Yamaha Dirt BikesAfter the Second World War, then company President Gen-ichi Kawakami decided to make use of a production line and tooling that had previously been used to produce aircraft propellors to manufacture what was the forerunner of the Yamaha dirt bikes produced today. The company then separated from Nippon Gakki Co. and became Yamaha Motor Company, named after its founder Torakusu Yamaha. The first motorcycle, designated YA1, rolled off the production line in 1954. The Yamaha Motor Co. moved forward from that point, introducing innovations like the first automatically mixed lube and fuel system for two strokes, dubbed somewhat imaginatively the Autolube System. The first of the Yamaha dirt bikes was the legendary DT1, this 250cc two stroke was Yamaha's first purpose built dirt bike. The bike made a huge impact on the North American off road bike scene.
Yamaha continued to break new ground with the introduction of the YZ250 in 1975, the first motocross bike to feature a single shock rear end.
The Yamaha dirt bikes range came to the fore again prominently in 1998 with the release of the YZ400F, at its time of release the only serious mid capacity four stroke motocrosser on the market. This bike set the benchmark for the four stroke revolution with all the other major manufacturers scrambling to play catch up with their own four stroke motocrossers. '12 Yamaha Dirt BikesYZ450FThere's not a whole lot going on in the way of changes for the YZ450F in 2012. There's the usual tweaking of fuel injection and ECU settings, some of which are to take advantage of the longer muffler that's fitted for this year. The suspension settings front and rear have been revised and a new type of foam fitted in the seat. Other than that it's just a graphics update and that's about it.
The YZ250F has scored a few updates in the engine department, they're still running a carburettor but is is now a 39mm unit. The engine internals have been updated with a new counterbalancer, crankshaft webs and new piston and components. There's also some changes to the frame and front suspension components and revisions made to the rear shock internals. The graphics as always are updated and the 250 is also available in a snazzy looking Special Edition white colour scheme.
Two strokes still make up part of the Yamaha motocross lineup, they're one of the few manufacturers still offering senior two stroke machines so if you're after something that goes like a cut cat and costs very little to maintain then a YZ250 or 125 might be the thing for you. They obviously have had very little development done on them for quite a few years now due to the popularity of the four strokes.
YZ85 The YZ85 is pretty light up for updates this year, the graphics have been changed but that's about it.
(photos courtesy of yamaha-motor.com) Click here to check out all the specs and photo galleries for the current Yamaha dirt bikes at Yamaha's website Please note that to protect our younger visitors to Motocross 101, SafeSearch is turned on in these search results. |
