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
.. Ct.t What's blue with -= lights and rides '" - allover? II 5lQ 5lQ ...:I g g -ef' en « ~ 1.0 C\J ...c:: u 'CI$' " ::E • Photos by John Huet1Br & Lane Campbell A dirt biker down in Texas wrote a letter to our sybling publication, Cycle News Central to the effect that people were always giving him a bad time, largely out of ignorance about his Cooper enduro and 'how much he liked it and always did well in local enduros and the like. We sympathize with that rider. Here he has an enduro machine that comes street legal, will go ungodly quick up the top two gears, pulls respectably at low RPM, and has a advanced case of good handling, while a b~ch ~f ignorant people are bum-rapping his scooter even though they've never ridden one. When we started thinking about it, there weren't too many other machines that really will do all those things. A Penton/KTM 250, or a 350 Jawa, or an MZ are all super-quick, handle well and all those good things but won"t pass on the streets in most states. And no matter how m uch they've improved, the street legal Japanese bikes sold as "endures" still don't have the m otor or the handling of these lSDT-derived machines, but they're cheaper. The Coo per en duro does the go-fast and handle stuff but also comes t o you at the nice rou nd price of $1000. If yo u've priced any serious m ach in ery lately, that figu re will interest you. And the bike is still streetable. The handling is as good as a co mpetitive 250 motocrosser , which is no big surprise because the enduro has the - same frame, forks, brakes, etc. as the 25 0 MX we looked at some weeks ago . The enduro we received had better shocks on the rear, new-appearing Cheng Shins (3.00 x 21 and 4 .00 x 21) that were still all bri stl y and crisp, and the add-on things that make it an enduro like a battery, ligh ts, four tum signals, and a different configuration high pipe that ends in an Xdusor silencerIspark arrestor. The core differences between the motocross model and the enduro are the engine and the pi~. Th~re is a dif~er7nt enduro cylinder WIth milder port ummg and a pipe designed with the intent of providing low end tractability. Surprisingly, our Cooper enduro, when fresh, seemed just as fast , or faster, than the rnotocrosser at top end. The enduro has a 28mm Mikuni carburetor instead of the 30. It's enough . There's a battery tucked under there. - 36 Styling is clean, mo dern, but lo o ks incomplete. The silver-gray frame goes nicely with the bl ue fiberglass but the fende rs still appear inadequate, like they belong on a cafe racer. We're told current m odels have a wider rear and deeper front mud-catcher. The current ones are definitely marginal, especially for an all-terrain enduro machine. The left blue sidecover hides the battery and the one on the right is the still air box which is offset to make room for the battery which leads, in tum, to some twists in the ducting to the car b ureto r which didn't seem like the hot set-up compared to the straight induction cone on the MX bike. It seemed to be more .vunerable to water withou t additional waterproofing. The tank holds a bit over two gallons of 37 :1 castor oil premix and that proved about the right amount for an ' average en duro loop. The Cooper proved surprisingly thirsty during the one enduro we rode it but the power to make it move along as quickly as it's capable of doing had to come from so mewhe re, and co mbustion of gasoline was the source. That was one fea ture that everybody commented on. Comp ar ed to almost every other bi ke, both two- and four-stroke, at this enduro, t he Co o per had m or e speed and acceleration. It ' s fairly ligh t for an unstripped enduro machine an d the lack of weight helps it move o ut. The acceleration is right handy, as it is o n the more expensive Penton, for attacking those steep hills with little run at t hem. Nor should you have any trouble making up time on the . fire roads if you do get behind schedule. The handling reflects all the things sai d about its - mo to cross cousin; excellen t t hrough the co mers - thereb y ma ki ng s id e h ill turns and tight sandwashes easie r in the end uro mode; good -straight line stability - it's hard to get it too upset in cross-coun try bursts of pushing it. We did notice the Betors topping out under certain combinations of terrain and acceleration but it wasn't a constant thing. T his didn't prove too unsettling but would be corrected if it were our own bike. We like Betor forks a lot m ost of the ti me. It was hard to get into any situation where the handling of the Co o per end uro would do you 'in. The frame is righ t , T he re's no t too m uch weight for it to handle an d wi th all the suspension co mponents set up right for you, there shouldn 't be anything to co mplain abo ut. Boge shocks with constant wind springs are standard at the rear. The brakes went away when wet and took a fairly long time to dry ou t. They would still work, bar ely , if you took up all the adjustmen t and sq ueezed and stomped fiercely. They are pro~essive in feel, not at all grabby, but Will need