Words: Bill Hunter.
There’s no doubt that Yamaha has an enviable off-road line-up of motorcycles, ranging from race winning MX bikes to their WR range, but one bike in particular is missing, a hard-core, electric start, 250cc two-stroke, competition Enduro variant.
Well that has now been addressed with this superb YZ250X-HE. It’s not really a genuine Factory bike from Japan but one prepared right here in South Africa. Adrian Bac from Yamaha SA took his wealth of knowledge (from riding across a field so to speak, sorry Adrian, you know what I mean), and turned a ‘basic’ 2026 YZ250X into this Hard-Enduro weapon, commendable to say the least we say.
So what’s so special you may ask. Well the feisty 250cc two-stoke motor remains the same, as does the KYB suspension, seeing as they’re known to be some of the best components money can buy, so why change it. Obviously you can set them up to your liking with different spring rates, etc, where Yamaha SA will also happily assist. However, one of the major changes is a heavier flywheel adding a hefty 115grams to add more engine rotational momentum that helps with low speed stalling issues, not an easy task because it has to be perfectly balanced as well. While they were inside the motor first and second gears have been replaced with wider ratios. These four gears are made right here in SA by an engineering shop in Natal, which is good to hear too, keeping it local. The gearbox changes, and flywheel, should/will make it easier during technical stages with large boulders underneath you and other similar intimidating obstacles, instead of the stock bike’s short and snappy delivery. Just leave it first and climb over anything, they say, and who am I to disagree.
The next major addition is the adoption of the Canadian Fisch-Moto electric start, a must-have for exhausting hard-enduro antics. A beautiful piece of engineering that has all the parts necessary in the kit, including wiring, start button and more. Adrian has placed twin Lithium-Iron batteries under the seat to power this compact system, that have to be charged after a ride as there’s no on-board charging system. But we have been told they’ll easily last all day, depending on the usage by the rider obviously.
But wait there’s even more. A 1.8-bar radiator cap replaced the stock 1.6-bar item, to keep the engine from premature boiling during slow riding in stifling heat and a manual fan switch is now installed, in case you need more and instant cooling from the stock radiators. A new large bash-plate has been fitted that also provides rear suspension linkage protection and there’s a new GYTR Teflon chain guide that’s more durable and a rear disc ‘shark fin’ protective plate, so you won’t bend your rear disc over the Hard-Enduro type of terrain. The gearing has also been changed from 14/50 to 13/51 to compensate for the revised internal ratio changes. Oh, and there’s an hour meter and some fancy new graphics. I think that’s about it but there could be more, either way that’s a truck-full of improvements to build this machine, where, for now, only 20 will be created.
You’re probably wondering how much all of this will cost, and so you should? Well the stock YZ250X is R130,000, this outstanding HE option is R210,000. Adrian did say that you could do all of these modifications yourself but ‘he’ is heavily subsidizing many of the parts so it would cost you much more, and more importantly they’re already done for you in a highly professional manner. His son, Adam Bac, who currently rides one of these, told me the improvements are dramatic to say the least and it now makes this YZ250X-HE a ‘proper’ class-winning motorcycle on all counts – easier to ride, less stalling, less tiring and far less vigorous and frantic clutch lever action were just some of the HE’s new found attributes. We look forward to seeing his race results in the near future.
If you’d like to own a 2026 YZ250X-HE you can order one from any of the genuine Yamaha dealers found throughout South Africa, simple as that.
Go to www.yamaha.co.za for more information. If you live in Jo’burg get in touch with Linex Sandton www.linex.co.za, which is where you’ll find Mr. Bac himself, if you’d like to have a chat with him about his creation.
