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/127684
::TEST'. 1995 Yamaha YZ125 By Kit Palmer ' Photos by Kinney Jones • 26 on't be fooled by rehashed styling and BNGs (bold new graphics), but the 1995 Yamaha YZl25 is, in fact, a changed motorcycle. Last year, the YZ125 was completely rebuilt and rejuvenated, but in spite of . its major overhaul, the little YZ just didn't quite have the beans to make it the number-one hit of '94. Close, but no cigar. Despite having a sligh tly less than stellar motor, the '94 YZ still had plenty of things going for it, most notably its suspens ion. Arguably, the YZ had the best suspension in its class, and overall handling was almost just as good . But none of these factors could overcome its lack of drive exiting the turns. In the 125cc class, when it comes to the mo tor department, when you give an inch, the competition will take a mile. But Yamaha didn't want to give that inch away anymore and spent the entire '94 racing season concentrating on the '95's production engine, and from what we can tell, all their effort has paid off. The '95 YZl25 simply hauls, or should we say, hooks up. Yamaha accomplished thi s feat by carefully going over the powerplant with a fine-toothed comb. Most of the ' attention was focused on giving the yz better bottom-end performance, so Yamaha overhauled the exhaust side of the cylinder ports and the YPYSexhaust power-valve. The exhaust ports themselves are completely reshaped, and the YPYS has been slightly relocated to a more efficient position. Next, Yamaha fiddled with the airbox-to-ca rburetor boot, making it straighter so that incom ing air has a less restrictive path to the new Mikuni (instead of Keihin) TMX36 mixer. Now, these changes might not seem like a whole lot, but they do make a difference on the track, especially off the bottom of the YZ's rpm range, just as th e fo lks at Yamaha had promised. Throttle response is outstanding. The bi ke jumps as soon as the throttle is cracke d - as long as the revs are up • and perhaps the biggest difference between last year's YZ ('94) and the '95 YZ is the way the new model hooks up coming out ofthe comers - much, much better. Last year's YZ wasn't slow by any means, but it did seem to have a hard time getting the power to the ground, it would certainly rev out quickly enough - perhaps too quickly - but just didn't seem as though you were getting anywhere. This isn't the case any more. Not only does the new YZ hit a little bit harder than before but, as we already mentioned, the rear tire digs in .much better while blasting out of the turns. And that "digging in" portion of the powerband lasts a little bit longer than before as well. We rode the '94 and '95 YZl25s back to back, and there is little doubt that the '95 YZ is more tractable and certainly easier to ride than the '94 YZ. The '95 YZ isn't necessarily faster than the '94 YZ, but it does make better use of its power output. From midrange on u p, the tw o bikes seemed evenly ma tched. Not long after we first rode the bike, it began bogging quite noticeably off the bo ttom, and this became especially distinct when slowing down for the turns and barely cracking the throttle. We traced the problem to clogged carburetor vent tu bes. On muddy tracks, the vent tubes hang too far down below the fra me rails easily plugging up with mud, causing the slight hesitation at low rpm. We eventually clipped the tu bes . CD