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2007 Yamaha YZ250F Shootout Photo Gallery

Yamaha blazed to near victory with its complete package. You'll notice the list of low points is markedly short.

Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, and Honda all bring potent 250 Motocross machines to the table, but which bike will come out on top in our 2007 shootout? Check out how this bike did in our 2007 250F Motocross Shootout.

Yamaha has created a machine that is capable on all fronts. The question for 2007 was if it could stand out in one way or another. Failing to do so in '06 was ultimately its demise.

If it were up to us, we would have dumped the 2007 R&D into bringing life to the mild-mannered YZ250F motor.

Huffman was our testing stallion, taking the YZ250F to its limits.

The new YZ was dissected piece by piece to find ways to shave weight, especially on the front end where it could have a significant affect on handling characteristics.

At our First Ride, Yamaha claimed its bike weighed in at 216 lbs tank empty. Experience has taught us to be wary of OEM-provided weights, and when we dropped it on our scales it rung in at 219.

The huge effort to lightening the front end included a smaller, forged lower triple clamp, shrunken pinch bolts, a 250mm petal-style brake rotor and forged aluminum brake caliper.

While trying valiantly to shave grams, engineers were altering the bike's weight distribution to put additional weight on the front wheel for added turning prowess.

The Blue 250F has no hit or surge anywhere in the rpm range.

Considering the Yamaha was only one point out of a three-way tie for first place in last year's shootout, third place is a long way down for the 2007 model.

The YZ250F is light, stable and wonderfully suspended.

If riders are able to get comfortable with the long-and-low Yammie ergonomics and utilize the smooth power delivery, the skinny layout and near-perfect suspension are just icing on the cake.

We said it last year and the same holds true in 2007: If you ride only your YZ-F, you'll pass the days in a wonderful Blue shade of moto bliss.

A peak output of 33 ponies is right in the ballpark with the rest of the bikes, and riding the Yamaha fast is not a problem.

Both the fork and shock earned highest marks and put the Yamaha clearly ahead of the rest in suspension terms.

The guys at KYB are excellent thieves, seeing how they somehow managed to steal the plushness out of Suzuki's Showas and the bottoming resistance from the KX-F.

The fun-factor of these 250s are one of their best attributes.

Many of the 250Fs have similar characteristics to their beefed up counterparts, and the Yamahas have closely matched motors.

Yamaha is the only Japanese manufacturer to use Kayaba suspension on its 250F.