Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Cycle News 2004 07 28

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128334

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 31 of 107

Faster, Yamaha goes after the four-strokes with an all-new Y 125 Z T o say that 2004 is the year of t he fo ur-st rok e would be an under statem ent - everyone is on a thumper these days , it seems. But despite so many racers lean ing more to ward valves and tappets rather than premix and combustion chambers , it 's a re lie f to se e that Y amah a st ill has faith in two-stroke tec hnology by making a huge effort to revive its ow n 125cc tw o-stroke YZ. Being 250cc fou r-stroke converts ourselves, we figured it wou ld be difficult - if not impossible - to get us back o n a 125cc again - aluminum frame or not . But aft er r iding t he ne w 2005 YZl25, we wish we wer en't quite so quick to toss o ut ou r Ratio Rite . Two-strokes' num ber-o ne advan tage ove r four-strokes is weight , so Yamaha's first priority was make t he yz 125 even lighte r tha n before. Much lighter. For 2005 Yamaha claims that the 'OS 125 is a full 10 pounds lighter than '04 . Yamaha says it saved "tons" of weight by going to a new aluminum frame, redesigning the swingarm and making t he engine smaller and more compact in size, despite add ing one more gear to the transmission. Yamaha claims that the 'OS yz 125 weighs IB9 pounds (dry), and says that 's a "true" figu re , not just a Wishful claimed number. And Yamaha didn't stop there. It also gave the motor a complete overhaul, so basically what yo u have he re is an all-new moto rcycle , des igned to go hea ds up against the 250cc four-st ro kes. For most peo ple when it co mes to somet hing new, the big question is, do es it really wo rk? Well, we can te ll you, when re ferring to the 2005 YZl 25, the answer is - yes. Yamaha managed to retain many of the YZ's already great traits, while making it much lighte r and faste r and - ultimately more competitive against the four-str okes . O n the track the weight difference is immed iately noticeable. After riding our 2004 test bike back-to-back with the 2005 yz, the 10 pounds made a huge difference 32 JUL 28, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS Y in how the bike felt and handled - re mar kably lighter and better. The lighter weight made th e bike feel even more resp onsive and easie r to control than the '04 YZ. Some testers did, howev er, notice a slightly more rigid feel than the old steel -framed yz but adde d that it wasn't what they wou ld call "harsh" or a nuisance - just firme r. We did find, though, that the weight and frame weren't the on ly variables t hat added to the bike's gre at overall handling - t he new Kayaba forks helped imme nsely as we ll. For 2005 Yamaha redesigned the inverted Kayabacartridge-style fork that now features a new intemal system that separates the air and the oil, which Yamaha claims results in better-controlled damping and a mo re progressive feel for the rider. And its claims see m to be right on the money. We found the new fork, wit h 40th Anniversary

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's - Cycle News 2004 07 28