The third update for the ADB Magazine Yamaha YZ250X long-term test bike as printed in issue #437, February 2016.
Hours: 3.2
Mods this month: Recreational registration, Kwala handgrips, hour meter bracket, oil change
Mods next month: Practice plastics, Bigger tank
If you see our Yamaha YZ250X long termer could you let us know, please? Don’t approach the vehicle as it is a two-stroke and can be rather flighty.
Having been left as naked and unadorned as we could cope with [it was supposed to be stock, but no-one likes Yamaha handgrips and we needed to keep track of the hours], it went off for a 250cc two-stroke enduro comparison test with a Sherco SE-R smoker, which is to appear in an upcoming issue. It has not returned.
We just wonder whether something happened with that sexy French beast with its fancy electric starter and snaking chrome exhaust. It wouldn’t be the first time a Frog has run off with a Japanese super model.
Before that comparo we went for a brief thrash in the Labertouche State Forest and everything seemed fine. I was a bit worried about the alloy frame in that stinking Victorian rock garden, but nothing bad happened. When last seen, the YZ-X had a Yamaha hour meter, recreational registration, pale blue Kwala handgrips and fresh gearbox oil. We’re sorry about what we said about the thing not idling, we just want it to come home.
Maybe it didn’t like the non-OEM hour meter mounting bracket, but the Yamaha one was unavailable at the time. Maybe it was the handgrips, we don’t know enough about these young things.
In her absence, presents are starting to pile up in the garage to try and make the YZ happier being ridden by an older man.
A B&B bashplate has arrived from Ballarat, Vic, to protect her delicate nether regions but we’re still trying to score a bigger fuel tank.
We’ve struck out on an IMS 12.1 litre version as Editor Mitch Lees got in first at C&R Imports with his deserving RMX450Z, which holds only six litres.
No luck with Acerbis either, so it looks like we’re going to go for the GYTR tank which is the same capacity as the IMS one, available in white so we can change plastics colours, made from crosslink polyethylene and takes the stock radiator shrouds.
The flightiness we’re hoping to cure with the new GYTR by FMF Nickle Torque Exhaust and the Off-Road Flywheel.
The B&B bashplate doesn’t go around the expansion chamber, just the frame, but we figured this wasn’t such a bad thing as we’re switching to a different exhaust.
In case you’re wondering, aftermarket pipes for the standard YZ will not fit, as the YZ-X has a lower exhaust port.
If you want to run a YZ chamber, you’ll need to run the motocross barrel as well.
Wolter Kuiper