Agreed brother. This is still the king of small displacement dual sports -- once the aftermarket catches up with the 300s and people start applying upgrades to performance/suspension, it will be nothing to have 9k into those bikes altogether for a very small bump in power if any at all compared to an uncorked WR.
I went back to a WR250R from a 300 because the suspension on the Honda is just horrendous and the power on the WR250R is almost the same but like you said 20 years of cheap parts laying around. WR250R used was 2.5k so really it was a no brainer until they finally come out with a WR400-450F.
Agreed. My only beef the stock headlight is dreadful. Second piece of advice, add fuel stabiliser to your tank and don't leave the engine to long without running it. If the injector pump gums up your screwed. It's fiddly to replace and the stock item is expensive.
This bike has great reviews, for good reason. I agree with all 5 reasons to buy a WR250R, no matter the year. I purchased a 2020 last year because I wanted easy maintenace, dirt capaple (Wanted to ride dirt mostly), and needed the street legal aspect to get between the many highway miles and dirt where I live. This bike is geared for street (Changed rear to a 49t, which helped), but the engine breaking in low gears is just not fun in single track. Clutch skills help too, but this bike is about 40+lbs over-weight to be fun if you consistantly ride dirt (Exprience from picking this thing up while it lies seat towards the fall-line). I sat on a used KTM 250xc today. Rediculous how light it feels.
I agree a real dirt bike feels soooo much better, BUT, as far as dual sports with super low maintenance the wr250r is definitely the closest you can get to a dirt bike compared to the 300l and klx300 (in my opinion lol)
@@BentleyCoachworks haha, agreed. I want the WR250R to be a "Real" dirt bike, as you put it, so badly. I miss riding chain saw 2 strokes! I'm committed to making the WR work for me.
yupp, just picked up a 2016 yesterday. Was just starting to look when they discontinued them, gave up looking for a deal last year and decided that if it was meant to be.....one would eventually fall into my lap at a good price, and hey...it happened. Now I am waiting for a break in the rain to take it for the first ride.
Nice! You will love it. Not the fastest thing out there but bulletproof and as close to a street legal dirt bike as you can get without spending 12k on a ktm lol
Just got one,'14 almost 10 yrs w/ only 104 miles, original everything...I was a cheapskate. Wanted drz400s, 10 yrs as dual sport of the year! Let's just say I should have paid twice as much ...
Parts are already getting hard to find since they discontinued it. So don’t sit around and wait to buy something. People already stopped carry’s stuff and yamaha took all their Gytr stuff off the market for them already too.
@@char.9101 yes. They are hard to find. They stopped making a bunch of stuff for it too. I didn’t say they stopped making everything for it. But they stopped a lot.
might be buying one tomorrow for my second bike. Im worried about power since im 235lbs. But I have a yz250f and even though its slow on the road, I loooove winding that thing up. I hope the wr250r can feel just like my dirt bike.
Dont expect it to feel like the YZ! I have a yz450f and used to have a 250f they are completely different machines with different suspension, more powerful engines, different chassis. The wr is great at being as close to a full on dirt bike that you can legally ride on the road but it cant ever be a full on race bike
@@BentleyCoachworks It really feels like a sluggish YZ250 but its FUN! I only test drove it on the gravel parking lot at the dealership and I knew this bike would be a blast. Thanks for the review you did, it helped in making my decision.
Love these things. Broken just about everything on mine but the engine still runs strong. Haven’t been able to find non OEM plastics though if anyone knows a place.
Quick question about your headlight. Since you’re using only 2 bolts on top without hooking those bottom buttons/clip thingies in, are they moving around while you’re riding off-road?
I might look for another. I had a 2008 for 8 years, so I know what to do as far as mods. Hard to find the FMF slip ons anymore. I'm only 140 lbs so these things fly with me on it... and stock gearing. I like the engine braking on these things, it's has nearly 12:1 compression. Great bike, too bad they had to quit making it and the R6. Emissions laws ya know.
Yes i wish i got an fmf but couldnt find any for sale so i went with the GPR, sounds great though! If you can find one then get it, cant get a better bike haha
I agree on most of your information, I think the styling is old, crf300l is nicer looking,.but that Frame suspension and motor turned correctly can be so much fun,
I can see why u like the 300l, in europe and i think Australia it has the updated headlight which looks sweet, but here it has the old gross looking one lol. I still think the wr looks better but that's just my opinion lol
@@BentleyCoachworks the big bore is sweet but it's not worth it because of reliability, Its only good for 15k miles, it gives you better bottom end, it let me down once lost compression, was blown head gasket, had to do a valve job and timing chain, it has 30000mi now runs strong and handles great with race tech suspension, has a slight rattle, I think it's the engine balancer dampener, it's my favorite it's just, so fun, I use it when I truck it to Ride gnarly stuff or mostly in winter it has full knobbys, my other wr250r I use for longer dual sport or adventure rides it has d sport tires, they both have different personalities
I honestly wouldn’t bother with the power mods unless you just want the nice sound. All I did is a sprocket change and it can tug itself through anything.
I have a 2017 WR250R and a 2006 CR250R and the WR keeps right up with it. It is a great bike and runs even better when modded. I was looking at the 450RL from Honda but the bike is not worth the money.
My YZ250 makes damn near 50hp, while I realize it's philosophy of use is totally different than the WR250R, I'm worried I wouldn't be happy with less power. More of an issue off-road for hills and braaapping over obstacles/mud puddles than just cruising down the road. I'm over 220lbs so I wish Yamaha would make this same bike but as a 350. The KLX300 only went from 249cc to 286 so I don't even want to call it a 300
The aftermarket is starting to abandon the bike, unfortunately. Exhausts, tuning computers, protection....a lot of places are out or listing things they were selling 5 years ago but no longer manufacture or stock. I have a 2019 I just bought, and I'm having trouble sourcing a lot of things I want for it. I mean, sure, there's still support....but it's not as strong as it was in 2015, not even close.
They're a great bike but were just a bit too expensive (originally $10,000 + ORC in Australia) and I heard that they weren't ever a very big seller. I would expect the WR250R to be better than the CRF/KLX 300.
Yes the DRZ400E is street legal here. Plastic tank, no pillion pegs etc. All of the Honda XRs were street legal (250R, 350R, 400R, 650R etc), the KDXs, ITs, PEs, TTs, WRs and the later RMX250s were all street legal too.
I'm almost certain that Yamaha made a YZ125WR and a YZ250WR for a little while and both were road registerable. Honda made a road registerable CR500 for a little while too!
Have you ever heard of running one of these one straight methanol and having dual tunes for petrol and methanol? Like say for instance you own a company and make your own methanol lol would you ever want to cover converting one?
I know you can run dual tunes with a power comander and switch on the fly. But usually when running methanol you would need to swap fuel lines to a type that support it. I know there was a company called mpfab that made turbo kits for these bikes back in the day, would be cool seeing a turbo wr250r on methanol lol but i do not have the money for that! Can always dream though haha
Have this bike, and the suspension is nothing to write home about. You get ONE hit before it starts going wacky. If you are into going off-road other than fire roads, then you will need to fix the suspension. Had a 250X and it was PERFECT out of the box, could take a severe thrashing and ask for seconds. Total shock when going between the two. Not hating on the WR250R, as it is an amazing bike.
Ive heard the rear shock on some bikes has air in the oil from the factory, will be adressing this and doing racetech valves all around eventually! Weird that the 250x had better suspension. I always assumed they were the same!
I won’t say the suspension is anything good, but I’d make sure it’s tuned before judging. Just adjusting the clickers made a huge difference for me. I can keep up with the euro enduros on some real gnarly trails. (I’m in New England with all of the rocks/mud) It’s sketchy sometimes, but it always gets it done. I was thinking about a suspension upgrade, but honestly, I think it can wait a bit longer now. I wouldn’t go as fast on the high speed bumps, but technical trails are perfectly fine.
I can run w 450's / 650's on gravel. They r faster on the straights, I am faster in the corners.... better to ride a slow bike fast than a fast bike slow. Buy you some power you might get upset when a 250 passes you on the outside of a corner
