Where are your XT250's...let's see them.

They caught a picture of me coming in for a landing as we stopped on top of the mountain for a break;

On the way down it was raining and snowing. That is SloJoe stopping to keep me company as I stopped to put on my gloves.

A few months after the Caldera ride, and about a year after I bought my XT - my husband found a brand new XT250 that was the same year as mine. So he bought it.



Here we are nearly on top of Sandia Crest.

Great pictures Roadrunner! bike looks great, you will love the more dirt worthy tires.

I've read that many XT250 owners have done engine mods where they upgrade the main jet, and shim the jet needle, and other adjustments.
My question is are these mods something a motorcycle shop could do, or is it something you have to do yourself.

I did those mods myself, cost me about 5 bucks, lol

a shop can do it, but they will charge you for it.

Is it worth trading in the 2012 for 2013 with FI? seems like a good compromise, the consistency of FI but not water cooled hence a little lighter.

I wouldnt, my 09 ran fine, never had an issue and would start up immediately, if jetted properly and you do the air/fuel screw 3 turns out mod, they run great imo.

Wow, I called up a shop just to see what they would charge and was quoted $222.00 for a carb service.
Are there any links online "how to Jet" your carb?

Check this out.

http://www.xt225.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=9940&Number=89291#Post89291

you order the main jet #140 from boats.net, thats like 5 bucks shipped, you remove the air box cover from the air filter lid, you add a small shim to the jet needle, and if you can get the FMF pipe (240 bucks), and the bike will be much stronger, very easy to remove the carb, you just need to disconnect stuff, wiggle it out, and then connect everything back, if you were closer id help you out, takes about an hour to pull it out, rejet, shim the needle and put it back in the bike.

Thanks! I'm looking forward to giving them more dirt runs.

Even I can pick up my '08 XT250 - barely.

I wouldn't bother switching. The key to a carb is don't let it sit around much. The pilot jet can plug up.

Thanks for that.
I will probably do it myself.
Anyone in southern California have experience doing this mod?

im about an hour and 45 minutes away from you, my parents used to live in Murrieta, the 140 main jet, stock pilot jet, 3 turns out on the fuel/air screw, air filter cover off, and a tiny shim under the jet needle, along with a FMF exhaust, and the bike ran so much better and stronger then stock.


did you do this mod allready?

this is a must, as they are hard to start when stock.

http://www.4strokes.com/tech/yamaha/xt250_mix_screw_plug/

We always run our carb dry - making cold starts a lot easier.

I did the same when I could remember. Even just running it down part of the way helped significantly. For anyone not sure what this means, turn you fuel valve off a block or two from home and let the bike die rather than killing it yourself. I think that alexd's theory that fresh fuel vapor helps the bike start may be correct.

I tried it both ways, with leaving the carb full when i put the bike away, and also running it dry and letting it die from fuel starvation before putting it away, but mine would always start up pretty good either way, i also always kept mine on a battery tender when not in use.

But running the carb dry seems to work for a lot of people, so its a good method, i would always add a little bit of seafoam to the gas, to keep everything nice and clean and fresh.

Yeah...it is interesting. My husband's XT starts more easily with cold starts. Mine - I had to learn the hard way to run it dry or I'd start running down my battery trying to get it to kick over in the cold.

So, now we both let them run dry as a matter of habit.

Does having fuel injection eliminate the need to do these things?

I'm so pissed off.
I missed the opportunity to buy a 2009 XT250 with only 333 miles on it for $2,900.00 the deal of the year, because when I did my searches on Craigslist I typed in XT250 instead of XT 250 with a space so this particular ad never came up in my searches, and the bike sold today.
Oh well live and learn.
Another good deal will come up eventually.