Kawasaki KX250F
By
is Kawasak i's first entry int o the fourst ro ke motocro ss mark et . a nd wit h
th e help of Suzuki and th eir all ia nce,
we can tell yo u right now th at th e two
c omp ani es successfull y put th ei r
heads tog ether to produce a bike th at
ce r t ain ly rival s the m otorc y cl e that
sta rt ed the 250cc four-strok e tr end a
few ye ars ago - th e Yamaha YZ250F.
And for a fir st -time effo rt, th at' s say ing a lot.
TH E S T A F F O F C YCL E N EWS
PH O T O S BY KIN N EY J O N E S
t pr ett y m uch goes w ithout
that 2004 is going to be th e
th e 250c c fo ur -s t roke . Afte r
less t han t hre e b r a n d - n ew
I
sa y ing
ye ar of
a ll . no
250 cc
thu m pers w ill be mak ing the ir debut
in '04 , one of whic h is featu red here t he K aw asa k i KX250 F. The all -new
and high ly anticipated gre en machine
24
S EPT EM BER 1 0 . 2003'
cue
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vv
s
Last week , Kawasa k i gave Cy cle
News and some of the other m otorcycle
ma gazin es a taste of its new KX250F
at th e loamy Cahui lla Cr eek MX t ra ck
near Temecula, Ca lifornia , and th en
th e bikes we re taken back to co m pa ny's Irvin e headqua rt ers fo r rep rep ping f or fut u re long -t erm m agaz in e
eva lu atio n s and t est ing . B el iev e us
wh en we say that we had a very hard
time giv ing our KX thumper bac k .
A l ot o f th i s h ad t o d o w ith th e
K X 's four - valv e , .DOHC, titaniumva lv ed motor. wh ich we fo und d o es
del iver Yamaha -like power, but w ith
p erhaps a bit m ore oo m p h o ff the
bottom. Th e pow erb and even seem ed
a little wid er . but th e Yam aha mi ght
have th e edg e wh en it com es to outr ig h t p ower o n t op , ev en though
Kawasaki claims it revs o ut a f ew
hundred mor e rpms than t h e YZ .
