1998
Early in the year Webb attended too many meetings and was not roosting enough dirt. He left DR to work with exhaust giant FMF. There were few riders who actually believed that the performance of Doug Henry's four-stroke would make it to the production model. That thinking was very wrong. The YZ400F set the moto and off-road world on fire. The bike was amazing in terms or performance and reliability. Yamaha follows the YZ400F up with a WR400F off-road version the same year. Naturally, Henry had to ride the production model, and he used it to win the 250cc outdoor national title. Companies that didn't have a four-stroke in development weren't happy. Suzuki ran ads proclaiming Greg Albertyn as "first 250" in the title chase. KTM, the company that abandoned the WP fork, switched back to longtime suspension supplier WP's 50mm conventional fork for most of its models, and became the first major manufacturer to do away with the rear shock linkage. hlins and KTM developed a shock with two pistons that gave the PDS rear end bottoming resistance to match a linkage. At the same time, the Austrian company imported 125cc world enduro champ Shane Watts, and off-road racing in the U.S. was far more colorful. The cocky Australian rode a 125, slept under the boxvan on the ground and was fast as hell in the woods. He then proceeded to do massive, smoky burn-outs on the victory podium. McGrath jumped to Yamaha-a bike that felt a great deal like the 1996 Honda CR250R with a stronger engine-and regained his SX title. More surprisingly, John Dowd, the rider all the factories thought was too old for a factory ride, earned a 125cc SX championship and raised the spirits of vet riders across the globe.
 |  | |
1999
As good as the Yamaha four-strokes were proving to be, it wasn't until 1999 that Yamaha earned a World MX title with Andrea Bartolini at the helm. For two years Smets and his Husaberg-a much less technologically advanced chassis design-blocked any Yamaha efforts. In the U.S., Albertyn and Suzuki finally got a 250cc title. McGrath wasn't riding outdoors, but he easily handled the SX crown for Yamaha. In early January KTM released photos of 2000-model four-strokes. In an amazing development curve, KTM threw the bikes into the motocross and enduro World championships. While developing the bikes the 520 earned second in MX and won the 450 and Open classes in world enduro. In a controversial decision, DR picked the not-yet-released Cannondale 400 motocrosser as "Bike of the Year." The technical innovation on the bike-whether it worked in reality or not-made every manufacturer of four-strokes take a second look at its designs. Long-term, it appears that an electric-start, aluminum-framed, fuel-injected four-stroke wasn't so crazy. It was just too early and too much for the bicycle company to pull off.
Ricky Carmichael | 
Ricky Carmichael | |