lol crazy the fender is still fine suprisingly. Ended up scrapping the rear license plate mount and just zip tying the license plate flat on top of the rear fender.