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stroke motocross bike these days and
not start comparing it to the Yamaha
YZ400F or the YZ426F, a pair of
bikes by which all other midsize fourstroke MXers are now judged. The
VOR representatives never really
came out and touted their bike as
being a YZ400 killer, but if they had,
they really wouldn't be all that far off
the mark. We thought the 400 made
good power, maybe not quite in the
YZ's ieague, but pretty darn close.
Like the YZ, the VOR's motor revs
quickly and feels peppy, but doesn't
quite have the same "snap· and pull
as the YZ.
The 503, on the other hand, is in
the same league as the YZ400, but
needed an extra 100cc to accomplish
this feat. This bike hits significantly
harder than the VOR 400, which, in a
way, made the 503 a little more of a
handful for us mere mortals to ride.
The faster guys, however, loved the
503's more explosive hit and quickrevving engine. The 400 was simply
easier and less fatiguing to ride.
An interesting note is that the VOR
MX models are available in Europe
with three-speed transmissions, but
not in the U.S. VOR felt that perspective buyers in the U.S. will want a
more versatile bike and felt that the
three-speed transmission would be
too limiting for their needs.
We liked the suspensions of both
bikes but felt that they would benefit
, from some more fine-tuning, mainly
up front. There's nothing drastically
wrong with the VORs' suspensions,
but some fiddling with the multitude
of damping adjustments should give
the VORs a more balanced feeling.
After all, we weren't the only test riders trying out the new VOR this day,
(Leftl The VOR 503 delivers plenty of
power to the rear wheel.
(Belowl A lot of trick parts can be
found on the VORs.
here is something very intriguing
about the 400 and 503 VOR
(Vertemati Off-Road) four-stroke
motocrossers. After all, how can you
not be charmed by all of the VOR's
distinct features, like a forward-operating kickstarter, hydraulic clutch,
casette (detachable) gearbox, Brembo brakes, sano-Iooking exhaust system, Paioli forks, an Ohlins shock,
and a forged (no welds) swingarm?
Plus, it's made in Italy and just plain
looks trick, with its clean lines and
black-silver coloring. So when the
folks at Motori USA, the VOR (pronounced Vor, not V -O-R) importers,
invited us to take a few laps on each
bike recently at Sunrise Cycle Park in
Adelanto, California, we jumped on it.
It's hard to hop on a 400cc four-
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