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/127160
By Kit Palmer Photos by Nate Rauba . . ch rear wheel and a new swingarm. It has plen ty 0; internal,changes. too. Altho ugh th e rear suspens ion received on ly minor refinem ents, it's en ha nced by th e su pe rb fo rk . The inve rted fork and the rear suspe nsion work in harmon y to g ive th e Yamaha a solid, stable a nd secu re feeling on ro ugh gr ound. The rear suspe ns io n absorbs touch -downs off bi g jumps smooth ly, and rarely swaps. Plus th e Yama ha tracks extreme ly well whe n powering o ut o f turns. We spe nt most of o ur time with the Ya maha o n a hard-p acked , dri ed o ut a nd pot-holed-filled track, and the Yam aha hook ed u p surp ris ingl y wel l. T he rear tire stuck to th e grou nd fai rly well , but the front tire da nc es to a different tu ne. It works oka y o n loa m y, tacky grou nd (b u t wh at tire doesn' P ), b ut on the ha rd stuff, forget it. The new Yam aha tu rns better tha n any YZ we've ridden . The ri gid fork ยท helps o u t here, as does the Micky Dymond-bend ha ndl ebars a nd the fla tter seat. The bik e is much eas ier to move around on, excep t we had rea l problem s with the tops o f our boots ge tting ca ugh t o n the bot tom corne r o f th e seat, wh ere it han gs down betw een th e sid e pan el a nd gas ta n k -on both sides o f the bi ke. T aller boots magn ify the prob lem more than shorter boots. We eventuall y removed th e sea t cover and cut off the co rn er sectio ns and rounded the m o ff. The motor works li ke the suspen- sian - smo o thly. It feels simi la r to last year's motor but hits a little soo ne r in th e powerband a nd pulls hard a nd co n tro llably. There' s no harsh po wer su rge a nywhe re, a nd th e smooth-p ull ing mot or keeps pullin g hard a t hi gh rpm, but on ly in th ird gear did the mo tor seem to run o u t o f revs too quickly. The YZ's five-speed transm ission is first-rate. T he shiftlever is easy to find a nd use , a nd th e clutch has smoo th , o ne-finger operatio n . 'Missed shifts were rare. Bra kes o n th e YZ are typical Yamaha - flawless. One fing er is all that's need for the fro nt , and the ba ck is very progressive and powerful. We never sta lled the motor, a nd back end hop whi le bra king fo r th e turn s isn 't a ny th in g o u t of th e ordinar y. Basi c m a inta inan ce is simple, a lt ho ugh it's sma rter to co m p letely remove th e ai rbo x asse mbly to service the filt er, ra ther than rem oving just the element. Dirt will fall into th e carbure to r witho ut you kn owin g it if you do n 't. Well? It doesn 't ta ke a genius to figure o u t that we ar e very impressed with th e new YZ250W. The.suspen sion is by far th e best Yamaha ha s ever produced, and th e motor has ca ptured a ll th e good traits of past Y7 .s and put them all together in o ne sano pa ckage. The new Kayaba inverted fork (above) has excellen t feel. Modificatio ns t o the mot or (below) have p ro duc ed a w i d e and extremely smooth p owerband.