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/125974
year, with absolutely no fan fare and only slightly more warning, Montesa introduces their co u n te rpart wh ich . ... with c u rio us understatement, they call the "Enduro 250." Montesa ? Yeah, Montesa. Those wonderful folks who brought you the quietly falling bombshell they dropped over a year ago in the form of the Cappra 250 VR motocross machine. The ripp les from the VR, one of the very first au th en tic works replicas, are still spreading acr oss the pond as everybody else h astened in to the game with GP replicas of o ne sort of another and Yamaha released their YZ and monoshocks to stay in the gam e. Everybody ra ced an d wa s amaze d that a stoc k motocross bike cou ld b e as go o d and as fast an d a ll that t h e Montesa VR w as. T hose same people will, I h ope. h ave learned th at the Spanish fa ct or ies sel d o m screw aro und when building com p e t it io n bikes and that this new " En d u ro 2 50" is perh aps th e most co m p le t e stock packag e in the " d ir t motorcycle with lights" catego ry yet offered. It is, with absolutely n o qualification , a ready-to-rid e works bi ke . Funny thing about these works bikes for tr ial and enduro riding, as opposed to the works bikes fo r m otocross and sim ilar ra cing. They fall into the ne arly opposite ca tego ry . They are more reliable an d present less ha ssle than many e nd uro expe rienc ed. riders have never They handle so mu ch better as to raise that o ff-road sport to an entirely different dimension . And . in ge n erally , the y m ake tri al , tr ail, a n d end uro rid ing more fun th an it has been . These bikes arc mot ocro ssers wi th lights th at hav e to ke ep running fO T quit e a while with min imal maintenance and rider fatigu e. As a gro up , t he des ign in ten t has succ eeded. Montesa h as su cce ed ed so well wit h their mech anical respon se to this situation that it gets emba rrassing to write a bo u t. For o n e thin g, th eir beguilingly sim p le name " Enduro" {Sigh. No more insects an d a nimals.} is a misn omer. This machine is ac tually a dual-purpose bike. Its m ain area o f ap p lica tio n w ould seem t o be U.S. T wo -Da y Qualifying Trials. You ca n ride it in an oc casional enduro but most o f them are reall y beneath the bike's capability. On the other h and. for th o se several thousand enduro and tr ail ri ders who would kind of like to have the ca pa b ilities o f a w orks Six Da ys bike for their re gulated-speed foray s into the boondo c ks, pe r ha ps this aspec t of th e Moruesa 's d ual nature will pr ov e m ost appealing . Nobo dy a ro u nd h er e ro de o u r test b ik e in a Qualifier o r a Six Da y s Trial. It did fin ish a cou ple o f endu res, ho wever, quite eas ily. lt is a machin e tha t gives yo u every ad van t age. It ta kes a lot o f th e sufferi ng o ut of rid ing reas onab ly ru gged terrain rap idl y. Maso ch ist s will ha te th e Montesa. An y m ot orcy cl e has its little problems and the Montesa "Enduro 25 0 " has these sp ri n gs that arrive from the old c ou n try on the Telesco rear dampers. They are too stiff for a rider of 1 75 lbs, or less. This h as two discernible adverse effects. The ride is h arsher than nee d be and the very fine T elesco s a re overworked and therefore cea se d amping eff ec ti vely much sooner than they would with b etter m atched springs. So much for the Montesa's pr oblems. I told y o u it was embarrassing to write about it. Derek Ed gar, Montesa Motors' incredibly trial-wise an d equally soft-spoken service manager, recognized the imperfection in b oinger mating and prevailed upon Luis Garcia at Interpart to provide some BOlI;e/Mulholland springs in 100 lb .jin., 120 lb. rin., an d 90-120 progressive winds. They are abou t the only non-stock springs that fit the new Telescos, We agre ed that the stock sprin gs are somewhere in the 155-160 Ib. /in . ran ge. Maybe you h ave put ori a little weight, but still .. . . The straight-wind springs and som e virgin Telesco d ampers m ade the re ar wheel 's six inc hes o f travel mu ch more compatibl e w ith th e feel and distan ce of the fron t wh eel as it moved up a n d d own it s seven a n d o n e-h al f inc h plunge. (The front forks measure out to eight inches of t ravel but Montesa claims seven to se ven and o ne -half . Their modesty is becoming). Dampers will st ill wear out quicker in Montesa 's ca n til ever sh oc k m ounting arrangement, but our experience with stoc k d amping units le ans heavily in favor of retaining the T ele scos any time y o u h ave a bike that arrives with them. They seem to h ave done some homework on the demands of long{er} travel rear suspension. So much for our ab b revia t ed episode o f su spension fiddling or any 0 ther kind of fiddling, for that matter. There's really nothing else the bike needs and all we would want for it as a personal bike is a rear view m irror (fo r enduros that require a semblance of street legality ), a quarter-turn throttle, and a flap for the excellent white nylon front fender. After all, what is an ISDT or enduro bike without a fender flap? Flapless , right? The first three days with the Montesa are hard to forget because it acquitted itself so impressively. Two hours after getting a walkaround tour of the machine from Derek, the Montesa was hurtling down some woodsy trails bordering a dry creekbed as I tried to keep this young expert motocrosser in sight. He knew the trails, I didn't a n d besides that he is at least 1.83 times faster an d more stylish than I am. These four foot drop-offs kept suddenly disappearing out of the trail and the Montesa, tapped in fourth, would sail, hit, and continue, I could alm o st keep up. . The next day , with a mirror attached an d armed with my lo an agreement from Montesa and a good story (" Yes, officer, I see the stickie that says 'O ff -h igh way use only ' right there on the lo vel y red gas tank but this is a Six Day s Replica and a lo t o f Six Days are run on streets an d I'm testing it like this were a Six Days . .. No ? Well , have you heard abou t this en ergy crisis? I'm ge tt ing fantastic mileage • . . " ), I set off up the Pacific coast toward the windy tw o-lane b lac kt op we all kn ow and love.' Well, I didn 't h ave to worry ab o u t the bl ack a n d whites. It started raining so hard they wouldn't h ave noticed if I were o n a unicycl e. T orrential , soaking downpours are n ot a n y b o dy 's thing, .I thin k, but the Montesa d idn 't seem t'o mind. T he Metzeler knobbies gripped ni cely on the scabby b ack roads an d leanin g it over produced a b o u t the same tread con tac t , so a ll wen t well - for the b ike. It was an enduran ce con test in wh ich I tried to endure by keeping the spe edo n eedle always a t 60 km /hr, {abou t 3 7 mph } as if it we re a schedule to be main tained. We slic ked do wn the wet p avem en t wi th t he ho rn st ill wo r king an d the headligh t makin g a su rprisingly deep pe ne tration in to th e rain . T h e high-low bea m sw itch even made a d ifference. T he Moritesa went aw fu lly well o n the st ree ts dis p laying th e excess o f handling th at seems in bred o f an y Eu rop ean mo toc ross frame in o n-road use, It is 11