It was quite a treat. I knew the usual suspects would be there, Weinert, Lackey, Donnie Hansen, they are somewhat fixtures at the VMX events, but I had no idea Jeff Stanton and Guy Cooper, and Trampas Parker would be there. Awesome. Guy Cooper f'ing hauls ass and he's 50. Trampas Parker won 2 world championships and he hauls ass too. Parker Cooper
Well I cleaned the carb on the 1984 and gave her a shot in the woods...I feel like a complete wuss but I do not feel comfortable on this thing at all. That being said I will be selling both of the YZ490's in order to get something a lot more tame!! If any of you 490 fanatics want to trade me a good woods bike for my two 490's let me know! I think I will get another XR400r or a KDX200/220 or if I can swing it a KTM 300. Like I said I feel like I'm backing down but I really think that bike could get away from me real quick in the trails we have up here....or maybe I'm just a complete pussy... Aaron
I loved my 83 490, I had it slightly bored when I freshed it up.....but it had a great spread of power, almost 4 stroke like. It would go from tractor to missile, and everything in between depending on your right wrist. I rode it mostly in the oregon woods, then a little desert when I moved to nevada...it did it all with no probs. My only complaint was the 4 speed tranny. BTW as mentioned above proper jetting makes all the difference.
i have a ratty kdx i'd trade for one of them.... might have something else - i'd have to think about it..
for what it's worth: I had a YZ490 that Eric Gorr did the head mod on & ported for low end... it was a tractor that could literally idle up hills. very tractable low end torque and not terrible to start after the mod and the jetting was sorted.