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/125972
C'I.t :IIG III IIG ...:II .... g g so rO'l ..... ..... ;~ N >-... ro ::l ~ ro ~ .-~ - .- -:1 . ,. , , . :- ~ - '. r ~ - - ~. .... .- By Lane Campbell There's no such thing as a dualpurpose motorcycle. That IS, if you define a dual-purpose motorcycle as one that is competitive on a road race or motocross course with the same tires and suspen. if vou' StO? However, I you II concede a pomt or two, can only afford one 20 motor cycle , and aren't in the ';'arket for a race bike, yo u'll find Yamaha's uprated big enduro to be the most versatile o f th e curre nt offe rings. . Two m ajo r visual changes crop up, in addition to th e extra cc's. There 's now a cosmetic radial-finned head on the black ano dized engine, and the MX front hub /b ra ke assembly has been carried over into the End uro line this year. A locking gas cap and a fully 197 5-legal controlflighting p ac kage are concessions to the government and other thieves. The 3.97cc reed. val~e ~in~Ie, with an 85mm piston ratthng In It, IS on spe c a nasty beast to kick over and keep cool by virtue of its size and dimensions. The kickover is made simpler by the compressio n release tied . in to the kickstarter, This "automatic" feature makes sense fo r granny -ladies in tennis shoes , but a m anual compression release is sorely missed on those reverse-puck er downhills that the West is famous for. As to cooling/lubrication, ours appeared adequate but a bit tricky during break-in . Any time the fins start to ring audibly on a machine with as much sound-deadening material as this one has, you know seizure '5 not far away. The trick, if yo u're par t-thro t t lin g it o n road or fast trail, is to hi t th e ha ndlebar kill switch , o pen th e throttle wide a second or two, then roll off it and let the engine run again. What this does is get an extra gu lp of oil out of the throttle-controlled oil injector while the big swallow of raw fue l cools things down. As the engine loosens up, this kind of monkey-business becomes less necessary. . The big surprise in store with the DT400B is its pavement virtuosity. It snorts away from stop signs with air under the front tire, sneers at legal freeway speeds, and will top out at 80 mph with stock gearing. The engine betrays its enduro breeding with lots of low-e nd grunt an d no ticeable asth ma abo ve 5,000 RPM. The Dunlop trials rubber (though we'll get to its off-road shortcomings) was surprisingly good on the pavem en t. In fact, the tires ' grip was super, co me wet, dry, or dirty pavemen t. Our resident road rasher took to it with relish, quickly getting down to the foo tpegs on either side. Even with the s uspe nsio n co mp r e ssed by h ard corneri ng , th ai 's .'way o ver th ere. Being se t up for stability in th e dirt, the steering actually carr ies more trail than street use requires, plus the long travel forks have less twisting rigi dity than you'd like on a fast st reet bike. The suspension's awfully firm (too firm for dirt) and the tires really squirm, as they were obviously not designed for this sort of thing. The MX front brake is adequate for panic stops fro m freeway speeds, but only one stop at a time. The DT400 B will accelerate back to speed far faster than the brake will reject heat. Be warned, and allow a lit tl e extra sto pping ro o m. OK - criticizing an enduro bike ,as though it werea cafe racer is un fair. but it 's te m pting, as the bike is so close closer than a lo t of candypainted m ult is. It's a totally adequate commuterbike with a sligh tly lim ited (2.4 ga llon) fuel capacity. So, you've ridden it all week to and from work. If you 're both poor and