Yamaha WR250R Mega Thread

[jon_l]

Originally Posted by Joe Watson

I have only once sold a vehicle to a friend. I buy and sell cars and bikes a fair bit and make money on them when I do. He knows I buy them cheap and sell them at a profit. Anyway, he wanted this damn car that I was trying to sell. I really needed the money for my next project, so I said I didn't want to sell it to him because I needed the money. But....he was willing to pay the full price anyway! Mind you, I did knock a couple of hundred off cause I felt bad!

Yeah, I sold an old car to a brother-in-law, and didn't want any sh*t later, so I found the average price on-line, told him he could have it for 1/2, but if it blows up on the way home, I never expect to hear a word about it.

Friends, family, and money can be a toxic combination.

[NJ-Brett]

I have been riding even longer, and I like a bike I can flat foot easy.
In stuff like sand, its better to be low then have 14 inches of travel, but I suppose it depends where and how you ride.

Originally Posted by ADVCoop

I have been riding for 32 years (probably almost as long as you've been alive I'd guess). I learned years ago I am not out to impress anyone and I am MUCH more comfortable being flat foot. My bike is set up for me, not you, or anyone else .

[z@ch]

Originally Posted by DougZ73

Good ole SVrider.

[ADVCoop]

Originally Posted by NJ-Brett

I have been riding even longer, and I like a bike I can flat foot easy.
In stuff like sand, its better to be low then have 14 inches of travel, but I suppose it depends where and how you ride.

Glad I'm not the only one .

[DougZ73]

Good poll: How many SV riders ended up on ADV and have a WR250R/X?

[ADVCoop]

Haha. Coop on svrider but that was taken here so I added the ADV in front of it. Been here awhile, I still had my SV then.

[treybrad]

Originally Posted by DougZ73

Good poll: How many SV riders ended up on ADV and have a WR250R/X?

Guilty.

trey

[IdahoRenegade]

I hate to ask because this seems so simple.

Right signal flashes, a bit fast (as expected with lower load on the system) (stock flasher).

Left light is connected to the brown (flash power) and black (gnd) wire and does not flash. When I hook up the old stock light to the same wires, it works. When I swap the (bike) wires from the right signal to the left, it flashes (meaning signal and crimp connects are OK). I believe (need to confirm) that when I hook up the left signal (bike) wires to the right turn signal, it flashes. Yet when I hook up the left bike wires to the left signal, no flash. WTFWTFWTf? Fronts (stock) work fine. Any ideas? Also, what is the blue lead, that only goes to the left signal, supposed to do? I did not hook it up, perhaps this is the problem. I will try picking up a proper led flasher unit, can anyone recommend a good, reasonably priced one for our bikes? Perhaps the front left (stock) bulb is a little lower resistance than the right, and when used in conjunction with the led, doesn't cycle the flasher, while the right one does. Shot in the freekin' dark there, it doesn't make much sense.

Any help is much appreciated.

It's been a major PITA week for electrical issues at work too. Had a high current heater system we are developing, was having all kinds of trouble. Which was eventually and after a great deal of pain traced to 2 bad meters, one a digital multimeter and one clamp-on ammeter. I usually like electrical work....except when it all turns to crap!

[gots_a_sol]

Did you try reversing the polarity to that left turn signal? LEDs are usually polarity sensitive meaning they only work one way.

[sieg]

Originally Posted by IdahoRenegade

I hate to ask because this seems so simple.

Right signal flashes, a bit fast (as expected with lower load on the system) (stock flasher).

Left light is connected to the brown (flash power) and black (gnd) wire and does not flash. When I hook up the old stock light to the same wires, it works. When I swap the (bike) wires from the right signal to the left, it flashes (meaning signal and crimp connects are OK). I believe (need to confirm) that when I hook up the left signal (bike) wires to the right turn signal, it flashes. Yet when I hook up the left bike wires to the left signal, no flash. WTFWTFWTf? Fronts (stock) work fine. Any ideas? Also, what is the blue lead, that only goes to the left signal, supposed to do? I did not hook it up, perhaps this is the problem. I will try picking up a proper led flasher unit, can anyone recommend a good, reasonably priced one for our bikes? Perhaps the front left (stock) bulb is a little lower resistance than the right, and when used in conjunction with the led, doesn't cycle the flasher, while the right one does. Shot in the freekin' dark there, it doesn't make much sense.

Any help is much appreciated.

Don't think is that stock front bulb thing as I have LED's front and rear and they still flash, but a little fast. So you have THREE wires going to your left rear signal? TWO to the right rear? The fronts have three wires, rears have two, at least mine's that way.

[Yam2Yam2]

Hi, all! I've made it to page 200, just barely into 2009, so I'm sure all of you have heard this over and over. Please forgive me if this has been covered, but it seems most people went for more radical power mods, and much more noise, than what I've done. I wanted a no-cost, no-noise-increase but more power set of changes, and I'm real pleased with what I achieved.

I first punched 8 1/4" holes thru the center-of-muffler baffle, with a rattail file (Hey! It was long enough, and hard enough to get the job done. ) I also cut off the tight outer bend of the spark arrestor exit pipe, leaving the internal mesh to muffle the sharp crack of exhaust pulses. I also drilled 10 1/8" holes just inside the perimeter of where the mesh is welded to the back plate, to give more exhaust flow than the exit pipe alone can provide. This seemed to give more high-rpm power, and a just bit more noise.

I screwed the flapper valve open. This did nothing.

I then drilled a couple dozen 3/8" holes thru the top of the airbox, above the filter element, and extending back to the tilt sensor. This was a HUGE success, giving a massive torque increase at mid-rpm. I can just barely hear some increased intake honk at low speed, low rpm, WOT. Under normal urban accel, there's no increase in sound. My WRr now almost wheelies from a 1st gear start.

My last mod was to detach the control cables from the EXUP valve. The spring keeps the valve plate wide open, and the disk should be a minimal amount of drag, smoothing the airflow over the pivot pin for less restriction than removing the plate altogether. I expected this to improve midrange, while hurting low rpm torque. In fact, the exact opposite occurred. I can now pull the next higher gear at low speeds (20-35), without that nasty engine bucking that I had before. I need less throttle at low speed on the street. I also noticed that the abrupt rise in torque output in midrange is lessened. I assume that means more torque below that point. 6th gear rollons from 35 pull smoothly all the way up without noticable dips or peaks. Exhaust noise at city street speeds is much lower pitched, making the bike sound quieter, even though I'm sure it's slightly louder. Whereas I hated the exhaust snap from each pulse before, it's now non-irritating. :)

My bike cruises effortlessly in 6th from 30 mph to 73ish (gps). It will lug up a 35 degree hill at 45 at WOT in 6th, too. My mileage is 60 commuting 1/3rd 70+, and 2/3rd 60 mph. All-time high is 79.9 just putting thru the country at 50 mph.

Here's a chart of accel difference comparing stock to everything-before-the-EXUP mod. This is from GPS logs, so is reasonably useful! The yellow line shows how I accel much quicker (it has a steeper angle).




With the technical stuff noted, I'd like to introduce myself. The WRr is my 14th bike, and probably my second most favorite. Number one is the 1974 Honda MT250, which was the WRr of it's day. I was very successful in modding that bike, forcing my buddy to upgrade his Kawasaki 350 triple to a 400. My 250 was both quicker and faster than the 350! (It helped that I weighed 125 lbs at the time!) Other notable bikes- Yamaha RD350, Honda TransAlp, a water buffalo, and the SV650 that almost ended my riding days (I needed to go 85+ to have fun on it). There's no off-roading in my location, yet the WRr is just such a joy to ride, cranking thru the turns, and racing thru the gears. Not to mention just put-putting thru the countryside.

I hope this post is useful to someone out there. I've really enjoyed all the posts covering adventure and off-roading rides you people have done.

[Just Bob]

Couple of days ago I slammed the WR around my favorite 85 mile mountain loop. The day after I thrashed my KTM950SM 125 miles over the mountains on the twisty slab.

I had twice as much fun on the WR.

End of story...

[tmotten]

Took one for a test run yesterday. Couldn't believe how smooth it was. I'm now selling all my other bikes for two of these. Can't wait to get hold of them.

[what broke now]

@Yam2Yam2,

Nice write-up. Any clues as to why the EXUP hold open works the way it does? My understanding is that Yamaha intended it to increase low end torque.

Forgive me if I read this incorrectly, but it sounds like you gps logged each modification individually, which makes super sense to me.

I have always been opposed to making my wr louder, but more bottom torque would be welcome.

[Yam2Yam2]

What Broke,

Well, I am talking seat of the pants on the EXUP, so I could be wrong. I'm certain that I can run a gear higher, which I appreciate, cause I don't want to annoy the neighbors. It may just be that the timing of EXUP made a noticable change in torque output, whereas now it blends together more smoothly.

The graph doesn't include the EXUP change. I'd have really needed to do a 30-90 run in 6th to measure that, and I never thought to do so! The big jump is from drilling the airbox top.