Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Specificat ions Disp lacem e nt Bo re x stroke Weig ht Co m pression ratio Horsepower (at rear wheel) T orque Wheelbase Gr ound clearance Footpeg height .Seat height Handlebar width Forks Shock absorbers Carburetion Ai r filtration Tires/rims instrumentation Ignition Kill button Lighting Fuel (25:1 pre-mix) capacity Gear ratios (1 -N·2 -34·5) 12 probably even legal to do all th os e things in many states where this b ike will be so ld. The th ird d ay, the " En du ro 250 " was run in a two-hour m otocross; The course co nsisted of two parts water, two parts mud, and one part rocks. You remem ber, th ere had been this little rain the day before. The Mo n tesa on ce again go t rave reviews. The stumppuller firs t an d second gears were a m atch for t he hub-deep mud an d wa t er crossings. The jump to fifth gear in the new wide-ratio gear box was a bit long but if yo u sh ifted on th e powerband, t he engine would st ay there and pull it. Actu all y , th at moto cross d emonstrated as well as an y enduro -ish riding how n ice th e gear bo x and it s in te rnal rat ios re all y are . Everyth in g m at ches up q uie tly and it 's impossibl e t o remember a m issed sh ift. Six Day s Trials usu all y in clud e a motocross sp eci al t est o r so me t h ing similar , so the moto cros s was really entering in th e sp ir it of th e thi ng. Besides, th e power o u t p u t fro m th e VR en gin e an d th e m odified bump-eating suspension made it completely co m pe t it ive - lights and all. After hosing the mud off next d ay , the Montesa started o n the second kic k. The lights still worked. T he horn gave out a feebl e bleat, just lik e it did when new. We were impressed. T h ree days later, it finished its first enduro. The Montesa "Enduro ' 25 0" d idn 't get to be able to do these things by accident . Jose-Maria Casanovas, a Montesa factory rider who won a Gold Medal in the U.S. ISD T, ca mp aign ed a modified VR motocros s slightly machine in that event and su bseq uent European trials. From his in p u t s and the success of the conc ep t, particularly since speed is now as importan t as enduring in so-called "enduranc e" race s, stem this current product. The "Enduro" (Somehow " Enduro" sounds exotic a t tach ed to a Spanish bike where as it doesn't on a Japanese or Swedish machine.) is built around the VR motocross frame . The rear suspension is done by full cantilever Telescos th at arrive with springs suited for 200-po u nd riders or, alternat ively , very , very fast and abusive ones. Front ... su spension is admirably acco m p lish ed by so-called "eight-in ch." Betors wh ich have been further m odified by Montesa to their o wn standards and provide seven and one-half inch o f travel. Fork springs ar e t he same as in the Montesa Co t a 247 and the new V-75 Cappra. The European ap p roach is t o set-u p th e fron t end softer than th e re ar end. In th e U.S., the o p pos it e is m ore o f te n done. TI,e forks absorb t errain that would o th erwise have yo u o n y o ur head. In fact, whe n springs ap p rop riate to rider /m ach in e weigh t are slip p ed ov er the T ele scos, the su spension must be co un ted an overa ll su ccess. The powerful VR en gin e has been modified with a cylinder th at features a sin gle exhau st port and milder timing on th e in take port. T ra nsfers remain t he same but the pi st on (st ill window-ported) is longer, which co u pled with the other m odifications, m eans a d esign for lon ger eng in e life a nd fewer p ar ts to bu y . The lower end is pure YR. It is o bviously intended to last for a while. T he powerplant seems b uilt to t ake hard usage. The new cylin d er is car b ure te d by an equally-new square bodied Am al 32mm mixer that looks, and performs, like a Mikuni. They ad m it it . Amal copied a Mikuni right down to the press-down choke lever and a he avy anodized slide that looks as much im p roved over the old chip-p ro ne Amal slides as , uh, well , a Mikuni. The new Am al square body carb works superbly from the time the gas flows into the complex-low-speed metering passages (Ge e, just lik e a Mi . .. aw , forget it .} until the ' main je t controls all somewhere near the t op of fourth gear. Then it still 'wor ks fine. In its stock co nfi gu ra t io n , with a silenced, spark-stopping p ipe , th is little combo pumped out 2 3 HP a t the re ar wheel. We're impressed again. Particularly sin ce all of it seems usable. There were su bd ued murmurings about _ 246 .3cc 70m m x 64mm 2 40 Ibs. wet w /half-ta nk o f gas 12: 1 23 max @ 80 00 RPM 15 ft.·lb. f rom 4 0 00-80 00 RPM 55 in . 9 in . 12.5 in . 34.5 in . 34 in . :_ Betor/Montesa w17 .5 " travel Telesco . mounted for 6" travel Amal 32mm square-body 2900 Series Twin A ir in still airbox F : 3 .00x21 Pirelli MX on ridgeless Ak ro n t R : 4.50x18 Pirelli MX on ridgeless Akront -. Veglia-Bressel speedometer with .1 increment resettable odometer. horn. high-low beam sw itch Electronic Motoplat yes ' Fro nt and rear w /brake light 3 .1 25 gal. (U .S.) F irst: 2.6, second: 1.61 5 , third: 1.117 , fourth : 0 .833 , fifth: 0 .681 ano ther tw o -three HP fr om this new p ipe that m ay ap pear o n production models a nd be even quieter. Save y our self th e m en t al co ncern. Twenty-three is enough in a powerband that extends fro m 2000 to 80 0 0 RPM . The Montesa m akes en ough fo o t-p ound s of torque to h andle anything we can think o f throughout m o st o f th at powerband, wh ich is nearly 20 0 0 RPM wider t ha n th at o f m ost o f th e co m pe titio n . And it re ally pulls from th ose low RPM. I know. I'm a bad enough en duro rider to lu g th e engine down to nothing on an uphill. But it still pulls ..... At the other end of th e RPM range, you will have n o trouble racing most everythin g o u t there. You will find yo u rself racing with the newest Penton/KTMs, the Husqvarna WRs, an d probably the new Bultaco Fronteras when they arrive in this country , and that 's about it. These are machines cu rren tl y in a class of their own and we keep returning to th e premise that the Montesa is the be st out-of-the-box exampl e in th e class. All t hese bikes derive from powerful, lightweight motocrossers tempered to Six Days standards in the cruci b le of co m p etit io n. They all have elev ator-like suspension to go way up and down over alm o st an ything. They are all, simply, wor ks replicas. It's just th at th e Montesa see ms t o have m ore goodies an d all the . go od ies fit together to m ak e a very sa ti sfy ing whole. For a lo t o f rid e rs, serio us and not so serio us , th e Mon tesa will be eas ier and more fun to ride. The details see m, withou t ex ception , " co rr ect." Fro n t and rear fe nde rs are of truly unbreakable white nylon lik e we've been lust ing after ever sinc e we ' sa w them on th e factory m otocro ss bikes last year. Akront ridgel ess rims spo ke up t o the VR m oto cross hubs holding br akes th at wor k with CZ-Iike power and feel . The h eadlight is rubber isola ted from the for k tubes, has a little trials-like cage o ver it , and performs. The deep blood-red tank fo llows th e co n t ou rs of the VR st y ling but h olds a little over three gall ons (3 .1 25, exactly ) while ple asing the ey e. It is ad o rn ed only with a black stripe aro u nd th e ' lower ed ge, gold pin-striping, and a small Gothic " M." We don't usually say an y th ing abou t how a competition bike looks be cause the form had better follow fun ction or th e builder a nd the rider are both in serious trouble, We're goi ng to say something a bo u t how the Montesa " Endu ro " looks because every bo d y wh o saw it did. It is a visually impressive bike with fo rm tha t will ple ase both the utilitarian and the aesth et e. It broadcasts it s a bility 10 perform like some women have a glowing patina of sexiness aro und them. You can 't see much of th e motorcycle when you 're competing on it but the for m then responds through other senses. Nobody didn 't like its looks. The seat looks like it's going to be too OK. Jack Pe n t o n , en ga rdel Span ish d irt machinery t e nds t o give you serious a m bitio ns. firm, but ' it isn 't. It fits and remains co m fo r table on lon g rides. Th e taillight I is mounted on the rubber license plate holder pinched from the observed trials bikes which the Spanish have nearly perfected. It is damped from vibration, shock, and very difficult to break. There is a fiberglas s skidplate that weighs little, protects much, and bolts closely around the downpipe. We didn 't know if it would be ne cessary with nine in ches o f ground clearance . But there are rocks' bigger than nine inches acros s as a\ co up le of desert enduros co n firm ed ." . There is a truly en ormous Twin Air foam filter o ccupying m o st o f a basically well-constructed still air bo x . ' Waterproofin g is excellen t everywhere. ' Serious trial riders may want t o t a ke a look at way s to im p rove it. Improvements a re definitely o f the "add d uct t ape just here" t ype, if nOI all necess ary. It ran th ro ugh a 101 of water in its stock co nfi gurat ion. Access to everything we've messed with has been very good ; very st raigh t fo rwa rd. Haven't tried replacing th e c ran k yet, t ho ugh. No need to. T he pl aces where your hands and fee t usually go (o ft en called grips and pegs ) satisfied just abou t everybody and downright pleased some. The shape and feel of the gri ps an d handlebars achieve a happy compromise th at will fit a lot o f riders. Pegs fold, then spring back, and tend to keep your boot so les at tached. What will they think of next? One thing Montesa thought of was a heavy duty chain tensioner that is a ne cessa ry part of any L TR susp ensio n set-up (since your chain must be run - with 1.5-2 in ches of slac k) but ap pears o n very few in either st ock or modified form. . Th e speedo is a rubber-mounted Veglia-Bresse1 that will be cal ib rat ed in mil es/hour o n you r bike but induced some amusing mental gymnastics among test riders sinc e it re ad to 180 in kilometers /hou r. So did the resettable-by-tenths odometer which told you th at 5 0-o d d some things had gone by on a 33·mile enduro loop . It's easy to remember that kilometers times .62 gives you m iles, . but what 's the

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