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/126249
10 Once lit , the engine on our test bike acted a trifle blubbery until warmed up. Hockies Cycles had prepped the test bike with " bett er safe than sorry" jetting, making it rich in the low end, . a condition often exaggerated by altitude. It fouled one plug during an afternoon of too-cautious tiddIing in a boxed-in . rocky sandwash. O therwise , the engine always came out from idle with moderate but not authoritative torque, then somewhere in the upper third of the rpm -band it would explode with wheel-churning. rockspitting.horsepower. Its power characteristics definitely lean more toward "motoc ross" than "enduro" - which is generally to the liking of ISDT types and desert racers alike . (The current package is pretty close to what the American Ossa team riders campaigned in last year's Two Da y Qualifiers.) It ;. an engine that likes to be kept boiling, and when it's ' on the pipe it complements (even helps) the rear suspension . The steering geo metry a lso leans more to motocross tria n desert, making the Desert Ph antom a quicker turner than the traditional California desert sled. It's a willing, controllable slider for sweeping turns, but it a lso ' handles the square berm .tu r n well . If one is astute enough to be in the right gear, it will exit the pivot tum with a soul -satisfying spurt and boogie happily through the gears until top speed or th e next tum is reached. Rating it as a potential competitor, a su rveyed handful of seasoned desert riders rated it as quick, but not as fast as some othe r 250cc machinery. The Desert Phantom comes to the starting line packing a five-speed gearbox in an increasingly six -speed world . This begins to show in its available speed range . Though it is essentially a multi purpose com bin a tion of ingredients , it ca n n o t automatically become Everybike without an assortment of countershaft sprockets. The stock. gearing is a middle-of-the-road .compromise. It reaches its lim its in the low end where firs t is too tall for comfortable trail- picking in 12 -15 mph enduro sections. At speed, it taps out in top. very quickly wit h the stock gearing. indicating it will p ull two teeth higher at the co untersh a ft where course and terrain dem and it. If event organizers com bine m iles of flat-ou t lakebed with a set of twisty rock-steppy canyons, don't expect the best of both worlds . Like a kind of hyper-tuned Pioneer, the Desert Phantom is mostly at home in the moderate to upper speed ranges, especially if the way is twisty and the surface a trifle cobby. Any place you can keep the throttle nailed it goes where you point it and whoops be damned . Roll off the throttle in the whoops and it 's sideways and momentarily panic, quickly recovered after about the third bounce, In deep sand , that quick-turning capability gets paid for by a tendency to wiggle. Our solution - stay loose , keep the throttle dialed, and let her wiggle. It never did anything outrageous or dangerous. We managed to use up all of the effective travel (about 7 ~ inches) on the Betor forks , and found their damping and compliance characteristics quite satisfactory. The seals stayed tight. At the rear, it's possible to beat the shocks into fading. After extended use , . the alloy-body KONIs began to loosen up due to wear. They are rebuildable. The standard Pirellis had a little trouble hooking up with the generally dry, rocky soil in the desert habitat. What with the engine's sudden power delivery, we rounded off the rear knobs in short order. O n killer uphills, the Desert Phantom (with these tires) demands conscientious trials-style weighting and unweighting of the rear wheel for best res ults - and woe betide a nyone following close behind. Pointing and controllability under throttle are fine. . On killer downhills , the Desert Phantom handled jtself quite well both on the brakes and on the gas. Braking behavior, weight balance and sreerabifity ' are all confid ence inspiring. Rear brake/wheel hop a re minimal. Aside from the aforem entioned smashed foot peg, the test Ossa showed a high degree of survivability in its intended desert habitat. Though th e pipe bulges out on the lower left . it sustained little damage outside of a little slide-out scraping. The fiberglas fenders may eventually crack and break - especially in crashes - but ours didn't. But then, we never endoed. Cables, levers and twistgrip remained well-guarded, 'clea n and hassle-free throughout. Nearly all hardware is locknut -secured, and , stayed tight. T he fr ont hub has steel rings embedded in the spoke- hole circle on both sides, to prevent the steel spokes from furrowin g their way into th e relatively soft a lumi num . At the rear. the conical . hu b has meaty "ears" around each spo ke insert. Rim s are Akront lipless "yellow label." Over several weekends of constant use, we did one spo ke-tightening and two chain adjustments on the test bike. The fork triple clamps are made from identical forgings, upper and lower. There's a steering lock! There's ITop right & left) Profi les of a rere desert species. threatened with removal from its habitat. W ithout being the latest or the trickest. the Desert Phantom ma kes itself at home. It carries all it needs in the way of equ ipment (including basic off-road 6ghtsl and no more. (Center ri ght! Awkward-looking but eff ect ive kickstarter. mangled footpeg. brush-guarded shifter. (Below right! Pretty - and strong - rear breke pedal uses eng ine case cutaway as pedal stop (note stop tab I. Bash plate has nice slippery shape. offers good protection. • no toolkit, as the airbox fills the usual underseat niche, No battery, either it's a spartan 20 7 pound off-reader and that's all . Summing up the cu rrent Dese rt Phantom is like shooting at a moving target. As is common with most ' European enthusiast machinery:" the factory respects no model year distinctions, making changes in a progressive. evolutionary manner and cranking the result into inventory whenever the spirit moves them. (It's the kind of thing that would drive 'pa rts countermen crazy, if it weren't done in , such a , methodical. often predictable manner.) Our Ossa , as test ed. was .a secondgeneration motorcycle in a thirdgeneration world that is dominated by gas shocks and leading-axle forks . It can't be called a competitive out-ofthe-box desert racer because the " win n in g formula" ~ut of the specialized "So Cal shops has leapfrogged it, What is gratifying is that it's so close. It manages to straddle the gap between pl a yb ik e and serious . competitor in our Southern California desert . Fit a speedometer and ·it becomes. a very credib le enduro mou nt , fam ily-style or deadly-serious-. As a logi cal step u p for the playb iker who's bo red with playbikes, it's fin e just as it is. Like we said , the Spanish product is a movi ng target. Even as you read this, expect the comi ng shipments of Desert Phantoms (and their cousins) to be different, updated in detail as to specified equipment, materials and finishes. That's how the Spaniards do it. • Specifications _ Ossa Desert Phantom 250 Engine. Piston-port 2-stroke single Displacament.... . .. • .. •• •'. 244cc Bore x stroke . • • • • • • • . 12 x 60 mm Carburetor. . • • • • .• 36 mm Bing 54 Ignition.. . • •. . Motoplat electronic Transmission ratios •. .. . I 2.78:1 II 1.92:1 III 1.43:1 IV 1.17:1 V 1:1 Wheelbase . .. •• • • • • • • •.. 55% In. Dry Weight••..• .. . . _. • • •. • 207 lb. Fuel tank capacity . . . . . • • • •. 3 gal. Lubrication. . .. ... •. • ••. • • pr~lx Suggested Retail (West Coast! 1595