VOLUME ISSUE DECEMBER , P95
Elsinore's six) speed gearbox. A six-
speed gearbox has a nice sound
to it during a bench race, but it
isn't always an advantage, and the
five-speed is likely to be stronger,
too. What the YZ125 achieves in
down-low ease of use it partially
gives back in top-end power. It
doesn't seem to be quite as fast
as the Honda when they both get
all wrapped out in top gear. But in
most situations for most riders, the
Yamaha has the edge."
We were impressed with the
YZ's controllable power. "Com
-
ing out of turns with the gas on,
it is easy to keep the rear wheel
only as far to the outside as you
choose. You have to use some
discretion, but it's all pretty con-
trollable in and out of turns.
"Exiting turns, the front wheel
seemed to prefer to come up if you
were doing some serious wick-
twisting. Wheelies were a cinch."
The YZ's suspension was bet-
ter than we thought it would be,
but it was far from perfect. We
said, "The rear shocks might be
special because we didn't have as
many qualms about them as we
expected, but we wanted a bit
more from them in rough stuff
like stutter-bumps. There was
a little rear wheel hippity-hop
when you got on the brakes, but it
'wasn't nothing bad' as one liter
-
ate tester noted. The forks look
like they don't have enough travel
but come off handling pretty well
after you have experienced them."
We also praised the YZ's
handling because "it never spit
off anybody hard," which isn't
a bad criterion when deciding
whether a motorcycle handles
well or poorly. "The majority of
the blame for any soil-sampling
expedition [on the YZ125] gets
laid on the rider," we reported.
Some things haven't changed.
We complained that the YZ was
too loud. It was so loud that we
wrote in the test that "Saddle-
back Park will require additional
silencers on YZs in the future."
The YZ was not fitted with an
add-on silencer from the factory,
but Yamaha said the exhaust
pipe had built-in internal baffling
that evidently didn't work well.
Overall, it sounds like we were
impressed with the very first Yama-
ha YZ125 back in 1974, signing off
with: "We used the YZ for a lot of
things. Playing around on it seemed
almost as appropriate as racing it.
The powerband was that easy to
deal with. It was also mild enough
for a beginner. For him, it would
be a much better bike than the
Elsinore, and when he gets good, it
will still be fast enough to win."
The 1974 YZ125 was the first
and last YZ125 with dual rear
shocks. The 1975 YZ125 was a
completely different motorcycle.
It arrived with Yamaha's first
monoshock rear suspension sys
-
tem, a new motor, new yellow/
black coloring, and a muffler.
As for the Yamaha MX125, its
days were numbered as soon as
the YZ appeared. It remained in
production with dual shocks (but
eventually laid down, at least)
for a couple more years before
Yamaha nixed it.
Luckily for us, however, the
YZ125 is still going strong.
CN
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(Left) Cycle News
tested the first
YZ125 in January
1974. (Below) Our
1974 Yamaha YZ125
test bike even
made the cover.
