Arby
10-17-2006, 08:33 PM
http://w1.bikepics.com/pics/2004/11/06/bikepics-239410-800.jpgThis bike actually came out in 1973. It was yamaha's first "real" race bike for the public.
Yamaha still made the 250 MX bike, but it was a poor relation to the new 250 YZ.
This bike was super fast, as well as super light. It was a much better bike than the also new Honda CR250.
However, the bike had two problems, IMHO. #1 The Honda could be bought for 1200 OTD, The yamaha YZ 250 was 1800 OTD.
Problem #2 while making the YZ super light, it also became somewhat fragile.
So, towards the end of the '73 model year, when Yamaha knew they had a new mono shocker coming out, prices on the dual shock YZ's took a dive.
It just so happened that was the time when AMA district 7 sent me my "A" class card for m/x & hare scrambles. I thought I needed a new, fast bike since I'd now be riding with new, fast guys. (I found out the hard way the bike didn't make much difference.)
I did OK on the YZ, middle of the pack during district 7 points races. (This is when everyone showed up for the points towards next years # plate.) The top 100 points finishers were awarded their # for the following year based upon the # points earnrd at the points paying events. I could do better than mid pack,sometimes, if every fast guy in the district didn't show up .
While I was learning to go (somewhat) fast in the expert class, I was also learning how fragile the YZ was. Mainly the gearbox, & the pipe. (Did I mention that I was cash flow disadvantaged in those days?) Upon disassembling the gearbox, I found that every
part in the gearbox had been drilled at the factory for lightness. The gears were expensive and the only stocking dealer in the Balto-Dc area was down in No Va. It didn't take too many trips tp the dealer in No Va for me to decide that the non drilled 250 m/x gears would do just fine, at about 1/4 the price.
The other weak part was the light weight and tissue paper thin pipe. The trick there was to make sure all the pipe hangers were in good shape, every race. also I welded reinforcing gussests at the weakest points.
For '74, Maico came out with forward mtd shocks(IE: long travel rear suspension) & Yamaha had the mono shock on the '74 m/xers. I modified the rear of my YZ to mount my rear shocks in the laydown(or tilted forward position). I used German made Bilstein gas shocks with 140 lb springs set with the preload just stiff enough to hold the retainers in place.
I don't believe that rear suspension was the least inferior to any of the bikes I raced against that year.
Me & the YZ managed to make it through the summer of '74 OK.
In the winter , m/x starts to fall off(back then)and the off- roaders start coming out of the woodwork.
There was this three hour hare scranbles that I attended with the YZ. It was my first hare scrambles as an "A" class rider.
The track was located in south central Penns. It was what would now be called a supercross style track(supercross wasn't invented yet, I don't think). But, in order make a hare scrambles course out of it, they added about three miles of a farmers field in conjunction with the supercross track.
It involved running wide open in top gear along the farmers fence, get slowed down, make the turn, & get back up to top gear till you came to the next turn of the fence. Eventually it got run in pretty good, and we had these wide flat track style turns.
It was a cross between the mile flat track and supercross.
All classes ran together, but scored seperate. We lined up by riding ability, A riders first, then b's, etc. After the first lap ,for example, all the 250's would ride between two barrels, come to a complete stop, yell out your #, plus the score keeper was supposed to verify what he heard by checking the # on your jersey or bike # plate. Usually you & the bike were covered with mud, & this should have made score keeping infallible.
Since this was a three hr race, pit stops were required. The same two guys that I mentioned in an earlier post were my pit crew. I came to this race just to have a place, and some people to ride with. But my buddies were taking it serious.
They had all our gear out as close to the track as the rules allowed. They were timing me to guesstimate when I should come in for gas. Most important, they were keeping score, to keep the score keepers honest.
In the early stages of the race, I dropped the bike in one of those fast flat track left handers. I broke the clutch lever perch off the handlebar. I got the bike running, and jammed it in first gear. The same mud that had caused the crash, allowed me to get away with jaming that bike into first gear & spin the rear tire to keep from tearing out that (fragile) transmission.
As long as I'm moving, clutchless shifts are no problem, but when I pit for the first time, I'm thinking it'll take me a while to patch up the clutch lever.
Instead, I pull in when my guys give me the signal. they see what's happened to the clutch. They won't let me off the bike, they tell me I'm lead 250 expert, and in the hunt for the overall win. They tape up the clutch lever so I don't have to hold it any longer. I'm fueled up, clean googles, start the bike, and they push me off so that I can engage first gear while the bike is moving, in order to take the load off the gear box.
Out on the track, it's starting to sink in, today, I'm one of the fast guys. Sure, Those big 400 Huskys and maybe a 450 Maico will come bellowing by me on those long straights, but they're sucking up fuel at a much higher rate than my 250 is, and no 125's or 250's are getting around me.
The race is wearing me down. i pull in for one of the last pit stops. My buds tell me my main competition for the 250 expert win has loaded up and gone home. He's one of the fast guys at the m/x races, but his dealer sponsered KX has let him down today.
By co incidence, the # of the KX rider is 65. My # is 65B.
Finally, (mercifully) I come in for the last pit stop. My guys are hot to go, I've sewn up the 250A win, & I'm nip & tuck for the overall. There's just one problem, I'm done. Washed up.
Any of the other three hr races I've ever done were just play races for me. I never had a chance of winning and i rode accordingly. I get off the bike, I'm hurting. My quads are all cramped up, my hands are raw, my forearms are pumped up & like jello.
My guys get me a sandwich and something to drink, I move around a little, & start to feel human again.
They shove me on the bike, tell me I'm still lead 250 A rider, and just do the best I can for the next 29 minutes or so and it'll be over.
During this three hours of racing, the bike performs perfectly.
The gear box holds up, the top end withstood all those banzi topend straightaways. It was amazing.
Finally, the checkered flag.
I'm done. I can't hardly get off the bike. I'm cramping up so bad I can't stand it. I can't sit still, and I can't move around.
I change out of my gear, my buddies load the trailer, by this time scores are posted. I'm not moving one foot, so my buddies go check out the score board. They know I'm top 250 A, they're checking to see who got the overall.
My guys come back to the car in a state of shock. The scorers have screwed up and have the guy on the 250 Kx listed as winner of the 250 A class, even though he went home an hour before the race was over. My guys try to protest the results, but the officials say I gotta come up and protest in person. Then they will go thru the score sheets and try to figure it out.
It's a hundred miles to get home, I'm all cramped up and dead tired. I tell my guys, let it go, I don't care. I gotta soak in a tub, get some rest and be at work tomorrow morning.
My first and only expert class win, down the tubes.
What a great bunch of guys we had in our m/x -dirt bike group back then. I miss 'em.
RB
Yamaha still made the 250 MX bike, but it was a poor relation to the new 250 YZ.
This bike was super fast, as well as super light. It was a much better bike than the also new Honda CR250.
However, the bike had two problems, IMHO. #1 The Honda could be bought for 1200 OTD, The yamaha YZ 250 was 1800 OTD.
Problem #2 while making the YZ super light, it also became somewhat fragile.
So, towards the end of the '73 model year, when Yamaha knew they had a new mono shocker coming out, prices on the dual shock YZ's took a dive.
It just so happened that was the time when AMA district 7 sent me my "A" class card for m/x & hare scrambles. I thought I needed a new, fast bike since I'd now be riding with new, fast guys. (I found out the hard way the bike didn't make much difference.)
I did OK on the YZ, middle of the pack during district 7 points races. (This is when everyone showed up for the points towards next years # plate.) The top 100 points finishers were awarded their # for the following year based upon the # points earnrd at the points paying events. I could do better than mid pack,sometimes, if every fast guy in the district didn't show up .
While I was learning to go (somewhat) fast in the expert class, I was also learning how fragile the YZ was. Mainly the gearbox, & the pipe. (Did I mention that I was cash flow disadvantaged in those days?) Upon disassembling the gearbox, I found that every
part in the gearbox had been drilled at the factory for lightness. The gears were expensive and the only stocking dealer in the Balto-Dc area was down in No Va. It didn't take too many trips tp the dealer in No Va for me to decide that the non drilled 250 m/x gears would do just fine, at about 1/4 the price.
The other weak part was the light weight and tissue paper thin pipe. The trick there was to make sure all the pipe hangers were in good shape, every race. also I welded reinforcing gussests at the weakest points.
For '74, Maico came out with forward mtd shocks(IE: long travel rear suspension) & Yamaha had the mono shock on the '74 m/xers. I modified the rear of my YZ to mount my rear shocks in the laydown(or tilted forward position). I used German made Bilstein gas shocks with 140 lb springs set with the preload just stiff enough to hold the retainers in place.
I don't believe that rear suspension was the least inferior to any of the bikes I raced against that year.
Me & the YZ managed to make it through the summer of '74 OK.
In the winter , m/x starts to fall off(back then)and the off- roaders start coming out of the woodwork.
There was this three hour hare scranbles that I attended with the YZ. It was my first hare scrambles as an "A" class rider.
The track was located in south central Penns. It was what would now be called a supercross style track(supercross wasn't invented yet, I don't think). But, in order make a hare scrambles course out of it, they added about three miles of a farmers field in conjunction with the supercross track.
It involved running wide open in top gear along the farmers fence, get slowed down, make the turn, & get back up to top gear till you came to the next turn of the fence. Eventually it got run in pretty good, and we had these wide flat track style turns.
It was a cross between the mile flat track and supercross.
All classes ran together, but scored seperate. We lined up by riding ability, A riders first, then b's, etc. After the first lap ,for example, all the 250's would ride between two barrels, come to a complete stop, yell out your #, plus the score keeper was supposed to verify what he heard by checking the # on your jersey or bike # plate. Usually you & the bike were covered with mud, & this should have made score keeping infallible.
Since this was a three hr race, pit stops were required. The same two guys that I mentioned in an earlier post were my pit crew. I came to this race just to have a place, and some people to ride with. But my buddies were taking it serious.
They had all our gear out as close to the track as the rules allowed. They were timing me to guesstimate when I should come in for gas. Most important, they were keeping score, to keep the score keepers honest.
In the early stages of the race, I dropped the bike in one of those fast flat track left handers. I broke the clutch lever perch off the handlebar. I got the bike running, and jammed it in first gear. The same mud that had caused the crash, allowed me to get away with jaming that bike into first gear & spin the rear tire to keep from tearing out that (fragile) transmission.
As long as I'm moving, clutchless shifts are no problem, but when I pit for the first time, I'm thinking it'll take me a while to patch up the clutch lever.
Instead, I pull in when my guys give me the signal. they see what's happened to the clutch. They won't let me off the bike, they tell me I'm lead 250 expert, and in the hunt for the overall win. They tape up the clutch lever so I don't have to hold it any longer. I'm fueled up, clean googles, start the bike, and they push me off so that I can engage first gear while the bike is moving, in order to take the load off the gear box.
Out on the track, it's starting to sink in, today, I'm one of the fast guys. Sure, Those big 400 Huskys and maybe a 450 Maico will come bellowing by me on those long straights, but they're sucking up fuel at a much higher rate than my 250 is, and no 125's or 250's are getting around me.
The race is wearing me down. i pull in for one of the last pit stops. My buds tell me my main competition for the 250 expert win has loaded up and gone home. He's one of the fast guys at the m/x races, but his dealer sponsered KX has let him down today.
By co incidence, the # of the KX rider is 65. My # is 65B.
Finally, (mercifully) I come in for the last pit stop. My guys are hot to go, I've sewn up the 250A win, & I'm nip & tuck for the overall. There's just one problem, I'm done. Washed up.
Any of the other three hr races I've ever done were just play races for me. I never had a chance of winning and i rode accordingly. I get off the bike, I'm hurting. My quads are all cramped up, my hands are raw, my forearms are pumped up & like jello.
My guys get me a sandwich and something to drink, I move around a little, & start to feel human again.
They shove me on the bike, tell me I'm still lead 250 A rider, and just do the best I can for the next 29 minutes or so and it'll be over.
During this three hours of racing, the bike performs perfectly.
The gear box holds up, the top end withstood all those banzi topend straightaways. It was amazing.
Finally, the checkered flag.
I'm done. I can't hardly get off the bike. I'm cramping up so bad I can't stand it. I can't sit still, and I can't move around.
I change out of my gear, my buddies load the trailer, by this time scores are posted. I'm not moving one foot, so my buddies go check out the score board. They know I'm top 250 A, they're checking to see who got the overall.
My guys come back to the car in a state of shock. The scorers have screwed up and have the guy on the 250 Kx listed as winner of the 250 A class, even though he went home an hour before the race was over. My guys try to protest the results, but the officials say I gotta come up and protest in person. Then they will go thru the score sheets and try to figure it out.
It's a hundred miles to get home, I'm all cramped up and dead tired. I tell my guys, let it go, I don't care. I gotta soak in a tub, get some rest and be at work tomorrow morning.
My first and only expert class win, down the tubes.
What a great bunch of guys we had in our m/x -dirt bike group back then. I miss 'em.
RB