2004 125cc MX Shootout
By THE STAFF OF CYCLE NEWS
PHOTOS BY BLAKE CONNER
kay, we admit it. After riding all the new, ultrafun
250Fs on the market this
year, we were having a
hard time getting worked
ing a bunch of buzzy and pipey
stroke MXers for our annual
t after we swung our legs over
and hit the Racetown 395 MX
e first time , all of our testers
. ing. We were wrong - 125cc
s are still fun. In some cases,
fun than the thumpers! It was
ootout with a new attitude.
g what the 125s were like
sters all had some preconr at least they knew what
good and bad - coming
ut: Pay attention to the
thing in '03) , and look
ling (not-so-good thing in
n to the Honda's handling
'03), and look out for its
-sO;gQ£d thing
'0
were numerous details to pay
attention to on each bike, and
since none of the bikes here
are "all-new" for 2004 (as the
shootout-winning 'KX125 was
for '03), we figured we'd find
the bikes to be pretty much
the same as well.
They aren't. Most of the manufacturers made leaps where they
needed it most in engine performance,
handling, ergonomics and more. Basically,
we had a lot of surprises in store, and we
had a very difficult time narrowing it down
to the top three bikes·· but we managed .
As usual, out 125cc shootout featured
bone-stock 125cc two-strokes from the
top five manufacturers: Honda, Kawasaki,
KTM, Suzuki and Yamaha. Stock is the key
word here - stock bars, grips, tires, every thing . All we added was our custom
Factory Effex Cycfe News graphics and
crossbar pads where needed.
We bes,an our test at Racetown 395 in
Adelanto, California, which featured epic
conditions. We then went to always-challenging and , on this. day, windswept Glen
Helen Raceway, and we followed that up
with a day at Starwest MX Park's supercross-style track in Perr is, California.
So, even though you're probably planning on modifying the heck out of your tiddler, what we offer is information on what
you'll get as a foundation .
