Lake Whitney, Texas, August 30, 2002 — The Fed-Ex man arrived at Hatch Studios with plane tickets and a packed itinerary straight from Yamaha — my new MO mission was going to Lake Whitney, Texas for a chance to ride the all-new 2003 YZ450F. I was apprehensive at first — I’m a reborn dirt rider [...]
Meanwhile back in Espana…
There I was… Over the blind hump just after Circuito Almeria’s downhill-plunging turn one, turning right, and inserting my ram-air snout as deep as I dared into the long left that follows with Cycle News’s Blaze Conner and Army of Darkness Agent Phlegming breathing hot sangria breath down my neck, lips [...]
The plan came to me while basking in the blue glow of the TV while watching dirt bike racing late one night.
I would head to the bustling Hatch Illustration studios the next morning and fire off a polite e-mail to Ken Faught, the Editor of Dirt Rider magazine. I would kindly ask for permission to attend [...]
‘Twas dawn over Morro Bay as the fledgling motojournalist awoke. Bleary eyed, and finding himself in an unfamiliarly opulent environment, he peered, squinting, out the sliding glass doors at the overcast sky above the placid inlet. Seabirds squawked a morning call, and sailboat rigging played against masts like so many wind chimes. The air felt [...]
Upright, comfortable riding position with great weather protection. Light, effortless handling for urban use, comfortable long-distance cruising, and serious sport riding too.It was Thursday. I was hot in LA when the call came in from MO: “Agent Jason, Yamaha has a new bike available for a few hours and we want you to go ride [...]
Fighting for the Yamaha spotlight with the new Star Motorcycles Raider is a revised YZF-R6 sportbike. But the tuning-fork brand has also unveiled two small-bore streetbikes (a supermoto machine and a similar dual-purpose 250), plus a heavily tweaked XT225 that jumps to the status of XT250.
But the big news is the made-over R6. The [...]
Yamaha’s YZF-R6 has been a major player in the middleweight sportbike wars ever since it debuted in 1999. Combining light weight with razor-sharp handling and a wailing top-end punch, Yammie’s 600cc screamer has been a potent tool that perennially competes for top honors in its class.
Then in 2006, the R6 received a ground-up overhaul [...]
Tenere or Ténéré is Tuareg (nomadic people) language for desert. The place Ténéré is a desert area in Niger and Chad in the southern Sahara. Sahara also means desert directly translated from Arabic. So before we start, I’m telling you that this is all about riding in the desert!To drag the 2008 Yamaha XT660Z Tenere all the [...]
Two-stroke motorcycle engines are akin to the dodo bird – or nearly so. Ring-ding streetbikes all but disappeared by the 1990s, reaching their zenith in the mid-’80s with the GP-inspired Yamaha RZ500, Suzuki RG500 Gamma and Honda NSR400, all of which were never officially available in America but were sold nearly everywhere else. The sporting [...]
“Well, well! Meet George Jetson!” That’s the first thing I heard when I pulled into The Rock Store on a Sunday afternoon. The Yamaha Morphous didn’t stand a chance at blending in with the arriving cascade of crotch rockets and cruisers.
I wasn’t sure what to expect. What would be everyone’s reaction to this perplexing machine? [...]
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