125s At War
125s AT WAR
CW COMPARISON
HONDA CR125 vs. KAWASAKI KX125 vs. SUZUKI RM125 vs. YAMAHA YZ125
THINK ABOUT IT. FOR ABOUT $5000 YOU COULD GET INTO 125CC MOTOCROSS. NOT IN A BUDGETracer class, either. We're talking full-blown, bar-banging stuff, just like the supercross you see on television.
Not possible? Wrong. With the 125cc motocrossers you see here and an additional 800 bucks for a top-flight set of gear, you could line up at the gate with the Pro class and win-if your skill levels were up to it. Not bad considering it would cost about $30,000 to do the same at an AMA Superbike race, and even $6000 for a shot at Novice roadracing.
The 125s have technology similar to the presti gious 250cc motocrossers. The most obvious differ ence is the size of the pis ton. Componentry is as as it gets in the offroad world. Engines are the most important ingredient in the 125 class. Usable power and the ability of riders to keep the two-stroke Singles on the pipe is the name of the game. All four of these bikes are pushing the power limits for a tractable 125cc engine, putting out right at 30 rear-wheel horsepower.
If our test riders had been asked to pick a horsepower king after a day at the track, the call would be almost unanimous. The Honda CR125 feels as if it has the most motor. It comes on strong off the bottom and pulls cleanly through the midrange. It doesn’t actually fall off on top; it just loses the gusto that it carried through the lower revs. With the CR, you use the clutch less to keep the engine spinning and more to keep the front end down when roosting out of a tight turn.
This year, the YZ motor can jump into the ring and put up a real fight, especially on a tight track or supercrossstyle course. The motor is a midrange monster. Its low end is good, even if it feels a little soft compared to the midrange burst. The top end is in the same league with the Honda, though it flattens out a little more.
The surprise is the Suzuki. For a motor that received only small changes from its 1993 predecessor, the improvement is significant. Smooth is exactly how to describe the power of the RM. It pulls cleanly off the bottom, with a little less juice than the Honda, keeps going and revs out farther than any of the other bikes. Outright power seems a little less than the Kawasaki’s and the midrange is a bit off the Yamaha’s. Sounds as if the RM is off
The Kawasaki is right in there for the title of Power King, with one major glitch: It has very little low-end snap. Clearly, for the more experienced rider, the KX will pull the best if you can keep it revving.
Falling off the pipe is common, especially if the clutch isn’t finessed properly.
Yamaha has been fighting the motor wars in the 125 class for a while now, coming back with a lot of black eyes. the pace, right? Well, in this instance quality beats out quantity. The Suzuki is just plain easier to ride than the others, and that translates into faster lap times most of the time.
If you were to put all the bikes in a perfect-situation drag race with perfect riders, here is what you would see: All four bikes would launch off the line the same. The CR and YZ would nudge a wheel-length ahead the other two, with the YZ at a slight advantage. The KX would definitely be last to Turn 1 if the start straight were short. But on longer start chutes, both it and the Suzuki would soon make up lost ground. The result? A tie into the first turn. As rare as the perfect MX start is, then, let’s call this a toss-up. During real-world practice starts, there was never more than a bikelength between the first and fourth bike.
Three of the four bikes here are blessed with excellent handling; the Honda is slightly off the mark. Bumps taken under hard acceleration have the CR bouncing and kicking worse than any of the other bikes. Paradoxically, it feels like there is just not enough power to keep the front end above the bumps-this from the bike with the strongest-pulling motor. This is the fatal flaw for the CR in this shootout, costing it the crown.
Kawasaki has found a very happy medium in the handling and suspension categories. The bike is the lightest 125 ancT it feels it. The KX has the Yamaha one click off the KX’s pace. Still, the YZ had the plushest ride in the class, and all of the test riders felt the Yamaha was the most stable and still turned great.
acquired a new love for the inside line, while still keeping its straight-line stability. The bike’s KYB suspension gets the trophy for the best shock and forks, especially from Pro-level riders. Both ends were suited to any condition that was thrown at them. Where the Honda loved a smooth track and the Suzuki works better as the track gets rougher, the Kawasaki worked well at both. It was soft enough to absorb smalland medium-sized bumps, but resisted bottoming better than the others.
The Yamaha has always been tagged as a great-handling bike, but with never enough motor. Now with competitive power, the chassis still stands the test. With its new shortened KYB fork and shock (10mm shorter than previous YZ suspenders to keep the bike settled better while turning), the suspension was close to the Kawasaki’s. Faster riders felt the need for stiffer fork springs, while slower riders said the back end kicked around too much, which put
So how does the bike with the newesttechnology fork work? Well, Suzuki’s jump to the Showa Twin Chamber front fork may have left the competitors in the dust on the brochure spec page, but the track is a different story. Most testers could not detect any significant difference over a standard inverted fork, though Pro-level riders felt that maybe the Suzy’s fork was more compliant during braking over bumps. The shock worked great, even though it tended to let the rear end squat down when accelerating. In fact, the RM’s main suspension complaint was that the front and rear were unbalanced-the rear was softer than the front.
The RM has a very light feeling in turns, a good trait, but it tended to get a little nervous on rough, high-speed straights, though not enough to cause too much concern.
It’s the small things about these bikes that set them apart. The main characteristics-power, handling and suspension-are so close that when riders pick and choose, personal preferences often make the call.
Testers didn’t like the soft seat on the Honda. It makes it hard to slide forward to load the front end in turns. It was also noted that the bike should come with numberplate backgrounds. On the plus side were the CR’s brakes, which are super-strong. Add more good points for the quality of the bike as a whole. It stayed tight for the entire test and felt the freshest at the end, with the exception of a set of clutch plates that had to be replaced after the lever adjuster was overtightened.
Kawasaki’s KX may be the lightest bike here-riders raved about the ease of throwing the bike around in the air-but it also seems to be the most brittle. On the plus side for the KX was a layout that fit riders well no matter what their size. Brakes were rated right up there with the Honda, with bonus points for having the most progressive feel.
The Yamaha was a tough bike to
pick on. If we were to complain we would have to say that the seat cover and stickers are flimsy. Riders who wear knee braces will tear the seat, and the YZ’s stick-on graphics were the first to fall off. But the bike ran strongly throughout the test, nearing the Honda for overall tightness and good feel.
Picking the winner comes down to choosing the bike that fits the most riders the best. And as close as all these bikes were, the Suzuki RM 125 is a clear-cut winner. It really didn't stand out in any area-except when the test riders ranked the bikes. The RM was marked down for its unbalanced suspension, but that was it. The rest of the bike-layout, handling, turning, jumping-was universally praised by all riders. It’s a bike that is easy to go fast on, and good at going fast, no matter what the rider’s-Pro to Novice-definition of fast is.
Ranking second through fourth is not as easy. Like the RM, all three work great for recreational riding, and will serve well as a playbikes or moto weapons. It may be as simple as this: If you value a strong motor, go with the Honda or Yamaha; if you want the best suspension then look for the KX.
A good rider can win on any bike here, but if you want the best combination of all, the choice is clearly yellow.
HONDA
CR125
$4099
KAWSAKI
KX125
$4099
SUZUKI
RM125
$3999
YAMAHA
YZ125
$3999
