This pic was taken in 1991, just a couple miles (literally) from my house.
This is at a waste dump where the local paper recycling plant dumps the waste you get when recycling paper.
Pretty smelly and ugly-looking stuff, too.
The bike is a 1990 Yamaha YZ-250A1.
It was a good bike.
Back in the days when the above pic was taken, 99.9% of the motocross bikes and any off-road bike that was intended for serious usage was one with a 2-stroke engine, and probably liquid-cooled, too.
This was simply the norm, and was expected in a dirt bike.
There were 4-stoke dirt bikes to be sure, and they were popular, but most people agreed that the 4-strokes at that time were a step down on the intended performance ladder.
Typically, the 2-strokes were lighter and put out more power - two main ingredients in a high-performance dirt bike.
The 4-strokes were heavier and put out less power.
The factories that built the bikes knew this, so the typical 4-stroke dirt bike was intended for a bit slower riding and came equipped with, usually, suspension and brakes and even engine technology that was a step or three behind.
Back then, the thought of Yamaha or Honda coming out with a 4-stroke motocross bike would be scoffed at because motocross bikes were always 2-strokes, and 4-strokes were supposed to be play bikes.
Period.
Back then, there were plenty of urban legends, old wives tales, and rumors and speculations being tossed around about how, if you were to buy one and start riding one, riding a modern 2-stroke motocross bike meant being on top of the frequent maintenance they required.
This was due to their high power output from a small engine, and since there's no such thing as a free lunch with physics, if you have a bike that makes a lot of power in a tiny package, it simply won't last 100,000 miles before an engine overhaul is needed.
Guys were always bitching and moaning about having to "do my top end", or "rebuild the crank".
Some guys (OK, lots of guys) who didn't know the meaning of the word "maintenance" were always seeming to have trouble with their bikes, although they were the guys who'd piss and moan about how much of a drag it is to clean and oil their air filters.
So, basically, it was perceived that the 2-stroke motocross bike was for serious riders only, one that could ride and maintain it.
The 4-strokes of the time were very much thought to be the opposite.
By comparison, since they made less power, would last much longer before the engines demanded to be looked at.
They had a reputation for being able to start one more time and be ridden before it blew-up for good, which was all a lot of casual dirt bike riders wanted.
A lot of these guys probably were not aware of that thing buried deep within their bikes called the air filter, probably knowing only where the handlebar and fuel tank cap were.
The reason I write this is because these days, if you read what's being written on the typical dirt bike message board, the opposite is now being told:
The 4-stroke motocross and high-performance off-road bikes of today are the ones to be feared in the maintenance area, and the 2-strokes are now the ones that are easy to live with as far as required work goes.
The 4-stroke motocross bikes of today rev much higher and make a lot more power than the 4-stroke play bikes of the past, and as mentioned above, there's no free lunch when it comes to making power with a small engine.
Also, in order for the parts to last while they move back-and-forth at very high speeds inside the engine, the amount of work and knowledge it requires to maintain those parts has increased.
An example of this is the old-fashioned threaded tappet valve adjustment method versus the modern shim-under-bucket method.
The modern method is muuuuuuuch more reliable at high engine speeds, but the down side to this for many people is that they're scared to even attempt simply checking the condition of these parts, never mind making an actual adjustment, if needed, since word on the street has it they're very complicated.
See, now the urban legend has it that these 4-stroke motocross bikes are maintenance-intensive, and if you want to ride one and have it last, you're gonna' have to know what you're doing, while the 2-strokes are much simpler and have less moving parts to go wrong, mainly the lack of that complicated valve train and all of those itty-bitty parts under that valve cover.
Off to jerk,
-John
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