Well in all truthfulness I "had the gonads" when I started riding. Now Im scared shitless of the thing! jajajajaj....oooppsss was laughing in spanish...hahahahha.
My first bike was a YZ 490 from 1989...all my friends rode CRS and tricked out Banshees but I could not afford one, and my parents didn't want to buy me one, so that was the bike I could afford.
In retrospect it was a good thing because I was a naive kid that didnt know better and just thought all 2 strokes where out to kill you, I learned to control it some what so I was faster up the dunes than most of my friends.
Fast forward my life and a delicious series of coincidences allowed me to find this bike, it belonged to the president of the FIM Latam so it is in pristine condition.
I believe the 490 was more explosive in acceleration, or at least thats is my impression right now. I let you guys now when I have more saddle time how I feel this bike.....its fun to ride a bike with brakes thats for sure!