No, it’s not a fast exotic. But the XT is a fun, easy-to-ride bike. Easy and Fun: Two great riding motivators.
Flying home from Yamaha Champions Riding School, I am motivated to write about Dana. We met a few years ago when her husband Bill recommended our school after Dana had shown an interest in riding. She stands about 5-foot-3, and just finished her fourth school with us. She was awesome!
Dana’s previous schools had always shown improvement, her last two days were magic. And it wasn’t just her riding, but also her understanding of what was going on. Her pace was up enormously, controlled with more brakes, better body position, and quicker eyes. She ran some incredible laps on film and received rounds of applause for her efforts.
She was riding one of our Yamaha FZ-07s. Turns out that Dana was a bit too tippy-toed on our lowered R6, but she felt comfy on the 7. And that’s why I’m writing this to you.
All the parts of Yamaha’s FZ-07 come together to make a bike that is simple and easy to ride. Is it the ultimate track or canyon weapon? Is it hand-laid carbon-fiber covered in brightly-polished red enamel? Is the riding position only good for the bankings of Daytona? No. It’s just a nice little twin that Dana enjoyed riding.
An FZ-07 is a street-fighteresque standard with an upright riding position, lowish seat height, and a fuel injected 689cc two-cylinder in a beautiful tube frame. The YCRS instructors love riding it, and so did Dana. The bike was so comfortable and so easily “rideable” that Dana was free to work on the gazillion things a good rider must do to ride well.
The reason I’m writing about this: Dana is planning to ride a brand-new high-end Italian exotic at track days later this year. Why? Not because she has a lust for an expensive Italian exotic (she just wants to ride), but because Bill wants to see her on it.
And don’t worry: If Bill reads this, he’ll smile and nod because we discussed this subject as we wrapped up our school yesterday. He saw how much fun Dana had on our FZ-07, how well she rode. The high-end exotic he picked for her has a lot more power, a lot less steering lock, a lot more expensive bodywork, a lot more aggressive riding position, a much more touchy throttle, a heavier clutch, significantly more powerful aggressive brakes, and a much higher seat height.
I put my arm around Bill’s shoulder and told him a little story about my wife Judy.
Five years ago, Judy was really enjoying riding her 2002 Honda XR100. “Man,” I thought, “if she likes that little piece of junk, think how much fun she’ll have on a brand-new CRF150R! I love her so much that I’m going to go out and get her this fantastic, high-performance race bike! It’ll be great!”
Wrong.
It was a pain to start. The flywheel was so light that the engine was easy to stall. It was too tall. Brakes too strong. Frighteningly fast. Yes, I loved riding it, but Judy did not. And so guess what? She quit dirt bike riding. It was too much hassle and no longer fun.
The CRF150R got sold and the XR went back on duty. We rode dirt bikes together for the first time in a year. She had fun! “Hey, we should do this more often.”
With horsepower in single digits, these two ex-Freddie Spencer School Honda XR100s have provided more fun than almost anything in the garage. Low seat height, easy starting, and forgiving handling all add up to give the bike a high “fun to ride” factor. Stepping up to something faster and more sophisticated ruined the joy for our household’s petite part-time rider.
And to show you how my husband training is going, I actually listened to her (gasp!) when we stopped for a break during a rare street ride a month ago. I had prepped her 2003 CBR600RR and cajoled her into going for a ride. She drove the truck as I shuttled her CBR and my FZ1 to the end of our thickly gravelled driveway (because navigating that gravel on a sportbike makes it much easier to simply not ride at all).
At our first stop, Judy said, “I forgot how low these handlebars are, how much stress it puts on my neck.” And she’s not a complainer; it was just an observation. “Reminded me of how much we used to stretch when we were racing,” she added. We were up a Colorado canyon and she was enjoying the ride, but the CBR’s racy ergonomics weren’t popular with her. The ride ended with me shuttling both bikes back to the garage. A minor hassle, to say the least.
So my 18 years of marital training kicked in and my brain clicked off a handful of facts I needed to acknowledge. 1) I enjoy riding with Judy. 2) She enjoys a lot of it, but the hassle factors generally outweigh the joyful factors. 3) She’s a petite woman with a desire to “do things well or not do them at all.” 4) She loves riding her XR100. 5) We now live on gravel roads.
All these facts added up to her 55th birthday gift: A 2014 Yamaha XT250. I found a brand-new one at Grand Prix Motorsports in Littleton, Colorado. On the way back south I stopped in at Rocky Mountain Cycle Plaza and bought handguards and a vented Joe Rocket enduro jacket (made for women because I’d already made the mistake of getting Judy an XS man’s jacket years ago) to match the Shift women’s riding gear I bought for her to ride the XR100. The women’s Shift dirt bike gear is unbelievably perfect and the Joe Rocket women’s jacket fits right. She’s comfortably protected.
Judy stands behind her first new bike, in gear actually designed for a woman her size! She started riding in 1989 and it’s only taken 26 years to arrive at this point. Husbands can learn!
The handguards protect the bar ends and the clutch and brake levers should the XT tip over. Judy has pride and wants her stuff nice so one bent clutch lever and mangled grip would not work for her. The enduro jacket has a zip-in liner and I bought a bungie net so she could carry a few things, like the liner, along with her on the XT.
A few moments with some wrenches allowed us to lower the front of the bike a bit, which is good for someone who stands just over five feet tall. Judy usually rides whatever gets rolled out of the garage, so some custom fitting on her own bike was in order.
The next day, handguards in place and fully dressed in comfortable, protective gear, Judy rode the XT down the driveway and followed my KX500 all over the place. Forty-six miles later, the first ride ended as she rode her bike back to the garage. The raving was non-stop. The bike’s lightness. How well she could see in the mirrors. How easily U-turns were made. How relaxed she was on the dirt roads. How comfortable she was in her gear. Then came this stunning declaration: “This is my favorite motorcycle of all time.”
The first ride: It started and ended in gravel, with a mixture of dirt and pavement all perfectly handled by the new XT. The Yamaha’s pushbutton start sounded mighty desirable as I kicked the KX to life. Neither are great freeway bikes but both manage the task if necessary.
I told Bill my CRF and XT250 stories and he “got it.”
We’re good enough friends that I could speak bluntly, and I’ll do the same here. Gentlemen: The woman in your life must be free to choose the bike she wants. If you want to ruin her experience, put her on a finicky, tall, overpowered exotic and then cry when she tips it over and shatters $1,400 worth of plastic. Stick her on a big heavy cruiser that she can’t even back out of a parking spot. Put her on your old motocross bike and watch her hate the performance you loved. Dress her in your hand-me-downs with sleeves that are way too long and gloves that are way too big, with fingertips that fowl the brake lever. Like me, you’ll see her enthusiasm wane as the hassle increases.
Bikes like the Yamaha FZ-07 and XT250 work for several reasons. There’s no bodywork to shatter; the taller handlebar takes the weight off the rider’s hands (so she can be smoother with brakes and throttle); the seating position isn’t jockey-cramped; the comfortably upright seating position allows the rider to make easy over-the-shoulder blindspot checks; the mirrors allow a clear view to the rear of the bike (not just your elbows); the seat is low; steering lock is plentiful; the high and wide handlebar and gives her plenty of leverage to keep the bike upright at a stop; and, let’s not forget that they are fuel-injected Yamahas that never seem to break or falter. And, oh yeah, they are also inexpensive, pretty cool looking, and easy to ride.
Judy rode her XT to town alone three times in the first week (once to get doughnuts, thank God). Prior to that, when was the last time she had ridden somewhere alone? Never. But the XT’s size and weight send a simple message: Ride me. I’ll take care of you.
Is this a sales pitch for the Yamaha FZ-07 and XT250? No. And while these bikes are perfect for the reasons described, there are other reasonably price bikes that are fun and don’t have torture-rack ergos. Golly, a bike that actually fits the rider, not the husband. What a concept!!
The utter enjoyment of riding a motorcycle. Isn’t that all we really want?
The XT250 has rejuvenated Judy’s love of riding, giving her a platform to practice and regain confidence. Sure enough, she now wants her 1987 Suzuki GSX-R750 brought out of hibernation. The 14-year-old Michelins were traded for Dunlop Q3s, the fluids all replaced, and a set of needles-and-seats from Sudco slipped into the Mikunis. These early GSX-Rs have low seat heights so the fit is perfect for smaller riders. They’re kinda pretty, too.
More next Tuesday!