Yamaha WR250R Mega Thread

Suspension settings I'm running since like Revvy I know nothing about tweaking on a bike suspension.

Opening the air box is louder than the exhaust. Just open the air box door and rev the engine a few times and you'll see what I mean.

I'm pretty sure that's the point of a speed bump

Seriously though, the settings above are a good starting point. But before that, make sure your sag is set correctly. Depending on your weight you may need a softer or stiffer spring, too. Search Google for setting suspension sag on dirt bikes.

Damping settings aside,

If you weigh less than 175 the stock rear spring may be too stiff, you can compensate by going with a little more rider sag than usual - experiment.

The front forks come all screwed up - the spring rate is OK for most middle-sized guys, but the oil is a bit too heavy and there is too much of it.

You can make the forks supple by replacing the oil with a light 5wt - I used amsoil, and setting the oil height to 115 or 120 mm.

My bike came with one fork oil level at 90mm and one at 95. They had a mid-stroke spike and were not getting full travel, and were harsh in general. Now, after the oil change there is more air cushion and the forks go through the full range of travel without a hiccup. They absorb small bumps, rocks, etc completely. Huge difference. I've barely bottomed them on really rough off-road stuff with the 120mm oil setting (I weigh 160). Gone is the "hang on tight or die" syndrome.
IMO they need more compression damping, but that's another story - as they come with tiny 16mm diameter compression stacks that only flow about one-third of what std kayaba compression stacks can flow. Why the factory went to such a small mickey-mouse stack design I cannot understand. Just changing the oil as I've described will make the forks more than acceptable for most riders.

I had the best luck, damping-setting wise with the fork compression all the way in (full compression) and the rear shock with full rebound. I ride off-road on worn out trails with lots of square edged holes and small jumps. Those settings are needed to keep the rear from coming up and pitching you forward off of jumps, water bars, etc. I was running fork rebound at middle area and shock compression light. Everyone rides a little different so you should do some experimenting.

With regard to the rear shock, I finally caved and had GoRace revalve the thing (I also went to the next lighter spring) - his experience will net a one-time revalve - I can attest the shock action is now as good as my off-road bikes. With regard to the front, I'm now setting up WR450 forks for the bike as they are more tunable and have a normal stack size (I ride very technical black-diamond single-track with this beast so I might be demanding a little more than the average rider).

Took advantage of the good weather here on the west coast:
http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=904941

"I'm now setting up WR450 forks for the bike as they are more tunable and have a normal stack size"
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Is that a bolt-up or is conjuring and machining required? Any particular year of 450f?

Looks to be a bolt-up. I'm using 03 450 forks which are the same diameter @ 46mm - the YZ line went to 48mm in 04, but the WR's may have kept the 46's longer, you'd have to check. They're open cartridge with a good off-road stack that is easily modified. The springs are close too, at .46 stock WRF vs .47 stock WRR, but it looks like the WRR springs will fit with a short spacer if need be.

The 450 fork travel is about 1.2" longer so I'm likely to use a 15mm riser to get the stock handlebars to clear keeping the same geometry as I have now. I've done several swaps like this on other bikes, this should be pretty simple.

edit: I forgot to mention that the fork protectors for each bike are different with a different mounting bolt pattern at the fork bottom. What I've done on my other conversions is make a brake line bracket mount on the 450 fork protector (which used to have the under-the-axle brake line routing) that can attach the WRR brake line bracket.

Bad news: The WRR axle is of smaller diameter - along with the wider front brake rotor this means the best way to get the job done is with the entire front wheel off the donor bike. I have one so I should get the bike on the trail next week - I'll report back on how it works.

I ride behind ktm's more than most and as I'm bouncing around they just coast on. Can the wrr's suspension be made anywhere near that of a WP ktm? The only strong arm I have is that I ride there/back and they trailer it,

+30-50 pounds and -5-20hp with second rate components but I try to keep up

Probably not in terms of hard, fast riding, but in terms of control and plushness and improving speed with the WRR, I highly recommend the GoRace shock revalve and modifying the fork as noted. But in all fairness, a 300 lb bike even with a high-end suspension isn't going to float along. I'm enjoying riding my WRR in tighter situations - I see it as a challenge - and I'm having fun trying different mods too.

"I should get the bike on the trail next week - I'll report back on how it works."

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Thanks for the effort, looks like up to 2004 the wrf's had 46mm.

Did you not think you could make adequate improvement to the wrr's shim stacks, so you went to the swap?

Sure, I work nights and would have no problem calling him at 2:30 to remind him to put in ear plugs Stock is not a lot quieter...

Yes please...

Yes, I pulled the stacks out and they were pretty pathetic. I think there were four or five small diameter (16mm) shims as I recall, and the base valve openings were very small because of it's overall size. The openings were maximized within the diameter but still much smaller than the larger stacks of WR and YZ's. You could spend $170 or so for gold valves but I don't see how that could possibly make much improvement. The whole design is a compromise - with the smaller axle, etc. Kinda disappointing, when I bought the bike, the forks appeared to be the std KYB off-road issue, but they aren't.

I've got a YZ wheel on it now and everything bolts up fine, the brake caliper works well with the slightly narrower YZ rotor. I'm waiting on the bar risers, then I can take it out for a trial run. I'm leaving everything stock in the WR450 forks for now, they only had about 400 miles on them - I'm just going to center the damping settings until trail time.

Here's the stock base valve piston. 20mm OD. Kinda small...



Travis at GoRace sells (or used to sell) a fork revalve kit for those who want to save a few bucks and DIY, versus sending in the forks. The kit includes a different piston. I sent my shock to GoRace and put the fork kit in myself; while it's a vast improvement I don't think the forks are as good as a WRF. I don't recall the price of the kit.

As far as the WRR suspenders ever being anywhere near the WP KTM, I would agree with everything kawagumby said.

Ready to head out ...Cross country 5,500 miles over the nxt 3 weeks
go lil Wr250r

GO Sean GO!!

Have fun boys... Sean, watchout that white yamaha doesn't kick your ass!

im a bit worried bout that also ......she's a well setup bike

How noisy is the Staintune Sean? The one I test road a couple of years ago was a shocker at higher revs.

Have a safe journey and tell your son not to ride too fast when he is towing you.