Reliability YZ compare to CRF.

[Tom_604]

Im looking at buying a new bike im looking at the 06 YZ250's or the 06 CRF250's everyone has told me get the yz as there alot more reliable. Is this true and how much more reliable is it than the crf. I currently have an 04 CRF250 I love it when its going but it rarely is and ive had soo much trouble with it, and my dad was looking at a WR250F how does the reliability compare to the other two.

I race motocross and a bit of enduro, so im steering away of the WR as i cant race motocross with it. But im not paying but I can tell my dad whats more reliable.

[SUnruh]

here is a little story for comparison:

i have a friend, bill, he was 62 when he got his 2004 crf250x. he rides enduros. he's pretty fast for that age. i want to be that fast at that age! now when he got his red bike i had already had my 01yz250f for 3+ years. during the next year he put 14 valves in that red bike. sometimes they would last a single enduro. sometimes 2.

now remember, this is a 62yo riding it. not a 15yo mx star wannabe.

when i finally sold my 01. not only did it have the original valves, but they only needed adjusting 3 times in 5 years.

dirtrider magazine just did a long term test on their honda. replaced the valves at 42hours. there are thousands of guys on blue that go twice that far in a single season and dont replace the valves.

[av]

here is a little story for comparison:

i have a friend, bill, he was 62 when he got his 2004 crf250x. he rides enduros. he's pretty fast for that age. i want to be that fast at that age! now when he got his red bike i had already had my 01yz250f for 3+ years. during the next year he put 14 valves in that red bike. sometimes they would last a single enduro. sometimes 2.

now remember, this is a 62yo riding it. not a 15yo mx star wannabe.

when i finally sold my 01. not only did it have the original valves, but they only needed adjusting 3 times in 5 years.

dirtrider magazine just did a long term test on their honda. replaced the valves at 42hours. there are thousands of guys on blue that go twice that far in a single season and dont replace the valves.

Does this mean the red bike is more reliable?

?

[Way Fast Whitey]

the YZ is way more relieable than that red POS.

i have well over 200 hours, the valves are just going out of spec now(only ever upgraded to HC piston, haven't touched anything else). and thats not uncommon. thats a hell of alot more than what could be said for red over there.

[temporarily_locked]

i got my 02 yz250f in 03, still has everything in the valve train stock. I know people with 06 crf's who already have new stuff in their valve train.

[Tom_604]

Well ive had my 04 CRF250 for about 12 or so months done about 70-80hrs its had the head machined twice, two new sets of valves, and now its not going and the shop quoted 900 plus gaskets and labour to fix it. It needs a new head, valves, seats, springs... So if the 04 is like that then there is no improvement in the 06??? and the 04 yzf was reliable back then so the 06 yzf is basically bullet proof.

[skydtruckn]

by now the 06's are pretty much equal i think, the honda's didn't use to be very realiable because there valves were crap, also the honda is a uni-cam and has 4 valves instead of 5 like the yz. personally i like the yz's and i think they will be more reliable, but with the new 06 and 07 i think a crf would still be a good bike, o and i would deffinately stick with a yz and not a wr, especially if you're gonna stay with motocross, all that extra weight is really gonna be annoying and plus the yz will pull better

[YZthump45]

Obviously from all these posts the blue is true. Mine's an '04 and never even opened the engine except to change oil. Fires up and is ready to rip. I race motocross. I tend to run it somewhat hard because in my class there are usually 450s or 250 smokers. Yami by far is more reliable.

[Soul Man]

I'm not sure Honda fixed the vavle inssue in '06 or '07. Haven't been reading the Honda pagesw much, but I do know folks were dropping valves with the '06s. Perhaps not as frequent, but I would steer clear of Honda.

My buddy has an '04 CRF250X that he had to put an '06 head on. He's planning on getting rid of his since he has had so many headaches. The only money I've put into my '05 WR is for fun things (pipe, just got an Athena etc.). 19 months and 900 miles with no problems. Re-shimmed my valves once, but I don't think I really even needed to shim them (kinda on the border of the feeler gauge being snug).

[Freddie-big-foot]

ok guys theres more parts on a dirt bike then the valves. look at the separated oil for the tranny and motor. helps keep oil cost down and reliability up. i do have a a friend with a yz250f that he beats and hell out of and his runs great, looks like craps but the bike is motorcrosser proof

[KJ790]

Can't even compare them. Nobody can get half the valve life out of hondas that yamahas get.

[Freddie-big-foot]

u made a major mistake. put the same thread on a honda department and u will hear a lot different answers

[KJ790]

u made a major mistake. put the same thread on a honda department and u will hear a lot different answers

Actually, the different answers you will hear are honda nuts dancing around the fact taht hondas aren't the most reliable bike out there. I just checked out some threads in the CRF250R section. Here are the answers to the question asked in a thread titled "Is a CRF250R a reliable bike?":

Cohunas said: "It is a high performance race bike by design and it needs very strict maintenance. If by reliable you mean low maintenance, no it's not - get a suzuki DRZ or an old XR. If by reliable you mean if you do the correct maintenance as per the honda manual yes it is pretty reliable."

Pretty reliable doesn't cut it for me.

Freddie-big-foot said: "yeah, honda four strokes are the best out there. i have a few friends with crf250r's of various years and their all great. the thing i love that i think makes the crf reliable is that the dirtier tranny oil doesnt mix with the engine oil like on many other bikes. but remember any bike will go to s**t if you dont fallow regular maintance."

Obviously a honda nut. How is it the best out there if it goes to s**t if you don't do regular maintanace? I know Yamaha owners that change their oil every 25 hours and have no problems.

Tom a payne said: "My son rides a 2005 crf250 and I love riding that thing as much or more than my son.. As far as reliability goes, it is just as reliable as my KTM 525 but

you have got to keep an eye on the the valves. When they begin to move you have to keep the shim correct. You must also keep the oil fresh. Its just good insurance. Last but not least, Keep the air filter clean.. You do these things regularly and it wont let you down. Oh yea, the jetting"

Old 19 said: "I share an '04 with my son. I also have an '05 WR250F. The Honda is just a really great race bred machine. Needs the proper routine maintenance, but the bike was designed for easy maintenance. The Yamaha is also a great bike and takes less maintenance"

mxmatt15 said: "if you maintain it every bike will be reliable"

These comments are not taken out of context. All but one of them are shown in their entirety. I shortened to one not to twist his words, but to ease everyone the pain of having to read even more. These just sound to me like honda owners won't come out and admit that they are not the most reliable bikes. Hondas are good bikes, but you have to admit that they are not as reliable as Yamahas.

[renrek]

There seems to be a lot of bleeding blue folks here that really like their reliability of the wr/yz's. Without owning both, you might be a bit one sided. The old dude who replaced 14 valves in one year on his CRF/X didn't do things right or didn't keep up on Honda's head changes to improve valve life. I had an 04 CRF/R and it had over 50hrs with no valve issues and one valve adjustment. The weak spots were rear wheel spokes, steering head bearings, incurable head shake, O or X ring chain fit to case issues and sensitivity to oil flavors. The positives were that it had way more bottom and mid than my YZF, took big hits really well and cornered razor sharp. If you look at the CRF 250 board, you'll find that the 07 head and stock valves fixes a lot of issues and even makes a bit more power for about the cost of a new exhaust.

OTOH, my YZF surprized me with the stock chain life, Excel wheels, Pro tapers that just plain fit me right and valves that don't move. Handling is great AFTER replacing the stock tires and the suspension is very plush for us old guys. On the negative side, the power is below expectations and the low end is pitiful. After the proper application of exhaust and piston mods, it is way better but the other colors are doing the same thing and maybe improving more than the YZF.

For box stock reliability, for sure the YZF scores high but the lack of out of the box engine performance maybe helps overall reliability due to less stress on drivetrain parts? I tend to lean that way. I think I might have mentioned it before - I would trade some reliability for another 2 rwhp from the factory. JMHO.

[Freddie-big-foot]

maintance maintance maintance any bike with out it will go to s**t, i promise u. it doesnt matter if its a honda, yammie, kawaSUCKi, or a peice of yellow. u need to stay on top of ur maintance.

[Soul Man]

My buddy got a CRF-X same time I got my WR250F. I watched him suffer through 4 sets of valves, and he even put an '06 head on as the rumors were that Honda "fixed it" by '06. That head ate a set of valves.

He's now on a Yammie 125 2-stroke. THat Honda not only drove him to Yamaha, but he's leary of even owning a 4 stroke.

He was more anal about maintanence than me.

I've shimmed my valves once shortly after break-in, and now have about 1,300 miles on my WR with the same valves that were in when I bought it. And I ride the crap outta it (no corked-up bike trail rider at 4,000 RPM's here).

I can see being loyal to Honda if you got one of the bikes that doesn't eat valves, but when the guys who go through valves faster than tires defend Honda....that is just insanity/stupidity.

[WRrider128]

all the other guys are right. those who are loyal to the red either havnt been blue or have been, but became legally insane right before converting. one of those ?

[dirtbeater]

I know a guy with an 04 yz 250 that had track days every weekend and woods ridding every weekend. His valves have never gone out of spec (so he says) checked every year. Another guy had a year on a 05 crf 450 and in that year he had to shim twice. Just my .02, I have about 1000 miles in one year, but the bike starts really easy, should I check the valves?

[superjet]

From talking to people that are in the business of mx bike cylinder head repairs (valve jobs and replacments etc..) The yamahas have been known to be more reliable than the honda. Most stated that the early hondas-04 and 05 were more know for problems because of the design of the valve seat. From what I understand the early valve seats harder and more prone to build excessive amounts of heat causing premature valve failure. In 2006 Honda has changed the valve seat design to promote longer valve life and in 2007 they have taken it a step further and incorperated a new valve spring that has also extended valve life along with other modds that have increased power. IMO the yamaha's have be more reliable because there cylinder head deals with heat better and also because the compression ratio up to 2008 has been less that the honda. The higher compression yamaha 08's may be a different story?? Higher amounts of compression build higher amounts of heat-thus the use of cooler burning race fuels. Most have noted 100+ hours with the 06 honda cylinder head and even more with the 07 with no valve issues. The upside to the honda is the fact that there are other reasonably priced improvments that can be done to extend valve train life. If the valves were fail, places like RHC and mx time can install stainless steel valves that have been know to increase valve life even further. I have heard of over 300hrs. The honda head and related engine parts are also less expensive than the yamaha and some say that they are easier to work on. The honda requires more frequent oil changes than the yamaha because of the small amounts of oil that honda holds on the crankcase. The engine and trans are split thus allowing the engine to be change without having to change the trans as often. This also keeps contaminates like clutch debris out of vital parts like the oil pump valve train crank bearings and etc.. The yamaha holds more oil and has a remote tank so the oil as a whole will last longer between changes but lubricates the engine and trans at the same time. It is important to keep fresh oil in both bikes! I was on the fence between a the 06 yamaha and the 07 honda- and after watching the flunkies at my local dealer ship trying to install new valves in the brand new 06 yamaha for the recall and also reading the horror stories about post recall valve dropping of the yamaha I decided on the honda. I have had many trouble free hours. It handles great and IMO is more powerfull than the yamaha. Both are great bikes, pick the one that fits you best and don't look back!

[Freddie-big-foot]

ok i seem to be out numbered in this battle of blue vs. red rockets, but this is a yz room. there is more to a bike then valves. i have heard and saw yammie forks and shock leak insanely early. plus the nickelcel, sorry i know thats spelled that wrong, in the cylinder last so much longer with the hondas then in my friends kawasuki or yammies. i have yet to see problems in person with any of the honda's of any cc size. plus i know a kid, forgot to put the oil fill plug back in right. and almost all the oil was dumped out while he was riding and dirt and junk he rode threw got in it. flushed the engine 3 times and still has no problems 20 hours later