Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

to lowe r the sus pens ion travel a t bo th ends . For me, these tw o changes mad e the YZ easier to r id e than last year's mach ine. Okay, so the Yamaha migh t not hit as hard off th e bottom comp ared to the Honda or Kawasa ki, but th at d oesn't mean it doesn't ha ve e no u g h oomp h down low. U nqu estionably, i t ha s enough grunt to get the job done. The mellower hit makes the Yamaha easier and less tiring to ride. It also seems to have an extremely w id e spread of power; I felt as though I didn't have to shift the Yamaha as much as the others. The Yamaha clearly feels lower (seat height) than the others, and I liked that a lot. I felt I could maneuver the bike around better, especially over the whoops and through the turns. For me, the Yamaha cornered extremely well and, combined with the tamer engine, I could exit the turns cleanly and quickly. Despite having sligh tly less travel, the YZ lost nothing in the way of suspension performance. Already regarded as one of the best-suspended bi kes in the business, th e Yamaha, in myopinion, still leads the way. The bike is very stab le in the rough and lan d s well off the big jumps. To me, the Yamaha isn't a fi nesse bike. It instead likes to have the thr ottle held wid e open through the rough stuff and let the suspe nsion do all the wo rk. It mi ght bounce around a litt le, bu t it rarely gets so out of co n tro l th at you hav e to back off on the throttle. Sometimes, though, the back end kicked a little high er than th e other bikes while under hard braking. . There are a few things I d idn' t like abo ut th e Yamaha, though. The fro n t brake wasn't as precise as some of the othe rs; the clu tch lever felt mush y; the bike sound ed "rattie r" an d overall just felt more " used -u p" than the others, even though it hadn't racked up an ymore track time. The Kawasaki is real nice, too. The mo tor fee ls very sim ila r to that of th e H ond a and is hard to fau lt. I rate it some w here between the Honda a n d Yamaha ' s en g i nes as far as overall powe r an d usability is concerned. It m akes decent bottom-end power and pulls well through the gears. The Kawasaki's sus pension is good, especially the fork which in my opinion is the bes t of the group, an d sligh tly better th an th at o f the Yamaha. Bu t fo r some reason that I cou ldn't pinpoint, the .Kawasa ki jus t felt a bit mo re "bouncy" and "busi er" than the Yamaha; in other words, I just didn't quite feel as comfortable or in control on the Kawa sa ki as I d id on the Yamaha. I also th ought the Yamaha turned and jumped better than . the Kawasaki. I did, however, like the Kawasak i' s brakes and the controls better than those of the Yamaha. Run n in g a close fourth to the Kawasaki was th e Su zuk i, b ut I d id ha ve a hard time rating it abov e th e KTM . The very first tim e I r ode th e Suzu ki I liked it a lot, but since then I've come to like it less and less. First of all, the motor is extreme ly powerful, almost too much so. It hits extremely hard and, in my op inion, if you 're not an Expertor at leas t an Interm ed iat e-class rid er , the Suzuki might not be for you. There's just not enough bottom end to cus hion the blow of the ha rd -hitt ing mid ran ge. As a result, th e Su z uk i is n' t an easy motorcycle to rid e. Combine d wi th its exp losive hit an d extremely qu ick handling, the Su zuki is a handf ul. Th ese qualities make it seem mo re suited to su percross than motocross. Bu t even though the Suzuki might be tricky to ride, there's no denying that sheer horsepow er is a bonus; so metimes it takes jus t a littl e get tin g used. I feel that if I ow ned this motorcycle, I would, in time, learn to take advantage of the. Su zuki's e xp losive power. For now, though , I' d soone r hop on the Ho nda, Yamaha or Kawasaki. The ne w fork works extremely we ll on the hard impacts, but I d idn ' t like the feel so much ove r the smaller bu mps, es p ecia lly at speed . Overall, the front end feIt ha rsh. The Suzuki does hand le well, as long as it's r idden aggressively . The RM won't put up with sloppy techn ique or lazy inp u t by the rid er. It's a full -race bike and demands to be trea ted like one. In my opinion, only a few riders will be able to rid e the Suzuki even close to its futl potential, and those who can will be rewarded with many trophies. I enjoyed riding the KTM , but I couldn't come to term s w ith its suspension. The motor has excellent bottom -end and con tinues to pull well th rough the gears. Pow er-w ise, it d oes n't give anything away to the other bikes but, unfortunately, much of tha t power is lost because the back w heel spends a lot of time in th e ai r. When it comes to the smaller squ are-edged bumps, the KTM bounces around more than I liked . Over the big rolling whoops and land ing off big skyscra pe r jum ps, though, the KTM wo rked fine, but over the small stuff... Other th an th a t, I liked the KTM a lot. The motor is good, it handles well, and the b rakes are a wesome. Some of th e o th er tes te rs co m p la i ned of the KTM's controls, saying that the lever s require too far a reach, bu t with my long fing ers , I had no problem with this. In fact, I liked the long reach, especially on the front brake. The KTM has excellen t ergonomics and is easy to adapt to. O verall, all five of these bikes are excellent. They all ha ve their good and not-so-good points - mostly good. It just so happens that I consistently felt more comfortable on the Ho nd a than the rest. Donn M il e d il Age: 25 Height/weight: 5'10" /160 lbs. Specialty: Motocross Skill le vel: Intermediate won ' t d illy da lly or bea t around the bush. For the secon d yea r in a row, I liked the Honda CR250 best - bu t this yea r it wa s a much tougher decision for me to make. While I felt the most at home aboard the CR, I felt equally as fast aboard the Yamaha YZ250, wa s quite fond of the KTM 25OSX, loved the handling of th e KX250 and was en tertained by the Suz uki RM250' s powerband. So why. d id I pick the Honda? The CR250 has th e best motor, period. Its p ower starts d own low and pulls up throu gh the pow erband with an almostelectric feel. There are no flat spots and the m otor can be bo th ch ugged or revved - either wa y, the Hond a keeps on pulling. Su sp ens ion-w ise, I feel that th e Honda performs admirably. While a few of th e ot he r tes te rs felt that th e bi ke wasn 't up to par wit h the oth ers, I feel that the '94 mod el is the bes t-hand ling CR250 in years. I' ll agree tha t bot h the fron t and rear sus penders are set up a bit soft in s tock co ndition, bu t som e fine-tuning can please most riders. The op tiona l stiffer sp rings work wonders. Ergonomically, the CR can 't be beat. Ev e ry thin g just feels right on the Ho nda, be it the levers, footpegs, grips, I (Above) The Honda .CR250R Is the winner. The CR's awesome motor Is the best, hands down. (Left) The Kawasaki KX250 features a well-rounded motor/suspension! handling package . We rated It second, but some of us are stili arguing. (Below) User friendly best describes the Yamaha VZ250. It has a mellow, yet potent motor and confidence-Inspiring suspension.

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