Yamaha WR250R First Off Road Ride, Test & Review
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- This is my first ride on my brand new WR. Only 3 miles on the odometer. Headed out with my friend Craig to explore some of the two track sections of dirt roads in our part of Western Massachusetts and Southern Vermont.
These are what we call Class IV roads: former roads that went somewhere but the town has stopped all maintenance of them. These are in rural, hilly areas that used to be farmed 150 years ago.
This is a new style of riding for me. My experience before this was on a 2008 KLR650, which required more finesse and picking of your lines through obstacles. The WR250R just goes right through the same obstacles. I need to totally re-adjust my style of riding.
I have a 2016 wr...Good honest review my friend, I really like mine too and I had a Klr for 13yrs.
Thanks Darren. My KLR was a great entry into my WR. I was out riding the WR tonight...just as much fun as it was in this video. Same road too!
Cool trails man. Can't wait for the snow to melt in MA!
thank you! If the snow ever melts, yes. It looks like it's going to be a very short spring here. I've only taken the WR out on the street a couple of times the last few weeks.
Put snow tires/studs on and rice in winter!
Congrats Keith!!! Nice looking WR. I agree with you, been doing it wrong all these years. One good thing, being used to the KLR's weight, riding these technical stuff is now so much more fun with the lighter bikes. If I wasn't so heavy I would have gone with the WR also instead of the DRZ.
Thanks Leon! Your feedback was really helpful to me in making a decision.
I took the KLR as far as I could. It made me a pretty good rider and allowed me to start at a decent level with the WR.
Great video! Ty for sharing ! I’m buying on soon. Keep riding !
You know you will :) My process: Run bike in. Play with
gearing. Replace pipe. Only went up one tooth on the rear (44T) as this
equates to a 2% reduction in overall gearing and you can still use the OEM
chain. I did quite a bit of research on exhaust pipes and ended up going with
the Leo Vince X3 and the 12 o’clock labs EXUP eliminator. The Leo Vince pipe is
USFS and epass approved, free postage from Italy (ebay), not too loud and has
the O2 sensor port. The bike now runs all the way up the rev range, does not
pop or splutter, no tuning required and has a very nice tone. I don’t mind the
stock tyres but will change to Pirelli MT21’s when the OEM tyres are done as
the rear MT21 is available in 120/80-18.
lol, we'll see...I've never changed an exhaust or gearing on a bike yet. I need to spend some time on it first. I did notice (and you can see on the video) that there are times off road where you the bike wants to be somewhere between 1st or 2nd gear. That might be worth considering changing the gearing.
That's a good tip on the exhaust. Everyone is running a FMF and then needing to buy an FI programmer. IDK, this bike seems to run pretty well out of the box.
Thanks for the feedback and suggestions!
hey Keith
awesome first ride on the WR250r,, I am so loving mine ( keith in Alaska )
I think I have put 350 miles on it so far , Haven't been riding in a week or so ,my riding buddy crashed his WR250r
He's the hotdog of our group.. shattered his right shoulder ,broke his nose and was all beat up, flipped his bike while jumping
and my other buddies are out of town,,so currently your my riding buddy ,,lol,,looking forward to seeing your adventures
ride safe bro,,liked ( thumbs up )
I'm sorry to hear about your friend. Crashing sucks!
If I could offer a couple of things. Set your air pressure around 12PSI for off road. Grab a bicycle "stick pump" to air back up (if you want) 12psi should be fine on the road too. Set your sag. It will make big difference. Also set round damping settings to the spec in the bool them massage them as your ride it more. This will give the bike a more planted feel. Keep the bike up in the rev range. That is where the power is. You could go down one tooth on the front sprocket and it won't effect too much on the top end.
Thanks! I had set the front tire to 18 psi. I didn't realize you could go down that low.
That's a good idea with the suspension. I haven't had time to check the settings on it but will start with what the book recommends for a standard rider. I understand that you need a friend and a measuring tape to really set it up correctly. So far it seems really good and I'm not sure why people throw $1000 into the forks and shock.
The rear stock shock has horrible dampening/rebound characteristics, but it all depends on the type of riding you do and your preferences if an upgrade is worth it. I blew my rear shock so "I had to have it rebuilt" :)- all new internals and spring. Glad I did though, the bike tracks so much better and is better planted over roots and rocks. You'll hear some people talk about how the bike bounces around a lot because its so light, I think it's mostly due to the stock shock.
I have heard that before as one of the few criticisms of the WR: that the rear shock bounces the tire too much. I'll have to look at that once I get more time on the bike. I'm on the Tenere this weekend.
I hear upgraded tires are worth it. And adjusting the suspension to your weight plus gear weight, bags etc.
Yes, I'm done the suspension upgrade. The bike feels pretty well sorted otherwise. Looking to get some D606 tires once I wear out the stock Trail Wings. Thanks for the comment.
Great video! Glad to see you are liking the bike so far. Be careful on the trail with those stock tires! :)
thanks! What tires do you recommend? I see people using a lot of different combinations.
I hear a lot of good things with a MT21 front and D606 rear if you do about 80% dirt. I haven't tried the combination yet since I'm burning the stock tires still with 4k miles :). They are pretty terrible now so I'm looking forward to upgrading once I get off this business trip.
I've heard people use that too. I saw that on SR Moto. I've used the 606 on my old KLR and it was great, but didn't last long. I may go back to that. It seems like a knobby is the way to go. Thanks for the suggestion.
Hey Keith, you might check out the MotoZ Mountain Hybrid for a dual purpose rear tire. DOT approved with trials-like traction. Maybe look at TUbliss, as well, depending on how much on-road/off-road you're doing.
Where in MA is this? i live in boston. I have a R6 and im looking into buying this bike but cant find any near me.
I bought mine in June and it was really difficult to find a WR, new or used. I got my dealer's last new 2016. I couldn't find a used one within an hour of me.
I'm in western Mass.
I would like to hook up and try some of those roads. Just purchased a WR250R after watching your reviews and others. What is a good source for locating class IV roads in Western MA and VT? Thanks for the informative reviews. Have you changed the tires?
Hi Ron, congrats on getting the WR; that's awesome. I'm happy that the videos helped in your decision.
Class IV roads can be a little difficult to find. The ones I've found have primarily been through exploring or getting the knowledge of a local friend. Lots of trial and error. My advice would be to just get on a dirt road and keep exploring and making turns. Grab an atlas or a detailed map and pinpoint a specific area and just explore.
One place to start could be Green River Road, which runs from Greenfield into Guilford, VT and beyond. There are some Class IV roads pretty close to that...maybe not directly off it, but within a road or two away. There's a nice square area in Southern VT where nearly every road is dirt. Go north of Route 2, South of Route 9, west of Route 5 and east of Route 112. There are a ton of dirt roads there, especially in Vermont. You should find a lot that you like.
Thanks for the comment and questions.
(I haven't changed the tires yet...only 2500 miles. I'm looking at D606's when I do. Good luck with those in the past.)
hey keith
If your ever interested in a Alaskan dual sport trip ,,let me know
I would like to organize a dual sport ride to the arctic circle and prudhoe bay, including myself and friends ( 6 WR250r's )
I live in Fairbanks alaska ,good starting point for anywhere in alaska
our middle name is Adventure ,,plus we have boats ,four wheelers ,,kayaks ,canoes,and a motorhome to haul it all
people would watch that expedition video ,lol would be awesome ,,let me know if you ever want to
I'm here year round ,,lol
Awesome invite! I have to figure out how to get the time and money to get out there Keith. That would make a great video.
Looking into getting this bike. Thanks for sharing.
When going through puddles and stuff how deep can the water be? What's its limit? What should you avoid?
You can take these bikes pretty high in the water, if you needed to. The air intake is under the seat. The deepest I've been is a bit over the axles. I think the biggest factor is what is underneath the water? Are there rocks, logs or deep mud? If the bottom is stable we will usually go for it. If we have a question we'll stop and walk through it.
Thanks for the question and good luck with the bike purchase.
Congrats on your WR250R, been thinking of getting a new one recently, I did a good research on it but I still have a question about it, some official sites states that maximum power is 26 hp but other like yamaha official europe site states that it's 30.7, which one is right?
The dyno charts I've seen online for the stock bike put it at about 27 hp +/- 1. That's at the rear wheel. The 30.7 you quoted could have been done at the crank??
www.yamaha-motor.eu/eu/products/motorcycles/adventure/wr250r.aspx?view=featurestechspecs
Maybe, It's stated here in Yamaha official website
you'll be doing back flips in two weeks.