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/127932
SHOOTOUT iii , aw akiKX250 vs. Yamaha YZ400F K as " -. .- y now it' s surely no secre t th at Yama ha' s YZ400F fo u r-s troke , mo tocrosser is jus t abou t everyth ing it has been cracked u p \0 be, It's revolu tionary, awesome , p he no me nal, cool, the bomb, fat, do pe and any thing else th at you and yo u r bu ddies might have coined to desc ribe something that's bad ("bad " meaning "good ," of course) . It is a very good motorcycle no matt er how many stro kes it has. We also have to admit that the YZF is an insanely fun motorcycle to ride, perhap s having no equal in this category at the moment. The sounds and sensations created by this bike are something 'that almost can' t be expla ined . You simply hav e to ride one to fully und erstand just w ha t it is we're tal kin g a bo u t her e. (Husa berg riders, however, migh t have a good idea w hat we' re talking abou t.) Afte r a few weeks of thou ght s and con versat ions resembling the wo rds in th e paragrap hs abo ve, we here a t the new- and- impro ved , p os h (a n d l 'd o m ea n posh) Cycle News headqu art er s became a little curiou s, Just how good is this thing? Just how does it compa re to th e two-st roke it emulated a nd ai me d for? The Yama ha R&D guys have been saying since day one tha t their testers could consis tently turn faster lap times on the YZ400F than on their own YZ250, , and that intrigued us. Initially, we actually thought abo ut sticking it righ t into ou r a nn ua l 250cc Shootout, bu t after some consideration s we decided to put it up aga inst the wi nner of the .shootout - the Kawasaki KX250 - as well as the s to pwa tch . Test ers can and w ill li e (okay, bend the tr uth ), b u t the stopwa tch never tells a tall tale. There sho uld n't even be a qu estion as to why we chose to put it u p aga inst the KX250, because, sim ply sta ted, it won our shootout hands down - no contest. It is a confide nce- ins piring mot ocrosser th at combines inc re di ble amounts of usable power w ith grea t handling and sus pension action - stiff competition for the YZF, to say the least. We tested bikes at just about every major Southern Ca lifo rnia track from Perri s Raceway to Compe tition Park , but e nded up taking actua l lap times at Carlsbad Racewa y, Gle n Helen Ra ce w a y a n d o u r "Double-Secret Sand Track" in the high dese rt. With lap times taken from these three mostly natu ral-terrain MX tracks, all of the majo r varieties of track terrain we re cover ed: Carlsbad is slick, chopp y and extreme ly hard-packed ; Glen Helen has inter med ia te 'ter r a in with so me hard -pack and plenty of loam y turns; and the Double-Secret Sand Tra ck consists of heavy wash sa nd , loam , ruts, and hu nd red s of whoops and holes. As for the testers, we used rid ers of all ability levels fro m beginners up to the top . When it came down to hammering ou t laps for the record , thoug h, we w e re a b le to sc ro u nge up pro-l ev el tester Don Burke, in ter m ed iat e Josh Wray and novices Camer on Coa tn ey and Jay Clark. (Hey, every bod y wan ts to be a tes t rid er until you really need them.) Which is best : two-stroke or fou r-stroke? The 1998 Kawasaki KX250 and Yamaha YZ400F squa re off, Afte r seeing nu merou s d yn o charts, we've come to th e concl us ion that the YZF and KXboth pu t out between 43 and 45 hp , d ep end ing on the dyno and the bikes. While the KX power is snap py and responsive before signing off pretty early, the YZF produ ces most of its power in the middl e- toupper -rpm range. Con sequently, the Kawasak i is quicker through , shorter straigh taways and loamy corners where the instant hit can be utilized effectively, while the Yamaha is faster d own lon ger straightaways and throu gh flat, and slick turns, Similarly, the KX excels on s ta rt st raights w hich are sho rt and loam y, while the YZF excels 0!1 longer, slicker start straights where it can put its more tractable power to the groun d more efficiently as it revs past the KX. Both have awe-inspiring powerplants in their own ways. The s hi fting a nd clu tch ac ti on a re very good o n b oth bikes, a lt ho ugh