If you could choose just one works bike?

[chrisdespo]

Any works bike would do as long as it is air cooled and yellow with a big S on the left case.

[BAHNZY]

Any works bike would do as long as it is air cooled and yellow with a big S on the left case.

Here, Here!!
The brotherhood is alive and well.

[GD66]

Speshly those early RN and RH factory lightweights with the spindly frames and the white guards...phwoooaarrr....

[reg]

Appologies for the shitty pic, but since this is the only works bike i've ridden this would have
to be my favorite.
A mate of mine, Steve Archer owned this thing, ex Anthony Gunter, Jens Olsen prepared RH 250, christ this
thing was a weapon in its day.



Reg

[sudman]

That is the coolest yellow ever

[Davey Crocket]

It looks like he's cut the original down pipe up and re-hashed it to go up....tricky work.

[Swiss]

OK, I was going to post the Marty Moates KSI bike which I consider a Factory bike of sorts, but that was trumped when Dick Tett brought out his "Factory" 2011 KSI version.  But going with a Factory bike I would have to pick the YZM 400F from Yamaha.  It was ultra trick, and started the resurrection of the Thumper Racer Revolution!
Great bike, shame that Yamaha cut the dollars back for the production models to come.

[vmx42]

OK, I was going to post the Marty Moates KSI bike which I consider a Factory bike of sorts, but that was trumped when Dick Tett brought out his "Factory" 2011 KSI version.  But going with a Factory bike I would have to pick the YZM 400F from Yamaha.  It was ultra trick, and started the resurrection of the Thumper Racer Revolution!
Great bike, shame that Yamaha cut the dollars back for the production models to come.

It's a nice machine, but it will go down in history as the bike that killed motocross as we know it. 

[Swiss]

Well, I think that the 2-smokers had already introduced water cooling and everyone already had linkages and long travel suspension so how would it have killed MX as you knew it except for swapping from the smokers to the strokers?  I never liked the smokers personally regardless of their light weight advantage which I am all in favor of!!  However the early smokers made Ear Ringing noise that was far worse than an open megaphone!  But if that is/was your thing then yes it was the Watermark that set the change in course for the Motocross World! 
The biggest difference in MX from the Old School to the New School was not so much the bikes as the CASH $$$ that crowds brought in making the damed Stadiums the venue to run the big money makers.  Blame the USA for the way they reorganized MX, the rest of the World stuck with outdoor MX for much longer.  I do remember going to Unadilla and watching the Pros run there, and at Puyallup for the old TransAMA racing!  Still the same today with tracks like Glen Helen where you can walk out into the track and have bikes running all around you!!  Carlsbad and other long gone California tracks were great!  Fantastic to watch when you can stand right next to the track and get dirt kicked in your face as the riders and bikes Thunder past!  2-smokes or 4-strokes they were all great to watch outdoors.  And that is where this Yamaha was born, in Europe on the outdoor Tracks!!  I used to travel to CA to see the 4-Stroke National races back before the Nationals BECAME all 4-strokes!  HA!HA!  Yes, changes were made!

[TM BILL]

Im with Jeff  very cool bike but definetely the begining of the end 

Cost of buying and maintaining these modern diesals is driving people away from the sport
Noise diesals it seems that they have to be exessively loud to produce power
Riders are not learning their skills properly , its to easy to ride a diesal . Bubba , Chad, Josh, Cairoli Ben etc all learnt their craft on 2 strokes and the new breed will gradually become more and more wobblers 
Combine that with modern shit GP tracks built to suit the diesals and spectators will stop going 

On the upside it looks good for Vintage racing  Farleigh being an example of good racing on real bikes and plenty of enthusiastic spectators 

[firko]

It's a nice machine, but it will go down in history as the bike that killed motocross as we know it. 

And it's the bike that introduced escalating maintenance costs, fragile engineering and progressive obsolesence. Yep, what a groundbreaking bike. And yes, I owned one.

[Husky500evo]

A pic of the Works YZM500 aircooled powervalved jobie ( cable driven i think) from around 1983 ( was a promo poster in yamaha shops back then) ?

Was this the one you were looking for , Hoony ?

[Swiss]

Firco, I guess that you owned one of the production YZ400f models and not one of these YZM400F versions that were strictly Factory use? 

Bill, I don't think that the accelerated maintainance costs hurt the ones who knew HOW to work on their bikes, but I laughed at all of the fuss over broken kick starter levers because the 2-smoker riders thought they could fan the starter like a 125 2-smoke!  If you really look at the overall costs of racing from fuel costs to motor homes for transport and enclosed trailers and the cost of gear and parts in general, this is reason for the slowdown in racing.  Heck for top level tires you can pay $200 for a pair and wear them out in practice and a race weekend if you run more than one class.  I remember almost 20 years ago there was an article in Dirt Bike where it documented the cost of a father/family to keep their kid racing in Southern California.  Understand that the racing was so concentrated that a kid could run 5-7 times a week, including Night Races after dad got off of work.  And add in the cost for "practice" nights with track fees! 
The magazine totalled up the entry fees, the fuel costs, tires, riding gear, wear and tear on the bike and came up with a figure of over $1000/week!!!!  Tell me about costs?  That was about 20 years ago and gas and tires and EVERYTHING was less expensive!  And gentlemen, this was for a CR125 2-smoker!!! 
When is the last time that you guys priced out a factory Maico or KTM 2-smoke piston?  Those Euro parts are kickers when you open your wallet!  How much does it cost to have a Professional do your suspension these days?  How about some trick parts?  Handlebars $50-90?  Remember when we could buy Chrome-moly bars for $19.95?  Stupid Graphics kits for $50-100 and more?  Remember Paint and aftermarket stickers?  I don't think that the 4-strokers drove up those costs, I think that the market did!  New Honda CRF250R engine on EBay for $3500, new KTM 250 for $3300?  Used to be able to buy a complete Thumper engine from Honda for less than $1000 in the crate! 

Yea, times have changed and they are damned more expensive than when we started riding regardless is you are riding a Smoker or a Stroker!!

Still like the YZM400F Yamaha.  It was the answer to the Husaberg and about damned time that the Japanese came around to get it right!

[vmx42]

It was the answer to the Husaberg and about damned time that the Japanese came around to get it right!

Funny, I thought Husaberg was a quirky, niche brand and a question that never needed to be answered. 

If the current fourstrokes are that good, then level the playing field and let them compete directly with 2 strokes of the same capacity. But no, they are slower, heavier, more complicated, louder, more fragile and drastically more expensive to modify and maintain. Yep the benefits are just endless…

[TooFastTim]

Isn't that the bike that Carla tried to, literally, bury? In full view of the Yamaha mechanics.