What the 250F Used to Be

[JETZcorp]

I was browsing this great collection of old bike tests and thought I'd read what the testers thought about this 250cc four-stroke Kawasaki in 1979.  It's pretty comical.  You get the impression that the KX125 bits are all awesome and the motor just sucks.  Why not just buy a KX125?

http://motorbikearchives.com/Bike-Tests/Enduro/Kawasaki-KLX250-1979-Cycle-Guide.html

Experienced motocross racers, expert dirt riders and those who like their horsepower doled out in megadoses will be bored stiff before they ever snick the five-speed gearbox into top cog for the first time. Oh, sure, there's no peakiness at all to be found in the powerband, and the torque curve has a nice, flat profile that's ideal for a dirt bike. The problem is that the curve never gets very high between kick-starting speed and valve-float rpm.

[JohnN]

That is a great but funny article... this is my favorite part...

But for the rider who has not yet adjusted to the peculiarities of rear-wheel spin and unavoidable tire-slip, for the guy who's happiest when both tires are on the ground, the KLX will be just what the dirt doctor ordered. That kind of rider won't care that the power pulses reaching the rear wheel are more like dull thuds than minor earthquakes. Instead he'll be tickled pink that none of those conventional four-stroke performance standards are relevant to this Kawasaki, that he can finally straddle a real off-road motorcycle that isn't intimidating but handles well enough to forgive his frequent mistakes.

This describes what has happened in modern motocross! Easy to ride, expensive, high-revving, throw away machines that inspire confidence for the rider, yet suck out a great deal of the fun factor...

Nice find JETZcorp!

[Hondacrrider]

Did anyone else notice that Michael Jordan was in that review?

[JETZcorp]

Yeah, imagine the power-to-weight ratio for him on that bike!