2003 1 25cc Motocross Bikes
Honda CR125R vs. Kawasaki KX125
VS.
hand, is quite the opposite. It is, as
many of you know, more hardpacked, and it has the tendency to rut
up in the turns and develop nasty
acceleration and braking bumps - it's
the ideal place for testing suspension
and handling.
When we do our shootouts, we
have one basic rule we tell our Novicethrough-Expert-Ievel test riders: keep
engine and suspension tuning down to
a minimum, because we like to test
the bikes as stock as possible. After
all, that's how you buy them. We do
allow for "clicker" changes, of course,
along with ride-height adjustments and
jetting changes, but as far as "magic"
spacers, spring changes, fork-oil alterations and even handlebar swaps, they
weren't allowed this year. Heck, we
didn't even install black backers on
the numberplates. We're talking s-t-oc-k here. Modifications can come
later.
We did, however, make one
exception to the rule. We mulled it
over and decided to mount the same
front and rear tires on all five bikes,
which would give our testers a better
feel as to which model actually
hooked up better than the others.
Mike Farmer from Maxxis offered us
his services and mounted Maxx Cross
IT Intermediate tires to our test bikes,
which we ran at both Cahuilla Creek
and Glen Helen.
By THE CYCLE NEWS STAFF
PHOTOS BY BLAKE CONNER
c.[) ast year, we had it easy. When it
~ came time to pick the podium finishers in our 2002 125cc MX
Shootout, we had only three bikes the Suzuki, Yamaha and KTM - to
consider as finalists. Although it was
not easy to come up with a winner
among those three bikes (we eventually settled on the Suzuki), at least we
didn't have to worry about the Honda
or Kawasaki. Neither machine, for
various reasons, was in the same
league as the other three, but that
simply isn't the case any longer. Both
Kawasaki and Honda stepped it up
for 2003, making this year's battle for
125cc supremacy perhaps the closest
ever. This year, all five bikes are title
contenders.
The stage for our 2003 125cc MX
Shootout involved two very dissimilar
Southern California tracks - Cahuilla
Creek MX Park and Glen Helen Raceway. The new Cahuilla Creek track
isn't what we would call a "125cc"
track, due to its extremely soft - borderline sandy· soil, but it is an excellent track for testing 125cc machines
- or more specifically, 125cc motors since the soft dirt and hilly terrain
easily expose any power flaws and
rub them in your face.
Glen Helen's track, on the other
16
NOVEMBER 13, 2002'
cue
Suzuki RM125
I
•
n
e
_
s
VS.
VS.
Yamaha YZ125
KTM 125 SX
