2004 2 50cc Four-Stroke MX Shootout
There's finally some competition for the YZ250F - and how!
YZ250F wh en it comes to production
250cc four-stroke MXers.
Un til now.
Sudden l y , the 250c c fou r -stroke
c lass is crowded , wi th the in troduc tion of th ree new 20 04 250cc production thumpers: th e Hon d a CRF250R ,
th e Suzu ki RM-Z 250 and the Kawasaki KX250F. Th ere's eve n a new Italian Gas -Gas 250cc thu m pe r aro u nd
now, as well as a 250cc four-b ang er
from Husq varn a - but th ey d ecid ed
not t o im po rt th e bikes into the USA
just yet. For this shootout, tho ugh, we
decid ed t o concentrate solely on the
J apan ese stra ight-gas b urn ers, an d
B y T HE S T A FF O F C YCLE N EWS
P HOTO S BY B LA K E C O N N ER
~ey
say tha t it 's lonely at th e top. If
• that's th e case, then Yam ah a has
been in absolute iso lation for th e past
couple of years - at least as far as th e
YZ250F is concerned . You see , not
onl y has it been the best 250c c fourstroke motocross bik e aro und since it
was born three year s ago, but it's also
been the only race-model 250cc fourstroke around. Oh, su re , there hav e
been a few prototypes surfacing here
and th er e o ve r the y ears , but ther e
hasn 't been a serious cont ender for th e
24
NOVEM BER 12, 2003 '
cue
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judging by our Internet poll conducted last month, our 250cc Four-Stroke
MX sh o ot out i s the on e y o u w er e
anticipating t he m o st . Guess wh at?
So were we.
After we fin all y got a hold of all
four bikes, the plan was simple - rid e
'em! A nd rid e 'e m we did. Our goa l
w as to wring out the new thumper s
on a wid e variety of tracks in as little
time as reasonab ly poss ib le in orde r
to relay our findings to you as quickly
as we could .
Ev er sin c e t he YZ250F c ame o n
the sce ne three years ag o , th e bike
ha s been a favorite here at th e CN
office , as have b een the Hon da,
Kawas aki and Suzuki
250cc
thumpers ever since we rod e th em for
the first time a few week s ago, so we
th ought that it would only be fitting to
h aul them up to on e o f our all -time
favo r ite m oto cross track s - Hon ey
Lak e MX in Milford , California. Plus,
_
not 5'_~IL i_s_ ~_()_~~X__ .!:-_~~_~ ()~~ () f_ ~
choice tr acks , bu t it's also th e perfect
pl ace t o test motors beca use of the
track 's insan ely lon g u p h i ll , so me what fast layout , and thi ck, loamy
so il. If any of the engi nes had flaws,
we'd surely find them here. Because
of the elevation of the track , we even
