The second update for the ADB Magazine Yamaha YZ250X long-term test bike as printed in issue #436, January 2016.
Hours: 3.2
Mods this month: Recreational registration, Kwala handgrips, hour meter bracket, oil change
Mods next month: Practice plastics, Bigger tank
It was good to get out in the Kimbolton State Forest on the YZ250X. It’s bone dry in that neck of the woods, which is near Bendigo, Vic, and we only saw one puddle the whole morning.
Just as well we gave the Yamaha’s air filter a bit of extra oil for the dust. With the Melbourne Cup weekend out of the way, the state forest tracks are all open for the summer so there was a fair bit of traffic.
The Yamaha’s still loosening up but it felt good to have the front wheel dancing around and the rear flicking sideways. It brought back good memories, as the last two bikes I ran up there were also two-strokes, a Husqvarna WR250 and KTM 250EXC, both minus an electric leg.
I have to say the Yamaha is easier to start than either of them, even though it is still very new. One thing that may be related to its virginal status is that it won’t go near idle speed without stalling, despite us cranking up the idle by a quarter turn. We will attend to the jetting.
The suspension is pretty stiff right now but we’ll have to give the YZ more kays before we make any judgement on the changes Yamaha has made to the motocross damping specs to make it suitable for bush work. One of the reasons for going out to Kimbolton was to do a fuel run for the eight-litre tank.
There’s a 50km loop in the forest which is a combination of singletrack, twintrack and lots of rocks. With rec reg courtesy of Yamaha Australia ($381.50 for the first year) we were good to go, if we could remember where the loop was.
Armed with a handheld GPS to give us a reading for the distance travelled, we got a figure of 9.3 km/L, which would give us a range of 74km. Not too flash but fuel consumption could go either way, depending on how we ride it and the mods we make.
At the moment we’re leaning towards the IMS 12.1-litre tank, which would give us a more reasonable range of 113km without being too fat between the legs and it’s available in translucent so we can use different colour plastics without it looking weird. We still have to sit down and sort out the rest of the wishlist.
The Yamaha’s also been out to Park4MX at Broadmeadows for the photoshoot for our Trailer Trash feature in this issue and we managed to get operator Cheyne Boyd out on the bike (left) for the ADB camera. He reckoned it was just like old times, as Yamaha introduced the alloy frame during his last stint on a two-stroke.
We dumped the transmission oil when we got home just to have a look. It was a little black from the clutch plates but otherwise good. We’ve also made a bracket for the hour meter on the top triple-clamp and fitted Kwala handgrips to replace the tough stockers. The YRD wiring diagram for the lighting system has been glued on a spare page in the back of the service manual for future reference. Can’t help ourselves.
Wolter Kuiper