1996 125cc MX Comparison
By Donn Maeda
Photos by Joe Bonnello
and Maed!l
ver the past several
months, we've spent
countless hours riding,
racing and working on the
four Japanese 125cc MX
machines. And just what
have we learned in that
amount of time? Well, we
know that it's an .oft-used
motorcycle-test cliche, but
you really can win on any
of the four machines. Based
on opinions alone, it was impossible to declare a winner of our 1996 125cc
Shootout. Testers were wishy-washy
when it came to choosing their favorite
based on memory alone, as most riders
approved of all four bikes. Thus, we
resorted to scorecards. Every tester
rated each bike in several categories.
Power, suspension, handling, braking
and ergonomics were all induded, and
each rider was required to spend a good
deal of time aboard each bike before filling out a questionnaire. Points were
awarded in each category, with four
being the best, one being the worst. The
results were surprisingly close.
For most racers, power is the most
important factor in the 125cc class, so
we'll start there. Though the bike with
the most power is usually the hands-
down winner in this category, this isn't
the case in '96. The Yamaha YZ125 was
the unanimous favorite in the overall
power category, as its broad spread of
power was the easiest for aU of our
testers to use. No, the YZ isn't the most
powerful, but of the four bikes, it took
the least amount of effort to go fast on
the white and blue machine. The YZ
isn't the torquiest or the four bikes
either. Instead, the Yamaha produces a
good amount of low-end power, a
whole lot of midrange, and a very
respectable amount of pull up on top.
"Electric" is the best way to describe the
YZ's engine, and the bike excelled in
