My small bikes aren't getting ridden much this winter for a couple of reasons the first being that my daughter and best riding buddy is off at college. The other reason is that it's cold - and I don't like the cold - and the small bikes don't handle heated gear quite as well. I do hop on Gracie's XT250 for running an errands from time to time and it's fun in its own puppy playful way.
But it was a sunny day here with temps in the 40s so I got out and ran some gas through my WR250R.
Ho-li-sheet, I forgot how much difference there is in how these two Yamaha 250cc dual sports ride. The XT keeps up with traffic just fine and is geared to run 70 mph when asked but an arm stretcher it is not. My WR250R just rips for a bike with the same number of ccs. It's less than 10 hp difference but in 250 world that's about 60% more juice. A big contributing factor to how much fun this bike is to ride around town is how I have it geared. I have the OEM 13T front sprocket but swapped out the 43T rear for a 50T. With the DOT knobbies it's not hard at all to get rear wheel spin on pavement or pooch up some roll on lofties when it hooks up. It'll still pull to 70 mph before the rev limiter but it's not much fun there.
It got me thinking about how much fun this bike might be with a set of sticky street wheels and tires on it and going full motard. On second thought, I have to keep telling myself that I've aged out of hooligan bikes and that's the reason I got rid of the Super Duke. The thing is that there's no where to ride trails closer than about 3 hours from me so it just ain't happening often enough. So infrequently in fact that it's become a place to hang shit on in the garage and it doesn't move for months at a time so I'm thinking about letting it go. If I do then Gracie will have more bikes than me with her XT250 and a KLX140 and she's going to be pissed that if I go trail riding with her I'll be on her "pretty" XT getting it dirty while she rides the Kaw.
She can't wait until she moves off campus in Williamsburg so she can take her XT to school. When that happens I might liquidate the rest leaving me with just my GS and that'll put our trail riding days behind us for a while.
But it was a sunny day here with temps in the 40s so I got out and ran some gas through my WR250R.
Ho-li-sheet, I forgot how much difference there is in how these two Yamaha 250cc dual sports ride. The XT keeps up with traffic just fine and is geared to run 70 mph when asked but an arm stretcher it is not. My WR250R just rips for a bike with the same number of ccs. It's less than 10 hp difference but in 250 world that's about 60% more juice. A big contributing factor to how much fun this bike is to ride around town is how I have it geared. I have the OEM 13T front sprocket but swapped out the 43T rear for a 50T. With the DOT knobbies it's not hard at all to get rear wheel spin on pavement or pooch up some roll on lofties when it hooks up. It'll still pull to 70 mph before the rev limiter but it's not much fun there.
It got me thinking about how much fun this bike might be with a set of sticky street wheels and tires on it and going full motard. On second thought, I have to keep telling myself that I've aged out of hooligan bikes and that's the reason I got rid of the Super Duke. The thing is that there's no where to ride trails closer than about 3 hours from me so it just ain't happening often enough. So infrequently in fact that it's become a place to hang shit on in the garage and it doesn't move for months at a time so I'm thinking about letting it go. If I do then Gracie will have more bikes than me with her XT250 and a KLX140 and she's going to be pissed that if I go trail riding with her I'll be on her "pretty" XT getting it dirty while she rides the Kaw.
She can't wait until she moves off campus in Williamsburg so she can take her XT to school. When that happens I might liquidate the rest leaving me with just my GS and that'll put our trail riding days behind us for a while.
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