Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125852
YAMAHA DT125A: Jt will take you to school, it will take you to play There was a time in our life when Yamaha 125s were absolutely the bike to have, a time when days were spent in high school classrooms and nights were spent falling down in Turnball Canyon. In those days, people still though t that Honda 305s were dirt bikes. . A kid with a job as a bus boy could scrimp and save and spring for a Yamaha Enduro and smoke the Hondogs in the dirt, and out maneuver them in the traffic jam in front of school each afternoon. T hey'd get you to school every single day, let you take short cuts across the field on your way home, do great wheelies to impress the tootsies, and not give you worries about stuck pistons and such. - - In 1974, that's about the way it is with the improved version of those swell white-tanked wonders, the little Yamaba DTI25A Enduro. It will only do 60 MPH screaming its reed-valved brains out at the 7500 RPM redline, and it takes 6900 RPM to cruise at 55 MPH. The acceleration won't set any records, and if by some chance you think you have to outrun somebody in a Buick, you better pray for the police. But it will carry you back and forth to work or school or wherever you go day in and day out, without a complaint. And, when you rev the beegeezus out of it to keep moving with the flow of traffic, it will still give you about 52 miles per gallon. One could get better mileage out of it by riding it easier; we never felt inclined to. On weekends, you can throw it into the truck (filled with all the gas you - - saved by riding your bike around all week) and head out into the desert for a real live "family" enduro. In five minutes you can have the taillight and vulnerable rear tum . signals safely stowed in a box. Take a few minutes more to take off the mirror and tape on a number, and you're ready for the line. It won't do really fantastically out there, not so well that you'd b e tempted to run national enduros on it, but it will do alright on the easy family enduros that are so popular in Southern California. More on that in a minute. When you get ready to ride a new DTI25A home from the dealer's, a few things come to your attention right awa y. Yamaha still stamps the key numbers on the ignition, seat, and fork locks. It isn't on the gas tank cap lock, though. The fork lock is a better design than those on most bikes. The ignition switch is right where it belongs, between the · instruments. The gas tank lock, while a nice idea, would be (we arc led to believe from the Department of Transportation statistical studies) a real gonad gnasher in a frontal impact situation (that means if you run into something head on). The seat lock is also a good idea, but a hefty screwdriver will break it. The vaned grips are the kind that leave your hands looking and feeling funny after a bare-handed ride. With gloves you can avoid the problem in the type of riding the bike was meant for . It's easy to loft the front wheel. Deploying the kickstand takes a good, healthy kick about 50% of the When you're through playing in the desert, you can wash it up and loan it to your honey to ride over to the park on. J: ~ II: oJ :l .... z 26 J: 0 .., time, since the return spring has a tendency to hang up on the stand moun ting bolt and refuse to let the stand stay down long enough to park the bike. A kick frees up th e snagging. There aren 't any passenger pegs, but there are mounting holes in the swingarm for rear pegs . It's probably a good thing there aren't any pegs - an . adult rider will be using up the whole seat when riding anyway. Once underway, o ther things stand out. The control shape, placement, and functions are fine. The instruments are OK, but the tach wandered. At times it couldn't make up its mind how fast the engine was turning over while the speedo held steady on one speed. The trials pattern tires are OK on dry pavement. They feed back plenty of warning before a rider runs out of tread in corners and drops it. In wet, it's another story - they don't work really well. Anyone riding on these tires in the rain must be very careful, especially when crossing painted street markings while turning. Night lighting is OK for attainable speeds, and is about par for bikes its size. The clocks arc not as easy to read · at night as those on superbikes, but are still pretty good. After a f cw weeks of riding around, the battery got too low to activate the electric starter. However, it never got so low that it wouldn't · blink the turn signals. The horn was acceptable around town, worthless above 50 MPH •• (couldn't be heard). , . , • J: ~:""1'~~~ oJ :l Z J: .o ., The brakes were strong, yet not insensitive. The brakes are excellent in the street. The bike would pull red line in fifth, 60 MPH at 7500, and at redline in fourth (which was needed to go up any street hill of consequence) it will be moving at 45 MPH. The. tool kit was very marginal in usability, . following the industry's general downward tool kit quality trend since the peak of quality around 1970. In short, it works acceptably on the street. , On its - .fi'lt • enduro, . the Enduro