The motor in the 1987 YZ250 (above) is comparable to the 1985 YZ,
having excellent low-end and mid-range power. The 125 (below) is the
most improved in Yamaha's YZ lineup.
New bikes
Riding the 1987
Yamaha YZ MXers
By Kit Palmer
Photos by Kinney Jones
There are some days when being a motojournalist actually pays off, and one of those
days is when Yamaha Motor Corporation
invites Cycle News to a one-day riding session on their lineup of 1987 YZ
motocrossers. On August 13, I
rode Yamaha's fleet of brand
,
new productlon YZ mot~cros~-
28
poked, prodded, touched and fiddled
with, Yamaha's ?roduct Research
Manager, Ed Schledler warned me
about this as I waJ"med the bike up.
Sure enough, the first time I really
ers a~ Perns R,aceway, m Perns, Caltopened up the throttle on my first
lap, it stuck wide open as I exited a
forma,
, The people at Yamaha Lreate~ me
turn and £lew over a jump. I quickly
Itke a facLOr):' racer on these YZ mtro
slammed on the brakes, reached for
days by takm~ care of everythmg,
the clutch and hit the kill buttom,
such as pr~ppmg the motorcycles,
After I pushed the bike back LO tne
makmg adjustments t~ the handlepits, a swarm of Yamaha methanics
b~rs and brake, levers" keepmg ,the
hovered over the bike _ as I impabikes ftlled "':Jlh gas, tlghtenmg
tiently watched over their shoulders
spokes and havmg plenty of food and
_ to find that the throttle cable routdnnkson supply, Theonly hard part
' h dbe
ed 'th h'l
en tamper WI , w, I eon
was d eCi'd'
Ing w h' h b'ke to n'd e f'I r s t .mg a
IC I
,
display at Ponca, After flxmg the
I started the day off on the YZI25,
which happened to be the same bike
problem, I hea~ed back out on the
that was on display at the Ponca City
track with confidence and focused
Grand National Championship of
my attention on how the new YZl25
performs.
Motocross in Oklahoma a week prior.
The same bike that hundreds of kids
The first thing I noticed is the
sat on, bounced up and down on,
motor. The new YZ makes good
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