I read Rick got cocky, got into dope and just broke his wrist from a racing accident..booze and dope don't mix with motorcycles..Jeff was a clean athletic sober man, so he earned the championship..
That's crazy if that's true. Yeah RJ got super cocky after 87. The whole David Bailey accident kept him grounded for a while When that wore off he was kind of a douche bag until he got hurt. I have to keep telling myself that he was only 24 yrs old when he was winning all of those titles. Still a kid
@@MotocrossHistoryChannel The man said it himself. Losse Commiefornia life style lots of drugs used, always leads to failure. In still a fan of Rick and Ron Lechine, but like Bruce Jenner I'm let down..
@@MotocrossHistoryChannel you might want to change the name of your channel ! if you dont know what really happened to RJs wrist, not sure if the title to your channel makes sense!!
If jeff was on a better bike he would of won a 500 class hands down in fact that the YZ 490 was just a pig to ride unlike the CR and KX were way better bikes. Like don't get me wrong all the 500 2 baggers where a handful and it takes a different breed of rider to ride them, I just saying from my experience riding a YZ 490 the CR and KX 500 much better bike
Even in late 80s the 490 was no slouch, if you wanted to compete but we're on a budget it was a great choice you could lean on it and be competitive and turn some heads your way then back back down to comfort level and finish in the top bunch. If being #1 was your goal every run cr or Kx was a smarter choice in late 80s.
Ok look, the same bike that stanton got beat by in 87/88 while racing the 490, Stanton was racing in 91 and Bradshaw was all over him and had it not been for a DNF Bradshaw would have beat him in the overall. The only way Stanton would have a 500 title was if RJ had not been racing 500s in 87 otherwise no one else could touch stanton on his stock 490. Sorry no one was beating RJ on a 500, RJ loved 500s stanton hated them. And again as pointed out before these 500s in 88 that stanton bested on a stock 490 where the same design as the 500s in 91 that Bradshaw was competing against. Cr made some minor changes in 92 nothing to write home about and KX was same platform from 88+ only usd forks in 90 and exhaust changes in 89 for the most part froze in time from 88 tell end of days. then you have in 92 the wr500 show up and without dispute was far better than the last 490, but some how you think was inferior to the other bikes that a stock 490 was beating in 88? Oh point being in all that.....No Stanton would not have a 500 title if he had raced a yzm500 since he could do no better on the cr500 actually worse. You are not over heating a 490 on any track not even close not in the meat of the power and to much off throttle time, all maufactures have accasional engine failures its racing. the only place you can over heat a 490 is sand drags and it takes several back to back runs to do it and it dont lose power before giving out, and as having owned all jap 500cc bikes the cr and kx will only give you 1 sometimes two more pulls before puking coolant and you can decide if you want a engine to rebuild or not at that point.
thanks for the input. I disagree regarding the 490 not overheating. In the dead of summer at those tracks, you're not going to convince anyone of that. If such were the case no manufacturer would have ever made a big bore water cooled. It loses horsepower when over worked. that's physics. It wasnt just that. Stanton working with a rear drum and an 85 chassis style was a joke. it was embarrassing. Stanton was noted several times saying that the biggest regret of his career was not winning a 500 nat'l title. Lastly, Bradshaw wasnt even close to Stanton in the 91 500 season. Its not a coincidence that Bradshaw finished 4th in the 91 500 series behind all of the best riders on KX & CR500s. Lastly, if you were to switch Stanton and RJ in 88 putting RJ on a 490 & Stanton on a CR500, Stanton's winning that title 10 out of 10 times.
@@MotocrossHistoryChannel Liquid Cooled was a selling point, a trend not a requirement. Second time you have mentioned dead of summer, I will mention now all my testing was done in NV desert 100+ more around 110 temps. And Outside temps played zero roll in heating issues. Did however play a role in output on both engines that in turn could possible explain why air temps did not play roll in engine temps IDK. Anyway yes I completely agree about the rear brake that was ridicules. I disagree about the stanton Johnson swap thing Johnson was a beast on 500s the underlining standout in my mind was Johnson loved 500s while stanton absolutely HATED them. And I yes Bradshaw was one DNF from stanton in final standings If i recall 13 points separated them. (Going off memory) 18yrs old first year 500 racer whole world of pressure on him Bradshaw did better than expected that year. Going into that year I thought Yamaha was nuts to put him on a 500, I expected him to crash out more than finish and likely hurt himself in process. I was pleasantly surprised. But I could recognize he was sweating bullets under the team colors in that class and felt he just needed to perform well enough to say "I tried" and thats exactly what he did. A follow up year Im sure would have been even better once he was better acclimated to the class. I should mention this is a history channel not opinion channel so i dont expect you to change anything in videos as you are stating what history recorded at the times. I just throw my two cents in on comments on these 490 videos simply because all the negative reviews around that wr is THE reason I never had one much sooner in life than I did and it only took one ride to know I had really missed the ball in my best years on that one. But the difference in me and 90% 490 guys is I know how to build the engines for success via many tests and lots of $$ wasted on blowing them up on purpose. And when I say know how to build them Im not saying make most on a dyno im saying be competitive and stay together. Once I figured out young in life at that time exactly what those engines liked and didnt like I never deviated far from those boundaries. So I cant speak for all. Detonation and heating simply were none issues for me the bike its self late 80s became my issue with them So I left them and never looked back Until one day a wr showed up. And it all changed for me AGAIN. One final thing Liquid cooling engines noone ever made the claim would prevent and engine from over heating longer, it was to have a more stable operating range with less deviance, helps with cleaner burn and fuel milage. on single cylinder engine 2 bangers no fans and both require consistand air movement over radiators/engine. without that air movement the k5 will start showing very simular deviations in minutes following right behind the 490. Oh I should mention none of my testing on the 490s were in stock configuration where as the k5 testing was in stock configuration. And Stock meaning internally only both had "bolt ons" We did lots of testing both motors porting port timing, pipes carbs, pistons, reeds, timing etc....The reason the 490 in stress tests was compared to a stock k5 is i did not want to foul any tests by modding the k5 and concluding false results towards the 490 if the k5 failed do to an internal mod.
I like your content! Keep it coming!
Agreed!
I heard RJ talk about what if Jeff was on a factory yz RJ knew it would be a battle .O the good old days lol
I read Rick got cocky, got into dope and just broke his wrist from a racing accident..booze and dope don't mix with motorcycles..Jeff was a clean athletic sober man, so he earned the championship..
That's crazy if that's true. Yeah RJ got super cocky after 87. The whole David Bailey accident kept him grounded for a while When that wore off he was kind of a douche bag until he got hurt. I have to keep telling myself that he was only 24 yrs old when he was winning all of those titles. Still a kid
@@MotocrossHistoryChannel The man said it himself. Losse Commiefornia life style lots of drugs used, always leads to failure. In still a fan of Rick and Ron Lechine, but like Bruce Jenner I'm let down..
Not true at all !! Danny Stoberc landed on him in practice and broke RJs wrist!! get your facts right! before running your mouth!!!
@@MotocrossHistoryChannel you might want to change the name of your channel ! if you dont know what really happened to RJs wrist, not sure if the title to your channel makes sense!!
@@blizzard71 The man did dope, storbeck broke his foquing wrist..don't ever tell me what to do.👍
If jeff was on a better bike he would of won a 500 class hands down in fact that the YZ 490 was just a pig to ride unlike the CR and KX were way better bikes. Like don't get me wrong all the 500 2 baggers where a handful and it takes a different breed of rider to ride them, I just saying from my experience riding a YZ 490 the CR and KX 500 much better bike
I totally agree. The 490 was more of a trail dirt bike.
In 87 the 490 was competitive, In 88/89 you could feel it was struggling against Kx and cr but could be managed.
Keeping in mind that Glover won 3 titles on one up against Bailey and his RC 500
Even in late 80s the 490 was no slouch, if you wanted to compete but we're on a budget it was a great choice you could lean on it and be competitive and turn some heads your way then back back down to comfort level and finish in the top bunch. If being #1 was your goal every run cr or Kx was a smarter choice in late 80s.
At 2:08-2:10ish that’s the YZM500
Jacky Vimond and Kurt Ljunqvist
Ok look, the same bike that stanton got beat by in 87/88 while racing the 490, Stanton was racing in 91 and Bradshaw was all over him and had it not been for a DNF Bradshaw would have beat him in the overall. The only way Stanton would have a 500 title was if RJ had not been racing 500s in 87 otherwise no one else could touch stanton on his stock 490. Sorry no one was beating RJ on a 500, RJ loved 500s stanton hated them. And again as pointed out before these 500s in 88 that stanton bested on a stock 490 where the same design as the 500s in 91 that Bradshaw was competing against. Cr made some minor changes in 92 nothing to write home about and KX was same platform from 88+ only usd forks in 90 and exhaust changes in 89 for the most part froze in time from 88 tell end of days. then you have in 92 the wr500 show up and without dispute was far better than the last 490, but some how you think was inferior to the other bikes that a stock 490 was beating in 88? Oh point being in all that.....No Stanton would not have a 500 title if he had raced a yzm500 since he could do no better on the cr500 actually worse. You are not over heating a 490 on any track not even close not in the meat of the power and to much off throttle time, all maufactures have accasional engine failures its racing. the only place you can over heat a 490 is sand drags and it takes several back to back runs to do it and it dont lose power before giving out, and as having owned all jap 500cc bikes the cr and kx will only give you 1 sometimes two more pulls before puking coolant and you can decide if you want a engine to rebuild or not at that point.
thanks for the input. I disagree regarding the 490 not overheating. In the dead of summer at those tracks, you're not going to convince anyone of that. If such were the case no manufacturer would have ever made a big bore water cooled. It loses horsepower when over worked. that's physics. It wasnt just that. Stanton working with a rear drum and an 85 chassis style was a joke. it was embarrassing. Stanton was noted several times saying that the biggest regret of his career was not winning a 500 nat'l title. Lastly, Bradshaw wasnt even close to Stanton in the 91 500 season. Its not a coincidence that Bradshaw finished 4th in the 91 500 series behind all of the best riders on KX & CR500s. Lastly, if you were to switch Stanton and RJ in 88 putting RJ on a 490 & Stanton on a CR500, Stanton's winning that title 10 out of 10 times.
@@MotocrossHistoryChannel Liquid Cooled was a selling point, a trend not a requirement. Second time you have mentioned dead of summer, I will mention now all my testing was done in NV desert 100+ more around 110 temps. And Outside temps played zero roll in heating issues. Did however play a role in output on both engines that in turn could possible explain why air temps did not play roll in engine temps IDK. Anyway yes I completely agree about the rear brake that was ridicules. I disagree about the stanton Johnson swap thing Johnson was a beast on 500s the underlining standout in my mind was Johnson loved 500s while stanton absolutely HATED them. And I yes Bradshaw was one DNF from stanton in final standings If i recall 13 points separated them. (Going off memory)
18yrs old first year 500 racer whole world of pressure on him Bradshaw did better than expected that year. Going into that year I thought Yamaha was nuts to put him on a 500, I expected him to crash out more than finish and likely hurt himself in process. I was pleasantly surprised. But I could recognize he was sweating bullets under the team colors in that class and felt he just needed to perform well enough to say "I tried" and thats exactly what he did. A follow up year Im sure would have been even better once he was better acclimated to the class. I should mention this is a history channel not opinion channel so i dont expect you to change anything in videos as you are stating what history recorded at the times. I just throw my two cents in on comments on these 490 videos simply because all the negative reviews around that wr is THE reason I never had one much sooner in life than I did and it only took one ride to know I had really missed the ball in my best years on that one. But the difference in me and 90% 490 guys is I know how to build the engines for success via many tests and lots of $$ wasted on blowing them up on purpose. And when I say know how to build them Im not saying make most on a dyno im saying be competitive and stay together. Once I figured out young in life at that time exactly what those engines liked and didnt like I never deviated far from those boundaries. So I cant speak for all. Detonation and heating simply were none issues for me the bike its self late 80s became my issue with them So I left them and never looked back Until one day a wr showed up. And it all changed for me AGAIN. One final thing Liquid cooling engines noone ever made the claim would prevent and engine from over heating longer, it was to have a more stable operating range with less deviance, helps with cleaner burn and fuel milage. on single cylinder engine 2 bangers no fans and both require consistand air movement over radiators/engine. without that air movement the k5 will start showing very simular deviations in minutes following right behind the 490. Oh I should mention none of my testing on the 490s were in stock configuration where as the k5 testing was in stock configuration. And Stock meaning internally only both had "bolt ons" We did lots of testing both motors porting port timing, pipes carbs, pistons, reeds, timing etc....The reason the 490 in stress tests was compared to a stock k5 is i did not want to foul any tests by modding the k5 and concluding false results towards the 490 if the k5 failed do to an internal mod.