Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

heig ht) and co sme tic c hanges mad e by the tea m . So wh at' s it lik e to ri de? Well , not wanting to do the bike any injustices he re, it w as far fro m overw he lmi ng. M ay be bec aus e of t h e fac t th at the bike is raced by Stefa n Evert s, possib ly bec au se it 's been so suc c essful thi s yea r o r sim pl y because it bares the YRRD log o on it s side, for wh at ever rea son , I exp ected more. There was certainly nothing wrong wi t h t he b ike, I j u st expected it to ha ve a li t tl e m ore wow f actor. N ot really feeling an y str onge r off the botto m t han a st andard m ac hin e , t h e b ik e d id h av e a st ron ger m idrang e and a noticeabl y stro nger top end. It al so rev v ed h i gher than a stand ard Yam aha, which was the m ost im pres siv e asp ect of th e bike. Whereas most 2 50cc fo u r-strokes tend to see th eir powe r drop off when ov erre vved , Stefa n ' s d i dn 't. Instead o fferi ng a co nst ant m ax im um rpm - aro und 10 0 0 rp ms high er than standa rd I was to ld - t h e b ik e cou l d be rev ved as lo ng and as hard as I wa nted in any gear. Th at was of notic eable ben efit wh en riding alo ng straights that were a little too lo ng for third gear and no t q ui te long en o ug h f o r fo urth . In ste ad of having to shift up and th en im mediatel y shift bac k down aga in, a ge ar co ul d b e h eld wi tho ut eit he r losing po we r or uns ettl in g th e bik e. A s fa r as the rest of the bik e was concerned, it was really j ust the "factory-prepped" feel th at sets it apa rt from a standa rd m o unt , w ith St efan's setu p being quit e no rma l - apart fro m h is skyward pointi ng lever position . Feel ing freshl y built, alive due to Stefan 's lik e of incredibly supple, fast rebounding sus pen sion , th e bike fel t a lmo st identica l to his 4 5 0, just soft er in the susp ensio n departme nt. Fitt ed with the sam e B rem b o fr on t a nd re a r b ra k e setup , the only nota bl e co ck pit differ ence was the sta ndard c able-operated clutc h . Used bec au se th e prod uction unit is light eno ugh no t to warr ant fitting th e bike wit h a hy drau lic part, its action, lik e the action of all the bik e's co ntro ls, was impeccable. , To sum up what I tho ug ht of St efan 's YZ25 0F, I' d have to say the bi k e wasn 't ove rly im pressive. Wo rld cl ass b u t n o t overly i mpressi ve, if t hat makes sense . As much as I'd like to t ell you tha t it was the best thing I' ve ever r id d en , because of the stron g "this doesn't feel much more powerful th an st a n da rd " feeling I got, that's what my strongest impression of the b ik e w as. Sure it was a little faster, and, yes , it was a little stronger in the midran ge, but I'd have to say that the m otor was also slightly harder to ride than a st anda rd mac hine . With Ste f an ' s h i g h l y pe rs ona liz ed ( ve ry soft an d very fas t ) suspe nsion set up and highl y pe rsona lized lever posi ti on also lea ving a defin ite im p ression , it seems that with th e possib le exceptio n of the Br embo brak es, the only pa rt of the bike you can 't buy is Stefan 's ta lents . And j ust lik e o n the 450 , th at' s th e part th at reall y co unt s. eN Lightweight and strong, carbon fiber parts are used wherever possible. Uke th e m otor, the bike's suspen si on w as also somewh at surpri sin g . K n o w in g t hat it wo u l d be suppl e , I also e x pec te d th e fa ct that I was around 30 pounds heavier than St e f an and t her efo re t oo heavy fo r the b ik e to be c anc elle d o ut by th e fact tha t he was so much faster. T he sus pensio n I guessed woul d pro bab ly be just abou t ri gh t for m e. It wasn't. It was too soft. T he initia l pa rt of th e stroke on both St ef an 's KYB 50 mm USD forks and sh o ck i s incredibly soft. Then w h en y ou a r r i v e at t h e m id st ro k e, it fi rms up con si derabl y but progressi vel y . While b r a k i n g heavily across bumps entering cor ners , th e suspension felt too hard on occasions because i t was r unn ing midway into its stroke. On the rest of the trac k , it felt very responsive, giving great f eedba ck from the track . Th at and the fact the bike fe lt ex t remely light m ad e i t inc red ibly easy to m an eu ver. As th e m ec hanic t o l d m e a f t er w a r d , " It o n ly r e a ll y works fo r Stefan. " On e th ing you notice whe n rid ing t he b i k e is that the sh a pe of the clu tch and fron t brak e leve r encourage you to leave on e fi ng er on ea ch lever at a ll times . Wi th bot h levers. and espec ially th e clut ch leve r, bent almost into a V shape, I found myself w ith o ne fin ger co nsta ntl y placed in th e m id dle of eac h le ver. Ext rem el y co mfortable and offering yo u th e lux ury of in stan t use, I also notice d that St efan runs h is f ro nt brake l e v e r mu ch closer to hi s h and than m o st rid ers; Wit h the Brembo un it offerin g a very fi r m, pos itive b ut i n a wa y g ra b by actio n . b o t h bra kes , fron t espec ially, were ex cellent. C O NCL U S IO N So what did I learn from m y day in the p resence of greatness? Well, firstIy , that Stefan likes ver y soft and very f ast su spens ion , a li near m oto r with excepti onal botto m a n d m idran g e power, and levers tha t point t owa rd th e heaven s. Oh, and if produ cti on 450s p rodu c ed t he smoot h useabl e pow er that Stefan 's does, the ave rage man o n th e str eet wo uld enjoy rid ing t hem m uc h , m uch m ore . With St e fa n 's 450 bei ng impecca bly p repared and exc eptio na ll y well set up , I also reali zed th at the days of th e tr ue, fu ll b l own f a c t o ry G P b i k e a r e n ow a th ing of th e past. Rep laci ng them are production -b ased m achines that fe ature o nly a handfu l of parts that c an't be brought for love or m on ey . B ut m o re import antly, and as I had al rea dy suspected , t he m onkey and not th e m achine is the m ore impo r tant half of th e rid er /bike du o , especia lly wh en w inning Wor ld M X tit les is c o nc e rn ed . Do n 't g et m e w rong St efan 's MX GP titl e-w in ni ng machi ne is an exceptio nal p iece of ma ch in ery and one that I felt was m uch easie r to ri de tha n a standard '03 YZ450F, it's just that to extract the best from th e YZ4 50 FM , you need to be exce pti on all y sk illed , e xc e p t i o n a ll y fit and exc eptio na ll y, well , exce ptiona l, j ust as St efan is . After all , if it was t he bik e that mad e all th e difference, why wasn 't I a b l e to glide my wa y a s eff ort lessly an d as quick ly around th e Asti m otocro ss track as Mr. Ev erts? STEFAN 'S OTHER B IKE Wit h t he ease w i t h w h i ch S t efan E v e r t s t opp ed th e 1 2 5 cc W o r l d motocro ss cham p ionship pod iums so m an y ti m es this year, you'd be for g iven fo r th inking tha t h is YZ250 F is a ver y specia l piece of ki t - it' s not. Only visua lly different from his 450c c m oun t due t o the fact that it isn 't fitte d with a hy drauli c c lutch and has wh ite nu m bers o n bla ck ba ck ground s ra the r than th e othe r way aro und , t he b ike is a la r m i n g ly close to wh at rolls out of the Ya m a h a f ac t o r y in Japan . Som ething th at c annot only be seen but also felt when riding the bik e o ut on th e trac k, K itte d w ith th e very sa m e YRRD pa rts tha t are av ailab le to the pub lic, an d not eve n to th e very latest specific at io n Italian Andrea Ba rt o lini is th e ri der w ho gets to use the very latest stuff th e bike's li st of produc t i on part s is far lo n g er tha n its list of " fact o ry" bits . I n fact t he o n ly co m po nents on th e bike tha t c a n ' t re a l ly be bo ug ht a re, li k e o n t h e 4 50 , the Brem bo br akes . T he re st , incl ud ing t he Techn ical Touch Kayaba su sp e ns io n - w h i c h i s a c t ua lly two ye ars old o n St ef a n' s h al f -liter race b ik e - is no differ ent from wha t anyone ca n ha ve, if yo u'r e pr e par ed to spe n d the m on e y , of co urse. The pa rt s that ar e ch anged inside St e fa n's 2 5 0 F motor a r e t h e v e r y same YRRD parts tha t will be avai l ab le to the publi c in '04. Incl uding a new fo rg ed s i n g le - ri n g p isto n f or g reat er du ra bil it y , a sta nd ard c ra nk sha ft asse m b led with a fo rg ed YRRD co nnec ting rod, ca m sha fts that offer different timing pro fil es, inlet and outle t va lv es m ad e from mo re d urab le materials th at also offer " special pro f il es," and YRRD la test genera t ion C D I t hat ena b les o pti mal ign ition c ha rac t er ist ic s, th e l ist o f m o d if ied and c hanged pa rts isn 't as co mprehensive as you might th ink c onsidering th e serio usnes s w ith wh ic h bo th Stefa n an d Yamaha take their ra cin g, Wi th a ti ta nium ex ha ust sy st em and so m e YRRD en gi ne cov ers a ll bu t c o m pl et ing t he tra nsf orm at ion from prod uctio n ma chine to GP racer, the ad d it i o n a l a ltera t i o ns a re p er son al c ha ng es made by St efan (b ar s, b ar heig ht a nd pos it ion , seat and le v er Everts prefers a hydraulically opera te d clutch over the stock , ca ble -ope ra te d clutch. cue I e n e vv S • O CTOB ER 22 , 2003 35

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