Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's finally happened. JETZcorp has ridden his first four-stroke bike, and now he's going to tell you about it.
The story behind it is this. JETZ was coming back from work, and as he was pulling into the driveway he noticed his neighbor's '80s Camaro pulling away, and a new-ish looking Yamaha four-stroke sitting in the driveway. This was the same neighbor from whom JETZ had bought his 250 Husky, and who had owned a 430 Husky, and an '06 KX250, all of which had been owned for mere months. Curious, he walked up to the small crowd (two dudes) gathered around the bike, and asks, "New bike?"
"Yeah, dude. Just traded the Camaro for it. Bought that thing for a thousand bucks and he gives me this bike that's worth $2500-3000. Only two-hunnert miles on the little odometer here."
JETZ, noting the steel frame and "WR250F" sticker, asked "What year's it?"
"2004, four-stroke and everything. New technology!"
"Eh... that four-stroke bit's not really... a... good thing."
"Well it's what they all got now, and it's clean. Two strokes are nice but they don't make 'em anymore."
At this point, the other neighbor cut in, "Yeah, and they're real dirty power."
"Well hold on, Yamaha's still making basically '05 two-strokes, and KTM is pushing them out, too.
"Yeah, but not very much. They're phasing 'em out." replied the new WR owner.
"Well they were, but now with this economy they've got a shit-ton of four-strokes piled up in warehouses, and the two-strokes are selling out as soon as they hit the showroom." JETZ pointed out.
"Yeah, that's the bad thing about four-strokes, they're expensive. Not like that 250 Husky of yours, you can rebuild onna those damn things in like ten minutes for $150 bucks. This thing forget it."
There was a short silence at this point, and then the onlooker said, "Well come on man, fire that bitch up, let's hear it!"
"Oh yeah, it's got electric start and everything. But the battery's dead, guess I'll have to just kick it over."
The man got on the bike, bounced the suspension a couple times to get a feel for it, then pulled out the kicker. The WR fired on the second kick. After letting the bike warm up for a grand total of five seconds, he put on the headlight (this was happening at 8:15pm) and blubbered down the street. The onlooker-neighbor looked at JETZ.
"Doesn't sound like he's going for it too hard."
"Well, it's hard to really give it the beans on these short little suburban roads."
After about half a minute, the WR returned, and was left idling. "This thing is a tractor, dude. The KX would've ripped this thing a new asshole. It's more like a 125."
"Yeah," JETZ replied, "they race these things, or the racing version anyway, against 125s. It's close but the 125 is just a little bit down on it most of the time, depending on the rider. The enduro versions like this can be a bit more mild, though."
"I bet."
"Hey," said the onlooker, "Can I ride it?"
"Have you ridden a bike like this before?"
"Shityea! I used to have a Honda CR480!"
"Yeah, in 1980!" the bike's owner sneered.
"Technically," pointed out JETZ, "The first year for the 480 was 1982."
Reluctantly, the neighbor was let on the WR. "One down, three up?"
"One down, four up. Just take it easy man. You wreck that thing and I'm wrecking your truck!"
Struggling with the clutch, and almost killing the bike, the WR awkwardly rolled down the street and into the night. Half a minute later, it was back. The rider attempted to find neutral, and killed the bike in the process.
"It's like a tractor, ain't it? You couldn't hurt yourself on this thing if you wanted to!"
"Yeah, but it's a torquey little beast."
"Wanna give it a try?" the owner said to JETZ.
"Sure, never ridden a four-stroke before."
JETZ took the bike, and attempted to find neutral. The shift from first to second was extremely easy, making neutral difficult to locate. Being used to old Husky transmissions, which had fairly long throws and distinct gears (making it easy to find neutral, whether you want to or not), it took him a while to get it.
JETZ then got onto the bike. He was expecting the new bike to feel narrow and ergonomic, but was surprised to find that the saddle felt very hard and tended to cut into his legs compared to the old "sofa" style seats he was used to. But, he thought, the safety seat would be nice through the twisty stuff.
This would also be JETZ' first time starting a bike with long-travel suspension and a kickstart on the right-hand side of the bike. After two awkward and failed attempts at kicking the thing over, and achieving a greater understanding of why Grandpa Joe fought in the Pacific in 1944, JETZ readjusted and started the bike. It idled smoothly in the four-stroke tradition. JETZ gave the bike a couple gentle prods of the throttle, testing how it responded before committing to getting the bike in gear.
He remembered, at this point, someone at twostrokemotocross.com saying that the 250F he'd ridden had a big delay in the throttle. To test this, JETZ gave it a quick 3/4 twist, and the Yamaha promptly died. "What in the clear blue fuck was that?" he thought. If he'd done with with the Husky, it would've not only stayed running, but would've instantaneously hit the red-line and sent all the children of the neighborhood running. The Kawasaki, more so.
With a sigh, he stared it back up again. After a few more experiments to give the throttle an accurate reading on the "Thisisfuckedometer," JETZ put it gear and did a U-turn in the street. He gave it a zap of throttle, noting the tremendous delay before the surge of power that, honestly, felt a lot like the Husky. After the throttle was cut, however, compression-braking cut in and the bike slowed ridiculously. "I knew these things did that, but, Johasus!" He tried shifting it to second, and the result was identical. Same with third. The bike was determined to slow it's ass right on down, transmission be damned. As he pulled in on the front brake, he noticed that it responded about the same as the 390's front drum for a given amount of force applied, and much better than the Husky's front. However, the lever was quite stiff, and he sensed that with a much harder pull, he would have access to far more braking than either of the others. In other words, the front brake was a cut above the vintage bikes. "At least this thing does something better," he thought.
Rounding the 90-degree turn in the street, he opened the bike up a bit in third. Again, it felt a lot like the Husky would at the same input, just with a big delay at first, and a big slow-down after it was done. Up ahead was a T-intersection, where the current street ended and met with another. He used this small intersection to turn the bike back around, shifting down into first. It was time to see what this thing was all about.
The plan was to pour on the coal and do some speed shifts. As JETZ hit second, he remembered back to when he'd done the same run on the Husky, and upon watching the video, hadn't hit powerband. The result had been unspectacular to say the least. And now he was doing the same thing on this WR? Come on, let's see what this has for top-end. So JETZ delayed the shift to third for a while, waiting for some power. None came. It's low-end was like the Husky's low-end, and the top-end was like the Husky's low-end. Where's the beef?!
As JETZ pulled to the driveway before the WR's owner, he pulled in the clutch and said, "Man, you can keep this thing." He then tried to find neutral, and while he did, the bike committed suicide and died. No one knows why, the RPM wasn't low, no one was foolish enough to nail the throttle, and the clutch was pulled to the grip. It just died. Weird.
"Hey, maybe we can go on a ride sometime and I'll drag race you with the Husky!" JETZ suggested.
"Eh, bring the 120 and we have a deal."
JETZ pondered this for a second, comparing his experience with the WR and his experience with the Kawasaki. "Sounds good to me."
