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/127729
acin ·. PROJECT. BIKE YKP R gYamaha YZ167 nident:it='ied Flying ~b.Ject: (Left) A thin spacer between the engine cases and cylinder is the only visible evidence that the bike has been mod ified. YKP does , however, have a custom bu ilt piston that eliminates the need for the spacer. (Right) To the untrained eye, the YKP Yamaha VZ167 looks li ke any other bike. Our purple, white and red project bike drew stares wherever we went. By Donn Maeda Photos by Joe Bonnello n recent years, the Vet classes have enjoyed a surge in popularity. Ra cers who once abandoned motocross have returned with a newfound enthusiasm for the sport, knowing tha t there's an ab undance of age-specific classes to compete in. A 30- • and-over Vet class is the sta ndard, but most clu bs offer 25-, 35-, 40- and 45yea r-old d iv is ions as we ll. Racing agains t rid ers of your sa me age grou p has a certain appeal, as the full starting gates will attest. Because said classes are age-s pecific, racer s are a llowed to compe te aboard any ma ch in e . T he typ ical Ve t r a ce r stereotype is that of an overweight 500 rider, bu t there are a select few who prefer to race 125s. Such racers, however, find themselves at an immediate d isadvantage. Unless they po ssess far superior starti ng skills, 125-mounted ra cers will usu all y find th em selves m ired at the start. Sure, a 125 may handle better' in the tigh ter sections of the track, but if the track is fast and wide open, forget it. So, what' s a 125 Vet rider to do? Rick Peterson is a mad-scientist type w ho owns th e serv ice d epartment at C ov in a Yamaha / Kawasa ki/Polaris . Peterson likes to spend his time tinkering wi th th in gs, mostly making them ' faster and more powerful. A member of the over-30 crowd, Peterson prefers to . ride 125s, but found himself at a huge ' disadvantage against the larger bikes in the Vet class. "A 250 tired me out too much, and my 125 didn't have enough power, so I t mad e my 125 into a 167," said Peterson. "I o nce shoe-horned a WR200 motor ! into a YZ125 frame, bu t this is much { more effective. I wanted a bike that I cou ld keep inside a rutted tu rn , but I also wa nted a lot of power when it came time to blast out of the comer." . We m e t Peterson o ne afternoon while testing at Glen He len OHV Park, a nd a fter h e p e s ter ed u s to tr y h is Ya ma ha YZ125 for se ve ra l hours, we ' fi na lly ga ve in . Ini tia lly, h e d id n't ' inform us that the bike was a big-bore, a n d af ter o n ly half a lap, our test er r pull ed over to check th e s wi nga rm sticke rs on th e bike. Was it a 125 or a 250? Th e sticker did indeed say "125," but the bike felt no thi ng like any tiddler we ' d ever ridden. Pete rson chuckled 'w hen we pulled back into the pits, and