P64
2021 250cc FOUR-STROKE MOTOCROSS SHOOTOUT
SHOOTOUT
YAMAHA
YZ250F
T
he Blue Crew is back
to lay down the law and
maintain order in the
250F motocross class. Ya-
maha's goal for this year was
to refine an already proven
package, and in turn the
YZ250F just keeps getting
better. So good in fact that
the blue bike received nearly
unanimous number-one votes
across the board from our six
gun-totin' testers (as men-
tioned, all but one put it on
the top spot). This means the
Yamaha camp earns another
term as the 250 Town Sher-
iff, but only after it sniped its
way past a fleet of calculated
competitors.
The motor package on
the YZ250F is arguably the
most exciting in the class.
After last year's shootout
win, the engineers updated
the powerplant looking for
more mid to top pulling power
and increased peak output.
They did just that. With a light
feather of the clutch the bike
comes alive and pulls like a
strongman through RPMs.
While we enjoyed riding the
bike in the upper end of the
power curve, it does seem
like YZinger missed the mark
a bit in terms of bottom-end
excitement. The bike clicks
through gears in rapid suc-
cession, climbing through the
curve and encouraging the
rider to really rev it out. The
majority of our test riders pre-
ferred the "light on" map as it
provided an aggressive and
stronger over rev character
that carried them through the
elevation changes at Cahuilla
Creek and Glen Helen.
Suspension is what re-
ally sets the YZ apart from
the field of hungry hopefuls.
The Speed Sensitive System
(SSS) fork was our favorite on
1
ST
Place
