YAMAHA WR250 WANTED

**Alpha Solo** · 2nd January 2005, 06:24

YAMAHA WR250 WANTED

'03 or later. Cash Waiting.

peachvw@talk21.com

**Alpha Solo** · 13th January 2005, 19:09

Still looking !

Dont make me get a Honda...

**Alpha Solo** · 19th January 2005, 20:20

Rode a CRF today - now I really want a WR250 - soon as HELP!!!

**merv** · 19th January 2005, 22:35

Can't have mine.

What was wrong with the Honda?

**XTC** · 24th January 2005, 09:04

Sure you don't want a YZF?? more go and lighter weight....

**Alpha Solo** · 25th January 2005, 08:26

Reliability problems on the 04 Hondas (been reading ThumperTalk etc) and I dont wanna be stripping it down every 20 hours - great bike apart from that but because it was brand new and if I dropped it i would be paying for the plastics etc I took it easy. Maybe I should get an XR / TTR?

**Firefight** · 25th January 2005, 08:43

Hang on for the WR, far better bike.

F/F

**merv** · 25th January 2005, 11:31

F/F how long did you have your WR and did you have to do anything to it in terms of engine maintenance?

**XTC** · 25th January 2005, 16:18

Yeah i'd definately go for the WR or YZF at this stage. I have 2 friends who have had valve probs with KXF/RMZ's. Both have gone to yamaha's now.

**Firefight** · 25th January 2005, 19:30

Originally Posted by merv

F/F how long did you have your WR and did you have to do anything to it in terms of engine maintenance?

hey Merv, had it 18 months, rode 5 cross country races, heaps of trail rides and just the normal going to bike park stuff.

Only mods were the Bars(but you know that you got the stock ones) acrebis lever gaurds, oh and ripped the airbox surround out to give more air intake..

Did all my own services, never had the carb or head off, had a bit of trouble at first dam thing would dirty up plugs, and be a bitch to start, put hotter plugs in on dealers say so, fixed problem, have ridden the both CRF 250s, WR is by far the better bike IMHO. Best dam wheely off road bike I have ever owned, great in tight forest tracks & bush, soft clay, sand.. nearly as good in the mud as my XR 250s.

Only got rid of it beacuse of lack of use(due to work promotion), would buy another one in a flash if I could afford to have that much $$$ sitting in the shed only getting ridden once or twice a month.

F/F

**merv** · 25th January 2005, 20:43

Thanks F/F, just wondering as I serviced mine over the holidays and read all the fine print in the manual finally and typical of this new generation of 4 strokes the manual says replace the piston ring every 1,000km (or so many hours - can't remember that without looking at the manual again) but no way was I wanting to strip my engine that often. So I asked Brendan at Sawyers what he had done to his, but he didn' t tell me that, just said a trail rider should get a few years out of his engine before he'd need to do that. Phew I thought.

That has been my dilemma all along. I used to ride XRs and kept one of them for 15 years and only ever took one case off the motor to replace the clutch and it was still running like new when I sold it. I tried the DR250R for 5 years but never liked the motor on that - it just had bad characteristics for a dirt bike in my view, but it had the electric start. When I rode Brendan's WR I fell in love with the motor and the bike is only as heavy as an XR200. Here is a bike that rides like an XR at low revs and really gives good traction but screams like a race engine up top. I couldn't see the motor lasting like an XR though. I would have loved a decent XR with electric start, but they weren't imported here. Hobson's choice really as the manufacturers have chased the glamour of outright power at the expense of longevity so they don't sell decent dirt bikes any more that suit old codgers like me. They are either too big and bloody heavy or too fragile.

As WT knows seeing I bought Mrs Merv a DR650 I convinced her she needed something that would run well on the road without wearing out. She tried my WR and said "oh that's nice and light, why can't I have one of those?" I had to say it just isn't suited to doing the long trips. However, the 650 will never be any use as a hard out trail bike - it is too heavy for that and way too high in the gearing, but Mrs Merv isn't going to do hard out stuff so that's fine.

On gravel roads the WR is magic - it tracks straighter than any dirt bike I've owned before (the Suzuki was the worst it wiggled something shocking on thick gravel a bit like an old Kawi road bike on seal), the lightness makes it easy to throw around, and the power just makes me laugh in my helmet every time I open it up it is so much fun, but it misses that usefulness of being able to do the long tours that the XRs could handle. I mentioned a few weeks ago I've fitted a pack rack to it so I'll at least make out it can do the distance.

**Kwaka-Kid** · 26th January 2005, 19:33

hmm wicked info here

Im wanting a new bike myself but possibly going to go 2 smoke... Either way yeah those Yammy's wear pistons/rings fast... Why? Because they only have 2 rings, very uncommon on 4 strokes, this reduces the amount of friction against bore and i.e piston can fly faster easier, however thus obviously means they wear out alot quicker, hence why they say 1,000km for rings or so. The other thing thats rather noticable on those yammy pistons is the really short skirts, more piston slappage = not as good, but piston being lighter = more power. They really are race motors, but if people have had good runs with them then all good i guess... Nothing beats the reliability of the 1986-2002 Honda XR200 2v though... Lets hope Honda keep such a long run on one engine with the CRF230.

Sorry to hijack the thread a little

but id love WR too, mmm.

**merv** · 26th January 2005, 20:54

I could have almost gone to a CRF230 if they were street legal out of the shop and had a disc rear brake instead of the goddam rod drum brake. I had an '83 XR200RD and it had the cable drum brake, which if you weren't getting a disc was the thing to have because it wouldn't skip and lock up on bumps like the rod jobs do.

**k14** · 26th January 2005, 21:09

how do you guys rate the kdx200's. I am thinking of getting a tail bike and have been told that this is one of the better ones out there that you can pickup for around the $2k mark.

**sAsLEX** · 26th January 2005, 21:13

Originally Posted by merv

I could have almost gone to a CRF230 if they were street legal out of the shop and had a disc rear brake instead of the goddam rod drum brake. I had an '83 XR200RD and it had the cable drum brake, which if you weren't getting a disc was the thing to have because it wouldn't skip and lock up on bumps like the rod jobs do.

my XR has a custom No.8 wire rear brake actuator that bends and flexes a little to help aleviate that prob