Yamaha WR250R Mega Thread

[Pantah]

Did my CDR on the WR. Shipped it to Salt Lake City and started the CDR at Yellowstone heading south. Broke off the CDR at Chama and camped at Mesa Verde. Then bee-lined to Cave Creek, AZ where I left the tiddler for the winter.

I used stock tires and gearing. A buddy rode with me aboard a 2010 KLR.



I bought this bike from an inmate for this specific trip. It had 1100 miles on it when I picked it up last Feb. I did a few hundred miles on it getting ready. It has about 4800 miles on it now.

We ran 65-70 on the highways. Dirt roads were mostly 35-60mph. Probably 1500 miles of the route was dirt roads of mostly maintained surface. A few hundred miles were rougher 2 track or less.

Random thoughts:
1. A very competant product for the type of touring we did. Could keep up with the KLR all day, giving up a little on the high altitude grades. Nothing a downshift couldn't remedy, though. It's a pretty good street bike once you get used to the buzzy power delivery.

2. I figure I rarely got less than 60mpg and on the fast dirt roads. In the big empty, I was getting far better. I ran my 3.7 gal Safari 210 miles and it took 3.3 gallons to top off. I was impressed!

3. Suspension was pretty sweet for an old fart like me. We did some bushwhacking and it handled the tougher stuff effortlessly. The only problem is the rear suspension on the washboard surfaces on hills caused by graders. The wheel would stutter spin and not drive very well. It feels like the rear might be over sprung and maybe under damped. I didn't fiddle with it, though.

4. Steering is very stable tracking after I slid the forks back out to full extension. The bike had a lowering link and the previous owner slid the forks up to compensate. I thought it was skitterish at higher speeds so I slid them back out on day 2 and it was much better (not to mention the kickstand worked better!).

5. Altitude didn't bother it that much, but it sure felt faster below 5k feet. Took it up a rocky jeep path to the top of one mountain that the GPS said was 12384 feet. I must say, it was geared too tall for the rocky switchbacks and I sure would have like a little more low end torque for the rock crawling, but she did it. Coming dawn was a breeze! It seemed a lot steeper going up than coming down.

6. Ergo's are a little off with a tank bag. The footpegs seem too far forward for standing. Take off the tank bag and it's perfect, though. I think I'm going to re-do my luggage so I don't need a tank bag. Also the bike really handles better if you can scoot up near the gas cap for carving turns with elbows out.

7. The skid plate is a problem. It is way too noisy. I can't even ride it without earplugs for all the high frequency harmonic shreaking the skid plate does. Once in Cave Creek, I took it off and was much better. I tried rubber electricians tape on the hard mount points, but that only helped for about an hour before it wore through. Noise must be why the factory only uses those plastic blocks for protection. Maybe that's all it needs.

8. Wolfman dry luggage: What a royal PIA that stuff is. It is so fiddly and tedious to pack and mount every morning. I was ready to leave the whole kit in a dumpster about day 3. However, by day 8 I actually got pretty handy with the stuff. By the time the trip was done, I was competant enough packing that I guess I'll keep it...

9. Garmin 60 Csx: I won't detail my struggles, but without Cannonshot's tracks, we would never be able to follow the route. Many of these dirt paths are a maize. The problem was that I'd never used such a device or tracks before. I couldn't get it to 'track up' so it made some of the choices slow to process in my head. Particularly since we were generally heading south. But by day 3, it all came together for me and it was shockingly easy to follow. Nice little device, but you need seat time to figure it out.

10. Spot 2: I got this thing because I thought I was going solo. We didn't really need it, but it was fun for our families and friends to track us. However, that is another device that takes a little sitting down with to figure out. It turns out that its lights tell you what it is doing or not doing.

I am looking forward to riding the wheels off that little bike in the coming winters around AZ. Such a handy little thing. Very rider friendly.

[MiamiMotorcyclist]

Originally Posted by jeickerman

Are they using real MPH or Yamaha MPH?

John

The show was about finding out if bikes were better for the environment than cars. In a nut shell.... bikes got better MPG, less co2 but were way worse on some other emissions. (I think due to cars having more space for bigger cats and being held to lower standards for now, they didn't say.)

After the initial findings, they used the WR because it was modern, light and small displacement to see if making it more aerodynamic (an advantage cars have, no exposed rider spoiling the aeros) helped the numbers in the areas bikes failed in. It didn't though.

As for MPH, all Japanese bikes if not all bikes tend to do the same thing, read higher MPH but have accurate Odometers. Been that way for as long as I remember, even with speedos driven from the wheels.

[MoBill]

Originally Posted by HardWorkingDog

Holdonaminute--you can't get away that easy! What's the update on your waterlogged engine?

:) It's at my buddy's place...so busy with work I haven't had a chance to think about it and I think they're so busy they haven't cracked it open yet.

:) Wish I knew...how about this, from earlier this week!!!



It's actually just the front wheel mired, the rear tire is in about 3 inches of water, and the front in a about 24"....LOTS of water in NJ right now...

[DNF]

Originally Posted by Sproat Sport

man, you guys in the US pay bottom dollar for stuff. Insurance for my WR for the year is closer to $450, and that's with all the available "discounts". Yeesh. Same goes for postal services for you guys...cheap. I'm having trouble selling my brand new Safari tank as the international shipping costs from Canada are so high. Anyway, check out the FS section if you're interested...I'm gonna do another price drop on that tank.

You must be really young or in a really bad province (QC anyone?).
I pay $180 for six months in BC and that is expensive compared to AB.
My Paul Smart Duck was $530 full coverage for a year in AB. In BC it was almost double that for six months. ICBCfuckers wanted almost 2k for my RK. Selling it all and keeping the WR. Ok and maybe a Ural...

[skierd]

I'm right around $100/yr for my WR and is a big reason why I don't see me getting a bigger bike any time soon... Fortunately the Guzzi I still want isn't that much more. The costs start making me go when I start looking at insuring fast or just large displacement bikes.

[GSBS]

I love the performance increase after adding an FMF PC4 exhaust, but day-mn that thing is loud!

Anyone know of a way to muzzle this thing without giving up all the gains in power?

Back in the early 70s when we rode two strokes with expansion chambers we'd take an old Briggs and Stratton lawn mower muffler and poke it into the end of the expansion chamber. An old spring would hold it in place when riding on the street and that took most of the bite out of the sound. Once to the trails it could be removed in seconds, then put back on for the return ride home.

I'm wondering if something like that might be feasible for this. I don't want to repack the pipe to quiet it down as I'm sure it would rob me of some performance.

Any thoughts????

[greer]

Wonder if this would work? (post # 6085)

Sarah

Originally Posted by cyborg

Turns out the Q4 can on the R² is exactly the same length and bore and spark arrestor as the Q4's on my KTM990, so much for scientific sizing... anyway one trick the KTM 950/990 guys were doing to cut down the bark of the FMF glasspacks was a little insert, a simple copper adapter coupling from the hardware store.

Here are the two parts:

Spark Arrestor removed (one screw) and copper piping adapter



Just push the adapter over the inner spark screen (the adapter doesn't block it) then a quick drill and safety wire and you can try it out.



I noticed it definitely takes the sharp edge off the bark from the rider seat, with no perceptible loss of power. Seemed more pleasant when I did a 30 mile commute with it today. As always YMMV.

[GSBS]

Good idea Sarah!

Will try that and post up the results.

David

[trav72]

I bet that was fun to get out.

Originally Posted by MoBill;16974311
[IMG

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6165/6186378497_45bb44afba_z.jpg[/IMG]

[ironbrewer]

I picked up an 08 WR250r in Sacramento on the 26th, and road it home to just north of Denver. I got home on the 30th. It took me 4 days and 1 hour to ride 1530 miles street and dirt. Not bad for a 250.

The little WR is great!! I think it would be really hard to have as varied a ride as I did on the Way back from Sacramento as I did. I rode from an elevation of 25 feet to 12,800 feet with no problem at all. The bike was fairly smooth. Better than the KLR. Has an over 200 mile range. I road everything from Highway, to Jimbo's local only slickrock, Desert riding on the Burr trail, High mountain passes fully loaded, and it performed great at everything. Fully loaded it felt better on Engineer, La Sal, and Imogene passes then the KLR does without any gear. It will need a new seat, heated grips, a rear rack and HDB lever guards, but other than that its great.

Dropping a leg over a bike and riding it 1530 miles is a great way to get to know a bike.

[Jäger]

Originally Posted by Ushuaia Or Bust

How many miles/gallon were you guys averaging in normal highway riding? I can average upwards of 65mpg now, but figure highway cruising with the additional weight and wind resistance would be closer to 50mpg or so.

Just checked this out, out of curiosity's sake, with the new Heidenau tires I put on.

About 215 lbs all up on the bike, none of it sticking out catching wind, 14/49 sprockie setup.

52 mpg US on non-mountainous roads, keeping the GPS indicated speed at 60mph until the tank was sucking fumes. Can't remember the exact numbers, but mileage didn't get much worse doing 70mph GPS indicated.

64 - 68 mpg US dual sporting, roughly about 70% of the time on those rides on gravel forest service roads.

[bpg]

I need to get a spark arrestor for a used FMF Q4 I picked up. Just want to verify that this is the one I need:



I have some notes from a few months ago when I finally got in touch w/ an FMF rep, they said I needed a Ti-powercore arrestor (not a Q4-specific one??). In searches for said Ti-powercore arrestor, the one pictured - which looks like it should fit using a small machine screw - and another completely different design are the only ones that come up.

For comparison, here is a picture high5's loafers and sweat pants ; er I mean, his stock Q4 spark arrestor. Looks a bit different on the end than the one I've found, but if it fits in tightly and the screw holes line up I'll be happy.

[IdahoRenegade]

I just picked up a used WRR last nigth (actually an X with dirt wheels/tires). What a fun little bike. I now understand what all the excitement is about. So much more fun on rough, nasty, washed out roads and trails than my DR, and so much less tiring. I can't believe it pulls just about as hard as the 650, and is just as comfortable at ~65 or so.

First mods will be an IMS 4.7 tank (what are they thinking with 2 gallons?), PMB rack and skid plate.

[bpg]

Originally Posted by GSBS

I love the performance increase after adding an FMF PC4 exhaust, but day-mn that thing is loud!

Anyone know of a way to muzzle this thing without giving up all the gains in power?

Back in the early 70s when we rode two strokes with expansion chambers we'd take an old Briggs and Stratton lawn mower muffler and poke it into the end of the expansion chamber. An old spring would hold it in place when riding on the street and that took most of the bite out of the sound. Once to the trails it could be removed in seconds, then put back on for the return ride home.

I'm wondering if something like that might be feasible for this. I don't want to repack the pipe to quiet it down as I'm sure it would rob me of some performance.

Any thoughts????

Not sure that re-packing will negatively affect performance, since the exhaust gasses do no flow through the packing but instead through the chambers/baffles.

FWIW, I've talked to lots of folks that rave about theLexx MXe Premium Silencer Packing: http://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/pr...FamilyId=20051


This stuff is supposedly a lot quieter and longer lasting than the packing FMF sells, for less coin


Also, you could try the FMF quiet-core insert made for that pipe, which has a built-in spark arrestor,

[Krabill]

I got a few pictures from the Harescramble last weekend . . .