Dirt Rider Magazine

ridethat450

Ok. Hi everyone. Here is my story. I'm mostly ride trails and coal hills here is PA. "Free riding" if you will. I would love to get into some mx though. I've ridden the tracks a few times buys that's all. I've read trough hundreds of forums probably in the past few weeks. I've been on dirt bikes for the past 5 years. Bought a 2001 yz125 rode it for a year and sold it for a 2006 yz450f. Loved that bike but for me was a little too much on the track for me I thought with the little experience I had. And fear of hitting those doubles which I still have and need to get over lol. That bike was stolen though : ( bought a 2008 crf250r. Made it 6 hours before intake valves needed adjusted. What a joke. Btw. Had over 100 on the 450 without needing a single valve adjustment. I will consider whatever you guys throw at me. 125, 250f, 250 2t, or 450. I will let you know I'm pretty biased towards the blue though : ) To sum it all up I'm looking for something I can use on the hills and trails but want to focus more on the tracks. Thanks everyone ahead of time and I will appreciate any help in my decision.

Also if I buy another thumper it will be new or leftover (yamaha) for reliability.. I can't say money is not an issue because it is but I make a decent living to keep up with the maintenance costs of the thumpers and have a very good friend who is a dealer tech. Who helps me out ALOT.

ridethat450

Sorry about the spelling and grammatical errors. I'm on an iPhone... Pita..

markyrocks

So what's the question? O.... well if u was riding a 450f an it was a "lil" to much I'd go for straight up Yamaha 250 2t. Its a lil less but will still knock ur socks off, rock solid reliability and dirt cheap maintenance.

ridethat450

Lol guess just what you guys would suggest. I cannot make me decision on a bike and its driving me nuts!

ridethat450

Yeah my father in law has one. An 06. I'm going to take it for a day check it out. I've ridden it before but I'd like to at least spend a full day on it to decide. The 250f I had I thought felt good but only had a day in on it and dumped it off...just because I know those had lots of issues with the valves..didn't learn that soon enough though or I never would have bought it.

hairscrambledny

How many more optuions are there? You had a 125 two stroke, and a 250 and 450 four stroke so I'm guessing those aren't options anymore. You're lucky to have a 250 2t to try before you buy . . .

There is no bike on the planet that will do both track and trail well. They do one well and the other so-so. Since you've ridden the other bikes already, try the 250 2t then make the call.

ps - if it were the other way around (more trails, less track) my suggestion would be KTM 250 XC - I know, you want a Yamaha, but that's what I'd suggest.

NZrider

I dont agree with the lesson you learned on the 250f. you say you earn enough money to maintain a 4 stroke yet you clearly did not maintain it. when the valves wear out, you replace them.

im sorry you didnt get long out of it before they were worn out. I suspect the person you bought it off had already worn the valves out and didnt want to replace them so they just reshimmed and quickly sold the problem on to you. thats the risk you take buying used.

it sounds to me like you should stick with the 250f but actually maintain stuff that wears out on it instead of selling the bike when a problem arises

ridethat450

You are right. I found out the bike was run very hard. Raced every weekend. It was a decision I made between my buddy reccomending we shim it a dump it off because that bike to me wasn't worth the money and me wanting to buy a new toy. Never got the chance to own a brand new toy. But I agree and the 250f is kind of what I was hoping I would hear from ppl.

pojp58

I can vouch for the 250F. We have had 3 of them, all Yamaha.

As far as shimming the valves that's normal maintenance but the Yamaha's seem to need less shimming in my experience.

Your weight could make the difference on what you would feel most comfortable on.

I would rather have a MX bike for the track and trails instead of a trail bike for track and trails because you want to learn them doubles sooner or later and you don't want to do them on a trail bike. Just something to think about.

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