FIRST RIDE
P112
2014 YAMAHA YZ250F
The YZ250F feels light and
agile in the air and rock solid
on the ground.
(the media) a chance to spin a few
laps on one. Yamaha assured us
that the bike we rode is identical
to ones that will be coming off the
assembly line later this year.
We had a three-hour window
of opportunity to ride the pre-pro
YZ and we made the best of it by
basically riding the bike non-stop
the whole time. And we loved every minute of it.
We were probably most impressed by the motor, which
pumps out plenty of broad and
very useable power. It pulls hard
off the bottom, right through midrange and through top-end. At
first, though, we wanted a little
bit more on top, but one quick
adjustment with Yamaha's GYTR
Power tuner fixed that. We found
the bike to pull each gear much
longer than before, dramatically
reducing the amount of shifting
per lap. It'll pull third gear out of
the turns, or other situations, that
it wouldn't do last year. And shifting, we might add, is extremely
smooth and precise.
The previous YZ250F was already a solid handling and wellsuspended machine, and still
is. Although the track wasn't too