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KTM wins the value for money stakes though. Or, you can pay 2016 prices for a 2008 Yamaha.
There's no point comparing a 2015 KTM125/150 with a 2016 model. It's an entirely new bike.
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When my son raced we had the same decision, ended up going with the yz due to availability of parts on ebay. Actually was able to pick up a 2nd older yz for a practice bike, still spent less then my bud who chose the ktm. Although this was about 4 years ago and the ktm has changed...the yz not
My gorr 144 is his mid top porting with race gas high comp head. I run trick 114 race gas fmf factory fatty shorty silencer v3 reedblock. 14/49 gearing and all of the gytr billet clutch parts. It rips have had it going on 10 years now.
I do understand wanting something different. I left Honda for a while and rode a green bike, recently went back to Honda and haven't looked back. Everyone just fits on something different it seems.
As it stands, I've tried the 15's but they're not the same bike.
Based on the 15's, I'd get the YZ. KTM's suspension is pretty awful on the 15's I've tried.
The cylinders are interchangeable on the Ktm 125 and 150. There are differences. Read the new MXA mag. They did an awesome write up on it.
Pit Row
You could dump a bunch of money in the engine of a yz but ive ridden both and the ktm engine stock is much better and you can get the suspension working well. I raced one back in 03 when KTMs suspension was really bad. for the cost of a good revalve it was good enough to go fast on.
KTM suspension revalve $400-600? > yz125 p&p $350? pipe/silencer $350, vforce $120, and you still might need the suspension set up for you
Especially if you want to do the SSS Yamaha internals conversion. Or Ohlins front and rear.
Ohlins front and rear? Lol, come on man... That's not needed to on par with SSS suspension. A revalve front and rear should be good enough depending who you send it to. Should cost around $400-$600, but that's if it's needed for the buyer, some guys are fine with the forks right out the box.
And for the most part, the guys I see using Ohlins, buy the forks and the shock. Not a necessity but thats the norm around here.
And it takes a lot for a set of KTM forks to be on par with a stock set of Yamaha forks. Add in gold valves to the SSS forks and those forks are damn near as good as they get. You would be spending a lot and doing more than just a simple revalve on the KTM forks.
I get the KTMs are great bikes, and I also get the Yamaha's are as well, both have their strong suites and their weak areas. But your hard on for the Yamaha's is painfully obvious. Keep pedaling your nonsense to the folks that want to listen. As for me, I am calling bullshit on the fact that one bike is far superior to the other.
Steinke did damn near the same on the KTM as he did the Yamaha. Not at all surprised by that either.
Does that mean anything? You don't need a $6k set to make ktm's good, or any bike for that matter. Those guys that spent big money on A kit's just wanted something better than just "good".
From the revalve review's i read, no it doesn't. It really depends who you send them to. We're talking about stock SSS forks, not gold valves.
I never said one was better than the other. My hard on for Yamaha's? What? I don't understand... You call bullshit? On what now? Have i ever said that the new ktm's are far superior? Where are you getting that from? Just because Steinke didn't get a better result on the ktm, doesn't show that the bike isn't better suited for him.
Jeez, settle down bro.
Post a reply to: 2016 Ktm 125 or 2016 Yz 125