Ya know... I've been down this road before. I've had my fair share of Japanese MX bikes and I've NEVER ridden MX, strictly offroad. I've had a lot fewer European bikes. With 6 scooters in the garage right now, the time has come to thin the herd a little.
I currently have a steel framed '02 (last year that they were CA green stickered) YZ250 with WR trans, hydro clutch, SSS suspension, 18" wheel, 265BB, flywheel weight,etc., the list of mods is very long. I'd say it is the best setup Japanese bike I've come across. I liked the way my Gen3 CR250 handled better, but this YZ is a better overall package.
Next to that is a plated XR400. Nothing special, but it's clean, and it just plain gets the job done.
Then there is my '01 GG300. I was in the middle of a refresh last year and had since been injured so I never finished putting the engine together.
One of those has to go. Can you guess which one?
The YZ is going down the road! Is it lighter? Yes. Is it a better race bike? For the most part. Is the suspension better? Undeniably. But that GG300 engine is a thing of beauty, by far my favorite engine for offroad EVER and I'm willing to make the other tradeoffs just to keep that engine. I could imagine that the newer GG's close the gap big time with suspension/chassis improvements, but I think it says a lot that I'm keeping a 15 year old bike over one that has been updated to "current" YZ250X specs. The XR stays because, well, it's an XR with a plate!
|