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/126758
Iml'ression: Can-Am Z50 ASE White U wild middleweight By Tom Kolnowski The off-road rider looking to purchase a quarter-liter enduro bike in 1984 will find only a handful of woods-wise machines to choose from. With the introduction of the 250 ASE (Air-cooled, Singleshock Enduro) Can-Am proves '. ' . that whIle Y0l:lr ~elecuon may be somewhat lImIted, excellent choices are nonetheless available. Oriental manufacturers, with the exception of Kawasaki, have completely abandoned the 250cc twoslroke enduro segment ofthe off-road market. Continental Europe serves as the source of nearly every other machine ofthat description, with the only remaining choice - Can-Am -originating in Britain. Britain? Traditionally, Can-Ams have been manufactured in Valcourt, Quebec, Canada, by their parent company, Bombardier. While the assembly lines in Valcourt continue to dispense snowmobiles, the entire motorcycle production concern has been subconlracted to an English firm, Armstrong. You'll find the same power plant ..,. that has graced Can-Ams since their inception - the rotary-valved Rotax mill, which originates in Austria in the frame of the Armslrong-manufactured version. Armstrong tech- 42 nol.ogy, which in~ludes a £rame deslgne~ around smgle-shock rear suspenSIOn, has moved Can-Am up a notch in the enduro marketplace. The 250 ASE is venturing into waters traditionally dominated by other white-colored machines - specifically Husqvarna and KTM - and comes stock ready to do baule. CanAm's development rider, John Martin, rode a prototype version of the machine in National Enduro competition in 198~, and his. recommendations were incorporated into the production version. The end result is a nearly complete package, and all you really need to add for competition is' some type of enduro clock or computer. The£rame, manufactured from thinwalled, large-diameter Reynolds 5~ I chrome molybdenum steel, is a stateof-the-art design incorporating a twin downtubeconIigurationandaremovable rear frame section. Can-Am's adaptation of the singleshock, rising-rate, rear suspension theme is called Quad Link, naJ;J1ed forthe fotir"oasic'linkagecomponents that comprise the system. If you have spent any amount of time maintaining a single shock system without a removable rear frame section, you'll find the Can-Am setup much easier to work on. Nestled into the heart of the system is a White Power shock, equipped with fully adjustable rebound and compression damping, as well as external spring preload. A remote nitrogen reservoir, also adjustable, mounts to the left of the shock on an outer member of the rear frame section. The familiar 40mm orange-legged Marzocchi fork adorns the front end, in yet another improved version. It has a redesigned damping system, dubbed Piffero, as well as Teflon bushings and air assist. We could find liule fault in the suspension, both front and rear, in the woods habitat. Our test riders, both in the 160-pound weight range, felt completely comfortable on the machine with all suspension adjustments set to the median position and shock spring preload at the stock seuing. We were not, however, completely satisfied with brake performance. The £ront unit, a basic single-leadingshoe design, performed well enough to keep us out of lrouble most of the time, even with a lack of firm feel at the lever. We di~ appre,qate the plastic; sleeve which lines -the brake cable, which should make the cable last much longer, On paper, the rear brake has a lot going for it. A non-floating design is completely acceptable for an enduro machine, and allows for a quickdetach wheel assembly. Can-Am' devised a tongue-type system to prevent the brake from rotating, which very nicely slides into place on the swingarm when the wheel is replaced. We found a moderate amount of stopping power available when the brake was dry, so long as we took a healthy stab at the brake pedal. In the wet - an almost unavoidable condition for Eastern enduros - rear braking power goes away quickly and returns slowly. Also lacking is a serrated edge on the brake pedal, compounding the problem in soggy going. The rubber wrapped around the gold-anodized Akront rims is a German delight - terrain-grabbing Metzelers. Another nice'touch, indicating an enduro rider had input to the design, are the snail cam chain adjusters on the rear. Riding through tigHt woods sections demands the rider be as far forward as possible, and that is easily accomplished due to the tank/safety seat design. Also adding to rider comfort are the handlebars, which come standard at a nearly ideal width of ~O inches. They have a shorter-thanusual crossbar width, meaning you can easily trim a few inches off either