Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

- ", Yamaha TY 175 Brand new , though expected sooner or later. A TY 125 version is being sold in Japan . ThOU!1t it doesn 't fit in a 250cc comparison , it got included anyhow, because it was available and we grabbed it. Besides, taken w ith the Honda TL 125 tested alone at an ear lier time, we've managed to round up every Japanese trials bike on the American market - a po int of dubious significance to anybody except moto - journalists playing one-upmanship. Thetest The super-scientific test procedure cons isted of the follow ing: 1 Take pictures of clean, unbent motorcycles 2 Take the bikes out to Tujunga Wash and ride the Bejeezus out of them . • 3 BS 4 Take them back to Cycle News' ultramodern back dr iveway, hose the crud off them and note what had fallen off or been knocked off earlier. 5 BS 6 Repeat Steps two through five 7 Weigh th em clean, but slightly wet, and ta ke measurements 8 BS some more 9 Write test. The most systematic th ing we did was lay out an Expert/Amateur and a Novice section , then send all our riders throu!1t, each getting a ride on each bike . (Resu lts in Table I) . The Walking Wounded took pictures as all this went on, and carried a tape recorder to preserve the riders' impressions and comments. A partial transcript goes someth ing like th is: Boyd : Suzuk i's not too bad, better than the Kaw. Both Yamahas need better bars . They're too low , and the TY 1755 are bent down at the t o p . . . Bernie: Honda 's got no ground clearance. Chris: The 175 was the one I felt most comfortable on . The Suzuk i felt high to me .. . Jeff: The Yamaha's about the best . . . Bernie: The Honda's an excellent hillclimber. Jeff : The 175 's a neat little bike, but it doesn't have eno ugh hair. Bernie: The Suzuki 's biggest problem is flywheel and the front end doesn 't want to stay down . It might have worked for Gordon Farley, but . .. eN: Doesn 't seem to stee r unless yo u put weight on it ? Boyd : Doesn't steer at all So meone - loud voice: The Kawasaki 's horn works very weill Beeeeeep . . . . Kawasaki KT250 Theresuts Can't hold. back any longer. The Yamahas won it, hands down . Or would have, if the TY 250 hadn't shown such a consistent tendency to water out. Other than that, all four of our testers rated either the TY 250 or the TY 175 the best, depending mostly on the rider's size and weight. Out of the box, the Yamahas are the easiest to ride consistently, the most controllable, the most competitive without further rework. The Honda rode great and had good, controllable power most of the t ime, but was heavy , bu lky, and lack ing in ground clearance . The Suzuki was rated the most improved since last tested . Engine t ractabi lity and general smoot hness were a whole jump ahead of ear lier production items . The Kawasak i, an early production (or maybe pre-production) example simply wasn 't ready - either for testing or for a critical market. Let's exam ine the bikes in deta il, individually. , - It has many of the right bits & pieces, but maybe , in the wrong places. The KT 250 has the dubio us di stinction of bein g the on ly trial s bi ke with an ignition key. It also co me s wired for bo rd erli ne legality (ligh ts , h om , even a brake light switch ) b ut is placarded as an " Off- road Vehicle, n ot inten ded for street use. " Be that as it may , th e KT 250 is p robably licen sable in many states, even today . Gear primary drive, primary kickstart, pointless CD! , and oil injection are a pan of the p ac kage. Shop manual rec om me n ds use of unleaded fuel on ly . There 's a chai n tensioner (wh ich fell off), a swingarm reservoir for chai n oil, and a speedometer bracketed to the right fork slider. Riding it revealed that , gadgetry not withstanding, the early production KT 250s need (needed?) a lot of work. just to be come accep tab le. Choice of weigh ts and fre e len gths for the dual-rate springs at both en ds was way off the mark. Sh ocks and forks alike ro de n ear bottom, even with an becoming a ve r ag e -s iz e d ri der . 25

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