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Which Bike? Comments and Questions on what is the best bike for YOU, for YOUR trip. Note that we believe that ANY bike will do, so please remember that it's all down to PERSONAL OPINION. Technical Questions for all brands go in their own forum.
Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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Photo by Marc Gibaud,
Clouds on Tres Cerros and
Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia



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Old 2 Jul 2017
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tremens View Post
I have owned 2015 crf250l for a year, and it was pretty beaten up when I sold it. Under powered, soft (susp), heavy and delicate bike. The only good thing it was cheap - no, actually for riding to church on Sunday morning it was not that bad at all.

wr250r I have only test ridden, before I got crf250l, a bit stiffer suspension but still for me not good enough. I liked crf engine.torque better, wr you had to rev it. In Europe the price difference was huge, like almost 3k dollars. For few more HP and a bit better susp not worthy. Did I mention yamaha ugly dash display? Also reliability of wr250r dropped, fuel pump and stator failures for instance.
All true and a good evaluation of the CRF250L!
It's true that neither CRF or WR has much power. Not ideal for any serious enduro riding (I prefer my old 2 strokes!)

Maybe in EU you can make road legal a Honda 450 CRF or WR450, convert to travel bike? Those bikes are cheap to buy used here in USA.

Correct, WR250's have had some issues but most owners have Zero problems based on the big ADV threads ... but the WR450's have been really good based on racer feed back ... even SuperMoto guys get a lot of life out of the 450 engine.

In USA it's now hard to make legal a 450 class bike if it was originally a race bike. The VIN gives it away and our DMV's block you registering it. So can be a dead end.

You can find road legal Husky or KTM in the 450 class, but new are over $10K USD and used ... tend to be quite used up. A good mechanic could rebuild an older KTM ... would be a great ADV bike, very good off road.

For me at this stage ( I don't need so much power ... but at times power is nice ... and the 450 is barely heavier than the 250! In deep sand I have struggled on a 250. Here the 450 just pulls through nicely. Big ups for that sort of use!

The advantages of the WR250R for me are: mostly very reliable, lighter than my DR650 by about 70 lbs. Great elec. output, good to load up with luggage. Tough. Gearing is highway friendly, can cruise beautifully at 65 to 70 MPH all day and it's easy to gear lower for off road. (change front sprocket) Lots I DO NOT know about the WR at this point ... hoping to learn more here on this thread.

You are correct ... (or so I've heard) that the WR250R needs revving to make power. I did not test the WR in serious off road so can only rely of comments of other WR riders who verify this shortcoming. With a loaded up bike for travel, this could be a Black Mark if in challenging, super steep uphill terrain. So not perfect ...

But I'm just not going to pay for a KTM or Husky. My travel bikes are EXPENDALE and will live a hard life ... then die. So better to sacrifice a relatively inexpensive USED bike than an expensive KTM or Husky.
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